Identity Politics in Indonesian Advertising
Gender, Ethnicity/Race, Class and Nationality in TV Advertisements
during the New Order and the Post-New Order Era
Inaugural-Dissertation
zur
Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie
in der
Fakultät für Philologie
der
RUHR-UNIVERSITÄT BOCHUM
vorgelegt von
RATNA NOVIANI
Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Fakultät für Philologie der Ruhr-Universität
Bochum
Referentin: Prof. Dr. Eva Warth
Koreferentin: Prof. Dr. Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky
Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 26. Januar 2009
Danksagung
Ich bedanke mich für die Promotionsförderung, die ich von dem Deutschen
Akademischen Austausch Dienst (DAAD) erhalten habe. Mein besonderer Dank gilt
Fr. Prof. Eva Warth, die mich mit intensivem Interesse und Einsatzfreude betreut hat.
Danke für die persönliche und wissenschaftliche Unterstützung sowie die gewährte
hilfreiche Diskussionen bei der Durchführung der Arbeit. Weiterhin danke ich Fr.
Prof. Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky für ihre kompetente Unterstützung und wertvolle
Anregungen, die zum Gelingen dieser Arbeit beigetragen haben.
Sehr zu Dank bin ich für die Unterstützung meiner Eltern und meiner groβen Familie.
Herrn. RTS Masli danke ich für seine Hilfe und vielfache Anregungen. Herrn. Kees
Vermey für das Korrekturlesen und die viele gute Gespräche. Nicole Pink danke ich
sehr für ihre Unterstützung und die besondere angenehme Schwesternschaft. Dank
gilt auch Esti Wahyuni, Pus-dok Matari Advertising (Eri Laksmono, Didik Witono
und Markus), meinen Freundinnen und Freunden, meine Freunde beim Kolloquium
‚Gender und Medien’ (besonder an Bianca Westermann, Christian Stewe, Florian
Rosenbauer, Claudia Tribe und Anja Michaelsen) und Kolleginnen und Kollegen.
Ganz besondere danke ich meinem Ehemann, Heru Nugroho, der mich mit seinem
Vertrauen, seiner Liebe und seiner unablässige Unterstutzung gegen alle Zweifel an
mir als eine Frau so weit begleitet hat.
i
Zusammenfassung
Indonesien gehört zu den vier bevölkerungsreichsten Ländern der Welt und ist
bekannt für seine ausgeprägte Heterogenität, die sich über die Jahrhunderte aus einer
Fülle divergierender ethnischer Gruppen mit kulturellen Differenzen. Diese
kulturellen Differenzen prägten von Beginn an den Entstehungsprozess der
„harmonischen Nation“ Indonesien. Auf die multikulturellen Gruppen, die das Land
bevölkern, übte jede politische Herrschaftsperiode in der indonesischen Geschichte
ihre
eigenen
Einflüsse
aus
bezüglich
der
jeweiligen
Konstruktion
von
Identität/Differenz. Dies zeigte sich ganz offensichtlich und beispielhaft in der
politischen Transition, die sich in den Jahren nach 1998 vollzog, nach dem
Zusammenbruch der jahrzehntelangen Regierung der Neuen Ordnung. Denn seit dem
Ende der Neuen Ordnung befindet sich Indonesien in einer Übergangssituation von
autoritärer Regierung hin zu einer demokratischeren Regierung, die sich zusätzlich
mit den Herausforderungen der Globalisierung
konfrontiert sieht. Der politische
Wandel und sein Wechselspiel mit der Art und Weise wie in der indonesischen
Gesellschaft kulturelle Identitäten/Differenzen bestimmt und wieder neu bestimmt
werden, haben ein interessantes und spezifisches Narrativ über Indonesien geschaffen.
Die vorliegende Arbeit soll dieses Narrativ aus der Perspektive der Fernsehwerbung
sichtbar machen.
Indem diese Arbeit sich auf die kulturelle Identität/Differenz in Bezug auf
Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse und Nationalität in Indonesien konzentriert, hebt
sie gleichzeitig die Tatsache hervor, dass es ein Wechselspiel gibt zwischen Werbetext
und sozio-politischem Kontext, in dem der Text erscheint. Ich halte es für besonders
wichtig, die Konstruktion und Repräsentation von Identität/Differenz durch die Linse
der sozio-politischen Transition zu betrachten. Der ungewisse sozio-politische
Transition von der Neuen Ordnung hin zur Nach-Neuen Ordnung hat aus meiner Sicht
eine Art von Spalt geöffnet, wodurch dominante und hegemoniale Diskurse über
Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse und Nationalität, die sich während der Neuen
Ordnung etabliert hatten, sowohl fortgeführt als auch herausgefordert werden.
Darüber hinaus lassen sich die Bereiche von Identitätspolitik bezüglich Geschlecht,
Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse und Nationalität sichtbar machen, in denen die dominanten
Diskurse über jene Identitäten/Differenzen in Werbetexten verhandelt und
herausgefordert werden.
ii
Diese signifikanten Themen mit einem soziologischen, psychologischen oder
massenkommunikativen Ansatz anzugehen, wäre hier wenig hilfreich. Solche Ansätze
bieten keinen geeigneten Rahmen für diese Arbeit, denn sie neigen dazu, die Tatsache
zu übersehen, dass Werbetexte in größere sozio-politische Kontexte eingebunden sind,
innerhalb derer sie produziert und eingesetzt werden. Diskursive Konstruktionen und
ideologische Bedeutungen in Bezug auf Identität/Differenz, die in der Werbung
verarbeitet werden, könnten so nur schwerlich sichtbar gemacht werden. Aufgrund
dieser Überlegungen ziehe ich es vor, diese Arbeit im Rahmen des Cultural StudiesAnsatzes zu organisieren, welcher ein hermeneutisches Verständnis von Werbung
liefert. Innerhalb des Ansatzes werden Werbetexte als ein umstrittenes Terrain von
Bedeutungen angesehen, das nicht von seinem sozio-politischen Umfeld isolierbar ist.
Somit lässt sich untersuchen, auf welche Art und Weise ein Werbetext mit dem
Kräftespiel
der
in
einer
Gesellschaft
vorherrschenden
Diskurse
über
Identität/Differenz verbunden ist. Darüberhinaus bietet dieser Ansatz auch eine
signifikante Sichtweise, aus der die Intersektionalität zwischen Identität/Differenz von
Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse und Nationalität gesehen werden kann. Ich
vertrete die Auffassung, dass jene Kategorien von Identität/Differenz nicht getrennt
und isoliert von einander sind. Ich erkenne jene Kategorien eher als fließende, die
enge, reziproke und widersprüchliche Beziehungen zueinander haben. Es sollte jedoch
vermerkt werden, dass ich aus analytischen Gründen beabsichtige, jene Kategorien zu
isolieren und so ihre Besonderheiten zu untersuchen, um die individuelle und
diskursive Problematik jeder Kategorie offenzulegen.
Diese Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die indonesische Fernsehwerbungen, die
während der Neuen Ordnung (1993-1998) und der Nach-Neuen Ordnung (1999-2005)
produziert und ausgestrahlt wurde. Fast alle herangezogenen Werbefilme wurden mit
einer Citra Pariwara Auszeichnung geehrt, welche alljährlich einen angesehenen Preis
für kreative indonesische Werbung vergibt. Die ausgezeichneten Werbefilme erhalten
dann die Gelegenheit, Indonesien auf dem internationalen Niveau ähnlicher
Wettbewerbe zu vertreten. Man kann sagen, dass die Citra Pariwara Auszeichnung
darauf ausgerichtet ist, das spezifisch indonesische Projekt der Schaffung einer Nation
zu unterstützen, indem der Archetyp der „indonesischen“ Werbung gesucht und dazu
bestimmt wird, als Repräsentant Indonesiens auf internationalem Niveau zu agieren.
Somit bieten diese Werbefilme ein weites Feld für Verständnisansätze über die
iii
Konstruktion und Repräsentation von Identität/Differenz in Abhängigkeit von der
sozio-politischen Transition in Indonesien.
Um die große Fülle der in Betracht gezogenen Werbefilme zu organisieren,
unterteile ich sie in fünf binäre Kategorien, die auf der Basis von Bildern und
Narrativen gebildet werden, welche die jeweiligen Werbefilme transportieren. Es ist
von Bedeutung festzuhalten, dass ich jene Binärkategorien nur zu einem analytischen
Zweck aufstelle. Auf diese Weise bewerte ich die Binärkategorie als nur eine von
vielen
anwendbaren
Strategien
um
komplexe
Gebilde
aufzugliedern
und
Werbebotschaften zu analysieren. Um die ausgewählten Werbefilme zu untersuchen,
wird ausdrücklich eine Kombination aus sozialer Semiotik und narrativer Analyse
angewandt. Die soziale Semiotik ermöglicht mir zu untersuchen, wie eine große
Spannbreite an semiotischen Ressourcen, sowohl auditiv wie visuell, in den
Werbefilmen eingesetzt wird, und welche ideologischen Funktionen die verwendeten
semiotischen Ressourcen haben. Die soziale Semiotik ermöglicht auch einer genauen
Untersuchung des ideologischen Komplexes und der Machtbeziehungen, die
Werbebilder und -narrative konstituieren. Mithilfe der narrative Analyse untersuche
ich, wie das Narrativ konstruiert und manipuliert ist, und wie wiederum das Narrativ
arbeitet, um Bedeutungen zu produzieren und die Zuschauer auf eine spezifische
Weise anzusprechen. Die narrative Analyse ermöglicht mir auch zu erforschen, wie
Werbefilme einen Binarismus der Konflikt-Lösung diskursiv konstruieren, wobei das
Verkaufsprodukt und gewisse filmische Technologien mit hineingezogen und
funktionalisiert werden.
Die genaue Untersuchung dieser Werbefilme hat dargelegt, dass die soziopolitische Transition in Indonesien einen Spalt geöffnet hat, in dem dominante und
hegemoniale Diskurse über Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse und Nationalität
perpetuiert, verhandelt und herausgefordert werden. Diese Arbeit geht davon aus, dass
sich die Konstruktionen und Repräsentationen von Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse,
Klasse und Nationalität seit der Nach-Neuen Ordnung im Vergleich zur Ära der
Neuen Ordnung verändern und abwandeln. Die Redeweise über Geschlecht,
Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse und Nationalität sind während der Ära der Nach-Neuen
Ordnung modifiziert, und zwar in enger Verzahnung mit der wachsenden Kritik und
dem Widerstand gegen diejenigen dominanten Diskurse über Identitäten/Differenzen,
die unter dem Vorgänger-Regime etabliert worden waren. Es ist erwiesen, dass die
Fernsehwerbungen während der Ära der Neuen Ordnung dahin tendierten, die
iv
dominanten und hegemonialen Diskurse über Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse, Klasse
und Nationalität, die vom Staat politisch sanktioniert wurden, zu artikulieren und
reproduzieren.
Durch den politischen Wandel in Indonesien tat sich ein Spalt auf, in dem
Unterredungen
und
Verhandlungen
‚Mehrheit/Zentrum/Selbst’
und
der
zwischen
als
der
wahrgenommenen
solcher
wahrgenommenen
„Minderheit/Marginalen/Anderen“ in Bezug auf Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse und
Klasse erst möglich werden. Genauer gesagt, neigen die Fernsehwerbungen während
der Ära der Nach-Neuen Ordnung bis 2005 dazu, Kritik, Verhandlungen und
Widerstände
gegen
die
Konstruktion
‚Minderheit/Marginalen/Anderen’
zu
einer
als
solchen
berücksichtigen
und
wahrgenommenen
umzusetzen.
Sie
unterscheiden sich somit deutlich von den Fersehwerbungen der Ära der Neuen
Ordnung in den 1990ern, welche es vorzogen jene Kritiken und Herausforderungen zu
ignorieren. Die als solche wahrgenommene ‚Minderheit/Marginale/Andere’ in den
Mainstream aufzunehmen, hat sich zu einer beliebten Diskurs-Strategie entwickelt,
mit der Konstruktionen und Repräsentationen von Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse,
Klasse und Nationalität in der indonesischen Fernsehwerbung seit der Ära der NachNeuen Ordnung modifiziert werden.
Nichtsdestotrotz hat eine genaue Analyse dieser Werbefilme belegt, dass
Werbung auch eine Tendenz dazu zeigt, die dominanten und hegemonialen
Konstruktionen jener Identitäten/Differenzen zu perpetuieren und zu erhalten. Das
Gutheißen von Kritik und Widerstand gegen dominante Konstruktionen in der
Werbung darzustellen, funktioniert nur auf einer dekorativen und oberflächlichen
Ebene, in dem Sinne, dass die wahrgenommene „Mehrheit//Zentrum/Selbst“ diejenige
bleibt, die das Werbenarrativ beherrscht und vorantreibt. In dieser Hinsicht wird
Kritik in den Werbebildern und –narrativen zwar verkörpert, aber sie verbleibt
subsumiert unter dominierenden Perspektiven. Die Aufnahme der als solche
wahrgenommenen ‚Minderheit/Marginalen/Anderen’ in den Mainstream wird aus der
Perspektive der als solche wahrgenommenen ‚Mehrheit/Zentrum/Selbst’ organisiert
und gestaltet. Hinzukommt, dass die Übernahme in den Mainstream schlichtweg
neutralisiert und nullifiziert wird, wenn Werbenarrative so funktionieren, dass die
dominante Position der als solche wahrgenommenen ‚Mehrheit/Zentrum/Selbst’
wiederum bestätigt und gesichert wird. Auch das Verkaufsprodukt und die filmischen
v
Technologien werden dazu benutzt, die dominante Konstruktion von Geschlecht,
Ethnizität/Rasse und Klasse aufrecht zu halten und zu perpetuieren.
Mit anderen Worten findet die modifizierte Redeweise über Geschlecht,
Ethnizität/Rasse und Klasse in der Werbung während der Ära der Nach-Neuen
Ordnung
kein
entsprechendes
inhaltliches
Äquivalent
für
jene
Identitäten/Differenzen. Denn die Diskurse über Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse und
Klasse haben sich substantiell nur geringfügig und wenig signifikant verändert von
der Ära der Neuen Ordnung hin zu der der Nach-Neuen Ordnung. Es ist zu
beobachten, dass seit der Ära der Nach-Neuen Ordnung die Werbefilme dazu
tendieren, gleichzeitig Anerkennung wie auch Ablehnung der als solche
wahrgenommenen ‚Minderheit/Marginalen/Anderen’ zu demonstrieren. Als ein
Resultat hieraus wird die Ambiguität der Bilder in Bezug auf Geschlecht,
Ethnizität/Rasse und Klasse
sichtbar, was meines Erachtens die Tatsache
untermauert, dass Werbung eine bedeutende Rolle dabei spielt, das Fortbestehen des
“normalen”, dominanten und hegemonialen Konstruktionen von Geschlecht,
Ethnizität/Rasse und Klasse zu gewährleisten. Von wesentlich größerer Bedeutung für
die vorliegende Arbeit halte ich es allerdings, dass Randbereiche von Identitätspolitik
zu Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse und Klasse in den behandelten Werbefilmen sichtbar
gemacht werden konnten. Die Ambiguität von Bildern impliziert geradezu
Unterredungen
und
Verhandlungen,
um
die
als
solche
wahrgenommene
‚Minderheit/Marginale/Andere’ in Bezug auf Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse und Klasse
innerhalb der sozio-politischen Transition in Indonesien zu repräsentieren und zu
positionieren. Mit Blick auf die Repräsentation von Geschlecht, Ethnizität/Rasse und
Klasse in der Werbung im Kontext der sozio-politischen Transition lässt sich
darlegen, dass der ideologische Wandel in der indonesischen politischen Transition
engste Auswirkungen hat auf die Art, wie Formationen von Identität/Differenz in der
Fernsehwerbung konstruiert, verhandelt und herausgefordert werden.
Diese Arbeit leistet einen Beitrag für das wachsende Feld der Cultural Studies,
insbesondere unter Berücksichtigung des außer-westlichen Medien-Kontextes und
seiner Verbindungen mit den westlichen und globalen Medien im Allgemeinen. In
dieser Hinsicht hat die Arbeit neue und alternative Erkenntnisse eröffnet und
weiterentwickelt, um zu erfassen, wie westliche und nicht westliche Arbeiten über
Werbung innerhalb des wachsenden Feldes der Cultural Studies tatsächlich verbunden
und komplementär zueinander sind.
vi
List of Figures
1.
Figure 1.1. Coca Cola Advertisement
13
2.
Figure 1.2. Non Permanent Kiosk
15
3.
Figure 1.3. Suburban Housing
15
4.
Figure 1.4. Telkom Vision Advertisement
20
5.
Figure 1.5. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
23
6.
Figure 1.6. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
23
7.
Figure 1.7. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
23
8.
Figure 1.8. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
24
9.
Figure 1.9. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
24
10.
Figure 1.10. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
24
11.
Figure 1.11. Scene of Coca Cola Advertisement
24
12.
Figure 1.12. Image of Motherhood in Coca Cola Advertisement
57
13.
Figure 4.1. Bodrex Advertisement
72
14.
Figure 4.2. Konidin Advertisement
80
15.
Figure 4.3. Citra White Advertisement
86
16.
Figure 4.4. Weight Reduction Program (WRP) Advertisement
92
17.
Figure 5.1. Portrait of Javanese Princess in Citra White Advertisement 112
18.
Figure 5.2. HSBC Advertisement
115
19.
Figure 5.3. Rinso Advertisement
122
20.
Figure 5.4. Djarum Black Advertisement
126
21.
Figure 5.5. ‘Black’ Indonesian in Batik Shirt
130
22.
Figure 5.6. Mototek Advertisement
133
23.
Figure 5.7. Chinese and ‘Black’ Indonesian in HSBC Advertisement
135
24.
Figure 6.1. Daihatsu Rocky Advertisement
141
25.
Figure 6.2. Dji Sam Soe Advertisement
148
26.
Figure 6.3. Sustagen Junior Advertisement
154
27.
Figure 6.4. Surf Advertisement
157
28.
Figure 6.5. Indomie Advertisement
160
29.
Figure 7.1. Maggi Mi Advertisement
176
30.
Figure 7.2. Pepsodent Advertisement
180
31.
Figure 7.3. The son of ‘Black’ Indonesia in HSBC Advertisement
187
vii
32.
Figure 7.4. Images of Opening Book in Mustika Ratu Advertisement
189
33.
Figure 7.5. BNI Visa Card Advertisement
195
viii
Table of Content
Zusammenfassung
List of Figures
Table of Content
Introduction
1
Chapter 1: Imagining and Imaging Indonesia
10
1.1. Advertising Depiction of Indonesia
1.2. Gender and the Nation
1.3. Images of Ethnic/Racial Minorities
10
22
26
Chapter 2: Identity, Difference and Representation
31
2.1. Identity and Subjectivity
2.2. Difference and Identity Politics
2.3. Representing the Perceived Difference
32
39
45
Chapter 3: Analysing Advertising Texts: Theoretical and Methodological
Consideration
51
3.1. Advertising Text: A Contested Terrain
3.2. Reading Texts: Methods of Analysis
3.3. TV Advertisements: Narratives and Dichotomic Classification
51
59
63
Chapter 4: Gender Construction: Femininity and Masculinity in Dispute
69
4.1. Domination and Discipline
4.1.1. Dominating and Disciplining Others
4.1.2. Dominating and Disciplining the Self
4.2. Notion of Modern Virtue
4.2.1. Guardian of Traditions
4.2.2. Corporeal and Incorporeal
4.3. Pleasure and Appearance
4.3.1. Self Observed
4.3.2. Bipolar Self
4.4. Incorporated Images
70
70
79
85
85
91
97
97
99
102
Chapter 5: Ambiguity of Images: Ethnicity/Race on Screen
105
5.1. Ambivalent Function of Cultural Tradition
5.2. Cultural Appropriation: Mainstreaming Minorities
5.3. Individualizing Minorities
5.4. Ambiguity of Image
109
119
132
135
ix
Chapter 6: Class in Commercial Narratives
139
6.1. The Myth of Hero
6.2. Guardian of Class-Mobility
6.3. Locating Class
6.4. Narrativising Class Distinction
141
153
160
165
Chapter 7: Commercial Narratives of Indonesianess
169
7.1. Inscribing Indonesianess on Gendered Bodies
7.2. Constructing Indonesianess through Family Reproduction
7.2.1. Functioning Maternity to Nurture (Male) Future Leaders
7.2.2. Ethnicised/Racialised Familial Space
7.3. Figuring the Nation: Flashing-Back through Time
7.4. Classing the Nation
7.5. Constructing Ideal Bodies of Nation
170
175
175
184
188
192
200
Conclusion
203
Work Cited
211
Appendix
226
x
Introduction
One of the problems of talking and writing about Indonesia is working out
where to begin. Telling the story of Indonesia could be somewhat complicated,
because the country is huge, the world’s fourth most populous and famously
heterogeneous. Having been made up of a diverse range of ethnic groups with cultural
differences developed over centuries, Indonesia is like a rainbow with many colours.
The colours of a rainbow are always intermingled one with another constituting a
perfect harmony. Just like those colours, cultural differences in Indonesia have always
been engaged in the process of building a “harmonious nation”. It also means that
throughout the history of Indonesia, cultural differences within the country have been
continuously and discursively defined and redefined in various ways. Each political
period in Indonesian history has given certain impacts on the construction of
identity/difference for the multicultural groups living in the country. It could be
revealed, for instance, within the political transition that has occurred in the past few
years following the downfall of the long-ruling New Order regime in 1998. In the
aftermath of the New Order’s fall, Indonesia has been in a transition from decades of
authoritarian government to a more democratic government which is also attempting
to position itself in the face of globalisation. The political transition and its interplay
with the way in which cultural identities/differences are defined and redefined in
Indonesian society have contrived an interesting and particular narrative about
Indonesia. This study is set out to reveal such narrative through the eyes of television
advertising. It is aimed not only to examine how advertising articulates and
reproduces discourses about identity/difference in line with the socio-political
transition in Indonesia, but more importantly, this study is purported to reveal how an
approximately 30-second narrative within a television advertisement could raise
ideological discourses on issues of identity/difference and, thereby, play pivotal roles
in a highly changing society in terms of construction of cultural identities/differences.
Some people tend to look at advertising particularly as a piece of artwork that is
aimed at persuading people to buy products. The existing discourse of advertising is
largely built around the idea of creating effective selling strategies, which could
motivate and persuade people to purchase the advertised products. This study is not
concerned with such a notion. It focuses instead on advertising as a discourse on other
socio-political discourses in a society. In the context of Indonesia, the study of
1
advertising, which is based on the assumption that advertising has a great deal to say
about socio-political issues, is still lacking in number. The prevailing studies of
advertising are largely concerned with the way in which advertising functions to sell
products. Paradoxically, Indonesia has an annual and prestigious national advertising
competition, the so-called Citra Pariwara Award, aimed at awarding prestige to
creative ‘Indonesian’ advertisements. The Award becomes interesting and of a
particular concern to this study in that the Award winning advertisements gain the
opportunity to represent Indonesia at the international level of similar competitions. It
could be said that the Citra Pariwara Award has been aimed to be part of the nationbuilding project of Indonesia by selecting the archetype of ‘Indonesian’
advertisements that will function as the Indonesian representative at international
level. I would argue, on this point, that the Award winning advertisements have a
great deal to say about the way in which Indonesianess is imagined, maintained and
negotiated, not only with reference to cultural identities/differences within the national
borders of Indonesia, but also to the local-global nexus in the age of globalisation. The
fact of the matter is that advertising is not just advertising, which only functions to sell
products. It is not produced in a vacuum and cannot be isolated from everyday cultural
practices. Advertising images and narratives are intricately linked to larger and
broader socio-political arrangements at certain historical moments in a given society.
In the course of identity/difference, advertising provides significant cues to grasp
discourses about these in a society. Focusing on cultural identity/difference along
gender, ethnicity/race, class and nationality in Indonesia, this study highlights the fact
that there is interplay between advertising text and the socio-political context wherein
the text appears. I argue that Indonesian advertising entails certain definitions and
understandings regarding identity/difference of gender, ethnicity/race, class and
nationality prevailing in society. As indicated earlier, I find it particularly important to
look at the construction and representation of identity/difference through the lens of
socio-political transition. The dubious socio-political transition from the New Order to
the Post New Order era, in my view, has opened a sort of interstice to perpetuate or
challenge the dominant and hegemonic discourses regarding gender, ethnicity/race
and class established during the New Order era. This situation not merely makes
Indonesia an excellent and unique example to explore the interrelationship between
media construction of identity/difference and socio-political transition, but more
specifically it also reveals margins of identity politics of gender, ethnicity/race, class
2
and nationality, in which the dominant discourses about those identities/differences
are negotiated and challenged through advertising texts.
To deal with these significant issues, conducting a traditional study of
advertising organised within a sociological, psychological or mass communication
approach would only offer little help. Such approaches do not provide suitable
guidelines for this study because they tend to overlook the fact that advertising text is
intermingled with larger socio-political contexts wherein it is produced and operated.
By means of those approaches, discursive constructs and ideological meanings
regarding identity/difference rendered in advertisements would hardly be revealed.
Based on this reasoning, I purport to frame and organise this study within a Cultural
Studies approach. Such an approach is necessary and particularly crucial for this study
because it suggests a hermeneutic understanding of advertising as part of cultural
practices. Within a Cultural Studies approach, advertising text is considered as a
contested terrain of meanings which cannot be isolated from their socio-political
surroundings. Advertising tends to weave a story of the selling product and social
arrangements as well as social hierarchy in a given society and time period. In this
way, advertising could work to highlight certain cultural interests, and channel
particular concerns with respect to social, economic and political phenomena
(Ramamurthy 2003, p.2; Cronin 2004, p.33). It has been acknowledged that
advertisements could provide significant guidelines to understanding what has been
and is going on in a society. As Schmidt and Spieβ put it, “[A]dvertising provides
important cues about society, and offers an interesting platform to monitor
contemporary developments occurring in other social systems” (1997, p.46; translated
quote). They suggest that advertising text could function not merely as evidence or
indicator of social changes, but also as a type of barometer of social and cultural
changes in a society. Advertisements, in addition, could work to articulate and
reproduce the struggle of certain political interests taking place in everyday life. In
accordance with this, Dines and Humez (2003, p.10) assert that advertising images are
historical documents, which articulate dominant values, political ideologies and social
developments as well as novelties of a given era. Ramamurthy (2001, p.1) even argues
that advertising images do not simply reflect the ideological perspectives of a certain
era, but also form part of the processes through which those ideologies are produced.
Following these insights, by means of a Cultural Studies approach, it becomes
possible to reveal the way in which advertising text is interrelated with the dynamics
3
of discourses regarding identity/difference prevailing in a society. It also opens an
understanding that identity/difference is never fixed and final, but is always evolving
and intricately linked to certain social contexts. What is more, the approach also
provides a significant guide to look at the intersectionality between identity/difference
of gender, ethnicity/race, class and nationality. I argue that those categories of
identity/difference are not separated and isolated from each other. Rather, I recognise
those categories as being fluid and having close, reciprocal and opposing relations one
with another. It should be noted, however, that for analysis purposes I aim to isolate
those categories and explore their particularities in order to reveal individual and
discursive problematics of each category.
As has been mentioned, advertisements which have been awarded the Citra
Pariwara Award become of particular concern to this study. Those advertisements, in
my view, provide a wide array of cues for understanding the construction and
representation of identity/difference of gender, ethnicity/race, class and nationality in
line with socio-political transition in Indonesia. I am concerned particularly with
television advertisements which were produced and broadcast during the New Order
(1993-1998) and the Post New Order Indonesia (1999-2005). The Citra Pariwara
Award, as described earlier, is aimed to be part of the project of Indonesian nationbuilding. In consequence, I attempt to examine how gender, ethnicity/race and class
are used and functionalised in advertisements under scrutiny to narrativise the notion
of Indonesianess. In this respect, I argue that Indonesianess is perpetuated and
negotiated in line with the socio-political transition from the New Order to the Post
New Order era. Furthermore, I suggest that the construction and reconstruction of
Indonesianess is also linked to the notion of local-global nexus under the condition of
globalisation.
Television advertisements have been chosen in this study for a number of
reasons. Television is central in a modern society; it speaks to broader nation-wide
audiences compared with print media and radio. With its audio-visual messages,
television has become the most pervasive of mass media (Hogan 1999, p.74) and the
most popular medium used by the advertising industry to convey selling messages of
products. In addition, television is often considered as one of the crucial locuses
through which the notion of nationhood is imagined, maintained, negotiated. In the
context of Indonesia, television advertising deserves particular consideration because
it has grown greatly in line with the advent of commercial television since 1989.
4
Deregulation of the television industry established in 1989 has resulted in the
development and bigger concentration of advertising within the Indonesian market.
Ever since, television has absorbed more than 50% of total advertising expenditures in
Indonesia (see e.g. Hidayat 2002, Sen and Hill, 2002).
To organise the wide range of advertisements under scrutiny, I have divided
those advertisements into five binary categories, which are set up based on images and
narratives carried by those advertisements. It is worth considering that I set up those
binary categories only for analytical purposes. In this way, I consider the binary
category as one of the many ways which provide assistance in coping with corpus
complexities and to dissect advertising meanings. A combination of social semiotics
and narrative analysis will be applied to examine the advertisements under discussion.
I find it useful to apply social semiotics in this study in a way that enables me to
explore how a wide range of semiotic resources, both audio and visual, is used in the
advertisements, and what ideological functions the used semiotic resources have.
Social semiotics also allows me to closely examine ideological complexities and
power relations that constitute advertising images and narratives. Narrative analysis,
meanwhile, is useful to explore the ways in which narrative is constructed and
manipulated, and how the narrative works to produce meanings and addresses the
audience in specific ways. Narrative analysis is also crucial in this study in the way
that it helps me investigate how advertisements discursively construct a conflictsolution binarism, which entails and functionalises the selling products and certain
filmic technology.
Chapter 1 of this study looks at the socio-political environment of Indonesia as
the social context of this study. I give an overview of the socio-political context
particularly in the New Order Indonesia as an initial description prior to the more
intensive discussion and in-depth comparison with the Post New Order Indonesia. The
discursive meanings regarding cultural differences sanctioned during the New Order
era are discussed to provide a significant basis for the more comprehensive analysis
performed in the subsequent chapters. This chapter, among other things, discusses the
role of the New Order state in establishing discursive constructs of femininity and
masculinity in Indonesia, and how those constructs were articulated and reproduced
through advertising images and narratives. The tendency to render privilege to
Javanese ethnicity during the era also gains a particular attention in this chapter,
5
especially in how it has influenced the ways in which advertising narrativise
ethnic/racial relationship in Indonesia.
In Chapter 2, I outline the conceptual framework of the study by focusing on the
theoretical notion of identity and difference. I attempt to illuminate the definitions of
subject, subjectivity and identity before I move to discuss how advertising works to
generate and construct a variety of meanings related to identity and difference. To
understand the concept of subject, I refer to the structuralist view on subject, which
provides an important guide for the analysis of the subsequent chapters. I particularly
refer to the works of Freudian psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, French Marxist theorist
Louis Althusser, and Michel Foucault. Each of them has maintained his own argument
concerning the subject; however, they certainly share the same view that subject is decentered and constituted through signifying activities. It is important to note that I use
the structuralist view on subject without slavishly adhering to it. I prefer to avoid the
structuralist’s persistence with deep structure which has been perceived underlying all
human cultures. I focus instead on the construction of subject, which is always bound
up with social context and historical changes.
In Chapter 3 I expand the focus of this study on the ways in which
advertisements are critically explored. I illuminate how this study is different from the
traditional study of advertising, which is organised under sociological, psychological
or mass communication approach. I also explore the importance of the Critical
Cultural Studies approach, which provides significant frameworks and guidelines for
this study. This chapter is also concerned with an intersectionality approach, which
provides an advanced framework to understand subject positionings of gender,
ethnicity/race and class. Added to that, I also explain the ways in which I organise and
systematise advertisements under discussion. On this point, I aim to loosely
appropriate Lévi-Strauss’ model of binary categories to help me organise and cope
with the corpus complexity. This chapter also looks at the social semiotics and
narrative analysis and how those analysis methods are useful to dissect the
advertisements under discussion.
Chapter 4 is aimed to examine how the conception of femininity and masculinity
are constructed, affirmed, negotiated and contested in Indonesian advertisements. I
attempt to reveal the discursive constructs of gender relations during the two different
eras in Indonesia and how they are changed and shifted in conjunction with the sociopolitical transition from the New Order to the Post New Order era. In this regard, I
6
aim to move a step further from the analysis which is situated within the polarisation
of masculinity domination and femininity subordination. I focus instead on the
different formations of masculinity and femininity, the changing forms of domination
and subordination, and the forms of negotiation as well as resistance against dominant
discourses of gender culturally sanctioned in the two different eras of Indonesia. What
is more, I attempt to situate the analysis of gender construction in the dynamics of the
capitalistic market economy in the country. By doing so, I aim to reveal how products
are functionalised in the advertising narratives to generate and reproduce gender
formations.
Chapter 5 looks at the construction and representation of ethnic/racial
differences in advertisements. I am concerned particularly with the ways in which the
advertisements under discussion construct certain discursive strategies to define and
represent ethnic/racial differences. Through this chapter, I attempt to analyse how
Indonesian advertisements during the two different eras of Indonesia render overtone
and undertone of ethnic/racial differences existing in the country. Since ethnicity/race
includes the notion of majority and minority, I deal with the question of how
discourses on power relations between majority and minority in Indonesia are
articulated and reproduced in advertising texts. Added to that, the chapter also looks at
the shifting or changing images and narratives regarding ethnic/racial differences in
line with the shift in the socio-political climate in Indonesia and the local-global
nexus. I argue that the changing images and narratives with regard to ethnicity/race
are intimately linked to ethnic/racial relationships and ideological challenges against
the dominant relationships in Indonesian society. It should be noted that I prefer to use
the term ethnicity/race rather than make a clear division between ethnicity and race.
By doing so, I suggest that ethnicity and race could be experienced at the same time.
The chapter also describes how advertisements under discussion make great use of
physical characteristics, cultural events, languages and other elements, which are
defined and perceived as ethnic/racial markers.
In Chapter 6 I explore how class subjects and class relations are inscribed
through advertising images and narratives. This chapter attempts to analyse the way in
which advertisements narrativise the notion of class. I use Bourdieu’s theory of class,
which links class position with cultural preferences and tastes, as the point of
departure. I believe that different cultural preferences and lifestyles exhibit different
class positions in a society. Lifestyles, in this understanding, are related to the
7
possession of material and cultural resources to which individuals have access. To
delineate different class positions in this study, I particularly refer to three major class
divisions (upper, middle and lower class). This chapter focuses mainly on the
representation of middle class, which has been a significant agent of modern
consumerism in line with the phenomenal economic growth in Indonesia since early
1990s. Furthermore, desires of social climbing and class-passing, which are expressed
in the advertisements under discussion by involving the notion of gender, have gained
particular consideration. In other words, intersectionality of class and gender is closely
examined throughout this chapter. I attempt to explore how codes of masculinity and
femininity are differently functionalised by advertisements to narrativise class
distinctions in Indonesian society. This chapter also discusses the connection between
class and geographical location, which entails binarism of urban-rural. Advertisements
show a tendency to make use of this binarism to define and underline class borders
and class distinctions.
In Chapter 7, I attempt to analyse how Indonesianess is discursively imagined,
maintained and negotiated. More specifically, I focus on how differences of gender,
ethnicity/race and class are mobilised and functionalised to construct images and
narratives of Indonesianess. The notion of gendered and ethnicised/racialised bodies,
upon which the narratives of Indonesianess are inscribed, gains particular attention in
this chapter. Familial space as a favourable strategy to generate images and narratives
of national unity is ambivalently used by advertisements. With regard to
ethnicity/race, for instance, family reproduction is used to insidiously embrace
ethnic/racial groups living in the country and emphasise the harmonious family unity
of Indonesia. It should be noted, however, that the family metaphor rendered by
advertisements could serve a different function, e.g., to maintain and naturalise
ethnic/racial hierarchy within the national family of Indonesia. In this respect,
ethnic/racial minorities tend to be placed at the margin of familial space, which is
defined through the eyes of the perceived majority. This chapter is also concerned
with the centrality of the middle class in the construction of Indonesian nationhood.
The life of the urban middle class is highlighted to imagine the modern Indonesia. In
addition, narratives of Indonesianess are largely set within the context of consumerism
and celebration of global lifestyles, which are primarily linked to the urban middle
class.
8
This study is intended as a contribution to understanding cultural
identity/difference, socio-political context and advertisements in Indonesia, from an
Indonesian point of view. It suggests an alternative way to grasp the dynamics of
discourses about identity/difference of gender, ethnicity/race, class and nationality
rendered in advertising imagery and narrative in a non-Western context. It also
demonstrates that looking at advertising representation of identity/difference, which is
situated in a socio-political transition, is particularly interesting and important to see
the shifting discourses about identity/difference in a changing society. I realise that
the issue of advertising construction of identity/difference is not entirely new; it has
been largely examined through the lens of socio-political transition elsewhere,
especially in the context of Western media products and/or from Western
perspectives. This study, therefore, is an attempt to provide unique insights into the
way in which similar issues largely explored in the Western media context have been
defined and redefined, perhaps in quite a different manner, in a non-Western media
context. It is also aimed to demonstrate the adaptability of Western media studies in a
non-Western context. By doing so, the gap which emerges between Western and nonWestern concerns in terms of media representation of identity/difference could be
equally revealed. All this goes to show that through this study I not only introduce a
new perspective and approach to the study of media products in Indonesia, especially
to the study of advertising, which has been long dominated by sociological,
psychological and mass communication approaches. But, more broadly, this study
could contribute as an alternative understanding into the way in which Western and
non-Western media studies could be expanded, interconnected and be complementary
one to another.
9
Chapter 1
Imagining and Imaging Indonesia
This chapter will be concerned with the socio-political environment of Indonesia
as the social context of this study. As has been mentioned, this study is based on the
assumption of interrelationships between advertisements as a contesting terrain of
meanings and socio-political issues at a given historical moment in a society.
Advertisements, in this understanding, can provide an important guideline to
understand what has happened and is happening in society. Following this line of
thinking, I address this chapter to examine how imaginations and images of Indonesia
are represented in advertisements. By exploring advertisements I also aim to identify
and reveal socio-political dynamics, which give a context and framework for the
imaginations and images of Indonesia.
This chapter focuses particularly on the images of the New Order Indonesia in
order to provide an initial description prior to a more in-depth analysis and
comparison with the Post-New Order performed in the following chapters. More
specifically, this chapter is aimed to give an overview of the socio-political context in
the New Order Indonesia, of which the following chapters make use, and based on
which the comparison with the Post-New Order era is carried out. In this regard, by
means of advertisements, I attempt to illuminate certain issues with regard to cultural
differences living within the national borders of Indonesia during the New Order era.
By doing so, I purport to give background information about social definitions
regarding gender, ethnicity/race and social class as a basis for subsequent analysis
performed in the following chapters.
1.1. Advertising Depiction of Indonesia
I initiate this section by examining the narrative of a Coca Cola advertisement
which was produced and broadcast in Indonesia during the last year before the fall of
the New Order regime.1 This advertisement was honoured with the Citra Pariwara
1
The New Order regime in Indonesia was in power for 32 years (1966-1998). With his power,
President Soeharto exerted an authoritarian-military government. Throughout 1997 and into 1998 there
was a series of economic, political and even natural disasters, which have largely weakened Soeharto’s
regime. The student protest movement, which began in early 1998, has escalated the social and political
instability in Indonesia. In this case, Indonesian mass media, both print and broadcast, vehemently
10
Award in 1999. The PPPI—Indonesian Association of Advertising Agencies2—
established the Coca Cola advertisement as the best television commercial
representing Indonesian cultural values. Along with the advance of the advertising
business in Indonesia, since 1988 PPPI has been organizing an annual competition for
advertising creativity, which is so-called the Citra Pariwara Award. The prestigious
competition is aimed to evolve creativity within national advertising in particular and,
in general, to promote the advertising industry in Indonesia.3 It is admitted that the
Citra Pariwara Award is not the only advertising competition in Indonesia. However,
this competition was the pioneer of other similar ones in Indonesia. Other similar
competitions did contribute to the advancement of the advertising industry, but it is
important to note that the Citra Pariwara Award is hitherto the biggest advertising
competition in Indonesia, and presumably able to stimulate advertising practioners to
produce creative advertisements. In addition, the Citra Pariwara Award is the only
official mechanism to select the best Indonesian advertisements, which will represent
the country at international level (PPPI 2004, p.117). It is a well known fact that the
winning advertisements will be sent on behalf of Indonesia to international advertising
competitions such as in AdAsia Festival, Cannes Lions and Clio Awards.
reported the angry student demonstrations and other civilian demands for political change (Hidayat
2002, p.279). Media roles in disseminating information and giving a voice to the people have paved the
way to the pro-democracy movement which culminated in the resignation of Soeharto in May 1998.
2
The PPPI—Indonesian Association of Advertising Agencies— was founded in 1972. As the only
private association which is recognized by the state, the PPPI has been playing a significant role in the
advancement of the advertising industry in Indonesia. It organizes and develops advertising business in
the country. In addition, the association is concerned with the production of Indonesian advertisements,
which are not merely creative but also sell. Indonesian advertisements, according to the PPPI, are aimed
to be recognizable both nationally and internationally. On this point it, should be noted that the
existence of the PPPI reflects the business interests of its members, which are mainly profit oriented.
For a further explanation see Cakap Kecap (PPPI, 2004)
3
Indonesian modern advertising was initiated in the early New Order era in line with the establishment
of Foreign Investment and Domestic Investment Law in 1967 and 1968, respectively. It is a wellknown fact that despite its political repression, the New Order government has led Indonesia to a
remarkable economic growth (See e.g., Hidayat 2002, p.160; Huxley 2002, p.13). Economic expansion
has enlarged industrial markets and stimulated diversification of products for a wider public
consumption. The endorsement of the New Order government toward industrialization accordingly
resulted in the increasing growth of Indonesian advertising business. In the 1970s, advertising industry
advanced more rapidly, once the New Order allowed advertising on TVRI, the Indonesian national
television company. It was the initial period of television advertising in Indonesia. However, the New
Order government finally banned television advertisements in 1981. In this case, TV advertising was
accused of being the instrument of trans-national industries in disseminating consumerism (Kitley,
1994; Siregar, 2002). Re-advance of advertising industry, then, began along with the advent of
commercial television in 1989 and the early period of economic liberalisation. The business boom and
broader access toward a global economy market paved the way of advertising to be a more important
economic machine in Indonesia.
11
Accordingly, the Citra Pariwara Award should create certain qualifications to
determine an archetype of Indonesian advertisement that will function as the
Indonesian representative at international level. In this sense, the advertisement should
be rooted in Indonesian cultural values and social traditions.4 It would be reasonable
to assume, then, that advertisements which are honoured with the Citra Pariwara
Award are eligible as the archetype of Indonesian advertisement.
As has been mentioned, advertising images can provide a guideline for
understanding what is going on in a certain society and culture. Since there is a
diversity of meanings associated and given to the word ‘culture’, its definition merits
closer examination. Raymond Williams has a definition of culture which suggests that
culture is “a description of a particular way of life” (1994, p.56). In this
understanding, culture is about everyday meanings, which are expressed and shared
by certain groups or society, and embodied in values, norms and material as well as
symbolic goods. In the view of Stuart Hall, culture is also concerned with the
production and the exchange of meanings between the members of a society or group.
As he puts it:
To say that two people belong to the same culture is to say that they interpret the
world in roughly the same ways and can express themselves, their thoughts and
feelings about the world, in ways which will be understood by each other. Thus
culture depends on its participants interpreting meaningfully what is happening
around them, and making sense of the world, in broadly similar ways (Hall,
1997, p.2).
In this regard, culture is not given and available out there, and waiting to be revealed.
Rather, culture is a process, which implicates its participants to actively give meaning
to things around them.
The reason for honouring the Coca Cola advertisement with the Citra Pariwara
Award in 1999 is also bound up with the notion of culture. The advertisement won the
Award because it tells a piece of story of ubiquitous scenery in everyday life in
Indonesia. The text is opened with the scene of four boys, aged about 10 years, who
4
It is stated in the PPPI’s organization principles that PPPI commits to develop national advertising,
which is compatible with the actual dynamics of era, but retains the social culture and traditions of
Indonesia. Available from http://www.pppi.or.id/rambu-hp-isi.php?cid=1&id=109 [Accessed 10
October 2005]
12
are gathering in the yard of a house. The yard is seemingly located in a suburban
neighbourhood. One of the boys is holding a kite. He is moving backwards and
pulling the kitestring, while the others are moving towards him. Those children are
trying to raise the kite into the wind, but it always fails. The scene moves to a bird’s
eye shot of a boy holding his glasses and looking up the sky curiously. He is trying to
find where the wind is blowing. A further scene shows all of them very still and
looking up at the sky. Then, with his head up and his hands before his mouth, one of
the boys yells, “Wind, come and blow!” The scene, then, moves to a woman inside a
house near the yard. She moves her head to the window and finds out what is going on
outside. She sees the boys are waiting for the wind. Subsequently, she takes a 1 litre
bottle of Coca Cola. Below that scene there is a short text, family bottle. Outside,
there is now not only four boys. There is also a girl, standing with the boys waiting for
the wind. Those children are starting to become desperate. They sit on the ground with
frowns on their faces. The scene cuts to a bottle of Coca Cola, which is being poured
into 5 glasses. Below this scene, a text appears, only Rp. 3000, for 5 glasses. Then, the
woman comes out holding a tray of 5 glasses of Coca Cola. The children run happily,
coming up to the woman. Further scenes shows how Coca Cola makes them happy,
and for a while forgetting the wind. The woman smiles and tells the children who are
standing around her, “I teach you how to call the wind.” Then she starts to whistle
with her head up. The children are cheerfully whistling, copying her. A new spirit is
embracing them now. The woman is still and then smiles, after she feels the wind
coming and blowing her hair. At the end, the children are happily flying the kite, and
the woman is walking back carrying the tray of empty glasses into the house. This last
image is shown as a blurred background on the scene which focuses on an empty 1
litre Coca Cola bottle. Below this scene, there is a tagline, more sparing, more spirit.
Figure 1.1. Coca Cola Advertisement
13
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
This Coca Cola advertisement performs a story of playing with a kite, which is linked
to the product. It is not simply an object-oriented story, which is telling a story of
product. More than that, it also conveys a story of social and cultural attributes
through the employing of narrative elements.
Children flying kites is a common scene in the everyday life of Indonesia. This
sort of play is popular, particularly for those who live in rural and sub-urban
neighbourhoods. It is not surprising, because flying a kite needs an open space where
people can find wind and raise the kite into the sky. In the rural and sub urban
environments it is not difficult to find a wide area for flying kites, something which is
hardly possible in an urban environment due to its skyscrapers and density of housing.
As shown in the Coca Cola advertisement, the children are playing in a yard, which is
located in a suburban neighbourhood. A long wooden bank, the rear side of a
housewall made from unplastered red brick, a bamboo fence and a small, nonpermanent kiosk are shown in Figure 1.2. In another scene (Figure 1.3.) the same
children are seen, but taken from a different angle. The wooden bank is still seen in
the scene, but with a different background. In the background is depicted the front of
14
two houses. Added to that, a window is shown, and plastered front fences on which
some laundry is put out to dry under the sun. In the foreground, a bicycle is depicted
passing on the street.
Figure 1.2. Non Permanent Kiosk
Figure 1.3. Suburban Housing
Figures 1.2 and 1.3 signify a village within a suburban neighbourhood in Indonesia. A
suburban village has an in-between environment, a blend of urban and rural.5 In the
suburban neighbourhood, children still have an open space to fly a kite, even if only in
a house yard. The building characteristics, such as an unplastered brick wall and
bamboo fence shown in the scenes, are typical of suburban houses in Indonesia, which
particularly belong to the lower middle-class. The advertisement displays stereotypical
objects and habits which are frequently attributed to such class. The passing bicycle,
for instance, signifies the life style of lower middle class. It could be acknowledged
that the bicycle is still a common form of transportation for that class.6 The other
object which is attributed to lower middle class is the way residents dry their laundry.
They use their house fence to put out their washed clothes and dry them under the sun,
instead of using laundry hanger or dryer machine. All those objects in the
advertisement scenes are employed to generate symbolic meanings related to lower
5
The houses in the rural areas in Indonesia usually have walls of woven bamboo matting which are
supported by wooden framing. Their floors consist of pounded earth and the roofs are of dried palm
fibre or tiles. In urban areas, the houses have bricked and plastered walls, and the floors are of cement
or tile. There is no roof of dried palm in the urban area, instead, the roof is of tile or shingle (see
Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007). It is important to note, however, that those physical characteristics are
always subject to change along with modernization and development established by the state.
6
It should be noted, however, that bicycles have recently lost favour and sidelined by motorcycles,
particularly after the coming of lower price Chinese motorcycles into the Indonesian market around
2000. It is not surprising that compared with 2000, motorcycle sales in Indonesia increased by 60% in
2001 (Kompas, 2001a). It must be admitted that transportation vehicles apparently bear certain
attributes to their owners, which in this sense is as a symbol for social status.
15
middle class in suburban Indonesia. It functions, in fact, to represent the target market
of the selling product. It is necessary to remember that the product itself is not a local
product of Indonesia. In order to get the sense of locality, the advertisement seeks to
link the product to local cultural attributes such as flying a kite. It has been
acknowledged that kite-flying did not originate in Indonesia, but in China (Sriwijaya
Post, 2002). However, it is considered a genuine part of the diverse cultures7 in
Indonesia, which has been played over the years (Kompas, 2008). The Coca Cola
advertisement seeks to underline this notion through its narrative. Kite-flying is
depicted as a part of traditions which have existed for generations in Indonesia. The
scene which depicts how the woman teaches the children to call the wind affirms this
line of thinking. It seems that she already knew the right way to call the wind. She
might have learned about it from her predecessors, possibly when she was child. It is
not about right or wrong; on the contrary, it is about traditions that are handed down
across generations, as she does to the children.
Speaking more broadly, the advertisement is not simply selling a product of
carbonated soft drink rooted in American culture. More than that, it is selling a new
culture to Indonesians, including those who come from the lower middle class. It
draws attention to the fact that globalization has apparently led global western cultures
to touch other cultures in a virtual way. Coca Cola is an outstanding example of this
phenomenon. In the context of Indonesia, the soft drink product signifies the country’s
engagement with globalization. Under the New Order authoritarian government,
7
Due to its geographical and demographical characteristics, Indonesia comprises many cultures within
its national borders. Indonesia is an archipelago in Southeast Asia consisting of over 17,000 islands
(only about 6000 inhabited), with approximately 225 million population. More than 300 ethnic groups
with their own cultures and traditions live in the scattered islands. The largest populated islands are
Java, where about half of the population lives, Sumatera, Borneo (shared with Malaysia and Brunei),
Papua (shared with Papua New Guinea) and Sulawesi. Javanese is the largest ethnic group in Indonesia
with about 45% population. The other ethnic groups are Sundanese (14%), Madurese (7.5%), coastal
Malays (7.5%) and other ethnic groups (26%), including the Acehnese, the Melanesian and SinoIndonesians. For more explanation about ethnic groups in Indonesia see Lamoureux (2003) and Leo
Suryadinata, Elections and Politics in Indonesia (Singapore: ISEAS, 2002)
In addition, it has been often asserted that the western islands of Indonesia are mostly inhabited by
descendants of Austronesian migrants to the islands, while the eastern islands are occupied by
Melanesian origins (see e.g. Cribb 1999, p.3; Bastaman and Tobing 1999, p.65). Furthermore, there are
ethnic Chinese, Indians and Arabs, which primarily centered in urban areas on every side of the
archipelago. It should be noted that the diversity of culture, ethnicities and languages in Indonesia
cannot be separated from the earliest history of the archipelago which was initiated by the era of
wealthy kingdoms in Java and Sumatera. Since the islands are part of Southeast Asia, the rich area of
spices, medicinal and other tropical products, they lie in the great trading routes from China to India.
According to Hefner (2001, p.12) many traders sailed their ships between China and Southeast Asia
and between Southeast Asia to India. The Indian traders came to Southeast Asia and spread their
culture and religion Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam along the trade routes.
16
Indonesia has ushered increasing links with the global economy. It could be revealed
from the state’s economic policy, which was aimed particularly to achieve rapid
economic growth. In 1967 the New Order Government established the Law of Foreign
Investment, which resulted in an increasing number of multinational corporations
investing their money in Indonesia. In 1990s the links to the global world were widely
opened along with the period of liberalisation of the economy and social matters,
called “Openness” (Keterbukaan). Accordingly, some restrictions regarding foreign
investment were changed; as Vickers puts it:
Laws restricting foreign investment, including purchase of land, were changed to
allow a freer flow of capital, and suddenly the country was awash with money,
as five star hotels mushroomed in Bali and Jakarta skyscrapers trebled in number
overnight (2005, p.198).
In short, the New Order’s economic policy has led the country into a deeper
dependence on the world economic market, which is dominated by Western countries.
It has meant as well that the government could no longer exert its tight control8 over
the changes caused by globalization (Hidayat 2002, p.162). As a result, western
culture and new consumer culture was spread throughout the archipelago, and was
backed up by multinational corporations. On this point, Sklair (1995) in Hogan (1999,
p.744) asserts that such global dominance is located in the workings of transnational
corporations, in the transnational capitalist elite, and in the ideology of consumerism
8
It is worth noting that Soeharto’s government exerted close control over several aspects, including in
terms of mass media. The tight control over dissemination of information was exerted through various
means. Newspaper, national television and radio were controlled either through regulations or through
ownership. In the legislative sphere, the government has enacted laws concerning the media such as
Press Law and Broadcasting Law. It provided guidelines for the media on what to say and what not to
say in order to attain to a state of harmony. Media required reporting news, which the government
regarded as important and, inevitably, owed more to the government’s perspective. The government
restriction to media was used to limit news reporting of ethno-religious tensions and control the public
interpretation of all socio-political conflicts, to exclude and to restrict languages used in the media in
various ways (see Sen and Hill 2000, p.12). In the guise of national unity, the New Order regime was
against the effort to present cultural differences through media. All media and artistic productions were
also monitored and policed for evidence of dissent (Winters 1995, p.424). In the case of advertising, in
1981 the New Order government had banned advertising on TVRI. The government accused
advertisement as the instrument of trans-national industries to disseminate consumerism. In 1990 the
central government issued a decree named SK Menpen No.111/KEP/MENPEN/1990, which asserted
that all television advertisements carried by commercial televisions must be produced in Indonesia, by
Indonesian people and using Indonesian background and artists. Moreover, in the context of television
advertisements, government’s ideological controls over advertisements have been operated by the
Board of Film Censorship, the government body of film censorship. According to Sunindyo (1993,
p.137) all film productions, including television advertisements, had to go through the Board, before
they distributed to audiences.
17
itself. Together these forces function to hollow out local traditions and identification,
and bring individuals and societies worldwide into the capitalist market economy.
Most processes of globalization are indeed economic in character. More specifically,
Barker (2000, p.113) asserts that globalization is, in part, constituted by “planetaryscale economic activity” which is creating an interconnected world economy. This
process is undeniably directed by the industrial, capitalist West. In accordance with it,
there is an assumption accepted by most perceived Third World countries, that
following and imitating the development process of western industrial societies is the
essential pathway to fruitful economic development. In this regard, transnational
corporations, as has been mentioned, work and contribute to interconnect the world
economy. To attain this goal, transnational corporations which invest vast amounts of
money in developing countries seek to synchronize local cultures to make them
compatible with their corporate visions. This phenomenon can be seen in the context
of Coca Cola in Indonesia.
The carbonated soft drink was a product of The Coca Cola Company, which
originated in the United State. Coke is sold through the franchise system, in which the
production is handed over to the local bottler. Coca Cola Amatil, which is one of the
manufacturers and distributors of Coca Cola products in the world, made its first
investment in Indonesia in 1992.9 In order to cultivate the culture of drinking Coke in
Indonesia, Coca Cola has been attempting to link the product to the local attributes,
while maintaining the affordability to purchase the product. As shown in the scenes of
the Coca Cola advertisement under discussion, Coca Cola attempts to demonstrate that
every household in Indonesia, including those of lower middle class, can afford and
enjoy the product due to its lower price. Hence, drinking Coke can be a part of
everyday rituals of Indonesians, even of those who live in villages. The sense of
localness is signified by local activity, in this case is flying a kite, family values and
communality, which characterize Indonesian society, particularly in rural and
suburban areas. In the advertisement, it is shown that purchasing a litre Coca Cola is
not aimed for individual consumption but for the whole family (therefore, the one litre
bottle is called a family bottle, which can be divided into 5 glasses). This picture seeks
9
Coke, in fact, has been produced and distributed in Indonesia since 1932. After its first investment,
millions of cases of this product are distributed and sold through more than 400,000 distributors across
the country. In spite of this fact, the rate of Coca Cola consumption in Indonesia is lower than in its
neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Philipines. Available from http://www.cocacolabottling.co.id/eng/ourcompany/index.php [Accessed 19 April 2007]
18
to emphasize that individualism and social alienation do not belong to genuine
characteristics of Indonesia.10 On the contrary, communality is a very important
principle in Indonesian society. In this respect, individuality is subordinate to
communal interests. In the neighbourhood, for instance, some activities are
undertaken in gotong royong11, which includes members of the community. ‘Family’,
in this case, does not always refer to a group of persons related by blood, marriage or
adoption. In the communal society, people who belong to a certain community and
share something in common, one to another, can be considered as family as well.
Likewise, the woman in the advertisement treats the children in the neighbourhood as
her own family, to whom she also serves the Coke. She treats those children as if they
are her own children. These sorts of local values are inscribed in the multinational
product in order to give the sense of localness. As a result, Coca Cola can turn itself
into something that seems essentially local. In this sense, the advertisement, in fact,
works to highlight that global and local should not have to be in conflict. Instead,
global and local are supposed to be a harmonious combination as embodied in a bottle
of Coca Cola. The harmoniuos combination, in this regard, has been achieved by
localizing the global.
It is important to note that such a harmonious combination can also be achieved
the other way around. As illustrated in a Telkom Vision advertisement, the
combination has been achieved by globalizing the local. The advertisement sells a
multimedia program, which is supported by satellite and internet technology. The
program provides consumers a promise to open access to the global world. Other than
conveying information about product, the advertisement tells a story of a group of
Papuans, an ethnic group who inhabit the eastern island of Indonesia. The text is
opened with a dark scene, which indicates that the narrative is situated at night. In the
same scene, human voices and drumbeat background music are heard fading in.
Somebody is making fire with matches and lighting a torch. The scene then cuts to a
10
In her work, Hooker (1993, p.14) indicates that greater individualism, social alienation and smaller
nuclear families are some trends that accompany the development or modernization enforced by the
New Order government. Those phenomena that are mostly located in urban area, she notes, are
regarded as the darker side of development.
11
Gotong Royong means collective solidarity. In this sense, togetherness becomes the basic value in
doing every process of communal activities. Therefore, all kinds of communal duties in the village or
neighbourhood in Indonesia are done by involving the people in the community. For more explanation
see
Tatang
Muttaqin,
Indonesian
Culture
and
Society,
available
from
http://www.budpar.go.id/filedata/915_152-Indonesiaculture1/pdf [accessed 01 May 2007]
19
bird’s eye scene of a Papuan in traditional constume and accessories. He is holding a
stick and sitting in a crouching position next to a television set, which is put on a stack
of grass in the middle of a yard. He is watching television, which is displaying an
image of flame that comes from the torch shown in the opening scene. The music,
which comes from the television, is still on, and the Papuan moves his hips following
the music. The following scene shows three other Papuans in their traditional
costumes dancing in front of a Papuan traditional house. They are dancing following
the drumbeat of the music, and singing a song which sounds like a tribal praise. The
other Papuans do not join dancing and singing; instead, they just stand and watch the
dancing Papuans. The beat music continues to play accompanying their dance. On the
next scene, Papuan women are depicted standing at different side of the yard. They are
doing their own activities and seemingly do not pay attention to the dancing men. The
Papuans continue dancing, singing and clapping hands. They stamp their feet on the
ground following the drumbeat, while the television on the grass is still turned on.
Subsequently, a bird’s eye scene demonstrates a number of Papuans moving and
sitting around a campfire. The scene then cuts to a scene telling a story of the selling
product, namely Telkom Vision that is produced by Telkom Company. A male voiceover explains that Telkom Vision offers multimedia communication facilities
consisting of TV cable, satellite TV and fast Internet. In the following scene, both the
text and the male voice-over describe that the program has a wider coverage, which is
able to reach all over Indonesia. For subscribing it is suggested to contact the
customer service hotlines. The last scene shows a bird’s eye image of a Papuan who is
sitting in a crouching position next to a television set as seen in the earlier scenes. A
text emerges on the scene, “Bring the world to your eyes”. Finally, the Papuan turns
his head to the camera and smiles.
Figure 1.4 Telkom Vision Advertisement
20
Despite using a group of Papuan performers, the advertisement is, after all, not
directed or targeted to those people. It simply to emphasize the wide coverage Telkom
Vision can provide. It is important to note, that the Papuans inhabit Papua island
(former called Irian Jaya), which is located in eastern Indonesia. On the island, in fact,
there are more than 250 tribal groups that mostly live in hinterlands (King 2004, p.25,
Lamoureux 2003, p.8). Since they live in remote areas, communication is obviously
difficult. This fact is used by the advertisement to stress the product’s selling point
with which the communication problems in remote areas can be overcome. By using
the product, which is symbolized by a television set on the stack of grass, the people
in remote areas will not be isolated anymore. The television serves as a bridge, which
links the groups to other cultures. In this sense, the television functions as a means of
connecting people not merely in terms of time and space, but, more importantly,
connecting traditional culture to modern culture. This fact is apparently affirmed by
the last text shown on the last scene, Bring the world to your eyes. Those Papuans, for
instance, are introduced to modern music that is played as the advertisement’s
21
background sound. The music is depicted suitable to accompany the Papuans dancing
and singing. The advertisement delineates that both cultures are able to fit one to
another and result in a state of harmony. Unlike the Coca Cola advertisement, the
Telkom Vision advertisement shows that the harmonious connection can be achieved
by globalizing or modernizing the local, which, in the context of the advertisement, is
represented by the Papuans.
The television in the advertisement is also used to symbolize the modernization
in Indonesia, which had its higher intensity under the New Order’s government. The
term of modernization in Indonesia is illustrated as particular kinds of socio-economic
change. In this sense, the change follows developmental programs established by the
government, which were generally aimed to attain to a state that is equivalent with the
industrialized West (Vickers and Fisher 1999, p.394). It was not surprising that under
the New Order there was an inclination to adopt modern styles of building, dress,
entertainment and lifestyles, which were imported from the West.12 Therefore, as the
advertisement suggests, traditional cultures should adopt and adjust to modern
attributes. Watching television, for instance, becomes a new ritual among the Papuans,
which possibly replaces the old rituals. As shown in the advertisement, previously the
Papuans gather around a campfire, talking, smoking and dancing. Now, television has
replaced the campfire. The real campfire is replaced by the image of flame showing
on the television screen. And once they are touched by television, they can enter a
new space called the ‘modern’ world.
1.2. Gender and The Nation
In the context of national development, the New Order’s government did not
merely foster modern culture; rather, it also provided a particular conception with
regards to gender relations in Indonesia. In this sense, mass media were used as
channels through which the constructed gender relations were articulated and
disseminated across the archipelago. Advertising text is one of striking examples,
through which gender ideology is reproduced, transformed and elaborated. It is often
asserted that advertising representation is drawn on and permeated by the ruling
12
Among the urban middle class, for instance, which has flourished during the New Order era, those
modern styles are fashionable. For them, it is embarassing to be seen as “behind the times” (Hooker
1993, p.15).
22
political interests. Considering the images of gender and minorities, some scholars
share the view that advertising tends to reproduce dominant ideas and attitudes toward
minorities as well as gender (see e.g. Bristor et al, 1995; Cortese, 2004). In this
understanding, advertisements can provide a dynamic view of social relations and
power structures related to gender, which prevail in a certain society. In Gender
Advertising, Erving Goffman (1979) notes that advertising conveys cultural ideals of
each sex, sometimes in a subtle form, other times more explicitly (Belknap and
Leonard II 1991, p.106).
Following these insights, the Coca Cola advertisement can be used to identify
and reveal subject position and ideal roles that are imposed on women and men,
particularly in the New Order Indonesia. The woman in the Coca Cola advertisement
is depicted as a housewife and a mother. She plays the role in taking care of household
and family. She is positioned in the house and she must be aware of what the family
members need, even when they are located outside the house. It can be seen, for
instance, in Figure 1.5. The young woman is depicted being inside a house. She is
casting her eyes outside the window, and trying to know what is happening outside.
She finds out that the children face a problem and she already exactly knew the
solution. In the following scene, she is depicted coming out from the house and giving
two solutions for the children. Firstly, she helps the children raise their spirit by giving
Coca Cola (Figure 1.6). In this sense, Coca Cola functions to symbolize the new spirit
and freshness. Second, the woman comes and teaches the children the right way to call
the wind (Figure 1.7 and Figure 1.8). She is shown not immediately leaving those
children. Instead, she waits until she convinces herself that the children get what they
need (Figure 1.9 & 1.10). After that, she leaves them and returns to her house (Figure
1.11).
Figure 1.5
Figure 1.6
Figure 1.7
23
Figure 1.8
Figure 1.9
Figure 1.10
Figure 1.11
In this regard, woman is depicted as a guardian mother, who must take care of her
offspring, watch over them, and be there whenever they need help. This sort of
women’s role in Indonesian advertisements is drawn from the gender ideology
constructed in the country during the New Order era. It is a well-known fact that for
almost 32 years the New Order government enforced an ideology concerning the roles
of Indonesian women in the context of national development (Sunindyo 1996, p.123;
Surjakusuma 1996, p.99; Gardiner 2002, p.102). The regime used propaganda to
justify the traditional role for women as a mother and housewife. An Indonesian
woman was defined as the nurturer of her offspring, her husband and finally of the
community and national spirit. Sunindyo (1996, p.125) asserts that Indonesian women
were strictly enforced to be a “guardian mother of the nation”. Surjakusuma (1996,
p.101) adds that the Indonesian government has established the “State Ibuism”, which
defines women as appendages and companions to their husbands, as procreators of the
nation, as mothers and educators of children, as housekeepers, and as members of
Indonesian society. On this point, it would be apparent that women would not be
positioned as individuals with their own agencies to be active and involved,
independent and personally capable.13 On the contrary, women were always reminded
13
Maria Mies in her work Patriarchy & Accumulation on a World Scale (1986) coined the term
“Housewifization” to illuminate this point, that is a process by which women [in the perspective of the
New Order regime] are socially defined as housewives, dependent for their sustenance on the income of
24
of their kodrat (inherent nature) and particularly of their household and reproductive
responsibilities—to clean, cook and bear children (Gardiner 2002, p.102). It is worth
noting that in fact the government’s vision regarding women’s roles was similar to
that of the Dutch colonial regime (Parawansa 2002, p.71), whose influence was
experienced across Indonesia from the 1500s on. Dutch colonizers, as Stoler (1991) in
Blackwood (2005, p.864) notes, brought their patriarchal worldview to Indonesia and
encouraged a view of gender relations in which women served men as housewives (or
concubines) and child-rearers. According to the Dutch gender discourse, women were
contained within the categories of wife, mother or concubine, and they should
organize their lives around their domestic activities. It could be said, on this point, that
the New Order’s policies regarding women’s roles showed certain similarities with the
Dutch colonializer’s gender discourse in a way that the New Order’s government
placed a strong emphasis on the domestic roles of women. In this sense, improvement
of women’s position in Indonesia was always linked to women’s status within the
family.
Added to that, the New Order’s gender ideology tended to underline the notion
that men and women had different and separate roles and activities. It has been
illustrated in the Coca Cola advertisement. As depicted in the advertisement, flying
kites is firmly considered as a masculine passtime. Kite flying is often enjoyed by
boys, not girls (Sriwijaya Post, 2002). Therefore, in the advertisement, the girl has a
very limited space of representation. There is a girl and she is the only one among a
bunch of boys represented in the Coca Cola advertisement. It can be seen that the girl
is not included in the same way the advertisement includes the boys throughout the
story. Her presence is merely at a decorative level, in a sense that she does not play a
major, or at least an equal, role with the boys throughout the narrative. It could be
acknowledged, therefore, that the advertisement shows its role in underlining
hierarchical gender stereotypes in the country. On this point, it is important to note
that the New Order’s government deliberately assigned traditional roles of woman and
continually reinforced this stereotype as a strategy to maintain its power over the
people throughout Indonesia.14 Hence, it is not surprising that some studies on women
their husbands, irrespective of whether they are de facto housewives or not (in Surjakusuma 1996,
p.101).
25
representation in Indonesian media discovered that media representation tended to
celebrate male domination and female subservience (see e.g. Sen 1993; Sunindyo
1996; Aripurnami 1996, Tamagola 1998). It is worth stating that Indonesia actually
has been encountering gender matters even since the pre-colonial period. Prior to the
colonial era, there were wealthy kingdoms spread through the entire territory,
especially in Java and Sumatera. During this period, those kingdoms were mostly
ruled by kings.15 The kingdom’s patriarchal tradition apparently did not allow women
to rule over the kingdom.
Other than assigning women to the familial roles, there was a tendency to
position women as the symbolic bearers of cultural heritage. Women, in this sense,
were attached with responsibility to revitalize and preserve the nation’s cultural
heritage. As shown in the Coca Cola advertisement, the woman as a mother has the
task to hand down tradition to her offspring. In the advertisement’s context, she hands
down the traditional way in calling the wind to the children and teaches them how to
do it. She might have inherited the tradition from her predecessors, and now it is her
turn to hand it down to her offspring. At the same time, as depicted in the
advertisement, the woman is also portrayed as the agent who introduces and cultivates
a global lifestyle to the younger generation. In this regard, the woman is positioned as
agent that enables the harmonious combination between traditional/local values and
modern/global values. More specifically, during the New Order era woman was
depicted as the guardian who should bridge and escort the transformation into new
modern spirits under the conditions of globalization, while remaining being
Indonesian.
1.3. Images of Ethnic/Racial Minorities
As mentioned earlier, advertising tends to articulate, transform and elaborate the
dominant ideas and attitudes toward minorities. Ethnic/racial images in advertising are
somewhat linked to certain social orders and power structure. On this point, Gross
14
The New Order regime tried to impose a homogenizing view of female social roles on the diversity
of gender relations actually found throughout the archipelago (Robinson in Emerson 1999, p.237), since
it is easier to manage.
15
It should be noted that Java’s last and greatest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom, Majapahit, had been ruled
by queens, namely, Tribhuwana Tungga Dewi (1328-1350) and Suhita (1429-1447). However, they
were only 2 women among those who ruled Majapahit. For more information see Merle C. Ricklef, A
History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300 (Standford: Standford University, 1991).
26
(1991) in Cortese (2004, p.15) observes that representation of ethnic/racial groups
suggests the prominent status of groups that possess significant material or political
power bases. In this understanding, dominant assumptions and attitudes toward
ethnic/racial minorities, hence, can be revealed through the images of advertising. In
the context of Indonesian advertising during the New Order era, the prominent status
of the Javanese ethnic group16 was somewhat articulated, transformed and elaborated
in advertising representations. It worked sometimes at subliminal level, below the
threshold of consciousness, other times more explicitly. It is often asserted, however,
that advertisements accommodated Javanese culture not simply for ideological
reasons; rather, inscribing Javanese culture in advertising images was also for the
reason of lucrative business. All Indonesian commercial television stations are located
in Java (particularly in the capital city, Jakarta), where about the half of the Indonesian
population lives. From the commercial point of view, Java has been always a big
market, where big capitals could flow rapidly. As a political result, however, it
produced dictating to the non-Javanese by the Javanese in light of the media’s imagesetting. In this regard, advertising texts tended to create hegemony of discourse related
to cultural differences17 in Indonesia, by which minorities were positioned at the
margin of representation. Added to that, during the New Order era, differences in
ethnicity, race as well as religion were forbidden topics in the media (Vickers 2005,
16
Under Soeharto’s New Order regime, the effort to place and impose Javanese aesthetics and politics
above the other cultures took a greater intensity. According to Hotman Siahaan (Kompas, 2002),
President Soeharto, who was a Javanese, intentionally used and interpreted Javanese culture to
strengthen and legitimize his power. In this sense, it is worth noting that the conception of Javanese
culture has also resulted from its intersection with others’ civilization such as Indian, Arab, Chinese and
so on during the trading and colonial stages. Javanese culture is a unique amalgam of elements that
derive historically from its connection with other cultures. For more explanation see Benedict
Anderson, Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia (Ithaca, NY: Cornel
University, 1990).
The New Order’s government tended to preserve Javanese cultural elements over others. Political
dominance of the Javanese indicated that Javanese culture has received more prominence than most
other cultures living in the country. Despite the efforts to give more attention to non-Javanese cultures,
it was not surprising that only Javanese culture developed with higher of intensity.
17
Generally speaking, the Indonesian population consists of the indigenous people, which are called the
pribumi—natives of the country—and non-pribumi—the people who had chosen Indonesian
citizenship, whose ancestors came from other races and countries. It could be said that the diverse
population of Indonesia was created more by aboriginality than immigration. The perceived pribumi or
indigenous people who inhabit the vast archipelago stretching from Sumatera to Papua have been
considered as the majority of Indonesian population. The perceived indigenous population of Indonesia
consists of various ethnic groups, which regard Indonesia as their land of origin. Each of these ethnic
groups retains their major cultural heritage. As a state with multi-ethnic character, the state authority of
Indonesia also endeavored to find a shared sense of culture and values, which could incorporate various
existing cultures in the archipelago into a united nation. The moulding of the nation culture is one of the
efforts which aimed to achieve the national unity of Indonesia. Consequently, the construction of
national identity inevitably involves the dissolving ethnic identities in Indonesia.
27
p.202). Emphasising differences would be considered a potential cause of stoking
sentiments of ethnicity, religion, race or class. In terms of media representation,
images that could reveal conflict of SARA,18 which would damage the national
culture should be strongly avoided (Tesoro 2003, p.43). Differences should be shown
in light of harmony, which referred to the national motto “Unity in Diversity”. The
national motto was designated on purpose to keep united the diversity of culture and
population throughout Indonesia. It was aimed to achieve national unity, while
retaining the diversity of religion, culture, and traditions residing in the country.
However, in carrying out the motto the New Order regime emphasized unity at the
expense of diversity. The term harmony itself was mostly artificial, because it did not
bear out dialectic relations among the diverse communities.
Under the New Order government, there was an inclination to define minorities
in terms of ethnicity/race as backward, traditional, archaic, static or primitive.
Accordingly, the government considered them on the outer margin of the nation. This
notion, in fact, has endured since the Dutch colonization. In the colonial period, the
Dutch ruled the archipelago from Java. Therefore, according to Clifford Geertz (1963,
p.14), under Dutch colonialism Java was called “Inner Indonesia”, which consisted of
northwest, central and east Java, south Bali and west Lombok. The areas outside of
Java were called “Outer Indonesia”, which consisted of Southern of West Java,
Sumatera, Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua. Geertz observes that up to the post-colonial
Indonesia, Javanese culture remains the axis, on which Indonesian life turns. It
involves some aspects, for instance, the demographic predominance of Javanese in the
country. In other words, Java became the nerve center of the country, and as Keuning
et.al in Gazali (2002, p.130)) notes, it continued up to the New Order era and had
influenced society in many areas, including in the media representation.
As a result, minorities in terms of ethnicity/race were mostly positioned at the
margin of media representation. They were compelled to consume media images,
which hardly represented them. Since their own cultural expressions were often
invisible in the media, minorities were mostly positioned as spectators of others’
cultural expressions, which did not belong to them. In case they were visible, they
were merely performed as a spectacle, an object to gaze at, which reproduced the
18
‘SARA conflict’ is conflict which could erupt due to the sentiments of Suku (ethnicity), Agama
(religion), Ras (race) and Antar golongan (group/class).
28
dominant ethnic group’s attitudes and ideas toward them. Such position has been
implied as well in the state’s policies, which tended to exclude minorities in the
national development. In this sense, they merely became objects, rather than subjects,
of development programs, which were designed and determined from the viewpoint of
the dominant group. It was not surprising that the state put an effort to bring and
transform ethnic/racial minorities from traditional world and backwardness into the
modern world. This inclination has been apparently illustrated in the advertisement of
Telkom Vision. The Papuans in the advertisement are shown as an ethnic/racial group
that is pre-modern, ignorant and backward. It is pertinent to remember that Papuans as
Melanesian descendants denote people with curly hair and dark skin tone as opposed
to straight hair and light skin tone of Austronesian descendants. Most of the tribes in
Papua Island live in hinterlands that have been hardly touched by outside influences.
Accordingly, during the New Order era, the Papuan tribes were regarded as “still
primitive” (Vickers 2005, p.45; Bertrand 2004, p.221). The Telkom Vision
advertisement seems to underscore that assumption toward the Papuans. As illustrated
in the advertisement, the Papuans are positioned as the objects of modernization.
Introducing them to the world, as affirmed on the closing scene, Bring the world to
your eyes, seems to be inevitable. In this case, the Papuans are defined and placed
according to the perspective of the dominant group as the already modernized group.
The misè en scenes of the advertisement articulate the hierarchy of culture in
Indonesia, in which the Papuan group is marginalized. This sort of representation
creates the demarcation between “us” and “them”, and reinforces the sense of
otherness to the Papuan minority. It naturalizes the dominant assumption that Papua
indeed resides at the margin of the country, which is different in characteristics and
remote from the center of civilization, namely Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia,
where the central hegemony of Javanese takes place (Mydan 1999 in Rutherford 2003,
p.2). Instead of empowering minorities, the New Order’s policies generated
stereotypical categories of ‘otherness’. What is more, cultural differences were
maintained and exploited merely for commercial purposes such as the tourist industry.
It is imposed not merely upon Papua, but other minorities as well. The Dayak ethnic
group, which inhabits Borneo Island, for instance, has undergone a similar
marginalisation to the Papuans. The distinct cultural values of the Dayak are
deliberately maintained for tourism purposes, wherein the group itself is defined as a
primitive, wild and exotic ethnic group (Sunjayadi, 2004).
29
After the fall of the New Order regime in May 2008, Indonesia entered a
dubious political transition from the authoritarian government to a more democratic
government. The Post-New Order government attempts to retrieve economic and
political stability, which has been collapsing since the last years of New Order regime.
In the aftermath of Soeharto’s fall, there have been a number of democratic reforms,
including in terms of political culture and cultural politics. In this regard, the way in
which the new government deals with issues of gender and other cultural differences
residing in the country becomes a pivotal subject of reform. In the context of gender,
for instance, the Post-New Order’s government has introduced certain policies, which
are aimed to improve the quality of women’s life and open up opportunities in the
public domain (Parawansa 2002, p.76). Concerning the notion of ethnic/racial
relationships in Indonesia, the Post New Order’s government has been expected to
give a better place and recognition for various ethnic/racial groups in every corner of
Indonesia. In line with the socio-political shift from the New Order to the Post-New
Order era, I argue that the way in which advertisements represent cultural differences
along gender, ethnicity/race as well as class has been somewhat influenced as well.
Following this reasoning, advertising representation of such cultural differences
during the Post New Order era merits closer examination. In order to reveal the shift
of advertising representation between two the different eras in Indonesia, the
following chapters aim to explore such representation during each era and
subsequently compare them with one another.
30
Chapter 2
Identity, Difference and Representation
It is a well known fact that identity has increasingly become a significant
concept in this contemporary world. In a society that is saturated with media culture,
identity becomes a more and more popular notion. The images, sounds and spectacles
carried out by the media are often considered as important in invoking a certain sense
of identity. As Douglas Kellner (1995, p.1) notes, media stories and images provide
the materials out of which many people construct their sense of class, of ethnicity and
race, of nationality, and of sexuality. Woodward (1997) is the other thinker, who
shares this view when she asserts that the media can provide information, which
describes what it feels like to occupy a particular subject-position. On this point, she
notes, “[T]he production of meaning and the identities positioned within and by
representational systems are closely interconnected” (1997, p.14). In this sense,
representation as a cultural process establishes individual and collective identities and
symbolic systems that provide possible answers to the questions: who am I?, what
could I be?, and who do I want to be?. In other words, symbolic representation of
media prescribes certain senses of identities, which can help people to constitute their
own identities.
On the other hand, it is observable that narratives of identity inscribed in media
imagery can be conceived as a pivotal entry to a certain culture. In this sense, media
representation of identity provides explanations concerning social, political and
cultural changes in societies. Advertising imagery of gender identity, for instance, is
in part drawn from the predominant conceptions of masculinity and femininity in a
certain culture. Added to that, advertising images frequently promote acceptance of
current social arrangements related to gender and race, and reassure people that things
are the way they ought to be (Coltrane and Messineo 2000, p.364). The depiction of
gender identity and ethnic relations to members of a society via advertising, according
to Cortese (2004, p.2), also colors the way to understand status arrangements, social
boundaries and power in a society.
It can be acknowledged, on this point, that the notion of identity is largely
connected to the world of media and images, which circulate in everyday life. As
discussed in Chapter 1, advertising images which were produced during the New
31
Order era provided significant cues about the socio-political situation in the New
Order Indonesia. What is more, those images functioned as an entry point to
understand the social arrangements regarding cultural differences, such as gender,
ethnicity/race or social class. Since this study is concerned with the notion of identity
and differences, I need to include some theoretical notions related to it. In the first
section of this chapter the notion of identity and subjectivity is examined. The chapter
then moves to discuss the ways identity has been related to notions of difference and
otherness. Added to that, the notion of cultural differences and identity politics is
examined in the second section. This chapter is closed by discussion of the way media
performs and represents differences through its imagery.
2.1. Identity and Subjectivity
In his work Diaspora and The Detours of Identity, Paul Gilroy (1997) claims
that we live in a world where identity matters. He points out how the concept of
identity becomes a crucial issue in the contemporary world. The word has resonated
both inside and outside the academic world and becomes one of the most significant
concepts in recent times, not simply as the subject to discuss, but also to contest for a
variety reasons. In order to avoid confusion, I attempt to explain and distinguish the
term subject, subjectivity and identity as the beginning of this section.
The term subject is perceived as the self, the “I”, which thinks, perceives and
speaks (Jackson 1991, p.106). To make clear the definition I refer to structuralist
perspective, which sees the term “subject” as quite different from the term
“individual”. The latter term originated from the Renaissance, particularly from the
work of Rene Descartes, which assumes that individual is an autonomous, coherent
and intellectual agent.19 In this sense, the “I” is considered as coherent, fixed, unitary
and stable. It becomes an expression of a unique essence of the self, which is
19
Descartes sets out to establish what is essential to the human being. His famous conception Cogito
Ergo Sum (I think therefore I am) posits the rational, conscious man at the heart of western philosophy.
The “I” is the mind, which is regarded as being separated from the body. Therefore, the “I” is the site of
consciousness, rationality and imagination. In this sense, the “I” is conceived as having inherently
rational capacities, which enable it to develop and experience the world (Barker 1999, p.14; Mansfiel,
2000, p.13). It is seen as the originator of actions, self-conscious, self-contained, self-constituted and
considered as an autonomous ego. This notion is also knows as the essentialist perspective on human
beings, which suggests that there is one clear, authentic set of characteristics which do not alter across
time (Woodward 1997, p.11).
32
constituted in terms of conscious rational mind. Stuart Hall identifies this sort of “I” as
the “Enlightment Subject”. He puts it, “The Enlightment Subject was based on a
conception of the human person as a fully centred, unified individual, endowed with
capacities of reason, consciousness and action, whose “centre” consisted of an inner
core” (1992, p.275; internal quotes in original). In this sense, human consciousness is
understood as the originator of action and meaning rather than the product. This
notion subsequently had been questioned and debated in European philosophy. The
idea that there is a true and unique essence of self has become a subject to evaluation
and critique. Opposed to this essentialist perspective, structuralists introduce the
notion of “subject” as opposed to the idea of the “individual” as a stable and coherent
self. In this respect, I refer to the structuralist view of subject, because it helps to
understand that human reality is in fact a construction. The human subject, in this
understanding, is decentered, unstable and socially constructed. More specifically,
structuralists consider subject as a product of signifying systems, which are both
culturally specific and generally unconscious (Sarup 1988, p.2). In the course of this
study, the structuralist view of subject is useful to understand how advertising, as a
signifying system, works to generate and construct a variety of meaning related to
subject. However, it should be noted that I aim to use structuralist view without
slavisly adhering to it. In this sense, instead of discovering the deep order or hidden
structure20 of an advertisement, I prefer to focus this study on the way advertisements
work within particular historical and social contexts. By doing so, I try to go beyond
structuralist’s persistence of deep structure, which is perceived underlying all human
cultures and, thereby, giving little room for historical change. I consider, instead, that
the construction of subject is always bound up with social context and historical
changes. In this understanding, relations between the sense of self and socio-historical
context form what is so-called human subjectivity.
20
Structuralism believes that there is a hidden and deep structure, which underlies and structures
human culture (Kurzweil 1980, p.227). Language, for example, is one of the main structures that is
important and fundamental for generating and constructing meaning. The influential structuralist model
of language is the Saussurean model. The Saussurean model of language focuses on the study of the life
of signs within society. Saussure gave the concept of langue and parole. In his view, langue is the
underlying structure of language, while parole is the use of langue, the speech. For Saussure, the
production of meaning depends on language as a system of signs. Meaning in this sense is defined or
generated through the relation of binary opposition. The signs (which consist of signifier and signified)
that make up a language posit in opposition to each other and the relation between them is arbitrary.
The Saussurean model, which maintains that a linguistic signifier has meaning only within a specific
system of significations, served as the basis for a number of structuralist works.
33
The term subjectivity itself refers to the condition of being a person and the
processes by which one becomes a person (Barker 1999, p.9; Barker 2000, p.165;
Corey and Peterson 2003). The question about subjectivity is related to the notion of
who we are, how a person is being a subject; e.g. a subject to social processes and
subject to their social and cultural environments. According to Woodward (1997,
p.39), subjectivity involves one’s most personal feelings and thoughts. Subjectivity,
however, is experienced in a social context, where language and culture give meaning
to the experiences of one’s self. The term identity, meanwhile, refers more directly to
the question about how we see ourselves and how others see us. It is related to the
conceptions one holds of oneself, and one’s self-image in the eyes of others (Corey
and Peterson, 2003). Identity provides an idea about what “we” have in common with
other people and what differentiates “us” from others (Weedon 2004, p.1). Similarly,
Woodward (1997, p.1) also acknowledges that the concept of identity raises
fundamental questions about how individuals fit into the community and the social
world, and how identity can be seen as the interface between subjective positions and
social as well as cultural situation. According to Stuart Hall (1990), identity is not an
already accomplished fact, but rather is a production, which is never complete, always
in process and always [re]constituted within representation (in Woodward 1997, p.51).
In this line of thinking, identity is always in the process of being formed and
constituted, and not waiting to be recognized and achieved. In other words, identity is
a social construction rather than self-constituted. It is unstable, fragile, culturally
specific, and becomes subject to change and innovation (Kellner 1995, p.236; Barker
1999, p.10).
As has been mentioned, in order to understand the concept of subject I refer to
the structuralist way of thinking on subject, which later on provides a significant guide
of analysis for this study. In this respect, I particularly refer to the works of Freudian
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, French Marxist theorist Louis Althusser and Michel
Foucault. Each of them has maintained his own argument concerning the subject,
however, they certainly shared the same view that subject is de-centered and
constituted through signifying activities. In addition, although they declined to be
labeled as structuralists, their attention on how unconscious structures operate and
influence the practice of human beings places their works in the structuralist tradition.
It should be noted, however, that unlike Saussure, who believed that deep structures
underlying language are unchangable and infinite, Lacan, Althusser and Foucault let
34
the structures change through history (Sarup 1988, p.12; Jensen, 2000). In their view,
structures behind the practice of human beings are perceived as dynamic and being
able to change.
I first refer to Lacan’s psychonalysis because his theory of subject allows me to
understand that subject is split and always depends on something outside itself. In this
sense, Lacan’s theory of subject provides me a significant guide to deal with the
notion of identity and difference in the subsequent chapters. As a well-known French
psychoanalyst who extends many of Freud’s ideas21, Lacan focuses on the role of
unconscious in constructing the subject. One of his main beliefs is that the
unconscious is a hidden structure which resembles that of language (Sarup 1988, p.9).
In this sense, the unconscious is a sign system that functions like that in language.
Lacan takes the model of structural linguistic from Saussure, and asserts that subject is
produced through language in the same way that language produces meaning.
Through his concept of mirror stage, Lacan describes how the sense of self is
constructed. The mirror stage occurs in infants when they are between six and
eighteen months of age. Lacan argues that in very early infancy, the baby lives in a
stage which is characterised by the imaginary identity with its mother (on whom the
baby primarily depends for their needs). In this way, the baby recognizes that he/she
and his/her mother is a unified entity. It cannot distinguish the difference between self
and other. The sense of self then is attained during the mirror stage, when the baby can
recognize its reflected image in the mirror. In this stage, the baby still lacks motor
coordination and mastery over its bodily movements. When the baby sees its own
image in the mirror, it establishes its ego and realizes that it is separate from other
human beings, particularly from its mother. The baby sees that he/she is a distinct
entity that is separate from its mother, and becomes aware of its own self. In this
sense, it can distinguish itself from others by recognizing the “I” that looks and the “I”
that is reflected in the mirror.
The baby, then, identifies itself with the mirror image again and again, and
misrecognizes itself as a whole, unified and autonomous being (Weedon 2004, p.13).
21
Freud’s psychoanalysis view is conceived as the most influential shift with regard to subjectivity.
Freud (1977) argues that the notion of stable and unified subject has ignored the role of unconscious
aspects of human beings. According to Freud, the self is constituted in terms of an ego or conscious
rational mind, a superego or social conscience, and the unconscious (in Barker 2000, p.172). In this
sense, the self therefore is considered as not unified; rather, it is fractured into ego, superego and
unconscious.
35
It sees the reflected image in the mirror as a whole person, who has the unity and
mastery over its own body that the looking “I” lacks. In this way, the baby
experiences itself as a fractured person. It feels the rivalry with its own image, because
the wholeness of the mirror image threatens the person that, in Lacan’s words, is
“broken up into little pieces”. For Lacan, the mirror image is a symbol for the self.
And once we recognize the sense of self in the mirror stage, we can never get back to
the state where we were as a unified entity. The gap between the fractured person and
the unity person is the gap that we continuously attempt to fill. In this sense, Lacan
suggests that subject is fragmented and split, because the subject depends for its unity
on something outside itself. The desire and longing for a unitary self, then, result in
the inclination to identify with something or figures outside itself. The subject always
tries to stabilize its identity by gathering roles and positions with which it can identify.
As a result, an individual continuously engages with the process of identification
(Woodward 1997, p.45), by which the individual tries to attain the unified sense of
self, and identifies with the things in which it is seen by others.
Althusser praised Lacan’s theory of de-centered subject, and learned from him to
distinguish between the individual and ideological subject.22 Althusser describes that
the ideological subject is constituted by the unconscious as well as the conscious. He
theorizes the process of interpellation or hailing as the process of the constitution of
subject within language and ideology (Weedon 2004, p.6). Althusser (1971) puts it,
“Ideology […] “recruits” subjects among the individual […] or “transform” the
individuals […] by the very mechanism that I have called interpellation or “hailing””
(cited in Woodward 1997, p.43). For Althusser, ideology is a set of ideas and beliefs,
which is shaped through the unconscious in relationship to other social forces, such as
economy and institutions (Turner 1990, p.26; Sturken and Cartwright 2001, p.52).
Added to that, ideology is lived and operates implicitly rather than explicitly. It lives
in the everyday life practices and is usually taken for granted. Individuals internalize
ideology, and are not easily made conscious of its presence or its effect. It occurs
beneath the consciousness. Because individuals live in a given society, they live in
fact in ideologies. Ideologies, then, talks to them through language and images in
22
The individual in this sense is not an autonomous human being. Rather the individual is conceived as
that which is produced by nature, and bound up with the notion of people’s differences as something
natural; whereas the ideological subject is socially constructed, and related to the people’s experiences
in a society as being the most productive way of explaining who (we think) we are (Fiske 1987, p.258).
36
everyday situations and recruits them as subjects through interpellation. In this sense,
ideologies provide them subject positions and then hail them to occupy those
positions. When the individuals recognize the hail, and realize that the hail is
addressed to them, then, in that process those individuals become subjects.
Advertisements, for example, seem to speak directly to their viewers by using the term
“you”, “for you”, “it’s you”, “you can”, “your dream” and so on. They frequently tell
the viewers what they should do, or question them about what they really want, and
give them some clues on how to achieve their dreams. In this way, advertisements hail
or interpellate them into certain subject positions. They expect the viewers to
recognize the hails and take the position they offer. In a nutshell, Althusser’s theory of
subject points out that subject is not simply forged by one self, and it is not simply a
personal choice either. Rather, it is socially constituted within a system of
representation, that is, ideology. Nevertheless, Althusser’s idea that “we” are always
defined as subjects through interpellation raises some critiques, particularly, for
disregarding human agency.23 Althusser’s idea indicates that subjects do not allow
having agency in their lives. Despite the critiques, it must be admitted that the concept
of interpellation is valuable to illuminate how subject is constructed and positioned by
certain ideologies.
In contrast with Althusser, the notion of ideology does not exist in Foucault’s
explanation of subject. Instead, Foucault asserts that subject is constituted within
discourse. In this respect, Althusser and Foucault in fact insist that being human is not
something transcendental but something that is constructed. Foucault does not want to
be associated with structuralism, but his early works24 draw on structuralist ideas,
assumptions and methods. Concerning the notion of subject, Foucault does not share
the idea that an individual subject has an innate capacity to think and act with any
23
Althusser maintains that the process of interpellation never fails. There is no “essence of human
liberty” waiting to be set free from the process of interpellation. The interpellation does give an
individual its “essence”, which means the capacity to act in society, and without interpellating society is
simply unthinkable (Resch 1992, p.249). In this respect, Althusser seems to disregard personal agency
and the possibility of resistance. In actuality, although the interpellation process that offers individuals
subject positions is prevalent in everyday situations, individuals often resist those subject positions,
disagree with them or are simply not interested in them.
24
It has been argued that there is a shift of Foucault’s thinking of subjectivity (Colwell 1994, pp.65-6;
Hall 1996a, p.10; O’Donnel 2003, p.757). In his early works, Foucault argues that subject is merely the
effect of power/knowledge, so that the subject is being to exist within the power. In his later works,
especially in the second and third of his volumes on sexuality, Foucault begins to give a greater
emphasis on agency.
37
significant degree of autonomy (O’Donnel 2003, p.756). He describes that subject
does not have sovereignty to reflexively constitute his/her own self. Accordingly, he
challenges the view that subject is an autonomous and conscious entity, which
produces meanings and actions. In this sense, Foucault emphasises the role of
power/knowledge in constructing the subject. He asserts that it is discourse, not the
subject, who speaks and produces meanings. Subject is structured and produced
within discourse, which is enmeshed with power. He defines discourse as “[A] group
of statements which provide a language for talking about—a way of representing the
knowledge about” (in Hall 1997, p.44). Discourse, in this understanding, constitutes
and defines objects of knowledge and certain kinds of subjects. Subsequently, it
becomes a regime of power/knowledge, which defines what topics are to be discussed
and talked about, who has intellectual authority and who does not, what sort of
information one should gather, who decides some issues and who does not and so on.
In other words, discourse as the regime of truth provides certain rules and practices to
think and behave in a given time period. On this point, Foucault argues that discourse
can change over time; hence, it is specific to given social and historical contexts.
Furthermore, he sees that power is not something central and possessed, which comes
from one source and from one direction, as from the state or comes from the top to the
bottom. Instead, power is dispersed, exercised and diffused in every locus of social
life; in the economy, in the family, in the media, everywhere. Power relations thus are
ubiquitous, can be found everywhere, in all levels of social existence (Ibid, p.50). In
this sense, everyone can operate it or be subjected to it. Foucault also sees power as
not only negative, which controls, represses and negates; but he sees that power is
primarily productive, that is, by producing discourse. It could be acknowledged,
accordingly, that power produces the subject. In this respect, Foucault (1982, p.212)
explains that the word “subject” has two meanings, that is, subject to someone else by
control and dependence, and tied to his own identity by a conscience or selfknowledge. More broadly, he describes that discourse not merely produces subject,
which is the one who embodies the objects of knowledge that are defined by the
discourse: for example, the single mother, the terrorist, the madman, the homosexual
and so on. What is more, discourse also produces a place for the subject, which is socalled subject position. Subject position is the place where the subject locates him/her
self, and from which the discourse becomes meaningful, makes sense and has effects.
By inserting a subject position, an individual takes a place in the social order and
38
gives meaning to the discourse. In this sense, individual becomes the subject of
discourse by subjecting him/her self to it. To be a woman or a man, for example, is
located within the changing discourse of gender in a given society. It is constituted
through the power of regulated and regulatory gender discourse, which prescribes how
to think and behave as a man or a woman. In this way, the man/woman subject must
submit to those rules and conventions produced by the discourse. It is well to
remember that since the power of discourse is exerted and dispersed in every aspect of
life, everything can function as the instruments of power, including; for instance,
media images (Sturken and Cartwright 2001, p.93). In the context of gender and
minorities particularly, media images can work to articulate and/or define how gender
and minorities are understood and spoken about in a given society. In this sense,
media images can act as instruments of power by articulating the dominant
understanding regarding gender relations and, at the same time, can work to exert
power as well, by producing certain definitions concerning gender and minorities.
In a nutshell, it becomes apparent that Foucault’s subject is not autonomously
constituted. He portrays the subject as an effect of power; a product of a regime of
power/knowledge. The subject is not an autonomous agent but rather a social
construct, which is formed within a system of constraints, within powerful discursive
formations. In the course of my study, Foucault’s distinct theory of power, which
asserts that power is ubiquitous and dispersed in every locus of social life, provides
me grounds to unravel how power is exerted and plays a role in producing subject
positions through and by advertisements.
2.2. Difference and Identity Politics
The notion of centered and stable identity, as indicated earlier, has been
increasingly questioned and subjected to critique. Identity is instead conceived as
unstable, incomplete and always in process. Identity is also considered as relational,
which entails the notion of similarity and difference. In this way, identity marks the
ways in which individuals are similar, and share positions with others, and the ways in
which they are different from others. It draws attention to the fact that identity is
forged through the marking of difference (Goldberg 1994, p.12; Woodward 1997,
p.29; Schlee 2002, p.8). In this respect, William E. Connolly puts it, “An identity is
established in relation to a series of differences that have become socially recognized.
39
Those differences are essential to its being” (1991, p.64). Connolly underlines the fact
that identity is always bound up with difference. In this sense, identity marks out
difference and forms distinction, which is often in the form of opposition. For
example, feminine identity is relational with its opposite, masculine identity, and vice
versa. Each is dependent on its opposition. It is not possible to separate one identity
from what is considered as its opposite, just as it is easier to conceive feminine by
recognizing its opposite, masculine. It would appear, then, that identity designates
certain boundaries, which define and categorize individuals in terms of sameness or
similarity and difference. If individuals do not meet certain conditions or criteria of
being in the space of sameness or similarity, they are deemed as different. This line of
thinking then leads to the understanding that identity is about belonging, about what
one has in common with and what differentiates “self” from “other” or “us” from
“them”. In the context of cultural groups, identity is related to a way cultural groups
establish cultural boundaries, which demarcate those who belong and do not belong.
It is worth considering that human beings are born into a pre-existing place,
wherein they live their lives and socially share materials with other aspects of their
lives. According to Grünell and Saharso (1999, p.208), every social group is socially
located, and the social location provides individuals with specific knowledge about the
world and leads to specific experiences that are constitutive for who they are. Stuart
Hall (1990) calls it “the positions of enunciation”, the place from which one speaks or
writes about one-self (in Woodward 1997, p.51). He suggests that the subject always
speaks or writes in a certain context, from a particular place and time, and from
specific historical and cultural position. It would be reasonable to assume,
accordingly, that human beings are constituted as individuals in the context of
historical and cultural processes that invoke their belonging to given cultural groups.
They identify themselves as members of a certain cultural group, because they have
and share a common culture, which, for example, include place, history, nationality,
gender, ethnicity, race, class and so on. It should be noted, however, that the sense of
belonging to certain cultural groups is often experienced and felt as imaginary.
Benedict Anderson’s well-known description of nation as an “imagined community”
is useful to understand this point. Anderson notes, a nation “[i]s imagined because the
members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members,
meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their
communion” (1991, p.6). Added to that, Anderson asserts that all communities larger
40
than primordial villages of face to face contact are, in fact, imagined. Communities are
to be distinguished by the style in which they are imagined, rather than their
falsity/genuineness. It implies that there are some criteria of belonging, to which
individuals could attach themselves and feel their membership of a certain imagined
community. Javanese people, for example, experience themselves as the members of
Javanese ethnic group because they feel that they share some cultural traits belonging
to that ethnic group. Those people know and have the feeling that they are connected,
although they have never seen each other.
It is important to note, that the ties which hold members of a certain group can
actually work as a boundary. If one does not meet the conditions or criteria of
belonging then he/she remains outside and excluded. It is related to the notion that
identity has its margin. In this sense, identity can be exclusionary of those “who are
outside its scope, those who are—or who are taken to be—in no way affiliated”
(Goldberg 1994, p.12). Hall has the same view that identity has the capacity to
exclude, as he puts it, “Throughout their careers, identities can function as points of
identification and attachment only because of their capacity to exclude, to leave out,
to render ‘outside’, abjected” (1996b, p.5; italic and internal quote in original).
Therefore, Hall suggests that identity is much more considered as a product of the
marking of difference and exclusion rather than as a sign of identical, sameness and
internal homogeneity. This notion is shared by Connolly, as he suggests “Identity
requires differences in order to be, and it conveys difference into otherness in order to
secure its own self-certainty” (1991, 64). This notion has underlined the importance of
Lacan’s theory of subject, which suggests that one’s identity formation begins when
he/she encounters a reflected image in the mirror during the mirror stage. It indicates
that one’s subjectivity always requires the presence of other. The sense of self is
validated only in a dialogical form. In this sense, the other is important in defining
one’s self. However, referring to the Foucauldian perspective, identity is constructed
within the play of power. As a consequence, the dialogical form between self and
other is never equal. By contrast, it usually appears in the form of binaric oppositions,
whereby “self” is considered as more powerful or valued than “other”. Just as the
relation of identity/difference, identity is deemed as positive, difference is the
negative. In the postcolonial discourse, the difference refers to the colonized others,
41
who are marginalized and excluded by imperial discourse25, identified by their
difference from the self or centre (Aschroft et.al. 2000, p.170). Accordingly, those that
are deemed as different tend culturally and socially to be associated with the inferior,
the deviant, the backward, and thereby are positioned at “the bottom end within a
system of domination and hierarchy” (Ang and Louis 2005, p.292).
In addition, in order to maintain certain identity as “self” or “us”, rejecting and
eliminating difference as “other” or “them” is often enacted. Seyla Benhabib (1996) is
concerned with this fact and notes,
Since every search for identity includes differentiating oneself from what one is
not, identity politics is always and necessarily a politics of the creation of
difference […] What is shocking about these developments, is not the inevitable
dialectic of identity/difference that they display but rather the atavistic belief that
identities can be maintained and secured only by eliminating difference and
otherness (in Cillia et.al. 1999, p.154).
In this sense, Benhabib implies that the notion of identity politics arises out of the fact
that differences are often used as the means for subordination and exclusion. On this
point, she shares the view with Young (in Heyes 2002), who suggests, that identity
politics is closely connected to the idea that some social groups are oppressed; that is,
that one’s identity makes one vulnerable to violence, marginalization or
powerlessness. The women’s movement and gay movement are part of this
inclination. In a more particular sense, identity politics arises from analyses of
oppression or exclusion to recommend the reclaiming or transformation of previously
excluded and marginalized groups, such as minority ethnic and racial groups as well
as women. Rather than accepting the negative narrations offered by a dominant
culture about one's own inferiority, it is suggested to transform one's own sense of self
and community, among other things through consciousness-raising. Feminist identity
politics, for instance, suggests that women should define and develop their
understanding of themselves rather than adopt and internalize the derogatory images
25
Postcolonial discourse has positioned itself against the hegemony of colonial discourses, which
marginalize and repress the colonialized through the opposing binarical structure “self” and “other”. In
this respect, Edward Said’s work Orientalism can illustrate the relation of this binary opposition. In
Orientalism Said examines the process by which the Orient was, and continous to be constructed in
Eurocentric line of thinking. The essence of Orientalism is the enduring distinction between Western
superiority and Oriental inferiority (1978, p.42). The Occident (the West) imagines and poses the
Orient (the East) in a hierarchical way, in which the West is superior and higher than the East. The
relationship between the Occident and the Orient is a relation of power, of domination and hegemony.
42
of themselves which induced in patriarchal society. However, as Benhabib gives
notice, identity politics can be a potential pitfall of fixation of one’s essential identity
in the name of difference. It is often claimed that identity politics tends to cultivate
essentialism and separatism (see e.g. Hekman, 2000; Heyes 2002). It can be observed,
for instance, from the case of the radical feminist movement that has argued for
separatism from men, based on the essential identity of women, which men do not
possess.26
Concerning this fact, Trinh T. Minh-Ha’s stance on difference is interesting to
be considered. Within her examination of Third World’s women issues, Minh-Ha
emphasizes the position of women in the debates of difference. She asserts that
working against difference does not necessarily mean to valorize it (1991, pp.149150). In this sense, Minh-Ha suggests that difference does not necessarily give rise to
separatism. Instead, to deal with differences one must dismantle and strive against the
very notion of difference, which is designated and defined by the the dominant, “the
Master”. It should be noted, in this regard, that definition of difference is in fact a
product of binaristic structure of dominant discourse such as patriarchy, ethnocentrism
or imperialism, which places certain cultural experiences as marginal and peripheral.
In accordance with it, Minh-Ha suggests that difference should be understood in
different ways and not in terms of opposition. As silence, for instance, does not
necessarily oppose speech. Silence can be perceived as a will not to say or a will to
unsay. On this point, it could be said that there is no single, secured and fixed
definition and position of difference. Difference, as much as identity, is not an
essence, rather it is in fact about positioning. It is always a “subject to continuous
‘play’ of history, culture and power” (Hall in Woodward 1997, p.52). Since dialogical
form of identity and difference is bound up with socio-historical context, it performs a
26
It has been argued that identity politics can result in bad politics. Wendy Brown in State of Injury
finds that Nietzsche’s term ressentiment is useful to show what is wrong with identity politics (Bramen
2002, p.4). The word refers to the moralizing revenge of the victims. In this respect, Brown claims that
identity politics begins with anger, which changes into hurt and then into revenge. Similarly, K.
Anthony Appiah puts it, identity politics is “one kind of tyranny with another” (1994, p.163). Todd
Gitlin (1993) in Farred (2000, p.647) calls it stylized marginality. All these claims consider identity
politics as negative, simply a reaction to power and a sort of victims’ revenge. Despite its limitation,
however, identity politics could be considered as empowered more than it has disenfranchised.
Similarly, Bramen notes that as a social movement, identity politics have affirmed the right to selfdefinition as a public act that has politicized minorities’ sense of themselves and has given these groups
a sense of agency that was fought for and continuous to be fought for in daily struggles against
discrimination, poverty and brutality. In this understanding, identity politics suggest individuals to take
responsibility for their particularity, their situatedness and their location. It also encourages people to
think and behave strategically and creatively in order to position themselves within the dominant
culture.
43
certain political function within a certain context and period. The function is always
transformed in line with socio-historical shifts occurred in a society. In the age of
globalisation, for instance, with the time-space compression and pluralization of life,
new possibilities to define, transform and position identities/differences have been
widely opened. In this understanding, identities/differences could appear and play
certain political functions in the context of global-local nexus under the condition of
globalisation.
44
3. Representing the Perceived Difference
In an Indonesian film Aku Ingin Menciummu Sekali Saja (Bird-Man Tale)27,
there is a scene in which a Papuan teenage girl made a confession of sin to a priest. In
her confession she said, “I hate the other skin colour, Father. What should I do? […]
Why does the word “black” always refer to something bad, wicked and repressed? I
am so angry, and feel hatred. I also feel sick of what the TVs say. Why doesn’t Jesus
have my skin colour?”. From her confession, it is apparent that the Papuan girl in the
film is voicing her marginality as a Papuan. It could be said that her feeling of anger,
hatred and powerlessness represents the fragile position of being Papuan and
minorities within the national borders of Indonesia. As revealed by the Papuan girl,
their different physical characteristics from the dominant population has affected the
availability of representation of Papuan in Indonesian media. Being nonrepresentation, in this sense, suggests the powerlessness status of the group that does
not possess significant material or political power bases (Gross in Cortese 2004, p.15).
The limited representation of minorities in the media in fact has a universal appeal. It
is observable that media play a certain role in otherizing minorities. People who are in
any way significantly different from the majority are frequently exposed to the sharp
binary opposition “us” and “them” (Hall 1997, p.229). Media representation of
Melanesian descents in Indonesia, such as Papuans, has illustrated this inclination. As
discussed in chapter 1, advertising representation of the Papuans has underscored their
position as minority “Other” in the country. From a Foucauldian perspective, it could
be perceived that advertising discourse has produced a certain subject position, in
which the Papuans are defined and positioned. It is well to remember that identity as
well as difference are in fact constituted within the system of representation. As
Woodward notes, “[S]ystems of representation construct places from which
individuals can position themselves and from which they can speak” (1997, p.14). The
concept of representation, according to Hall (1997, p.28), refers to production of
meaning through language. In this sense, representation involves signifying practices
and symbolic system, that is, the language system, in order to generate meanings
about the world. It is called a system because it contains rules and conventions about
27
This film is directed by Garin Nugroho, a young Indonesian filmmaker and produced in 2002. It is
the first Indonesian modern film which talks about Papua. The film was honoured with Netpac AwardSpecial Mention, in Berlin International Film Festival 2003.
45
how the things are organized to produce meanings. Meanings, in this regard, are
generated by connecting the world of things such as people, objects and events; the
mental concepts in one’s mind; and the signs which stand for or communicate the
mental concepts. In this respect, system of representation does not reflect already
existing reality, but rather it organizes, constructs, and mediates certain understanding
of reality, emotion and imagination (Sturken and Cartwright 2001, p.13). Media
images, for instance, have been used to construct, organize and mediate various
emotions, imaginations and abstract concepts about the so-called world. They appear
to represent or stand for objects, people or events existing in the world. More
specifically, such images also work to construct, organize and mediate a specific range
of subject positions for their beholders.
It is worth considering that all signifying practices that produce meanings
involve relations of power (Woodward 1997, p.15; Hartley 2002, p.203), including in
the context of media. In this understanding, power produces and defines certain
subject positions, which imply who are included and who are not. The media
signification system, hence, plays a significant role in the process of inclusion and
exclusion of certain identities. In this sense, media images, including advertisements,
articulate and represent certain values and belief related to difference and otherness.
The idea of ethnicity, race, gender or social class is elaborated, transformed and
transmitted through what is so-called symbolic racism. According to Cortese (2004,
p.15), symbolic racism can take several forms such as subtle ethnic stereotyping,
trivialization of minority empowerment or racial equality, or the absence of ethnic
representation. In most cases, symbolic racism incorporates illustrations of people,
objects or situations related to race, which refer to racist assumptions without even
questioning on what those assumptions are grounded. Practices of symbolic racism
could be revealed in media images, including advertisements.
In the context of this study, the notion of symbolic racism deserves particular
attention in a sense that it could provide me with a perspective to understand and
reveal how the advertisements under discussion represent issues regarding cultural
differences along gender, ethnicity/race and class in Indonesia. I assume, on this point,
that in dealing with cultural differences, advertisements tend to generate certain
stereotypes, which contribute to othering practices. In a sociological perspective,
media are considered to play an important part in setting stereotypes and promoting a
46
limited number of role models, especially for groups, which are denigrated or
marginalized (MacDonald 1995, p.13). According to Walter Lippmann (1922),
stereotypes are the pictures in our heads of other people or, of the identity or nature of
other groups of people (in Grossberg et.al 2006, p.235). Stereotypes can define
people’s expectation of how certain groups in society are supposed to behave. In this
regard, stereotyping is seen as a general and universal human activity, through which
people organize and perceive their experiences. It could be said that stereotyping is
not necessarily bad, or needs to be avoided. In most cases, nevertheless, stereotyping
tends to be reductionist and essentializing. It results in negative and simplistic
representations, or even, the absence of representation of the stereotyped groups.
Concerning this inclination, Stuart Hall puts it, “Stereotyping reduces people to a few,
simple, essential characteristics, which are represented as fixed by nature” (1997,
p.257). Following this logic, stereotypes tend to be set and controlled by those who
possess significant power bases over those who has lack of power. The stereotyped
groups, in this regard, are seen and understood from the perspective of those who
possess power. In the context of Indonesian advertisements, this inclination has been
illustrated in the Telkom Vision advertisement discussed in Chapter 1. As has been
mentioned, the Papuan ethnic/racial group is already in a disadavantaged position in
terms of Indonesian cultural politics during the New Order era. They have been seen
and understood from the dominant’s perspective, which placed them as backward and
pre-modern. As depicted in the Telkom Vision advertisement, representation of the
Papuans tends to intensify their prevailing stereotypes as traditional, backward, and
primitive. It has been exerted not merely through advertising images, but also through
elements of narrative such as camera angle, the plot, the sound or the lighting. Such
practice of stereotyping has been undergone as well by other ethnic/racial minorities
in Indonesia. As discussed in chapter 1, the Dayak in Borneo, for instance, has
stereotypically appeared in Indonesian media in terms of their primitiveness and
backwardness. The same reductionist representation has been experienced as well by
black people in western countries. In her examination of Eurocentrism, Shohat (1994)
refers to the term “mark of the plural”, which regards and projects colonized [and
marginalized] people as all the same. On this point, she claims, “[A]ny negative
behavior by any member of the oppressed community is instantly generalized as
typical, as pointing to a perpetual backsliding toward some presumed negative
essence” (1994, 182). As an example, crime is stereotypically represented as a black
47
issue. Media, in this understanding, tend to present all black males as potential
delinquents. All black people’s experiences are considered the same. Black individual
subjectivity is denied because a black subject is positioned and seen to be typified
(Julien and Mercer 1996, p.454). It also can be seen through the images which depict
black people as having an innate laziness and naturally born only for servitude.
William O’Barr (1994, p.108) notes that this sort of black stereotyping was found in
American advertising particularly prior to the civil rights movement.
According to Stuart Hall (1997, p.258), not only does stereotyping result in
negative and reductionist representations, but more than that, stereotyping also tends
to be a strategy of splitting. In this logic, stereotyping is about fixing symbolic
boundaries, which divide the normal from the abnormal, the same from the difference,
“us” from “them”, and exclude those which do not belong. The stereotypical image of
the Malay ethnic group in Singaporean film and television can illustrate this tendency.
The Malay ethnic group in Singapore is frequently situated around the discourse of
being separated from the Singapore nation. It results in the images of Malays as as
pre-modern, natural and even supernatural (Tan 2004, p.302). Those stereotypical
images contribute to affirm the dichotomous alignment (Chinese) Singapore versus
(Malay) Southeast Asia, civilization versus nature, mobility versus rootedness within
the discourse of the Singapore nation. Another striking example is the very limited
space for Chinese ethnic representation in Indonesian media during the New Order
era. Their images were hardly ever found in the media, because they were
stereotypically deemed as non-pribumi, non-native (Heryanto 1998a, p.100). Chinese
ethnicity was mostly exposed by media within a negative framing, particularly by
associating them with physical conflicts, crime and corruption. Hence, they had very
limited space to be represented in the media, except, in the funeral advertisements
(Yusuf 2005, 174).
It would appear, then, that stereotyping indicates the imbalance of power in
societies. In this sense, power is used to manage or regulate the subordinate or
excluded groups. As indicated earlier, those who are powerless and do not possess
significant political power bases tend to be invisible in media. Added to that, it is
observable that that media images and narratives tend to frame and portray the
marginalized from the eyes of the dominant majority. It could be said, therefore, that
representation of the perceived difference is always situated within the “hermeneutics
48
of domination” (Shohat 1994, p.183). Many film and advertising images and
narratives relay and circulate colonialist and imperialist perspectives which bear, in
Shohat’s words, “civilizing missions”, just as the imperial civilizing mission, which
according to Anne McClintock is also engraved in the serial soap advertisements. She
asserts, “Soap was credited not only with bringing moral and economic salvation to
Britain’s “great unwashed” but also with magically embodying the spiritual ingredient
of the imperial mission itself” (1994, p.211; internal quote in original). By
representing racialized images, Pears claims itself as the magic purifier of polluting
industry and polluting labor practices. In the similar context, Ramamurthy (2003,
p.43) adds that Pears advertisements do not simply represent exotic images which
serve to sanitise Empire. More than that, Pears’ images also position women in exotic
and subservient positions, which suggest no threat and also naturalise hierarchies.
Following these insights, it could be said that racial and minority representations tend
to be a practice of civilizing and naturalizing the perceived difference. Concerning the
notion of naturalization, Hall argues, “Naturalization is […] a representational strategy
designed to fix difference, and thus secure it forever” (1997, p.245). In this
understanding, naturalization tends to consider that the perceived difference cannot be
changed in any sense, because their differences are perceived as being endowed by
nature, so that none and nothing can change it. As a consequence, the perceived
difference tends to reside at the margin of representation.
In the course of this study, the notion of stereotypical representation in
advertisements is useful to understand dominant assumptions toward “the difference”
in the context of Indonesian society. Stereotypical representations of groups, which
are considered as “differences”, “others” and “them”, do not merely provide
significant cues about how the groups are positioned in the country. Rather, such
stereotypes could also help to reveal how advertisements narratively work to
articulate, mediate and promote certain issues regarding social hierarchy in society. It
is well to remember that dialogical form of identity/difference is always constantly
transformed in line with socio-historical changes. In this understanding, stereotypical
representation of the perceived difference becomes a subject to change as well, in line
with the changing ways in which the myths of difference are understood in a society.
Regarding this study, I assume that the shift of socio-political context between two
different eras in Indonesia has changed advertising representations of the perceived
49
difference in Indonesia. Hence, revealing the shifts of dominant stereotypes from one
era to the following era could be useful to understand the shifts of ideologies in the
society. By doing so the continuing imbalance or assymetrical power relations
regarding cultural differences along gender, ethnicity/race and class could be equally
revealed, even albeit the changing forms of representation.
50
Chapter 3
Analysing Advertising Texts: Theoretical and Methodological Consideration
In the previous chapter I have outlined the theoretical notions regarding identity
and difference. The chapter has also discussed the notion that advertising
representation of identity and difference could be intricately linked to certain social
arrangements and social hierarchy in a society. More specifically, it has been argued
that advertisements play a significant role in the construction of difference, which,
somewhat, entails certain definition and understanding of difference prevailing in the
society. In order to reveal the interplay of advertising representation and social
arrangements regarding difference, critical analysis of advertisements as described in
what follows becomes indispensable.
I address this chapter to discuss critical approaches, which provide a significant
guide to understanding advertising texts. I focus specifically on the approach of
Critical Cultural Studies, which has advanced the scope of advertising studies that
largely took a mass communication approach. I elucidate how Critical Cultural
Studies helps me frame and answer the questions I deal with throughout this study.
The notion of intersectionality also deserves a closer examination in this chapter, in a
sense that it provides an interpretive framework to understanding subject positioning
related to gender, ethnicity, race and class. Subsequently, I describe how social
semiotics and narrative analysis are appropriate and useful to dissect advertising texts,
which are pervaded with certain ideological values. Finally, I close this chapter with a
description of the ways I deal with the advertisements under discussion. In this regard,
I aim to loosely appropriate the binary opposition model of Lévi-Strauss to help me
organize and systematize the advertisements under discussion.
3.1. Advertising Text: A Contested Terrain
It is often said that advertising is not simply a ubiquitous form of persuasive
communication, which is aimed to sell products. Rather, by melding products with
certain social beliefs and values, advertising becomes an overwhelmingly cultural
form in a society (see e.g., Jhally, 1987; Leiss et.al, 1990; Goldman 1993; Williamson
51
2005) In her famous and influential work Decoding Advertisement, Judith Williamson
mentions that advertisements deploy not just messages about goods and services.
More than that, advertisements set out a system of meaning, which she names
“referent system” (2005, p.19). This is the system that provides advertisements with
desired qualities and images, which are created by instilling cultural experiences and
social values into advertised products. Williamson underlines that a “referent system”
draws its meanings from areas outside advertising. Those meanings are subsequently
transferred and ascribed to the products, and these are what advertisements precisely
sell. To make clear her idea, Williamson exemplifies that by using the famous
Chaterine Deneuve in its advertisement, the “referent system” has made Chanel No. 5
have a similar aura as her (Ibid, p.44). This sort of notion has been shared by Shut
Jhally (1987) in his work Codes of Advertising. He observes that advertisements tend
to sell new meanings invested in commodity rather than directly sell the commodity
itself. Advertisements, in Jhally’s view, work to transfer and ascribe new codes and
meanings into commodities. On this point, he puts it, “[T]he system of capitalist
production empties commodities of their real meaning, and the role of advertising is to
insert meanings into this hollow shell” (1987, p.173). Similar with Williamson, Jhally
argues that codes and meanings ascribed into commodities are linked to desirable
elements of human life and cultural illusions prevailing in the area outside advertising.
In this understanding, an advertisement becomes a site in which economic interests
and cultural experiences are melded one to another in order to fuel product
consumption as well as cultural consumption. In other words, not only does an
advertisement serve as a capitalist instrument to sell products, but it also part of
greater narratives, which are taking place in a society and draw their meanings from
broader cultural experiences and social values.
It should be noted, however, that despite their connection to certain cultural
experiences in a society, advertisements do not simply put what is happening in a
society on the stage and mirrors it without any selection and distortion.
Advertisements do talk about reality, but it is not a trusty mirror28. An advertisement
28
Concerning this issue, Marchand in Giaccardi (1995, p.110) asserts that advertising functions as a
“hall of distorting mirrors”. Advertisements grasp some aspects of social reality such as social
dilemmas, controversial topics and other issues in a society, but then, it represents it unfaithfully.
According to Marchand, the mirror distorts the shapes of the object it reflects. Similarly, Giaccardi
notes that advertisements do not lie, but they do not tell the truth either. Advertising discourse can
indicate some of the crucial issues of a given society at the particular moment, but by considering
52
draws and captures something from what is happening in a society and then puts it on
the stage. Since it involves selections, distortions as well as appropriation of what is
happening in society, advertisements should not be understood as innocent texts. It
could be said, instead, that advertisements are ideological texts. In this understanding,
advertisements could articulate with power structures in a society (see e.g. Cortese
2004, Wernick 1991, Goffman 1972) and become contested terrains, within which
different ideological interests struggle for dominance. Advertisements could play a
significant role in producing and reproducing ideologies. The term ideology,
according to Stuart Hall (1995, p.18), refers to images, concepts and premises, which
provide the frameworks through which we represent, interpret, understand and “make
sense” of some aspect of social existence. Media, according to Hall, are the significant
sites for production, reproduction and transformation of ideologies. They are part of
dominant means to ideological production, in a sense that what media produce is
representations of the social world, which serve as “windows to understand how the
world is, why it works as it is said and shown to work” (Ibid, pp.19-20). Media texts,
in other words, provide important access to social conditions and realities of their
given time period. Added to that, they could involve existing socio-political debates
and conflicts in a society. In the context of advertisements, this notion has been
underscored, for instance, by Wernick (1991) in his analysis of racialism in English
Pears’ soap advertisements of 1910. He asserts that advertisements provide a vivid
illustration that they symbolically articulate with dominant ideology. In the case of
Pears, specifically, Wernick argues that advertisement as a “value-laden imagistic
promotion” has used ideology of white superiority to sell soap. By representing the
dominant values as part of the visual imagery, the advertisements naturalize values as
such and, what is more, it reinforces their hold (1991, pp.22-3). Advertising text, in
this respect, has shown its significant role as an instrument of racial domination. In the
context of gender, Goffman’s (1972) study has indicated a similar ideological function
of advertising text. He argues that advertisements somewhat affirm existing social
arrangements regarding gender roles and gender positions in a society (in Belknap and
Leonard II 1991, p.106). He revealed that there are stereotypical patterns of
representation of gender, which in fact reinforce the subordinated positions of women
advertisers as part of the cultural community, she underlines that advertisements are texts, which bear
the biases of (the perspectives, the tracks) authorship (1995, p.111)
53
within a patriarchal social order. Such forms of social inequality in advertising have
been examined as well in Cortese’s work on ethnic and gender relations in advertising.
He affirms that advertising imagery, to some extent, serves to justify social
stratification prevailing in a society (2004, p.13). Social hierarchy in terms of gender
or ethnic/racial groups, in this sense, has been articulated and maintained through
advertising images and narratives. Based on the same line of thinking, O’Barr puts it,
“Equality is not precluded as a possible message in the discourse of advertising.
Rather, it is simply the case that most message are about power and submission to it”
(1994, p.4). It could be acknowledged, then, that social relationship depicted in
advertising is seldom egalitarian.
These insights have underscored the fact that advertisement is value-laden and
its imagery and narrative entails certain ideological significances. Therefore, in order
to understand ideological meanings of advertising I deal with throughout this study, a
critical textual analysis becomes indispensable. In the course of this study, such
analysis is significant because it enables me to understand and dissect subtle
ideological values that are transformed and inscribed in advertising images and
narratives. It is worth stating, on this point, that I aim to move away from advertising
studies that employ a mass communication approach, whereby communication is
understood as a transmission process of messages from one channel to many
audiences. Within such an approach, advertising studies have been oriented or
consistently emphasized on responses from and effects upon consumers (Scott 2006,
p.59). More specifically, Leiss et.al (1990 197) observe that advertising studies under
a mass communication approach tend to focus on psychological aspects of advertising
such as advertising effects on consumer choice, market behaviour, or social attitudes.
It could be said that studies of advertisements are simply concerned with the internal
content of advertisements, such as advertising design, advertising claims and how
advertisements connect the product to its consumers. Starting in the 1920s, according
to Salwen and Stacks (1996, p.65), content analysis becomes a new mode of inquiry
for studying mass communication, which is aimed to study the manifested content of
communication. This new mode of inquiry also influences the study of advertising,
which begins to turn its question about advertising effects into advertising
representation. It is worthy of note, however, that content analysis aims its inquiry into
advertisements based on the assumption that meanings can be measured objectively
and literally. Accordingly, this sort of analysis can merely capture the manifested
54
meanings and numerical representations which are carried by advertisements, and
cannot identify the latent or connotative meanings of the advertisements (Bristor et.al.
1995, p.49). In the course of my study, the modes of inquiry under the mass
communication approach cannot help me to reveal subtle ideological and cultural
meanings with regard to cultural differences inscribed in the advertisements under
discussion. Those modes of inquiry, furthermore, tend to overlook the fact that there is
interplay between advertising texts and socio-political contexts within which the texts
appear. Hence, based on this line of reasoning, I purport to employ a Critical Cultural
Studies approach that provides a hermeneutic understanding of advertisement as part
of cultural practices, which does not produce and operate in a vacuum. Comparing to
studies of advertisements under a mass communication approach, Critical Cultural
Studies promotes a better and more significant tool to grasp how certain meanings are
subtly constructed through advertising images and narratives. This approach, in
addition, enables me to reveal the interrelationship between advertising text and
dominant interests prevailing in a society. I argue, therefore, that the Critical Cultural
Studies approach could provide me with a significant guide to answering the questions
I deal with throughout this study.
It is pertinent to remember that Cultural Studies, which is frequently linked to
the Birmingham School, has become a global interest. The field is so popular, and is
experiencing an international boom. Being inaugurated in Britain in the 1970s, the
tradition is concerned with the notion of culture in the modern industrial society of
England. More specifically, the production and circulation of meanings in industrial
societies become the main concern of the tradition. In this sense, culture is regarded
as a “way of living” within an industrial society that encompasses all the meaning of
social experience (Fiske 1987: p.254). As has been indicated in the previous chapter,
the term ‘culture’ itself has revealed some of tensions within the tradition, since there
is a diversity of meanings associated and given to the word. According to Raymond
Williams, the idea of culture is a reaction to a general change in the condition of
common life (1994, p.57). In this regard, the attempts to define culture precisely
emanate from the necessity of and responses to historical changes. It is important to
note that Williams’ account of culture as “a whole way of life” is perceived as critical
in a sense that he tried to shake up the definition of culture, which referred to upper
middle class activities and, thereby, has abandoned and denied possibilities of
working class culture. To rescue the idea of culture from elitism, he understands
55
culture as a part of everyday life, which in every society has its own shape, purposes
and meanings. Analysis of culture, hence, is analysis of elements in a whole way of
life, which should be conducted in relation to the institutions and social structures that
produce the culture (Turner 1990, p.57). Culture, following this logic, could never be
analysed and identified separately and independently from its socio-historical context
within which it exists and is manifested.
In the Cultural Studies tradition, the interplay of representations and ideologies
of class, gender, race, ethnicity and nationality in cultural texts such as advertisements
has also become a significant concern. More specifically, Critical Cultural Studies,
which is developed under this tradition, entails the notion of multiculturalism to
understand media culture. According to Kellner (1995, p.96), Critical Cultural Studies
promotes not merely significant reading of cultural texts such as advertisements, but
also promotes critiques against social domination, and advance forces of resistance
against domination. Multiculturalism, moreover, works to open Cultural Studies to the
analysis of relationships of power and domination in the society, in terms of the way
in which stereotyping works and the way in which those relationships of power are
concealed and/or accorded in the dominant representation. More importantly, Critical
Cultural Studies also takes into account the interlock of gender, ethnicity, race, class
and other determinants of identity, and promotes to examine and analyse it in order to
discover the practices of racism, sexism, classism or other inclinations that advance
domination and oppression. This notion is also emphasized by Birrell and McDonald,
who put it, “Structures of dominance expressed around what we call the power lines
of race, class, gender and sexuality (and age, nationality, ability, religion etc) do not
work independently and thus cannot be understood in isolation from one another”
(2000, p.5). In the context of advertising, its imagery and narrative could illustrate
social categories of gender, ethnicity, race and class as being fluid and interlocked one
to another. Recalling Telkom Vision’s advertisement discussed in chapter 1, at the
first glance, representation of certain ethnic/racial group seems to be the central issue
of the advertisement. But if the advertisement is given closer attention, it would
appear that the images of the Papuan tribe are gendered. The fact that the Papuan
women are almost invisible in all of the scenes of the advertisement, or that the
Papuan men play the main role in the dancing activities, somewhat indicates the
crossing of gender and ethnicity/race inscribed in the advertising text. Similarly, in the
Coca Cola advertisement discussed also in Chapter 1, images of gender roles are
56
prominently seen. It is shown, for instance, in one of its scenes (Figure 1.12), which
presents the image of motherhood, when an adult woman deals with children.
However, the fact that the advertisement does not cast Melanesian descendants, who
mostly live in the east of Indonesia, indicates that the notion of ethnicity/race is
actually involved in the text. The absence of Melanesian descendants in the
advertisement becomes significant in a sense that it suggests an exploration of how the
non-Melanesian descendants are positioned and/or privileged in Indonesian society.
Figure 1.12 Image of Motherhood in Coca Cola Advertisement
The intersecting social categories in advertisements also receive Cortese’s
attention in his work Provocateur (2004). He focuses particularly on the ways in
which images of gender, sexuality, ethnic/racial minorities are intersected one with
another. Cortese suggests that the difference categories of gender, class, sexuality and
ethnicity/race should be considered as interactive, rather than isolated. This notion is
also explored in Anne McClintock’s work on colonialism and post-colonialism
Imperial Leather (1995). She underlines that race, gender and class are not distinct
realms of experience and isolated from each other. She, moreover, asserts that those
categories are not simply yoked together either. Rather, they exist in intimate,
reciprocal and contradictory relationships (1995, p.5). On this point, Cortese and
McClintock recognize that considering the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity and
other difference categories provides a useful tool for understanding how certain
people or groups are socially positioned in society. More specifically, Staunæs asserts
that the intersectionality [of gender and other difference categories] can be useful in
57
tracing how people get positioned as different, troubled or even marginalized (2003,
p.101).
Avoiding the tendency toward homogenization among categories of difference,
accordingly, deserves a particular consideration. This notion, as indicated earlier, has
got close and particular attention from Staunæs. In my view, she has gone a step
further with the concept of intersectionality by questioning how exactly the
intersection process plays out in a certain context, the way in which those categories
are intersected one with another. In that regard, Staunæs suggests that the categories
of gender, ethnicity, race and class do not mingle equally. She puts it, “In lived
experiences there may be a hierarchy, in which certain categories overrule, capture,
differentiate and transgress others” (Ibid, p.105). In addition, juggling with all
categories at the same time could be a difficult exercise.29 Accordingly, in order to do
such an analysis, it is necessary to choose a certain perspective. For example, a gender
perspective could be chosen for analysing advertising text. This perspective provides a
significant guide to inquiry how gender is positioned in the advertisement. But the
perspective subsequently could help understand the way in which a particular ethnic
group is positioned in the advertisement. Take another example, one could choose a
perspective of ethnicity to analyse an advertisement, but then, the perspective could
help to reveal that there is a gendering process concerning the notion of ethnicity
within the studied advertisement.
In a nutshell, I should once again stress that a Critical Cultural Studies approach
could provide me a significant guide to critically read and dissect advertising texts in
order to examine ideological values and intersecting power relations concerning
categories of gender, ethnicity/race and class. The approach enables me as well to
explore how such ideological values and power relations are simultaneously
constructed, naturalized and contested as well as changed over time and/or by certain
contexts through advertising images and narratives. Added to that, in the course of this
study, the approach is useful particularly to reveal and compare advertising
representation of cultural differences in relation to pragmatic socio-political discourse
prevailing in the two different socio-political eras in Indonesia.
29
On this point, Nira Yuval-Davis (2006, p.205) asserts that the point of intersectional analysis is not to
find ‘several identities under one’ because it would indicate the notion of essentializing specific social
identities. Instead, she suggests that the point of intersectional analysis is to analyse the differential
ways in which different social divisions are concretely enmeshed and constructed by each other and
how they relate to political and subjective constructions of identities.
58
3.2. Reading Texts: Methods of Analysis
As mentioned earlier, textual analysis becomes an important and useful
technique to critically read advertising texts (see e.g. Dyer, 1996; Kellner, 1995; Frith
1998). Semiotics, in particular, is considered as an interpretive textual analysis which
enables people to discern how advertising images are permeated with ideological
values (McFall, 2004; Leiss et.al. 1990; Dyer 1996; Williamson 2005). The account of
modern semiotics30 is mostly in reference to the work of Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de
Saussure31, who is concerned with language as a system of signs. He argues that
language plays a significant role in the production of meaning. In this regard, he
makes a key distinction between langue, the latent use or underlying system of
language, and parole, the manifest use (Larsen 1991, p.123). Langue consists of
structural rules and conventions, as grammar in language. Parole is the manifestation
of langue, the individual use of elements of langue. His distinction of langue and
parole is useful to understand how language actually works. Most importantly, the
distinction enables people to understand the underlying structure of rules and codes,
i.e, the langue, which is perceived as particularly significant in the production of
meaning. Saussure’s model of language has subsequently become the basis of the
modern study of semiotics. Saussure (1974) defines semiotics as the study of signs in
a society. He suggests that sign is a binary phenomenon (Danesi 2002, p.31) which
consists of two elements, the signifier or the material object and the signified, the
meaning of object. The relationship between signifier and signified is described as
signification (Chandler, 2002). Those elements of sign are materially inseparable, but
for analytical purposes it is necessary to separate and distinguish them in order to
reveal how the sign works. In Saussure’s view, meaning is produced through the
process of selection and combination of signs which are organized into a signifying
system, that is, language. Despite originally focusing on the linguistic sign, it can be
30
A general theory of sign was firstly laid down in early Greece by Aristotle, who defined signs (in
Greek semeion) as having three elements, that is, the physical part of the sign, the referent to which it
refers, and its evocation of meaning. Despite its advanced development, semiotics today has not much
changed in its basic concepts (Danesi 2002, 29).
31
Saussure uses the term “semiology”, while “semiotics” is actually coined by American pragmatist
philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce. Both can be used as synonyms, but the term “semiotics” is
commonly used today (Bignell 1997, p.5)
59
shown later that Saussure’s semiotics is able to be applied to the study of all cultural
forms32.
In the course of studying advertising, Roland Barthes (1973) was one of the first
theorists to analyse advertisements by applying semiotics tools. In Barthes’ view, as a
method, semiotics is designed around the description and analysis of relations between
signifier and signified, which contribute to the production of meaning (McFall 2004,
p.14). In elaborating Saussure’s semiotics, Barthes suggests the model of two levels of
signification. A sign, according to Barthes, has two levels of meanings, that is,
denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to literal meaning, which points directly
to a particular object, to what the sign is referring. Connotation goes further than
literal meaning and is linked in more substantive ways to cultural processes. What is
more, Barthes argues that a sign can be a signifier of another sign, or becomes a
second order sign, which refers to broader cultural values. This is what he defines as a
myth, which functions as symbolic, ironic, or methaphorical commentaries on what is
understood as literal meanings (Fulton 2005, p.6). Myth, according to Barthes, offers
an alternative reading, which is permeated with ideological flavor. In his wellrecognized analysis of the Panzani advertisement, Barthes (1977) examines how an
advertisement produces myths, by connecting its verbal and visual elements to broader
cultural ideas concerning italianicity or italian-ness as a national culture. It could be
said, on this point, that semiotics offers a significant analysis which is aimed to
uncover messages that may not be promptly readable or visible. Added to that,
semiotics provides an important tool to explore questions of what and whose interests
or ideologies lie behind the signs. In the course of my study, however, I aim to employ
another branch of semiotics analysis, which, in my view, offers more comprehensive
tools in exploring issues I deal with throughout this study. I use the social semiotics
analysis, which is based on the assumption that the activities of sign production and
sign reading are contextual, discursive and socially motivated rather than arbitrary
32
It should be noted on this point that Peirce’s model of semiotics, which was formulated at around the
same time as Saussure’s, has also been recognized as the foundation of modern semiotics (Noth 1984,
p. 39). Unlike Saussure who claims that the sign consist of two parts i.e., signifier and signified, Peirce
defined the sign in terms of a triadic process, which encompasses the objects (which the sign
represents), the ground (what can be conveyed about a given object, and the interpretant (the meaning
created by the sign). According to Peirce, the interpretant or the meaning created by the sign could in
turn become another sign that leads to a new interpretant. Like Saussure’s model, Peirce’s model of
semiotics has been applied to the study of all cultural forms, moreover, because it encompasses a much
broader range of signs, not merely embraces language signs as Saussure’s model, but more than that it
embraces nonverbal as well as natural signs.
60
(see e.g. Leeuwen, 2005; Jewitt and Oyama, 2001; Gottdiener, 1995; Hodge and
Kress, 1988).
In contrast to the former semiotics tradition, social semiotics does not focus on
the signs, but on the way people use semiotic resources, both to produce
communicative artefacts and events, and to interpret them in the specific social
contexts (Leeuwen 2005, p.1; Jewitt and Oyama 2001, p.134). According to Leeuwen,
semiotic resource becomes a key term in social semiotics. He defines semiotic
resources33 as
[t]he actions and artefacts we use to communicate, whether they are produced
physiologically, with our vocal apparatus; with muscles we use to create facial
expressions and gestures etc, or by means of technologies—with pen, ink and
paper; with computer hardware and software; with fabrics, scissors and sewing
machines etc (2005, p.3).
Social semiotics, on this point, is particularly concerned with two issues, these being
the semiotic resources and the way those resources are used in the social contexts. Not
only are the uses of resources bound up with social and situational contexts, the
semiotic resource itself is also socially produced. As Hodge and Kress put it, “Signs
[resources] may not be divorced from the concrete forms of social intercourse […]
and cannot exist, as such, without it” (1988: p.18). The construction of meanings,
therefore, is dependent on the users [producer or consumer] of resources and also the
social contexts. In the context of text production, the producer’s interests and needs
play a significant role in the choice and use of resources, which are considered as
potential in generating relevant meanings. Added to that, the changes of the society
might also change the semiotic resources as well as the way they are used. In this
sense, investigating social discourse becomes essential in order to understand how
power and ideology play a significant role in the way in which people use resources of
semiotic system to make social meanings. For social semiotics, in a nutshell,
meanings arise from, and also construct social discourse.
In the course of my study, social semiotics is useful in the way that it enables me
to explore how a wide range of resources, both audio and visual, is used in
33
It originates in the work of Halliday (1979) who argued that grammar of language, in fact, is not a set
of rules to produce correct sentences; rather, is a resource to make meanings. Traditionally, resources
are called the signs. The term “semiotic resources” are preferred rather than “signs” in order to avoid
the impression that what the sign stands for is pre-given and not affected by its use. See Leeuwen
(2005)
61
advertisements and what sort of ideological functions the used resources have. In this
sense, social semiotics allows me to pay close attention to the ideological complex
that constitutes advertisements. Among others, it involves the notion of the needs and
interests of advertisement producers, particular positions of consumers within the text
[preferred by producer], and social discourses, which are activated or evidenced in the
advertisements. What is absent in the advertisement is also important to be considered,
as it can indicate certain ideological complexities or opposing political views in a
society. Take an example: the absence of women in a certain advertisement by and
large articulates with the opposing ideological complex related to gender in a given
context. Or, the absence of a particular minority group indicates whose reality the
advertisement actually represents and whose it excludes. What is more, since social
semiotics is concerned with power relations that work in the social context in which
semiotic resources are created and used, the method enables me to examine the
development and discovery of new semiotic resources and new ways of using them in
conjunction with the change of society (Leeuwen 2005, p.26). In this understanding,
the change of power relations and structures in a society will affect the issues of
representation and the ideological functions as well as the uses of semiotic resources
in an advertisement. For example, in line with the advance of the women’s movement
in a society there is a transformation of women’s issues, which are represented in
advertisements, especially in terms of its choice of visual resources and the way those
resources are used in the advertisement. In the context of my study, social semiotics
enables me to explore how the socio-political shift from the New Order to Post-New
Order era in Indonesia articulates with the way in which an advertisement makes
meanings and reality through its uses of audio-visual resources.
In addition, in analysing the studied advertisements, I am also concerned with
the notion of modality (Ibid, p.160), which refers to how advertisement producers use
semiotic resources to create and communicate the truth or reality values of advertising
representations. By involving the notion of modality, it is possible to reveal how a
producer’s versions of truth or reality are constructed and framed in the
advertisements. In this sense, the way an advertisement tells its story of products plays
an important role in convincing its viewers of the truth or reality the advertisements
represent. In analysing the studied television advertisements, I aim to combine social
semiotics analysis with narrative analysis. I follow Fulton’s argument (2005, p.1) that
narrative analysis can be useful to investigate the way [advertising] narrative is
62
constructed and manipulated, and how the narrative works to produce meanings, and
addresses the audience in specific ways. In this regard, narrative analysis is
appropriate for my study in terms of its contribution to examining some aspects,
which are not encountered by semiotics analysis, especially concerning the uses of
spatial and temporal aspect in the advertisement, and also the “happening” or
“moving” actions and events within the diegetic34 time-space. Most importantly,
narrative analysis becomes crucial to reveal how advertising constructs and develops
structures of conflict-solution through its narratives, and how products are linked to
and situated within the structures. In most cases, there is a tendency in which the
selling product is presented as a solution to certain conflicts constructed in the
advertising narrative.
It is important to note, however, that I prefer not to engage in structuralist
narratology35, which mainly aims to seek a general or common structure of narrative. I
aim, instead, to focus more on the ideological orientation of advertising narratives.
This line of thinking allows me to frame questions of, for instance, what and how
stories are told and not told or marginalized in the advertisement, and whose interests
are laid behind the stories, who are playing the active roles in looking or doing, and
who are playing the passive roles and acted as visual attractions. For exploring those
questions I focus on the narrative elements which are used within the advertisements
under discussion, such as the sounds-both diegetic and non-diegetic- voice over, the
characters, the focalization that involves camera techniques and mise-en-scéne, and
the editorial conventions. All this goes to reveal how narrative strategies work to
construct certain truths or reality in the advertising texts.
3.3. TV Advertisements: Narratives and Dichotomic Classification
In the context of my study, as already mentioned, I consider advertisements as
cultural artefacts, which provided significant insights into the socio-political dynamics
and novelties during the two different eras in Indonesia. More specifically, I am
34
Diegetic, in this context, refers to the filmic world of the narrative, or the reality constructed within
the advertisement. For more explanation see Fulton (2005)
35
According to McQuillan (2000) in Fulton (2005, p.32) the structuralist-led theory of narrative, in
particular, seeks to identify what all and any narratives have in common. In the case of media,
narratology examines the nature, form and function of narrative across gender and media. By proposing
narrative as an object of inquiry, narratology seeks to produce a comprehensive and universal narrative
grammar [the term firstly proposed by Todorov (1969)].
63
deeply concerned with the way in which advertisement plays a significant role in
articulating and reproducing social hierarchy and struggles regarding the notion of
gender, ethnicity/race and class within Indonesian society.
At the outset, I selected Indonesian TV advertisements, which were honoured
with the Citra Pariwara Award in the periods of 1993-2005. TV advertisements have
been chosen for a number of reasons. It is often asserted that television is perhaps the
most pervasive and invasive of mass media (Hogan 1999: p.74). With its audio visual
messages, television draws the audience’s attention and involves their emotions in a
way that print media or radio cannot. Television messages are usually directed to
broader audiences, having a broader exposure in comparison with print media and
radio. Added to that, it is often acknowledged that television is central in a society, in
a sense that it speaks to all members of the society, and everyone is presumed to be
watching the same programs and sharing the same values as members of that society
(see e.g. Miller 2003, Hartley 2004, Gripsrud 2007). It is not surprising that television
is often considered one of key sites on which a nation is imagined for its members. In
the context of advertising, television becomes the most popular medium to convey
selling messages of products to a nation-wide audience. It should be noted that TV
advertisements also play a significant role in the television industry, because it pays
for the production of television programming. In the context of Indonesia the advent
of commercial television since 1989 has initiated a new era for the Indonesian
advertising industry, which is indicated by the growth of television advertisements.36
Based on this understanding, analysis of television advertisements in Indonesia
deserves particular consideration.
In addition, I argue that advertisements which were honoured with The Citra
Pariwara Award merit closer examination, in a sense that the Award implies a selfproclaimed idea of Indonesian advertisement. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Citra
Pariwara Award is aimed to promote the production of an ‘archetype’ of Indonesian
36
Along with the advent of commercial television since 1989 and the period of economic liberalisation
in Indonesia, the advertising industry has also developed progressively. Sen and Hill (2002) noted that
total national advertising expenditure doubled from Rp 639 billion in 1990, when commercial television
was available only in Jakarta and Surabaya, to Rp. 1381 trillion in 1993, when the private channels
gained a national audience. In 1995, when all five commercial channels were in operation, the national
advertising budget rose to Rp. 3335 trillion. According to PPPI—Indonesian Association of Advertising
Agencies--the deregulation of the Indonesian television industry since 1989 resulted in the
concentration of the advertising market, in which commercial television companies absorbed around 60
% of the total advertising expenditures in the country (Hidayat 2002, p.161).
64
advertisements, which present and talk about Indonesian culture. More specifically,
the Citra Pariwara Award proposes missions to support, develop and reward creative
Indonesian advertisements. The PPPI as the official organiser of the Award, in this
sense, attempts to motivate advertising producers to create “original” Indonesian
advertisements, which could be recognised nationally and internationally. In this
regard, the PPPI provides a kind of creativity standard for Indonesian advertising37.
Following these insights, I argue that advertisements which are honoured with the
Citra Pariwara Award become part of nation building project, which is related to the
socio-political context during two different eras in Indonesia. In addition, it is a wellknown fact that in the age of globalization advertising is one of prime instruments to
disseminate global culture. Hence, I argue that advertisements which were honoured
with the Citra Pariwara Award provide significant cues about how Indonesianess is
imagined, maintained and negotiated in the context of global-local nexus.
It is important to consider that the wide range of the awarded advertisements
requires a selection of different types of awarding categories. In this respect, I
overlook the product categories and focus only on the advertisements which were
honoured with the Gold, Silver and/or Bronze award. The different socio-political
context between the New Order and the post-New Order era of Indonesia allows me to
conduct a comparison analysis between the two different eras. Accordingly, I divide
the selected advertisements into two categories. The TV advertisements which were
honoured during the period of 1993-1998 are put into the New Order category, while
those which were honoured during the periods of 1999-2005 belong to the post-New
Order category.
The corpus consists of 68 TV advertisements, 32 belong to New Order era and
36 advertisements belong to post-New Order era. Subsequently, the corpus is
subdivided into five categories targeting the possible depictions of gender,
ethnicity/race and class. Those categories are set up based on the audio and visual
images as well as the narratives carried by the advertisements. For setting up the
categories, I engage in Lévi-Strauss’ model of binary opposition, which was also
applied by John Fiske (1993), when he examined the underlying deep structures of the
film narrative of Hart to Hart. In his structural study of mythology, Lévi-Strauss
37
The complete visions and missions of the Citra Pariwara Award, available from its official website
http://www.citrapariwara.com/ [Accessed 10 October 2005]
65
asserts that myth-making is a universal cultural process and that the deeper, “truer”
meanings of myths are not immediately apparent but can only be revealed by
theoretical analysis (Fiske 1993, p.131). Lévi-Strauss also remarks that the structure of
myths provides a basic structure for understanding cultural relations, which appears as
binary pairs or opposites (Klages, 1997). Cultural meanings, therefore, are produced
through the differences around which binary opposition are constructed. For him,
binary oppositions form the basis from which to perceive reality.
Adopting Lévi-Strauss’s model of binary opposition, Fiske suggests that
narratives, too, have deep structures that consist of binary oppositions. Stories are
mostly structured by the attempt to resolve conflict, characterised by the binary
opposition, for example, between hero and villain (Lacey 2000, p.65). In his analysis
of Hart to Hart, Fiske examines how myth provides an imaginative structure of Hart
to Hart, and metaphorically transforms it into a concrete representation. According to
Fiske, the opposition of American/Non-American, middle class/lower class are the
concrete metaphorical transformations of the deeper structure such as good/evil,
hero/villain. He asserts that by means of the structure, irresolvable contradictions in a
culture can be thought through and handled.
Following this logic, I also set up binary categories which are based on the
narrative of differences constructed in the advertising texts. It is important to note that
I use binary opposition only for analytical purposes in a sense that I consider binary
opposition as one of many ways that provide aid to cope with complexities and to
demystify as well as dissect the studied advertisements. I realize that binary category
is frequently considered as a sort of oversimplification; it is rarely symmetrical and
constructed rather than given. Hence, I need to underline that the binary oppositions I
set up in this study result from my interpretive reading38 of the advertisements under
discussion. The categories I set up, therefore, are not closed and fixed, rather are they
open to change and could be different with someone else’s reading. More importantly,
I recognize that those categories are fluid and possibly overlapped and intersected one
to another. This understanding is in line with the intersectionality framework I employ
throughout this study in order to scrutiny how and in what forms the differences along
38
My reading is related to my cultural knowledge, viewpoints and frame of references as a member of
Indonesian society. Added to that, the reading is also responsive to the demands of my position as a
researcher. It could be said that my subjective reading is the result of my agency and agentry.
66
the categories of gender, ethnicity/race and class are interconnected with one another
in the advertising texts.
I subsequently develop five categories of binary opposition, based on which I
subdivide the studied advertisements. Those five oppositions are:
a. Strong and Weak
This category entails the notion of physical characteristics such as physical
strength, body size and body shape, and also qualities generated by and
attached to those physical characteristics
b. Modern and Traditional
This category entails the notion of developed, undeveloped, actualness and
lagardness
c. Good and Bad
This category entails the notion of kindness, generosity, disfavoured and evil
characters
d. Active and Passive
This category entails the notion of rationality, initiative and the order of
feeling or emotion
e. Educated and Ignorant
This category entails the notion of competence, skillfulness, being unlearned
and unskilled
By reading the images and narratives of advertisements under scrutiny I put them into
the suitable oppositions. As already mentioned, those binary oppositions possibly
intermingle one with another within a single advertisement. Following Staunæs
(2003), as discussed earlier, I assume that those binary oppositions do intersect, but
not equally. Hence, at the outset I purport to capture the main and prominent
opposition that are rendered in each advertisement. Afterward, I attempt to identify
other oppositions, which possibly exist and are intersected with the main opposition in
the advertisement. By doing so, I am able to identify which binary oppositions
intermingle in every single advertisement. This effort then enables me to identify
through which combination of binary oppositions the notion of gender, for instance, is
strongly generated through advertisements. Since I aim to make a comparison analysis
between New Order and post-New Order era, the binary oppositions enable me to
67
reveal how differently the two different eras in Indonesia are concerned with the
notion of gender, ethnicity/race and class. In this sense, I assume that during the two
different eras there is a different combination of binary oppositions used to generate
advertising meanings related to the notion of gender, ethnicity/race and class.
It is worth underlining that for an analytical purpose, and in order to obtain a
heuristic and comprehensive examination, I purport to focus on and analyse the issue
of gender, ethnicity/race and class in separate chapters. By doing so, I aim to grasp the
distinct problematics and particularities concerning each identity. By means of the
binary oppositions I select the advertisements which imply a strong discourse of
gender, of ethnicity/race and of class. I should stress at this point that I do not analyse
all the selected advertisements. Rather, for each era I select one or two striking
examples, which assure of possible and not one-sided depictions of gender, of
ethnicity/race and of class. It enables me to explore predispositions of how gender [or
ethnicity/race or class] as a form of cultural difference is constructed and articulated
through advertising text during the two different eras in Indonesia; how the binary
oppositions that are seen in advertising text function to generate cultural meanings.
Other than analysing those categories of difference, attention will also be drawn to the
correlation of advertisement and product. More specifically, I aim to examine how
products correlate with binary oppositions contained in the selected advertisements
and how it works and functions to generate ideological meanings concerning gender,
ethnicity/race and class.
After analysing the notion of gender, ethnicity/race and class separately, I
endeavour to explore how those categories are crossed with one another within the
advertising texts, particularly in generating the idea of nation. I examine how gender,
ethnicity/race and class influence and/or generate the discourse of nation during the
two different eras in Indonesia. I aim to explore the imagined39 historical constitution
of “Indonesian” identity, and how the ideas of gender, ethnicity/race and class are
involved and functionalised in it. Since there is a socio-political shift in Indonesia
from the New Order to the post-New Order era, I am able to understand how the
imagined constitution of “Indonesian” identity is operating in a new manner,
particularly, related to the notion of local-global nexus under the condition of
globalization.
39
In this context, I refer to Anderson’s (1991) idea of nation as an imagined community, as already
discussed in Chapter 2.
68
Chapter 4
Gender Construction: Femininity and Masculinity in Dispute
Gender has performed as a central feature in advertising. As an engine of
consumption, advertising has become an important medium to articulate construct of
gender conceptions, which interact with the realm of consumer behaviour. Advertising
imagery and narrative are largely drawn around the notion of difference, which
particularly encompasses the dualistic gender roles and the notion of masculinity and
femininity. Advertising inclines to show and tell stories about the ideal type of being
men and women. Advertising prescribes schemata about traits and behaviours, which
are understood as typical of normal or average men and women. It is worth noting
that gender identity, which is invoked by advertising, resonates with prevailing
cultural constructions in a given society (see e.g., Bristor et.al. 1995; Cortese, 2004;
Hovland et.al. 2005). In this understanding, advertising is linked to a dynamic view of
social relations and power structure related to gender, which prevails in a certain
societies. Advertising images of gender provide important cues how gender relations
are articulated, socially recognized and accepted in a given culture. On this point, I
need to underline that advertising plays a significant role in both representing and
shaping cultural signifiers of gender. In doing so, advertising sets and promulgates
stereotypes and social signifiers regarding ideal masculinity and femininity.
This chapter aims to bring the way, in which advertising images express and
inscribe conceptions of masculine and feminine identity into focus. I situate those
images in conjunction with socio-political shifts during the two different eras in
Indonesia. This attempt allows me to reveal how the myths of femininity and
masculinity in Indonesian advertisements are constructed, affirmed, negotiated and
contested during the two different eras in Indonesia. In this way, I aim to trace
dominant articulations which are used within advertising texts during New Order and
post New Order era. I particularly seek to trace how advertising construction of gender
identity is changed and shifted in conjunction with the changing ideologies that have
taken place in Indonesian society. In addition, it enables me to trace historical shifts
and changes regarding the notion of gender in Indonesia in line with the sociopolitical shifts from the New Order to the post New Order era. What is more, in
69
analysing gender relations, I aim to move away from the analysis of gender, which
merely focuses on the polarization of masculinity domination and femininity
subordination. Rather, I aim to grasp and explore different formations of masculinity
and femininity, and the relations of domination and subordination, which are
operating between those formations. I recognize that gender relations actually involve
forms of negotiation and resistance against predominant gender conceptions in
Indonesian society. By doing so, I aim to reveal the dominant, subordinate and
oppositional forms of femininity as well as masculinity during the two different eras
in Indonesia.
4. 1. Domination and Discipline
4.1.1. Dominating and Disciplining Others
In chapter 1 I have argued that during the New Order era Indonesian
advertisements depicted stereotypical gender roles, which were linked to gender
ideology sanctioned by the state. The roles of women in advertisements, particularly,
were drawn from women’s roles, which were dictated by the state. The state’s gender
ideology principally insisted that motherhood is the “essential nature of women”
(Tiwon 1996, p.64), therefore, before she is married, a woman cannot be considered as
a complete human being. Being assigned to those roles, ideal Indonesian women were
expected to be happy standing at the side of their husbands and nurturing their
offspring as the next generation of the country (Gardiner 2002, p.102; Sunindyo 1996,
p.125). A woman who does not fit into the typology of a good mother, for instance,
would be considered a bad and deficient woman or a monstrous female ‘Other’
(Sunindyo 1996, p.121; Hatley 2002, p.133).
Since the late 1970s the government had established campaigns encouraging
women to participate in the labor force through the program of double roles for
women (Parawansa 2002, p.71; Sunindyo 1996, p.125). Paradoxically, at the same
time the New Order regime formulated an ideal type of woman, which assigned
women to essentially subordinate and domestic roles. In this sense, the New Order
regime emphasized women’s role as the pivotal agent of the family, and the family
itself is considered as the fundamental social institution of the state (Dzuhayatin 2001,
pp.200-1). Consequently, women were endorsed to achieve the ideal feminine status
as model mothers (Ibu Teladan), that is, an ideal woman who was measured in terms
70
of her success in supporting her husband’s career and her children’s success in
education. The program of double roles for women generated a double burden for
women in a sense that women should work for economic gain, but at the same time
still bear the primary responsibility for the family and household. It should be stressed
that this officially sanctioned typology of ideal women by New Order regime was not
without contradictions. Indonesian feminists, particularly, have challenged the New
Order’s ideology concerning women, not merely due to its restrictive categories of
women’s roles, but also to its capacity in justifing and excluding any women who
were living outside the scope. In the context of advertising, research on women in
Indonesian advertisements until the late 1980s demonstrated that femininity was
largely defined and depicted around the traditional roles of women as dutiful wives
and mothers (See e.g., Tomagola, 1998; Mulyana, 1998; Aripurnami 1996; Sunindyo
1996).
In the early 1990s, Indonesian feminists became very active in challenging the
state’s efforts to domesticate women and deny women’s achievement in public life40.
Despite the social and political restriction of the New Order regime, women struggled
to find a space to develop their feminist ideas and criticise the state’s gender ideology
(Sadli 2002, p.83). In the mid 1990s, the state established a new policy of “parallel
partnership between men and women” (Dzuhayatin 2001, p.201). This policy,
however, did not substantially change the state’s gender ideology; hence, constructs of
ideal Indonesian women as guardian mothers remained palpable. The idea that home
is a distinctive and significant site, wherein the woman as a guardian mother
constitutes larger communities as well as nation, was still intact. Aspects of
womanhood were frequently contained and taking place around the home as the most
private space. The ideal type of femininity was enduringly related to the notion of
domesticated women as homemakers, who should provide comfort to their husbands
and families. If women failed to meet such requirements, they would be defined as
unruly, deficient and deviant. If this happened, it would cause trouble in the household
equilibrium, which principally would threaten to taint men’s credentials as the leader
of the household. Accordingly, women had to be warned and disciplined for not
40
According to Muchtar (1999), the women’s movement in Indonesia in 1990s played a significant role
in pursuing justice and democracy for Indonesian society, particularly for women. Through coalitions
which have been developed since 1991, the women’s movement has struggled to voice women’s issues,
such as violence and exploitation of women in the family. Added to that, the movement also
highlighted these issues to gain attention of the public and pro-democracy movements in Indonesia.
71
surpassing their “natural” virtue as wives. Advertisements, in this respect, had taken
their place as agents, which continually reinforced the ‘othering’ process of women,
who did not fit into the state’s contruct of ideal femininity. The advertisement for
headache medicine, Bodrex (Figure 4.1), demonstrates the fact of this matter.
Figure 4.1 Bodrex Advertisement
72
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement begins visually with a scene of a man coming home, most likely
from work. In this scene, the man is seen from the viewpoint of someone who is
peeping through a door peep hole. The man is depicted suffering a headache, which is
indicated from his face and the way he has put his finger to his temple. As the scene
moves on, it becomes apparent that the picture on the previous scene is taken from the
point of view of his wife, who is now shown opening the door in anger. She is a
middle aged woman, dressed in Javanese traditional dress with traditional hairdo. She
has an overfull body, which makes her look bigger and stronger than her husband. She
wears gold jewellery on many parts of her body, which indicates the social status of
this couple. In the next scene, the man looks confounded knowing his wife is angry.
He probably did not expect to come home and find her wife angry. The next scene
shows how the wife expresses her anger to her husband. She nags and pushes her
husband back until he totters and subsequently puts himself on a couch. He looks
scared and powerless like a boy who is confronted by his angry mother. The camera
moves to a close up the face of the wife, who keeps nagging at her husband. The
perspective of seeing the nagging wife sometimes moves from the eyes of a third
narrator (camera) to the husband’s, which indicates that the eyes of the camera and of
the husband are interchangeable. In one scene, in which the camera closes up to the
couple from the left side, a framed photograph is shown standing on the table beside
the couch on which the husband is sitting. It is a photograph of the couple standing
side by side, but it looks like a photograph of a mother and her son rather than of a
wife and a husband. In the photo, the woman shows her big smile, while her husband
contrarily has a frown on his face. He looks unhappy and somewhat powerless
standing beside his wife. The scene subsequently moves to the husband, who looks
distressed facing his nagging wife. It is seen that his headache is getting more painful.
The reason why the wife is angry is not clearly revealed in this advertisement. She is
depicted nagging all the time, but her voice is fast-forwarded. The advertisement
regards her anger as more important than the reason behind it.
73
As his headache is getting more painful, the husband throws an annoyed gaze at
his wife and moves his hand to his shirt’s pocket. At the same time, a male voice-over
is heard “Got a headache? Take Bodrex for relief”. The fast-forwarded voice of the
wife is still heard. The husband pulls a box of Bodrex from his shirt’s pocket and
drops one tablet on his hand. The scene moves to a low angle close-up scene of the
wife who is still nagging. This scene reinforces the sense of the powerlessness of her
husband. Subsequently, the viewpoint moves to the camera as an invisible narrator,
showing the husband staring at the tablet of Bodrex in his hand. This camera
movement results in an effect that the husband firstly looks at his wife and then moves
his eyes to the tablet, as if he sees the prey and then the weapon which will be used to
destroy the prey. The shot shows the husband taking the tablet with a glass of water.
The scene moves to a low angle in which the wife is still pointing her finger at the
husband. In the next scene the wife vanishes and is replaced by white smoke. The
scene symbolizes that the nagging wife has been caused to disappear by the tablet. It
indicates that the nagging wife functions as a metaphor of disturbance or illness,
which should be overcome by a certain medicine. The metaphor is reinforced as well
by the use of wide angle scenes depicting the nagging wife. The wide angle lens
functions to keep the nagging wife far apart from the other objects, and differently
focused in the field of vision. As a result, not only does the wife look strange and
aberrant, but it also makes the viewer feel that they are close to the intimidating
situation experienced by the husband.
After his wife vanishes, in the next scene the husband is depicted smiling and
being relieved. He is relieved because his headache has disappeared, and because one
of the reasons why he suffered from headache, that is, his nagging wife, has vanished
as well. The next low angle scene shows again the photograph of the couple, but this
time there is a change in the photograph. The couple is still portrayed standing side by
side. But this time, the husband shows his smile, and looks superior, while the wife
has lost her smile and has a frown on her face. The lighting and the low camera angle
of the photograph makes the husband looks dominant and having authority, while the
wife, shown in a lesser light, looks feeble and insignificant. In the same scene, the
narrator closes the story by saying “Bodrex, makes headaches disappear…very
effectively.”
The Bodrex advertisement conveys a clear message that there is no place for
unruly women. As mentioned above, an advertisement can function as the agent which
74
reminds women not to be deviant. The Bodrex advertisement is a striking example to
illustrate this argument. The woman in the advertisement is depicted as an unruly and
improper wife, since she does not provide comfort to her husband. According to the
New Order’s gender ideology, good women are those who serve their men, support
them and make them happy. It is inappropriate for women to be superior over their
husbands both in the private and the public sphere. The split between the public
sphere, which is identified with men’s world, and the private sphere as the women’s
world, does not mean that women gain their authority in the private sphere. Men,
instead, are given the privilege of being the ultimate authority over women in the
household (Dzuhayatin 2001, p.231). It is pertinent to remember that the split between
public and private domains is always ideological. In western society the distinction
between the public and private spheres is bound up with bourgeois discourse.
Concerning this notion, MacDonald (1995, p.48) asserts that as men moved out of the
home to work and the bourgeois obtained increasing power in 19th century, the public
world became identified with influence and power, which was subsequently claimed
as the men’s arena. Bourgeois women, meanwhile, were identified as domestic and
private, occupying the home. In the context of Indonesia, the idea that the private
sphere as women’s domain wherein they manage their domestic duties fits mostly to
bourgeois women as well. Women’s roles as mothers and housewives, according to
Suryakusuma (1996, p.101), were heavily drawn from Javanese Priyayi (Javanese
bourgeois). Bourgeois women in Java principally are compelled to serve their men,
children and family.41 This conception was adopted by the New Order regime to
establish its gender ideology. The constructs of good Indonesian women as sanctioned
by the State, was inspired by the ideal type of Javanese bourgeois women. As shown
in the Bodrex advertisement, despite being depicted as a Javanese bourgeois woman,
the woman is in fact a contrasting figure to the ideal Javanese bourgeois woman.
Javanese women are always expected to behave appropriately at home, in particular in
41
Traditional Javanese society, in fact, consisted of three social layers: the upper class or aristocratic
circle (ningrat), the middle class (priyayi) and the lower class (wong cilik [lit. little people]). Any
discourses related to gender roles have been mostly situated within this structure. Javanese culture is
generally patriarchal in a way that men gain privileges and authority over women, particularly in the
household. However, the division of gender roles in the bourgeois class (ningrat and priyayi) was far
more rigid than in the lower class. Women were urged to be loyal backstops to their husbands. In
addition, the male-biased interpretation of Islamic teachings in Indonesia also has played a significant
role in reinforcing domestication of women’s role. Conservative Islamist thoughts have underlined that
women should adhere to their essential nature as mothers and housewives. For further explanation see
Dzuhayatin (2001)
75
front of her husband. What women do at home is a central to measuring a women’s
reputation in general. Women’s femininity in advertising is depicted in terms of
women’s abilities in keeping the home properly. In western society, the same notion
has been permeated particularly through western media representation in the 1970s
and 1980s (see e.g. Gauntlett, 2002; Shield and Heinecken 2002; Barthel, 1988). As
Morley (2000, p.79) asserts, women had the responsibility to keep the home clean, not
only physically but also morally. She should devote her time to core domestic labour,
particularly cooking and cleaning. Cleanliness, in this sense, is the keyword to
determine women’s reputation in keeping and managing her household. The work
carried out in the house is frequently related to dirt, and a good woman is the one who
is capable of removing the dirt from the home. It somewhat becomes a moral
obligation for women to provide a clean home for the sake of family’s comfort.
As mentioned earlier, in the mid 1990s the New Order regime established the
policy of parallel partnership between men and women, which allowed women to gain
achievements in public life. This policy, along with the development of the women’s
movement in strength as well as influence, has opened access by women to the public
domain. It demonstrates that the boundaries between the public and private spheres
have been shifted and negotiated during this period. However, due to the State’s halfhearted endorsement of women’s empowerment, the shifted boundaries between the
public and private spheres only offered little change for women. It is not surprising
that advertisements continue to uphold the distinction between the public and private
spheres to identify gender roles. Femininity is not merely personified and associated
within the home and domestic realm, but also signified by women’s subservience
toward their men. The Bodrex advertisement reinforces this kind of femininity by
depicting women being at home waiting for their husbands, who work outside the
home. Although she is not depicted doing or dealing with her domestic duties, the
clean and tidy room where the story is set, becomes the evidence of how well she
manages her domestic duties. However, women’s achievements in providing physical
comfort in the home means nothing if women attempt to be superior over their men. In
the context of New Order Indonesia, men were positioned as leaders in many
dimensions; of the household, of larger communities and ultimately of the nation.
Indonesian men became the beneficiaries of gender roles dictated by the State
(Parawansa 2002, p.71). As a leader, a good man requires to fulfill the qualities of
being rational, educated, and a controlling agent. Constructs of ideal masculinity were
76
built around such qualities. According to Tomagola (1998, p.338), men in Indonesian
advertisement in 1986-1990 were mostly depicted as the masters of the household
who had the responsibility to fulfill the family needs. In this sense, men were always
expected to hold their social roles as masculine providers. A husband was frequently
depicted doing his activities outside the house, in the public settings, for economic
gain.
As the leader of the household, a husband should be the one who rules, controls
and disciplines his family members. A ruling wife, as shown in the Bodrex
advertisement, is not favoured, and brings disdain to the husband. The way she pushes
her husband back, nags all the time without any proper reasons, points her finger at
him, are presented to show how aggressive women in power can be. This image, in
my view, is a kind of men’s imagination of powerful women. It shows men’s anxiety
over being ruled, controlled and disciplined by women. Women in power can threaten
men’s masculinity, which can lower their dignity and nobility. According to
Kaufmann (1998, p.8), in a patriarchal society, being male is highly valued, and men
value their masculinity. Patriarchy requires men to embrace self-identity rooted in
dominating others, including women. Similarly Berger (1972) argues that men create
a sense of identity as an extension of their physical bodies, using it and their evident
power to control objects and others (in Barthel 1988, p.8). Accordingly, men will
suffer great insecurity if their power to control others is being threatened. An
increasing awareness among women for being more active and empowered generates
certain anxieties for men. As women attempt to live up to equality norms, men feel
insecure and threatened, because it is impossible for men to live up to their gender
roles42, in a sense that men are already in a privileged position in a patriarchal society.
Having this privileged position, it could be said that there is no better gender role men
should live up to. If women gain their power, to whom will men be able to feel
superior? The state of being controlled and disciplined by women, therefore, is
regarded as crucially dangerous for men. As shown in the Bodrex advertisement, the
wife is portrayed as having a “new” superiority over her husband. She acts as a “new
42
Construction of gender roles tends to place men in the superior position over women. While women
struggle for an equal position, men attempt to maintain their superior position within the patriarchal
order. According to Susan Faludi (1999), men tend to be aggressive as their power is under threat. The
state of having a lack of power is the main reason of male violence. As a result, men attempt to
demonstrate their power to get back their sense of masculinity. It happens, for instance, in the case of
rape, in which men frequently express their inferiority, powerlessness and anger, because they are
seeking for the feeling of being superior. See Shields and Heinecken (2002).
77
police”, who controls her husband. In the photograph on the table, superiority of the
wife is also depicted. She is standing next to her husband bearing a big smile, whereas
her husband looks inferior and unhappy. The photograph is presented to show the
improper husband-wife relationship. The social construct of masculinity requires the
husband to be superior and active because he is the leader of the household. Under no
circumstances can the wife take over that position. The man in the advertisement is
not depicted as a physically strong man with a muscular body type or macho face. His
body even looks smaller and feeble than his wife’s. Yet, no matter what his physical
appearance, he is the man, the husband, who is culturally expected to hold the power
and dominate over women.
The improper husband-wife relationship, as shown in the photograph, therefore,
needs to be replaced. The husband in the advertisement is obviously endorsed to
discipline his unruly wife. The product functions as a weapon, which helps the
husband to take back his power. In this regard, the product is not only useful for the
disappearance of his headache, but also for the disciplining of his wife. After taking
Bodrex, the woman, who is nagging and pointing her finger at the man, vanishes
quickly and is replaced by white smoke. The next scene shows how happy the
husband is after successfully accomplishing the disappearance of his wife. He gains
back his masculinity and his power as a man, as a husband and as the leader of the
household. Now he smiles and looks relieved. Along with that, the photograph in a
frame which is shown in the final scene is now changed. The husband is portrayed as
being superior and smiling happily. At the end of the story, the photograph represents
the perceived right and proper husband-wife relationship, wherein the husband should
be dominant, and the wife should be self-restrained and subservient. In other words,
the hierarchy of the man-woman relationship, particularly in a household, should be
preserved. Men are endorsed to be the disciplinary force and women are the ones who
should be disciplined. On this point it is also clear that the hierarchy of gender
relationships is the result of the media effect. The advertising story, the uses of camera
angles and camera movements, the lighting and other filmic techniques have played a
significant role to enable and affirm the construction of gender relationships, which
keep women in the subjugated position to men.
In addition, it becomes apparent that the advertisement does not promote and
offer an equal relationship, in which both man and woman are relieved and able to
smile happily as the proper solution. Instead, the advertised product serves as the
78
agent, which helps men to cope with their anxieties about superior women.
Advertising narrative, in this sense, works to enable men to uphold their masculinity
and ideal position, as established by the New Order state. What is more, the
advertising plot narratively allows man to discipline a “want to be powerful” woman.
By concealing the reason behind his wife’s anger, the nagging wife is placed as the
cause, not as the effect. The storyline reinforces that the nagging wife is irrational and
ignorant, so that her husband is allowed to take certain actions against her. In a
nutshell, advertising narrative plays a significant role in restoring the unruly and
threatening woman to her due position in the patriarchal order by punishing her at the
end of the story.
4.1.2. Dominating and Disciplining the Self
After the fall of the New Order regime in May 1998, Indonesia’s new
government improved the quality of Indonesian women’s lives and opened up new
opportunities for women in the public domain (Parawansa 2002, p.77). Facing a new
freedom during the more democratic era, new women’s organizations have greatly
increased in number and have reached many more women in Indonesia. By espousing
a broader spectrum of women empowerment issues, these organizations have played a
significant role in the advancement for Indonesian women. In accordance with this
fact, issues of gender mainstreaming in all aspects of national development was
officially sanctioned by new government through the Presidential Decree No. 9/2000.
All government institutions, NGOs, public organization and mass media are
encouraged to promote visions of gender equity and gender equality. During this new
era, there have been many substantial changes at the national level that have a
practical and symbolic significance for gender equity. One striking change, among
others, is the transformation of ‘Minister for the Role of Women’ to the ‘State
Ministry for the Empowerment of Women’ in 1999. According to Susan Blackburn
(2002) in Bessel (2004), the change has gone far beyond the name. It signified the end
of women’s affair being seen as issues restricted to wives and mothers. It also tackled
the construction of gender in Indonesian society that limits women’s rights to equity
and equality.
In the domain of advertising, during the post New Order era professional and
skilled
women
became
more
prevalent
figures
in
Indonesian
television
79
advertisements. Images of femininity were increasingly shifted from the notion of
domesticated women to career and professional women. Women in the public sphere
became a prevalent theme in advertising narrative. The advertisement for cough
medicine, Konidin, serves to illustrate this phenomenon (Figure 4.2.).
Figure 4.2. Konidin Advertisement
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement tells a story of a psychiatrist and her male-patient. In the first scene
it is seen that story takes place in the psychiatrist’s patient room. The room is not very
large, but well-decorated with bookshelves on the left and in the background. The
bookshelves, in my view, function as signifiers of professionalism. The psychiatrist
and the patient are placed right in the middle of the scene. She is sitting on a chair, the
male patient is lying down on the patient couch next to her. He is speaking about his
case to the psychiatrist and she is depicted listening and making notes related
80
concerning his case. The male-patient tells her about his wife’s complaints due to his
lack of attention to her and the family. The storyline demonstrates that the male
patient is a forgetful person. He always forgets his wife’s birthday and the name of his
son. In the middle of the consultation, the psychiatrist suddenly needs to cough, which
makes her lower her body. The male-patient spontaneously raises his body from the
couch and quickly says, “Take Konidin when you get a cough!” The scene then cuts to
the picture of Konidin, accompanied by a male voice-over, “When you get a cough,
remember Konidin”. The scene cuts to an image of the coughing psychiatrist. The
image is like a picture for medical analysis, which shows only her upper body and her
face. In the scene, we see a picture of the coughing psychiatrist taken from her right
side, against a dark background. In the foreground, an image of a fire-colored signal
diagram is seen. The scene seems to delineate the inner-body process when one gets a
cough. Coughing makes the fire-colored signal diagram moves fluctuatingly. The
scene then moves to an image wherein the psychiatrist is depicted taking a tablet of
Konidin. It demonstrates the effect of Konidin in reducing the fluctuation of the firecoloured signal diagram and finally stabilizing it, as there is a colour transformation
from red to blue. After taking Konidin, the psychiatrist turns her body to face directly
toward the camera. In this position, her inner-body process after taking Konidin is
observable. Beside the stable signal diagram seen in the lower foreground, blue light
fills her transparent upper torso. The blue light is getting sharper especially around her
upper lung. During this scene, the male voice-over says, “Konidin’s reliable formula
is helpful in healing the cough from the inside.” The scene cuts to an image of
Konidin with a text on the lower scene, “Getting a cough, remember Konidin”. The
advertisement is then closed with a picture of the psychiatrist and the patient as seen
in the earlier scenes. On the left lower scene, there is a text, “Minutes later”,
indicating that the scene takes place some minutes after the psychiatrist has taken
Konidin. She is depicted continuing her consultation with the same position as seen in
the earlier scenes. The male-patient continues to speak about his case. This time he
questions himself “What is my wife’s name?” This question makes the psychiatrist
smile slightly.
This advertisement attempts to offer a more progressive image of the new
working woman, who is intelligent, independent and seemingly successful at work.
She has a good job and works independently for good economic gain. The woman in
the Konidin advertisement is not depicted dealing with her traditional domestic duties
81
as wife or mother. Instead, she appears in a typical career woman’s suit, with shoulder
pads, in grey, and with perfect hairdo and glasses. This is what Armstrong (1993)
named “sartorial cliché”, a style of female professional garb which is frequently used
to generate a particular construct of the new woman (in Entwistle 1997, p.311). In this
understanding, dress is used to produce strong images of a smart and high powered
career woman. But, despite her businesslike appearance and seemingly being freed
from domestic roles, the woman is actually still bound up with conventional codes of
femininity. The way she deals with her male patient demonstrates that woman, it
seems, cannot be separated from her “natural” role as nurturer. As shown in the
advertisement, the woman is depicted taking care of her male-patient, listening to his
case and making notes for her analysis and diagnose regarding the case. At this point,
her job as a physchiatrist is apparently an extension of a traditional domestic role as
caretaker and nurturer of her husband and family. In this sense, the woman remains in
the position in which she is proclaimed as a nurturer expert. It is worth noting that
being a woman psychiatrist, similar to a nurse or a doctor, is a career which can be
easily reconciled within traditional expectations of the feminine as nurturing and
subservient (Philips 2000, p.50). A psychiatrist is frequently imagined as a
professionally ambitious, highly educated person who combines scientific insights,
modern medical technology with traditional skills of care and nurture. It is a job by
which women cannot be easily identified as a nurturer. Instead, it is a job by which
women are able to reveal their ambitions and spirit as professional human beings. Her
job, hence, positions her as a knowledgeable human being that enables her to be in the
position of observing, analysing and making judgments about her male patient. Her
knowledge enables her to do those duties. The bookshelves, which are shown in the
patient’s room, underline the fact that the woman is an intelligent and well-educated
person. Her knowledge enables her to be more than simply a “traditional” nurturer
such as a wife or mother. Due to her knowledge and job, the woman gains power over
the man, and places herself in a higher position than man, particularly in terms of
psychiatrist-patient relationship. The hierarchy of psychiatrist-patient is signified by
their positions as seen in the advertising scenes. The woman is depicted sitting on her
chair, and the male patient is lying down on the patient couch. In this sense, the
woman is the one who will decide and justify the man’s case. She also has the
authority to discipline and normalize her male patient with regard to his case.
However, the point of the advertising narrative is not as simple as that. Since
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patriarchy endorses men to be superior and able to control women’s thoughts and
desires, men will not allow such professional women to be self sufficient, alone and
independent. Women are assiduously situated being in need of men’s presence.
As shown in the advertisement, in the middle of the consultation the woman
suddenly gets a cough, which makes her lower her body. At the same time, the male
patient quickly raises his body from the patient’s chair and gives her instructions to
take the cough medicine. At this point, their positions are suddenly switched.
Physically, the male patient is now in a higher position than the psychiatrist. What is
more, he is depicted as the one who has better knowledge than the psychiatrist. He
takes over the control previously held by the psychiatrist, and gives her instructions to
take a certain cough medicine. In this sense, the male patient takes the position as the
helper, who helps the psychiatrist to overcome her cough problem. He is depicted as
more knowledgeable than the well-educated woman. As seen in the advertisement, the
male patient teaches the psychiatrist how to cope with and discipline the inner process
of her body regarding the cough. By means of the advertised product, the woman can
finally calm down and stabilize her inner body.
Unlike the woman in the Bodrex advertisement, who is defined as unruly and
needing to be disciplined by her man, the woman in the Konidin advertisement is
depicted as being concerned with the unruliness of her own body. She is depicted as
having a problem with the unruly and fluctuating process of her inner body, which
requires her to overcome and discipline it. The unruly process of her inner body, as
signified by the fire-coloured signal diagram, in my view, might refer to her inner
drive as a professional and active woman. In this sense, the woman is warned of
possible problems she might face as a professional woman. Her own ambition and
spirit can be problematic if she cannot tackle and discipline them. On this point, she is
depicted as unable to handle her inner problem on her own. She requires the presence
of men to guide and help her to cope with the problem. Since man culturally occupies
and enjoys privileges in the public sphere, he presumably has better experience and
knowledge to deal with the inner drives as a professional human being. It is well to
remember that the traditional concept of masculinity, which embraces domination, is
often asserted as having the potential for harming men too (Shields and Heinecken
2002, p.149). Men are supposed to dominate themselves, to repress parts of
themselves that do not fit into the patriarchal structure. As Kaufman asserts,
“Masculinity requires a suppression of a whole range of human needs, aims, feelings
83
and forms of expression” (1998, p.8). Since being male is highly valued, men are
required to discipline and repress their inner drives for living up to the standards of
masculinity. Women are supposed to learn from men concerning the proper
management of inner drives. Men need the advertised product to help them get back
their power, to show that their presence is still important for women, no matter how
successful women are. Similar to the Bodrex advertisement, the advertised Konidin
product functions as the agent, which enables men to win back and settle their
masculinity that has been threatened by empowered women. It is a valid observation
that products play a significant role in the advertising narratives to constrain women to
live up to gender equality norms.
It should be noted that there is an affinity between both advertisements, Bodrex
and Konidin, in a way that they use the same metaphor of healing. Women and parts
of their bodies are used to symbolize disturbance or illness, which should be overcome
or healed with a certain medicine. The advertising metaphor of healing is a significant
strategy to represent certain construction of gender relationship during two different
eras in Indonesia. The Konidin advertisement demonstrates that gender portrayals are
slightly modified during the post New Order era, especially related to the notion of
power and domination. During the New Order era, as shown by the Bodrex
advertisement, men are depicted as the controller and discipliner. Women, on the
other hand, are positioned as the objects in need of discipline. Masculinity, which
embraces domination over others, especially over women, is ensured and upheld by
advertising narrative. In this respect, women are eager to contest and negotiate the
prevalent constructs of femininity. Their attempts, however, are nullified and not
ensured by advertising narrative, which prefers to keep men in the privileged position.
Men are allowed to define women’s unruliness to subsequently discipline them. In the
context of New Order Indonesia, the image of men exerting power over women is a
metaphorical transformation of men’s anxiety about weakening and losing their
superiority over women, who are eager to pursue their emancipation. This fact is
related to the State’s anxieties about facing the fact that its ideology of gender is
increasingly challenged and contested.
During the post New Order, the notion of power and domination is represented
in a different way. Women are depicted in a more progressive way, as new working
women, independent and knowledgeable. Womanhood has gained her power, which
enables her to dominate others, including men. Men, however, attempt to reinforce
84
that women will always be in need of men’s presence. By doing so, men are able to
guide women in using and directing their power. Women are encouraged to direct
their power to dominate and discipline their own selves rather than men. It is
suggested that women be concerned with their inner drives, since it might be
problematic if women fail to handle and discipline them. Men, in my view, attempt to
negotiate around the fact that women could be equal to or more powerful than men.
Recalling the analysis of the Bodrex advertisement, men during the New Order era
tended to contest female power due to their tremendous fear that powerful women
could be destructive and dangerous for the stability of masculinity. In the context of
the Post New Order era, men attempt to negotiate rather than contest female power.
Men, in this respect, aim to keep their superiority over women by placing themselves
as women’s guides. By doing so, men can co-opt women, so that women will not exert
and direct their power to discipline and dominate men. Men’s awareness of how
powerful women can be, as Killbourne (1999, p.137) argues, has created the attempts
to keep women small. No wonder, then, these attempts to make empowered women
stay “feminine”, which means fragile, vulnerable and not to be truly threatening. It
would appear then, despite appearing in more progressive images, women are still
urged to adhere to traditional patriarchal codes, which continue to praise and privilege
men.
4.2. Notion of Modern Virtue
4.2.1. Guardian of Traditions
In the early 1990s, Indonesia entered the period of economic liberalisation
following the establishment of Keterbukaan (openness) policy by the New Order state.
The regime, in this regard, aimed to engage with free market oriented policy, which
allowed a freer flow of capital to enter the country. This attempt has been successful
in obtaining support from multinational financial institutions as well as advanced
industrial countries of the free market system (Hidayat 2002, p.159). Consequently,
Indonesia has been increasingly flooded by foreign values and life-styles especially
from the West. Along with the era of globalization, affluence and accessibility to
Western pop culture through media technology have increased as well. A new
consumer culture, backed up by the mushrooming of shopping malls throughout the
archipelago, has followed the economic liberalisation (Vickers 2005, p.198). The New
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Order’s economic policy has led the country into a deeper dependence on the world
economic market, which is dominated by advanced industrial countries. As a result,
along with easier access to western cultures, Indonesian cultures have grown
increasingly westernized. This is observable, for instance, in the constructs of modern
womanhood in the Indonesian media. The media and advertising industry43, which
have rapidly grown during this time period, have become important agents in
spreading images of modern women in this country. It is worth considering that
interaction between Western and local values has generated certain tensions regarding
the notion of modern womanhood. It has resulted principally from the disparities
between modern or westernized values and traditional values regarding gender roles.
Women faced certain problems in defining their roles in a sense that they experienced
rapid social change under globalization, while at the same time the state’s gender
ideology encouraged them to adhere to traditional values of gender. Advertising,
meanwhile, was eager to promulgate new role models for Indonesian modern women
through its images and narratives. During this era, advertising visualized reconciled
images, which suggested how to be a modern [westernized] woman, while remaining
“Indonesian”. The following advertisement for body lotion, Citra White (Figure 4.3.)
illustrates this phenomenon.
Figure 4.3 Citra White Advertisement
43
It should be noted that along with globalization the Indonesian advertising industry has been
increasingly global-oriented (Marketing, 2004; Warta Ekonomi, 2005). In this sense, the advertising
industry has been dominated by affiliated foreign advertising agencies. Due to affiliation or joint
ventures between Indonesian and foreign advertising agencies, Indonesian advertisements are to a
greater extent produced under the influence, if not control, of foreigners (mostly Western), who worked
creatively on the advertisements. Based on the Indonesian Association of Advertising Agencies’ list,
large advertising agencies in Indonesia whose billing always increased were foreign affiliated
madvertising agencies (Buletin PPPI, 1999). Sen und Hill (2000) have noted that Indonesia’s twelve
largest advertising agencies are all affiliated with multinational advertisers, and all employ foreigners as
creative directors.
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The Citra White advertisement above is an example of how the image of modern
woman is represented. It is an advertisement for a whitening body lotion. A male
voice-over narrator begins the story by presenting a picture of twin sisters, named
Santi and Sinta. Visually they are depicted as two peas in a pod, because they have a
very similar face, similar hairstyle and wear the same colour dresses. In the first shot,
Sinta is depicted playing the piano, and Santi comes and joins Sinta in front of the
piano. The scene, then, cuts to a picture of their childhood photographs, emphasizing
their togetherness as twin sisters. The next shot begins with Sinta who is giving an
instruction to Santi by moving her lips and head. Sinta is seemingly teaching Santi
how to play the piano. Meanwhile, the narrator says that despite their similarities,
Santi and Sinta are actually different due to their different skin colour. Sinta has a
lighter skin tone than Santi. At the same time, the camera closes in on the upper arms
of Santi and Sinta who are sitting side by side in front of the piano. In this scene, their
different skin colour is palpable. Santi, the one who wears a necklace, has a darker
skin tone than Sinta. Santi, according to the narrator, applies Citra White, the
whitening and moisturizing body lotion, to have the same skin tone as Sinta’s. The
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scene then moves to the picture of Santi, who is pouring Citra White on her hand.
While the narrator is explaining the lotion’s ingredients, the scene shows dissolving
images of pouring Citra White, an opened book laid next to a bowl of jasmine flowers,
a zoomed-in writing in Javanese letters, sliced Bengkoang placed on the middle of a
table. The sliced Bengkoang is placed next to an old, small framed photograph of a
Javanese princess and other traditional ingredients scattered on the table. The
dissolving images end with the image of Santi applying the lotion on her upper arm.
Santi is also depicted smiling while applying the lotion on her neck. The next scene
shows a gradual transition of a figure, from a dark into a lighter one. At the same time,
the male voice-over emphasises that Citra White promises a lighter skin tone within
only six weeks. The next shot shows a modern party with people standing in a house
yard. Sinta, who is dressed in a white gown, is depicted having a conversation with a
man in a tuxedo. Santi, wearing the same dress, is approaching them. Santi is seen
confidently joining and getting in on the conversation. She smiles, laughs and
confidently looks toward the man. Santi looks confident standing side by side with
Sinta because now they have the same light skin tone. It is emphasized by the camera,
which closes up their upper arms. Now they are perfectly like two peas in a pod.
Women in the Citra White advertisement, in my view, suggest the image of
Indonesian modern women. The sense of modernity in this advertisement is embodied
particularly through the physical side of women and their physical characteristics.
Eurasian-look models, Western fashion and make up, room decoration and the
standing party are used to generate an image of modern women. The use of Eurasianlook models, in particular, demonstrates how global values have affected the
construction of modern femininity in Indonesia. It is important to note that the concept
of “white is beautiful” increasingly gained universal appeal in Indonesian advertising,
particularly in the 1990s. The new construct of beauty is a striking example of western
influences, which have widely spread in Indonesia in the age of globalization.
Indonesian women were persuaded and encouraged to adopt western-like beauty as
owned by caucasian figures. It is not surprising, that the image of Indo look
(especially Eurasian: European+Asian) women has become a predominant trend in
Indonesian media, including in advertising. The use of Indo (Eurasian) model is
inscribed in the sense of internationalism.44 Advertisements have become the channel
44
In the context of Indonesian film, Sunindyo (1993, p.137) argues that the image of the Eurasian
women’s body is to flatter the male viewer, to make him feel he ‘owns’ and can ‘consume’ the image of
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to cultivate a “new feeling of internationalism” (Ibrahim 1998, 366) by creating
symbolic images associated with Western culture. Sinta, in the advertisement, is the
ideal personification of modern beauty, because she has the Eurasian body and facial
features with the right skin colour tone. Sinta is an embodiment of an ideal modern
woman; the one each Indonesian woman should, if not must, want to be. It is similar
with her own twin sister, Santi, who devotes her time to be perfectly like Sinta. At the
end, Santi and Sinta are presented as two models of ideal, modern, beautiful women,
who dress in the same modern gowns and modern hairdo.
It would appear, then, that being a modern woman is embodied mainly through
the corporeal qualities of women. The appearance of women and her physical
characteristics, in this respect, play a significant role to signify women’s engagement
in modernity. Incorporeal qualities, which are related to a spirit of freedom,
independence, competition and professionalism, are hardly visible in the Citra White
advertisement. Sinta, for instance, is depicted as being better and more ideal than Santi
mainly in terms of physical appearance rather than her incorporeal qualities. Sinta is
indeed depicted being skillful in playing piano and being self-confident in
communicating with her male company, but she gains those qualities only because she
has an ideal physical appearance. It is worth noting that the name Sinta45 is likely
taken from Hindu epic, Ramayana. In the epic of Ramayana, Sinta is an exemplar of
womanly and wifely goodness. She is a wife of Rama, who shows her wifely fidelity
and devotion to her husband. The figure of Sinta, as Barbara Hatley (2002, p.131)
asserts, was frequently placed as a model of ideal wives and women in Indonesian
novels in the 1970s and 1980s. Female protagonists in Indonesian novels during these
periods were often identified with the figure of Sinta. Citra White advertisement, in
this respect, transforms and brings the figure of Sinta into a modern context. Sinta in
the Citra White advertisement is also positioned as an ideal woman, but in a different
sense. The Ramayana epic praises Sinta mainly due to her incorporeal quality, that is,
her fidelity and wifely goodness. Citra White advertisement, in contrast, praises and
idealizes Sinta due to her corporeality.
feminine body, a body of a woman from the former [Dutch] colonial race. In this sense, male viewers
identify themselves as the former colonized males. This idea is shared by Ariel Heryanto (1998b, p.47),
who argues that the white female generates a certain seduction for Indonesian men. This seduction is
not merely biological as normal men, but it is also related to a complexity of social histories, political
aspects, sexuality and race. This notion particularly shows the male’s self-concept of power and
sexuality.
45
Sinta is the Indonesian name for Sita, the name of Rama’s wife in the Ramayana epic.
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In generating an image of modern femininity, the Citra White advertisement
suggests the notion of being a modern woman but remaining Indonesian. In doing so,
the advertisement binds the twin sisters with traditional values of gender role. They
are, for instance, still tied with the notion of homebound ideals, by depicting them
being enclosed by the house walls, the place they are culturally supposed to belong to.
At the party, shown in the later scenes, both of them and other guests are in a house
yard. The yard, as the only place outside of the house shown in the advertisement, is
enclosed by the walls of house. Santi and Sinta, therefore are enclosed on three sides
by the walls of the house, and the camera in front of them. This image is similar with
the Bodrex advertisement, which also places the woman at home. In the Bodrex
advertisement, the woman is apparently depicted as a housewife. The tidy and clean
home shown in the advertisement evidences her responsibilities to deal with
cleanliness and comfort in the home. Advertisements, in this sense, assign modern
women with responsibility to respect and preserve traditions, including the values that
domesticate women. They are allowed to be modern as long as they can respect and
preserve traditions already handed down from their ancestors. The Citra White
advertisement positions modern Indonesian women in between, between private and
public space, and between modernity and traditionality. In the advertisement,
dissolving images are used to signify the passage of time, through which traditions are
handed down from the ancestor to the next generations. First is the image of pouring
Citra White on Santi’s hand, which signifies the state of modernity. Citra White is
considered a modern product, which enables Santi to gain her identity as a modern
woman. This image is dissolved with the images of ingredients of the lotion, which
come from nature and are based on ancestor’s recipe as written in the opened book
when zoomed-in, the writing being in Javanese script. The scene of sliced Bengkoang
on the table with the small framed photograph of a Javanese princess underlines the
message of traditionality in this advertisement. The scene indicates that the natural
ingredients for whitening and moisturizing the body were originally used by the
Javanese princesses to maintain their beauty long centuries ago. It is a well known fact
that the notion of traditionality in Indonesia is frequently linked to Javanese culture, as
also depicted in the Bodrex advertisement. The woman in the Bodrex advertisement is
depicted as a Javanese woman with opposing personal qualities of an ideal Javanese
woman. I will analyse and come back to this theme in a further chapter regarding
ethnicity/race. The recipe for body maintenance is depicted originating from a
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traditional recipe which is now inherited by modern women. The dissolving images
serve as the significant medium which connects the past and the present or perhaps the
future. Those images also indicate that new media technology, such as filmic
technology, has enabled current people to travel back to the past and arrive back in the
present, passing through the passage of time. In this sense, women similarly are
encouraged to be important agents to bridge traditionality and modernity. On this
point, as I argued earlier, women are placed in a difficult position. They experience
and live up to modernity, whereas they are continuously urged to be the guardians of
traditions. Women, therefore, are frequently warned and reminded about traditional
values. As Minh-Ha (1989, p.106) asserts, traditions become the oppressors’ sacred
weapon, which is repeatedly held up to maintain the oppressors’ privileges. It is
similar to the fact that men use traditions to control women in order to maintain their
own privilege and to settle masculinity. The entrapment of women in the conflict
between tradition and modernity demonstrates that modern women undergo such a
layered colonization. Women, in this sense, are colonized by men at the first level, by
the state, and then by global culture.
4.2.2 Corporeal and Incorporeal
After entering the more democratic era, women’s organizations in Indonesia
enjoyed a new freedom which enabled them to voice a wide range of issues regarding
human rights reform and feminism. During this new era, the issue of gender equality
has attained serious attention from the new government, NGOs and many public
organizations. In moving toward a more democratic country, the early Post New Order
Indonesia had to face a multidimensional crisis in having to raise aid from advanced
countries. During this period, Indonesia was increasingly flooded by foreign aid.
International aid agencies have become more important, particularly to engender the
reform agenda in the country, including those regarding human rights and feminism.
International support on behalf of women has increasingly influenced the feminist
agenda in Indonesia. During the new era, feminism has been more influential in
encouraging Indonesian women to attain advancement personally, socially and
economically. To discard the New Order’s long-lasting gender ideology, which
inclined to limit women’s roles, Indonesian feminists encouraged women to be more
active and get out of the home to develop their capacities. In line with the advancing
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efforts to empower Indonesian women, images of domesticated women became less
favoured in advertising. Instead, advertising tended to appropriate feminist ideas and
rhetoric regarding empowerment. Women gaining their freedom, independence and
self-fulfillment became new messages, which were inscribed in advertising narratives.
Modern women were now defined and depicted as empowered, self-sufficient and
independent women. Modern women, in this sense, are embodied and visualized by
involving corporeal and incorporeal layers of women. The advertisement of a diet
product, Weight Reduction Program—WRP (Figure 4.4) is one example of this
phenomenon.
Figure 4.4 Weight Reduction Program (WRP) Advertisement
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
As an advertisement for a healthy diet, Weight Reduction Program or WRP is in fact
addressed to men and women. However, the advertisement emphasizes its focus
particularly on women. The advertisement shows how the slender woman does and
enjoys her busy activities. It delineates how the woman plays with her freedom and
independence of spirit. The woman in the advertisement is a new image of a working
woman, similar to the woman in the Konidin advertisement who appears in
professional garb and businesslike hairdo. In this advertisement, however, the woman
is depicted not merely convincingly businesslike, but more than that, she is also
depicted playing with her independence for her own pleasure. This advertisement
delineates the public and private lives of women; both can be successfully handled at
the same time. As shown in the advertisement, the woman seems to lead the business,
which is likely related to the garment and fashion industry. She is depicted managing
her workers, arranging her agenda, being busy with her mobile phone and having
lunch with business partners. She is able to handle all those things on her own. It is
demonstrated, for instance, in a scene in which the woman is trying to pass a narrow
space between two chairs. From the marketing perspective, the image wants to show
how slender she is (thanks to the advertised product), so that she has no problem
passing through the narrow space. In another sense, the scene can be read as her
ability to deal with a man who is sitting on one chair and with a woman who is on
another chair. The scene, which captures the woman being in between two chairs,
indicates that she has no problem in dealing with both men and women. The
relationship with men, in particular, gains a certain focus in this advertisement. Men in
this advertisement are also depicted as active and professional. In this regard, men and
women are depicted equal in a sense they become business partners. The woman looks
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confident to negotiate and make a business deal with men. Unlike the career woman in
the Konidin advertisement, who still requires men’s guidance, the woman in the WRP
advertisement is depicted being self-reliant and able to handle her activities without
men’s guidance. A low angle scene in the advertisement, for instance, depicts the
woman and a man shaking hands with high buildings and blue sky in the background.
The scene indicates that as partners, both of them have made a certain business
agreement. The use of low camera angle in this instance generates an impression that
both parties, man and woman, are equal in power and authority. The woman is
seemingly ensured that she is no longer constrained by a power imbalance between
men and women in the public sphere. The next scene shows the woman as she runs
toward high buildings in front of her, and makes a little jump with the hands up. Red
balloons are seen on this scene drifting up higher into the sky, which can be associated
with her spirit as a modern woman, which is also drifting up and getting higher. This
scene signifies her welcomed entrance into a modern public life with its all dynamics
and challenges. She has no problems living up to a rapidly changing modern public
life. The early scene of fast moving traffic on a road in the middle of a business area,
with high buildings in the surroundings, indicates the modern dynamics she must
conform to. Since woman in this advertisement is a woman who is endowed with selfsufficiency, self-reliance and independence, she is ready to face such challenges in the
modern life. She is able to do her own things, without worrying about reactions from
others, especially those from men. The point that “women can do” is repeatedly
underlined by the lyric of the advertisement’s female voice soundtrack. “So you can
do the healthy diet. You make up your mind; try and do”. The soundtrack’s lyrics are
not merely bound up with the advertised product, but also with the narrative of
modern women’s life as depicted in the advertisement. “Women can do”, as
repeatedly issued by feminists, has been appropriated by advertisers to sell products.
Feminist rhetoric, in this sense, has been adopted and transformed to commodify
women and address women as consumers.
Similar to advertisements during the New Order era, the WRP advertisement
also uses women’s corporeal layers such as fashion, make up, furniture and room
decorations, to generate an image of a modern woman. In the WRP advertisement in
particular the furniture and room decorations, both at her workplace and her house,
tend to be primarily “western”, which is identified with modern. The product, which
offers a healthy diet for modern body maintenance, functions as an agent that brings
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the woman into a modern lifestyle. Women’s physical appearance and her material
possesions are significant to articulate their engagement with modernity. This mode of
representation is also revealed in the Konidin advertisement. Both advertisements
suggest that women can be empowered through their appearance. To reinforce this
concept, advertisements weave together the corporeal and incorporeal layers of
women, thereby generating an image of modern women. Power dressing, particularly,
is used in advertisements to fabricate the notion of empowerment, freedom and
independence through physical appearance. As mentioned earlier, a particular style of
dress worn by working women is frequently used to produce enormous images of
smart and high powered career women. This style of dress, according to McDowell
and Court (1994), is chosen to construct women as honorary men, who are endowed
with objective, logical and rational qualities (in Brewis et.al. 1997, p.1287). By
wearing this style of dress, women can gain their capacity to be seen as capable and
skillful individuals rather than merely as objects.
During the post New Order era, the inner drive or spiritual side of women has
been involved to construct images of modern women. As shown in the Konidin
advertisement, the inner process which occurs within the body has gained particular
attention. The woman is depicted dealing with her inner process, negotiating with her
own drive and attempt to stabilize it. In addition, the woman in the Konidin
advertisement is depicted as a knowledgeable and well-educated woman. Her job is
proof that she is eager to pursue advanced education. Similarly, the woman in the
WRP is not only depicted in terms of her feminine appearance. Her incorporeal layer,
revealed as hardworking, self-sufficient and independent, was underlined to
demonstrate that she is ready to face challenges in a rapidly changing modern society.
Having those spiritual qualities, women have been allowed and welcomed to join men
in the modern public life. This self-reliant woman, according to New Order’s gender
ideology, does not meet the criteria of an ideal woman. As mentioned earlier, New
Order’s ideology praised motherhood as the “essential nature of women” (Tiwon
1996, p.64). In this sense, the woman in WRP advertisement is definitely excluded
from the ideal type of woman due to her choice of being single and self-reliant.
During the post New Order era, in contrast, an active and single woman has become a
new signifier of empowered and liberated woman. It should be asserted, however, the
rhetoric of empowerment and liberation in the WRP advertisement is still intricately
linked to the selling narrative of body image.
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As women are depicted being more independent, men, in this regard, are
depicted as having no choice other than welcoming women to join them in modern
public life. The fact that women are increasingly able to overcome gender constraints
in the public sphere has actually unsettled the stability of masculinity. As depicted in
the Konidin advertisement, men attempt to maintain and emphasize their strength. In
line with women’s awareness to be empowered, men attempt to negotiate their
positions in relation to women. In the context of the Konidin advertisement, for
instance, men are depicted positioning themselves as women’s guides. It is worth
noting that men during the post New Order era are expected to improve their
involvement in the family. Men are urged to be family men, who spend more time
with and care for their wives and children. This fact is also revealed in the Konidin
advertisement when the male patient relates his case to the woman psychiatrist. He
tells his psychiatrist that his wife is often angry because he pays less attention to his
family. This fact indicates that women now have something else to work on other than
dealing with their families. This is related to the situation in Indonesia during the
monetary crisis which hit the country in 1997. During the crisis, women were
increasingly propelled to enter the public sphere as additional economic providers for
the family.46 This fact actually generated a double burden for women. But during the
Post New Order, women were encouraged to negotiate with men to cope with this
burden. Therefore, women urged men to improve their involvement in taking care of
the family.
It should be stressed that the image of modern woman in Indonesian advertising
indicates western investments in the construction of new femininity. Modern
femininity in advertising during the two different eras in Indonesia was largely
westernized and had a middle class bias. This fact not only demonstrates the
devaluation of the plurality of women in Indonesia, but also the predominance of
western values in defining gender roles in the country. New modern women during the
New Order era are embodied particularly from corporeal properties of women, which
tend to be primarily western. During the post New Order era, a new femininity was
46
It is important to note that women tended to work in the informal sector, because this kind of work
allowed them to deal with their domestic duties in the household. In the formal sector, women workers
in general hold lower positions due to their limited formal education and skills. See Zulminarni, 2001,
available from http://www.socialwatch.org/en/informeImpreso/pdfs/indonesia2001_eng.pdf [Accessed
12 December 2007]
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embodied from corporeal as well as incorporeal sides of women. Modern womanhood
emphasizes women’s independence, fearlessness, freedom and self-sufficiency.
Feminist rhetoric such as independence, freedom, sameness and empowerment are, in
fact, the central agenda of global feminism (Weedon, 2002). Global media has
provided such images of women, which represent the interests of white, western,
middle class women. Globalization has spread this image all over the world for the
construction of a common identity of gender. Indonesian advertising has appropriated
this global feminist rhetoric in representing modern women in the country.
4.3. Pleasure and Appearance
4.3.1. Self Observed
It is often asserted that advertising is about appearances (Barthel 1988,
Killbourne 1999). Advertising frequently addresses people’s need to articulate their
sense of identity through physical appearances. Women, in particular, are addressed
by advertising to put on appearances and work with their body to gain her femininity.
Women in this sense are encouraged to project their own physical appearance,
because her appearance communicates her presence and how they take themselves
(Barthel 1988, p.9). It is important to note, that men are also judged by their
appearance. It means that not only women are objectified within advertising discourse.
However, as Lacan (1968, 1977) argues, people live in a patriarchal society which
always tends to privilege male looking (in Shields and Heinecken 2002, p.83). In this
respect, men hold the right to look at, to stare at, and even to control others, especially
women. Men also hold the right to define women’s attractiveness. Treating women
merely as objects has generated protests among western feminists since the 1960s.47
However, as Gauntlett (2002, p.55) asserts, images of young, thin and attractive
women, who were objectified and concerned with their own beauty, still permeated at
least until the 1980s.
In the context of Indonesia, during the New Order era in the 1990s, images of
women as objects for males to gaze at were obviously present. Women’s physical
47
Susan Faludi (1991) and Naomi Wolf (1991) are two outstanding feminist authors who are widely
recognized for their critical ideas regarding ideal type of female beauty. Both have assumed that
cultural discourses about the female body construct an unrealistic and singular ideal of beauty, which is
defined by thinness and youthfulness See Tyner and Ogle (2007, p.76)
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appearance is continuously used to measure women’s humanity. Slenderness remains
an important keyword to construct an ideal type of feminine beauty. Susan Bordo
(1993) in Unbearable Weight asserts that slenderness becomes a sign of one’s mental
health and one’s status as a good person (in Shields and Heinecken 2002, p.94). In
contrast, fat is associated with the lack of will and inability to control the demanding
body. Fat women are often represented as unlovable, childish and out of control. Since
fat women do not meet the conventions of attractiveness of femininity, they are barely
displayed in advertising. In cases where they are represented, they are negatively
depicted as deviant, unruly and unpleasant characters. This fact is obviously shown in
the Bodrex advertisement. Unlike the slender twin sisters in Citra White
advertisement, who are depicted as beautiful and lovable, the overweight woman in
the Bodrex advertisement is represented as an aggressive, unruly and unlovable
woman. More than that, depicted as being angry and continuously nagging, the “fat”
woman in the Bodrex advertisement looks unhappy with her own life. That being fat
is problematic has enduringly created and intensified women’s anxiety about weight.
Women have been provoked to be more conscious of external appearance, bodily
presentation and looks (Featherstone 1982, p.22).
Women have increasingly gained an awareness of being objectified. She sees
herself as an object; hence, she keeps observing and scrutinizing herself to ensure that
she does right by her appearance to meet what people imagine and desire. As shown in
the Citra White advertisement, the twin sisters are aware that people out there,
particularly men, are looking at or gazing at them. They are depicted as being
attractive, passive, “being looked at” (Mulvey, 1975) and positioned as the ones who
receive the gaze and the action from men. The camera and male voice-overs, in this
respect, also take the position of invisible observer: the man who suggests men’s
imagination of women’s appearance. Having the awareness of being observed, the
twin sisters observe themselves, try to reflect and find out the flaws which can ruin
their appearance. Dark skin tone, in the context of the Citra White advertisement, is
presented as the flaw which generates anxiety for Santi. She must work on her own
body to remove or improve the flaws. The advertised product functions as the agent
which enables the woman to bring alive her femininity by gaining her perfect
appearance. Having finished with her body treatment, Santi is depicted having
attained her self-confidence to meet men. As shown, for instance, in the later scenes
where Santi is approaching Sinta, who is having a conversation with her male
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companion. Santi looks confident to join them, talking, smiling and laughing. She
seemingly gains her pleasure from presenting her improved physical appearance that
men, and, perhaps, other women, possibly imagine and desire. In this sense, they need
the presence of men as props and backdrops. As seen in the advertisement, Santi and
Sinta are depicted having a conversation with a man. The viewers are free to imagine
his face. His presence is merely attached, because the man in this advertisement is
positioned as audience, observer, gazer, who fulfills his desire to gaze at women’s
appearance. Appearance takes and proves everything, including the self. Visible
identity becomes the only important identity for women. It would appear then that the
women in this advertisement are not doing anything other than being attractive or
worrying about not being attractive. This fact is similar to Naomi Wolf’s (1991) and
Susan Faludi’s (1991) critical ideas regarding women’s anxiety about their
appearance. Both feminist authors assert that the beauty industry [hand in hand with
advertising] has encouraged women to spend time and money on physical appearance
rather than on pursuing other interests and the achievement of professional goals (in
Tyner and Ogle 2007, pp.76-7). This advertisement remains objectifying women and
defining them by how they can be treated and observed. As fetishized objects, women
have lost their individuality and capacity to act. They have even lost their right to their
own bodies because these are being enjoyed and controlled by others.
4.3.2. Bipolar Self
The abundance of advertising images which frequently objectify and
dehumanize women has increasingly been criticized and gained more serious attention
from feminists. As occurred in western society in the late 1980s, advertisers have
decided to appropriate and conform to feminist rhetoric to sell products (Gill 2007,
Chinn 2006, MacDonald, 1995). Advertisements have woven the rhetoric of
individuality and choice with the selling product. This phenomenon can be revealed as
well in Indonesian advertising, particularly after the fall of the New Order era. As
mentioned earlier, the WRP advertisement has appropriated feminist rhetoric
regarding independence and freedom. Advertisements display women celebrating
their freedom, independence and equality to generate an image of empowered women.
At the same time, however, advertisements also promote the product, which supports
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women’s body maintenance and femininity. In this sense, being empowered and
independent women but still feminine is the point made by the advertisement.
The rhetoric of freedom and empowerment is co-opted to put the notion of body
appearance in the limelight. One effect has been that, no matter how empowered they
are, women are required to continuously scrutinize, evaluate and control their bodies.
As depicted in the WRP advertisement, the woman needs to keep an eye on her body
appearance before, during and after her activities as a professional woman. She should
stick to a certain schedule regarding her food intake to control and maintain her body
appearance. In this respect, the fact that women are placed as objects to be gazed is
still intact. However, since women have gained their freedom and independence, they
are no longer passive objects but active initiators (Chinn 2006, p.158). Women’s
presence is not merely to be gazed at, but women also invite others to gaze at them.
They are depicted enjoying being gazed at by others, by men and by other women. As
shown in the WRP advertisement, the woman likely gains her pleasure from being
looked at. As depicted in the early scenes, the woman lays her body on the bed and
pulls her upper torso up to rest on her elbows. She smiles and crosses her arms in front
of her chest. She does not face the camera straight on, but she is conscious of the
camera and lets it expose her upper torso. The scene then cuts to her close-up face,
which is now facing and looking the camera straight in the eye. Her gaze, which is
directed knowingly towards the camera, indicates that she is definitely aware of being
observed. She is being gazed at by an invisible observer, that is, the camera, which is
identified with a male observer. The male voice-over that is heard in the last scene
reinforces the fact, that the camera as the third narrator is synonymous with male eyes.
Men still play a role as the main observer that defines and judges women’s
appearance.
The way she looks directly toward the camera in the early and later scenes
indicates that she deliberately presents her body and invites others to gaze at her. In
the advertisement she is depicted consciously playing with her appearance and
attractiveness. The smile on her face demonstrates that she feels comfortable and
gains her own pleasure from being looked at. She definitely recognizes that her
appearance also generates pleasure for those who gaze at her. In this sense, the woman
experiences a split consciousness (Shields and Heinecken 2002, p.77), in which she is
aware of being seen in terms of what men fantasize about women. She realizes that
her appearance is the appearance men have defined and imagined. She is looking at
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the male-defined figure of herself. Yet, despite her awareness, she still finds herself
influenced by such a configuration and attempts to present it. By doing so, ironically,
the woman gains her own pleasure. She pleases herself by being gazed at and by
presenting herself as what others desire and imagine. The fact of this matter is that the
advertisement has embodied a bipolar self within the woman in a sense that she repels
the patriarchal order and wants to live up to the standards of a newly empowered
woman. At the same time, however, she remains admitting and adhering to traditional
femininity.
What is more, the image of the woman’s body parts is also seen in the
advertisement. The camera as the observer deliberately exposes and crops a certain
part of the woman’s body, as shown in one of its scenes in which the woman is trying
to pass through a narrow space between two chairs. Her body is fragmented and now
only her lower body is seen in close-up by the camera. The practice of using female
body parts to represent an entire woman in advertising in fact has been repeated across
time (see e.g. Kilbourne 1999, Shields and Heinecken 2002, Cortese, 2004). This
practice, according to Cortese (2004, p.38) perpetuates the notion that a woman’s
body is not linked to her mind, soul and emotions. Women in this form of
representation are considered as fetishised objects rather than as human beings. This
practice dehumanizes women, which means it removes their subjectivity and capacity
to make individual choices. This fact obviously collides with feminist rhetoric of
freedom and empowerment as adopted by this advertisement.
What is quite certain on this point is that, despite suggesting that equality for
women has been achieved, significant changes of how women are represented in
advertising have not been achieved. Traditional conventions in representing women
are still intact. The fact that fat women are excluded from the rhetoric of freedom and
empowerment illustrates the truth of this argument. In the context of the WRP
advertisement, although the product itself is for reducing weight, the advertisement
does not present women who have problems with weight. Instead, the advertisement
presents a slender woman, who actually needs not consume the product. She is,
however, depicted consuming the product, which implies that the advertised product
functions as a weight maintaining program, rather than weight reducing program. The
advertising narrative works to ensure that ideal women are still measured mainly by
their corporeality.
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4.4. Incorporated Images
Construction of gender images in Indonesian television advertisements were
situated in the dynamics of a capitalistic market economy, socio-political structure,
and the development of the women’s movement in the country. A close examination
of gender images in TV advertisements during the two different eras in Indonesia
demonstrates that conventional gender portrayals remain present albeit in slightly
changed and modified forms. The mode of talking or constructing femininity and
masculinity is somewhat changed, but there is no substantial change in how women
are positioned and represented in advertising. Images of gender in advertising during
the two different eras in Indonesia were in fact incorporated images, in a sense that
progressive images of femininity and masculinity are merely superficial, and still
adhere to conventional codes of gender roles.
It is worthy noting, however, that stereotypical images of femininity and
masculinity are actually contested, negotiated as well as affirmed along with sociopolitical shifts between the two different eras in Indonesia. During the New Order era,
the notion of masculinity and femininity were inscribed in the narratives of good/bad,
active/passive and modern/traditional. Those narratives generated images of
domesticated femininity, which are primarily with reference to the home, passivity
and corporeal glorification. Feminist critiques against the state’s gender ideology in
1990s have generated certain tensions regarding constructs of women’s roles in
Indonesia. However, women’s attempts to move beyond the boundaries of
domesticated femininity were ironically perceived as unruliness and deviance. Men,
meanwhile, have tremendous fears of female power, which threatens to unsettle the
stability of masculinity. In this respect, product and advertising narratives serve as
significant agents which ensure men to restore empowered [but threatening] women to
their due place in the patriarchal order. The advertisements’ story lines and
characterizations attempt to neutralize such tensions by reinforcing ideals of
subservient womanhood. Men, therefore, are propelled to show their power to
dominate and discipline women in order to maintain their masculine credentials. It has
been demonstrated that women during the New Order era of the 1990s were
continuously urged and depicted to be homebound ideals and guardian of traditions.
They were assiduously encouraged to be enclosed with the home, both physically and
morally. The fact that the New Order regime had increasingly lost its power grids in
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the 1990s did not significantly reduce its powerful influences, which had been
cultivated for decades. Conventional gender portrayals in advertising during this
period indicated that gender ideology sanctioned by the New Order regime remained
influential. Globalization, which has been opening wide access to western values since
early 1990s, has indeed influenced the feminization of the public sector in Indonesia.
Nevertheless, it has less to do with women empowerment and gender equality. In the
course of advertising, globalization has transformed advertising into an exciting arena
where definitions of modern women are put into play. Gender portrayals in
advertising indicate western investments in defining modern femininity in Indonesia,
which, unfortunately, only praises the corporeal side of women. As a result, women in
advertising have remained objectified and have thus lost their subjectivity as human
beings.
After the fall of the New Order regime, Indonesia entered a transition phase
towards democracy. During this phase, New Order ideology was being increasingly
and openly challenged as well as revised, including with regard to gender ideology.
The image of domesticated women being central to New Order ideology, however,
was still intact, albeit in subtle and modified form. In other words, there was no real
change in the content of talking about women, although the mode of talking itself was
slightly modified. Gender differences were generated through the narratives of
educated/ignorance, active/passive and modern/traditional. Those narratives depicted
women as being active, independent and eager to pursue their professional career. To
generate a new image of femininity, advertising during this era tended to appropriate
the feminist rhetoric of empowerment. Women, it seemed, were freed from their
traditional domesticated roles as dutiful wives and mothers. However, in practice it
was quite to the contrary, in a sense that advertising only presented a pseudo liberation
of women. What appeared on the surface to be progressive images, were in fact not
progressive. Women were liberated and empowered only superficially. Women’s
activities in public realms, for instance, were still depicted as extensions of their
private roles as nurturers.
Added to that, working women were primarily bound up with the notion of
corporeality; with beauty and body maintenance as the keywords to gain a better self
image. The incorporeal side of women, such as independence of spirit, was merely
used to support the glorification of body image rather than to signify their capacities
and work skills. This mode of talking about women insidiously suggested devaluation
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and trivialization of women’s contribution in the public realm. Images of pseudo
liberated women have underlined women’s lack of capacity in dealing with public life.
On the other hand, men were depicted as more sensitive and fluid, in a sense that they
no longer held anxieties about welcoming women into the public realm. However,
men were ensured by advertising narratives that they remained stronger and more
knowledgeable than any professional women.
It is observable that advertisements during the New Order and post New Order
have generated images of modern femininity which were largely westernized with a
middle class bias. Standards of being modern and emancipated were imported from
western constructs of femininity. This underlines the idea that feminism itself may
well mean westernization (Minh-Ha 1989, p.106). In this sense, Eurocentric ideas of
gender have been frequently considered as a model for the rest of the world.
Indonesian advertising has also adopted western feminist thinking regarding women
empowerment. This has resulted in an embedded image of modern femininity, an
image that has somewhat disregarded the actual plurality of women in Indonesia.
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Chapter 5
Ambiguity of Images: Ethnicity/Race on Screen
It has been argued that mass media play a significant role in articulating,
underpinning or subverting racism (See e.g. Downing and Husband, 2005; Xing and
Hirabayashi, 2003; Hall, 2000; Goonasekera and Ito, 1999). More specifically, Stuart
Hall asserts, “The media are not only a powerful source of ideas about race. They are
also one place where these ideas [of race] are articulated, worked on, transformed and
elaborated” (2000, p.273). In this understanding, media work to construct a certain
definition and meaning of race through its imagery and narrative. Mass media incline
to highlight differences between ethnic/racial groups and, thereby, might evoke
prejudice either within or toward certain groups. Even in the entertainment programs
and advertising, which presumably do not have explicit political agenda, power
relationships between ethnic/racial groups are actually involved. Advertisements do
not simply contain selling messages of products but, more than that, they can tell
stories of social relations and power structure regarding ethnic/racial groups. In
accordance with it, Cortese (2004, p.89) suggests that advertisements serve as a “type
of barometer of the willingness of dominant groups” to accept ethnic minorities. He
also argues that advertisements might exert “symbolic racism”, which includes subtle
ethnic stereotyping, trivialization of minority empowerment or racial equality, or the
absence of ethnic images. Stuart Hall (2000, 273) defines this tendency as “inferential
racism”, by which certain premises and propositions of race are inscribed in
naturalized
[advertising]
representations
and
perceived
as
“unquestioned
assumptions”.48
It could be said, on this point, that both positive and negative images regarding
ethnic/racial groups can provide significant cues to reveal prevailing discourses about
ethnic/racial relations in a society and, most importantly, about a perceived majority’s
assumption toward a perceived minority. In their study of race and gender imagery in
TV advertisements, Coltrane and Messineo (2000, p.366) suggest that advertising
imagery plays an important part in the construction of subtle forms of prejudice,
48
Stuart Hall distinguishes between inferential racism and overt racism. Overt racism refers to the
attempts to give open and favourable coverage to certain ideas, positions and persons that aim to
elaborate and advance an openly racist argument or point of view. It is different with inferential racism,
which could work in a subtle way and beneath one’s consciousness. However, Hall asserts that both
types of racism are equally dangerous and offensive. For further explanation see Hall (2000)
105
which are based on the construction of differences between ingroups and outgroups.
In this understanding, advertisements could promote prejudical attitudes toward
outgroups members, and generate certain stereotypical images, which could stir up
people to demean outgroups members. Added to that, advertisements tend to
naturalize asymmetrical relations of power between majority and minority groups in a
subtle way. As a consequence, prevalent images of the majority or the absence of the
minorities in advertisements are potentially taken and considered as “normal” and
“unproblematic”.
To my knowledge there has been no substantial research on the discourses
regarding ethnic/racial groups, especially minorities, in Indonesian advertisements.
Due to the New Order’s cultural politics, this fact is somewhat unsurprising. As
discussed in chapter 1, during the New Order era, mass media were ordered to avoid
any sensitive and potentially inflammatory subjects related to sentiments of ethnicity,
religion, race and social class (SARA rule: Suku [ethnicity], Agama [religion], Ras
[race] and Antar golongan [social class]). It should be stressed that the rule did not
significantly reflect the state’s appreciation and respect for existing cultural
differences in Indonesia. On the contrary, the SARA rule was merely used to cover
anything that countered certain political agenda of the government (Tesoro 2000,
p.43). Furthermore, since the New Order’s state placed Javanese ethnicity in the
prominent position, anything regarding Javanese ethnicity in the media seemed to be
immune from the SARA rule. It would appear, then, that the SARA rule has become
one of discursive strategies established by the state to define and justify ethnic/racial
groups existing in the country.
It is worth considering that based on indefinite criteria the New Order
government established some media texts as political (Sen and Hill 2000, p.12), which
the regime tightly controlled by imposing either official legislation or the telephone
culture.49 Some others were deemed as apolitical texts, which lack the possibility of
becoming a channel for such an ideology or culture that could counter the state’s
political agenda. Following this logic, advertising belonged to the latter category,
49
It was a well-known fact that the New Order government also undertook a sort of ‘invisible’
mechanisms of censorship to both print and broadcast media. One of them was called budaya telepon or
telephone culture, i.e. a system which involves officials telephoning editors or major shareholders of
print and broadcasting media in Indonesia to remind them that any topics which could counter the
government line on a particular issue should be avoided. This system was operated by Ministry of
Information officials and, occasionally, by the military and other government officials, in order to
remind the media that they are under constant scrutiny. Even commercial broadcast media were not
immune to those mechanisms of censorship. For more information see Article 19 (1996)
106
which resulted in the state’s light control over advertising texts. Despite the state’s
light control, as stated in the Indonesian Advertising Code of Conduct, advertisements
in Indonesia needed to avoid images which could reveal the SARA conflict and
potentially damage the national culture. As a result, advertisements likely preferred to
convey “safe” images, which supposedly had lack of consequences related to
ethnic/racial issues.
It could be said that in a country with a multiethnic society like Indonesia,
depicting ethnic/racial groups in advertisements might be problematic. Images and
narratives of ethnic/racial differences potentially involve selection, reduction or even
homogenisation of cultural differences existing in the country. In addition, on account
of commercial and market considerations, advertisements are inclined to address the
perceived majority and thus cover their positions more readily than those of the
perceived minority. The latter are often considered as having a lack of disposable
income (Ghosh 2003, p.274), which makes them irrelevant or marginally relevant to
be visible in advertisements. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that the important
issue is not whether or not ethnicity/race exists in advertisements, but how discourses
regarding ethnicity/race are enunciated and deployed in advertisements.
Following this insight, in this chapter I aim to reveal how advertisements during
the two different eras in Indonesia produced and reproduced discursive strategies of
ethnic/racial differences through its images and narratives. I particularly attempt to
explore how Indonesian advertisements render overtone and undertone of certain
ethnic/racial groups existing in the country. Since ethnicity/race includes the notion of
majority and minority, I aim to reveal how discourses on power relations between the
majority and the minority in Indonesia are constructed and articulated in the
advertising texts. As mentioned earlier, advertising inclines to embrace the ideology
of the dominant group (Bristor et.al. 1995, p.48). In this understanding,
advertisements seemingly prefer to reproduce the dominant’s attitudes toward
minorities rather than reveal distinct and varied experiences of minorities. As a result,
the presence of minorities in advertisements tends to be defined within the perspective
of the dominant group. In the context of Indonesia, it is a well known fact that during
the New Order era the Javanese ethnic group received prominent status compared with
other existing groups in the country. Furthermore, under the New Order regime, all
Indonesian commercial television channels were located in Java [particularly in the
capital city, Jakarta], where about half of the Indonesian population lives. Java was
107
then, and remains today, a lucrative source of business for advertisers because it is a
big market, where big capitals could intensively flow. This situation influenced
discourses regarding ethnic/racial groups that live in the outer islands [of Java] and,
thereby, affected either their visual presence or their absence in Indonesian
advertisements. The visual absence or invisibility of certain ethnic/racial groups
deserves particular consideration in this chapter. I suggest that invisibility of those
groups provides important cues about the ideological complexity or political views
regarding ethnic/racial relations in Indonesian society. Added to that, comparing
advertisements during the New Order with those of the Post-New Order era enables
me to reveal the shifting or changing images and narratives regarding ethnic/racial
differences in line with the shift of socio-political climate in Indonesia. I argue that the
changing images and narratives of those differences render a dynamic view of
ethnic/racial relations and of ideological challenges against those relations in
Indonesian society.
It is worth stating at this point that I prefer to use the term ethnicity/race rather
than make a clear division between ethnicity and race. By doing so, I suggest that
ethnicity and race could be experienced at the same time. In order to discursively
construct ethnic/racial differences, I argue that the advertisements under discussion
involve the use of physical characteristics, cultural events, languages and other
elements, which are defined and perceived as ethnic/racial markers. The use of skin
tone in terms of blackness and whiteness to define ethnic/racial differences, especially
when other perceived ethnic/racial markers are absent, becomes of particular concern
to me. In accordance with it, I will use the terms “White Indonesian” and “Black
Indonesian” to illuminate what the advertisements try to suggest when those
differences are emphasised.
In this chapter I suggest that the advertisements under discussion construct
certain discursive strategies to define and represent ethnic/racial differences. The first
section of this chapter describes the analysis of the ambivalent function of cultural
traditions rendered in advertising images and narratives. I examine how the notion of
majority and minority is constructed around the ambivalent function. By doing so, the
ways in which advertisements position and portray the Javanese as the majority ethnic
group and how advertisements provide prominent status to this ethnic group are
equally revealed. In the next section, I particularly focus on how advertisements
attempt to appropriate and mainstream the perceived minorities in its imagery and
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narratives. I also aim to explore how inter-ethnic/racial relationships rendered in the
advertisements under discussion function narratively to generate a sort of cultural coopting at the end of the story. This chapter, then, is closed with the discussion of
individualization of ethnic/racial minorities in the advertising narratives.
5.1. Ambivalent Function of Cultural Tradition
In the previous chapter, I have argued that under the New Order government the
notion of traditionality largely referred to Javanese culture. Two advertisements
analysed in the previous chapter (Bodrex and Citra White advertisements), which
were produced and broadcast during the New Order era, have delineated this
argument. Both advertisements demonstrate that elements of Javanese ethnicity are
articulated, transformed and elaborated to sell products. In the Citra White
advertisement, for instance, Javanese ritual and symbols are used to represent
traditionality and high-value cultural heritages, which need to be preserved in
Indonesian modern life. Similarly, by representing a woman in Javanese traditional
attire and hairstyle, the Bodrex advertisement generates the subject position of
woman, which is drawn from a Javanese viewpoint regarding gender roles.50 As
mentioned in the previous chapter, the New Order’s gender ideology attempted to
position women as ideal homemakers, which was largely based on the Javanese
concept of gender roles (See e.g., Soekirno 2006; Ubed 2002; Surjakusuma 1996).
It is worth recalling that the New Order regime used Javanese culture51 not
merely to establish its gender ideology, but more broadly, President Soeharto, who
was a Javanese, intentionally used and interpreted Javanese culture to strengthen and
legitimize his power (Siahaan, 1998). The regime aimed to place Javanese-centric
aesthetics and politics above other existing cultures in the country. As a result, the
Javanese culture has received a more prominent status than other cultural groups.
50
Javanese culture require women to have attitudes and behaviour which are based on the concept of
matelu (manak—giving birth, macak—dressing and masak—cooking). The concept apparently indicates
that the most appropriate position of a Javanese woman is in the home. On the contrary, figures of
Javanese men are macho, strong and powerful, making men responsible for dealing with hard duties.
This logic is also linked to the assumption that a man deserves to be a leader. In Java the duties of men
are reflected in the concept of malima (main—gambling, madon—womanising, minum—drinking,
madat—using of drugs, and maling—bandit). It is in fact not an ideal type of man, however, it reflects
the male-supremacy in the Javanese everyday life. See for example Ubed (2002, p.55)
51
See footnote 16, p. 27
109
Although there were efforts to give more attention to non-Javanese cultures, it was not
surprising that only Javanese culture developed with higher degree of intensity. This
phenomenon is known as “Javanization” (Robert Cribb in Schmitz 2003, p.43), which
refers to two phenomena. Firstly, the official culture of Indonesia drew heavily from
elements of Javanese culture. Hence, Javanese culture took dominant place and was
considered the main culture of Indonesia. Secondly, the Javanese dominated the
important political and economical positions in the government. It is not surprising
that Java has become the center of culture, politics and economy of Indonesia.52
Regarding media representation, Sen and Hill (2000, p.219) suggest that due to
the New Order’s vision of national culture, local particularities were excluded in
media expression. Javanese culture, in this regard, underwent a similar
marginalization as the other local cultures had. Local languages, for instance,
occupied a limited sphere on television and were considered as belonging only to the
programme of traditional culture. Yet, despite marginalization of local cultures in the
media, Sen and Hill (ibid) acknowledged that there were no regional languages heard
other than Javanese, though in the rare instances, such as puppet shows (wayang) or
ketoprak, was this ever heard on television. The fact of that matter is that, despite
limited sphere for local cultures on television53, elements of Javanese ethnicity
remained, gaining a greater visibility on television than other ethnic groups in
Indonesia. This tendency took place as well in the advertisements.
As depicted in the Bodrex and Citra White advertisements, Javanese symbols
and viewpoints played a major and significant role in the storyline of both
52
It is worth stating at this point, that the prevailing notion of Javanese culture has been largely linked
to the hierarchical tradition of Javanese native courts (keraton) or Javanese Kingdoms which ruled
much of Java Island from the 17th to the 19th century. This fact has implied such an oversimplification
of Java’s diversity, because in fact there are other Javas away from the keraton (See Hatley et.al 1984).
53
It should be stressed, however, that under-representation of local cultures in Indonesian media in
general and in advertising in particular was a result of the New Order’s cultural policy regarding the
construction of national culture, which was considered as the cornerstone of nation-building. As stated
in the Artikel 32 of the 1945 Constitution States, national culture is defined as a combination of the
high points of all the regional cultures of Indonesia, a hybrid mix of the best of existing cultures in the
nation (See Hooker 1993, pp.4-5). It is in fact a highly contested concept, since the founding fathers did
not define and determine which of the identifiable existing cultural groups in Indonesia was established
as the high point. As a result, the New Order’s central government constructed and pushed hegemonic
criteria of national culture, which were largely linked to Javanese culture. Mass media were compelled
to reinforce the creation of national culture as sanctioned by the government. The vision of national
culture during this era resulted in the marginalization of local expressions—its images, voices, events,
performances. Accordingly, local cultures, including Javanese culture, obtained very limited space in
the media expressions.
110
advertisements. The overtone of Javanese ethnicity in advertising illustrates that
Javanese culture, to some extent, has influenced the mindset and cultural preferences
of advertisers. It should be not forgotten that advertising creators are part of a cultural
community that shares social conventions and a similar dominant worldview with
other members of the community. Their cultural preferences, according to Marchand
in Giaccardi (1995, p.111), could influence the way they portray and depict the world
and society through advertisements. This argument shows its evidence in Indonesian
advertising especially during the New Order era. In his work on portrayals of women
in advertising, Priosoedarsono (1998, p.308) reveals this tendency. He implies that his
personal predisposition as an individual professional in an advertising agency, to some
extent is influenced by Javanese values. He argued that to create a good advertisement
that sells, it is necessary to consider the five principles of life settlement in a Javanese
concept, namely, Garwo (Spouse), Karyo (Occupation), Wismo (House), Turonggo
(Vehicle), Kukilo (Pleasure). Concerning women images in advertising, he remarked
that those images are a sort of manifestation of the first principle of Javanese
settlement, that is, Garwo (Spouse). In other words, a man is already settled if he is
married and accompanied by his wife. As a result, the role of women in
advertisements largely refers to the Javanese concept of Garwo or wife. As analysed
in the previous chapter, this sort of women’s image was maintained even in the last
years of the New Order regime.
Elements of Javanese culture in the Bodrex and Citra White advertisements are
also depicted in a middle-class environmental setting. Bodrex, for instance, presents a
Javanese couple who live in a cosy house with paintings hanging on the wall and a
crystal chandelier from the ceiling. The woman is also depicted wearing jewellery on
all parts of her body, which indicates the couple’s economic success. Similarly, Citra
White also depicts the twin sisters, Santi and Sinta, as the members of a middle class
family. The cosy house, the piano, Javanese furniture, or the modern standing party
tell a particular story about their settled life. This middle class milieu in both
advertisements, in my view, has affirmed the higher status of Javanese culture, which
is mostly linked to the Javanese Kingdom. The high culture of Javanese keraton
(native court) has been appropriated to underscore that Javanese traditionality is a
valuable cultural heritage of the country. In a scene from the Citra White
advertisement (Figure 5.1.), the presence of a small portrait of a Javanese princess
illustrates this line of thinking.
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Figure 5.1. Portrait of Javanese Princess in Citra White Advertisement
The tendency to praise Javanese traditionality in fact illustrates the New Order’s
ambivalence in defining the term “traditional”. It is a well-known fact that during the
era the term “traditional” as opposed to “modern” suggested something backward,
pre-modern and uncultured, which frequently referred to ethnic minorities (Bertrand
2004, p.221). Regarding Javanese culture, however, the state assigned a different
meaning to traditionality. Instead of referring to backwardness or pre-modern-ness,
the government praised Javanese traditionality as a highlight cultural heritage, which
needs to be preserved in the Indonesian modern world. Geertz in Hooker (1993, p.9)
named this phenomenon as “neo-Javanism” and described it as an attempt to revitalize
Javanese traditions and expressive forms, to return them to public favour by
demonstrating their continued relevance to the modern world. During the era of
economic liberalization of the 1990s, neo-Javanism was reproduced and appropriated
by advertising, as depicted in the Citra White advertisement. The advertisement aims
to demonstrate that Javanese high culture is not merely rich and valuable, but has also
continuously significant relevance to the westernized and modern life of Indonesia. By
connecting women in the modern life to a Javanese princess and traditional recipe, and
subsequently to the advertised product, the advertisement asserts that construct of
modern beauty in Indonesia is barely detached from Javanese culture. In this sense,
the advertisement shows its role in imposing Javanese aesthetics upon the rest of the
ethnic groups in the country.
As has been mentioned, traditionality could have a different meaning if it points
to ethnic/racial minorities. Recalling the Telkom Vision advertisement discussed in
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chapter 1, this advertisement also uses certain symbols and traditions to signify the
Papua-ness. However, the perceived traditions and ethnic/racial markers of Papua are
simply used by the advertisement to generate a sense of exoticism. Furthermore,
although the perceived ethnic/racial markers of Papua are palpably used in the
advertisement, the Papuans are depicted voiceless. They are indeed depicted literally,
but the advertising narrative gives them no chance to voice their own words on their
own. In other words, despite the visibility of the Papuans and their traditions, the
advertisement does not aim to present them as a culturally distinct ethnic/racial group.
On the contrary, by defining them within the parameter of exotica, the advertisement
shows its tendency to articulate and reproduce the dominant’s assumption that the
Papuans are backward and pre-modern. The Papuan ethnicity/race is defined as
different and, thereby, considered as a problem that needs to be resolved. It would
appear, then, that cultural traditions have ambivalent functions in the advertisements.
As illustrated in the Bodrex and Citra White advertisements, Javanese traditions are
used to emphasize the high value of Javanese culture and its significant relevance to
Indonesian modern life. But if it is related to the ethnic/racial minorities such as the
Papuan, traditions function differently, i.e., to highlight their backwardness and premodernness, which are perceived as an obstacle for the modern life of Indonesia.
Therefore, as shown in the Telkom Vision advertisement, the Papuan is suggested to
be in need of modernisation.
Along with the loss of the New Order’s grip on power and after the fall of the
regime in 1998, ethnic/racial minorities that felt alienated and marginalized sought to
struggle for their political identity. Ethnic/racial riots occurred, particularly in the
regions where economic grievances54 existed, or in the regions that were regarded as
being traditional, pre-modern and backward. Conflicts which erupted in Aceh, Papua
and Borneo, according to Bertrand (2004, p. 221), evidenced the need for a better
expression of cultural diversity, a strengthening of local institutions and even symbols
to represent local particularities. During the Post New Order era, those ethnic
minorities have sought to contest the dominance of the Javanese which had been
54
During the New Order regime, some regions underwent an exclusion from developmental economic
benefits. Due to the label “traditional” or “backward” imposed by central government, certain regions
had a lack of access to resources, including to their own rich natural resources. Papua, for instance, is
economically important for Indonesia, because it is the site of the world’s largest gold and copper
mining operation, and it has large gas and oil deposits. However, the central government has exploited
Papua’s vast natural resources under terms that did not benefit the local population and without due
regarded to their local cultures. See Bertrand (2004) and Rabasa and Haseman (2002)
113
supported by the central government for decades. It should be stressed that in the
aftermath of President Soeharto’s fall, there have been democratic reforms including
in terms of cultural politics. The changes in politics, in this regard, have placed the
notion of multiculturalism in the limelight (see e.g. Budiman 2005; Yaqin 2005).
Unlike the previous regime, which attempted to invoke homogenization of culture in
the guise of national unity, the new government has been called upon to provide a
better place for various cultural differences in every corner of the country to live and
develop their own uniqueness and distinctness. It should be noted, on this point, that
multiculturalism should be distinguished from the notion of plurality. As Mahajan in
Fauzan (2005, p.69) points out, the concept of plurality merely suggests the diversity
in character, without regarding the notion of how various cultural groups live their
own life and interact with one to another. In contrast, the concept of multiculturalism
highlights recognition toward particular and distinct lived experiences of ethnic/racial
groups. Added to that, the politics of multiculturalism also aims to show how various
people’s voices and experiences are silenced and omitted from mainstream culture
and, most importantly, struggle to express and articulate various views, experiences,
and cultural forms from groups that are excluded from the mainstream (Dines and
Humez 2003, p.2). In other words, multiculturalism not merely recognizes that there
are cultural differences existing in society, but more broadly it suggests materials and
resources for those differences to celebrate and live up to their particularities in
everyday life. In the course of Indonesia, discussion of multiculturalism has called for
media participation in providing better space for ethnic/racial minorities. In this sense,
Indonesian media are largely expected to embrace and respond the celebration of
multiculturalism. Television, in particular, is considered the right medium to
encourage and deploy a celebration of cultural differences living in the country
(Kompas, 2001b).
During the Post New Order era until 2005, it is observable that ethnicity/race
remained an unfavourable theme in the advertising. However, there is no more
thematic silence with regard to ethnic/racial groups in Indonesian advertisements.
Ethnic/racial minorities are not absent as they once were. Yet, it should be noted that
the Javanese as a majority of the country remain gaining an overtone, albeit in slightly
modified form. During the New Order era, the Javanese had always played a single
and major role in the advertising narrative. Their presence was hardly ever
accompanied by other ethnic groups. Interaction between the Javanese and the rest of
114
the ethnic groups in the country was mostly invisible in advertising narrative. During
the Post New Order era, advertisements changed the way they spoke about the
Javanese. In line with a spreading concern of multiculturalism, advertisements began
to involve ethnic/racial interaction in their narratives. In this regard, the Javanese were
depicted having relationships with ethnic/racial minorities in the country. The
advertisement for HSBC Bank, as seen in Figure 5.2, demonstrates this phenomenon.
Figure 5.2. HSBC Advertisement
115
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
This advertisement tells a story about a Javanese/’White’ family, who has just spent
their holiday in Bali. The couple is depicted telling an interesting story about how they
spent their vacation there. The first scene is set in their living room. As they begin
their story, the scene shows flashback still images, which are placed in a sort of photoalbum book. The images are shown in a slide-show mode. In the first still image, a
Balinese souvenir shop postcard shelf of Bali Island is seen. A beautiful Bali
panorama is pictured on a postcard, underscoring the location where the story begins.
The husband describes that during the holiday, they spent much time shopping,
because the product—HSBC credit card—was offering many discounts to its
customers. Although the still images demonstrate that both of the couple enjoyed
shopping, the husband emphasizes that it was his wife who was crazy about shopping.
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Those images illustrate that both of them were really fascinated and made them ignore
their only son. As they realized that their son was gone, they started to panic. The next
scene shows the images of their attempt to find their son. One of those images shows a
man with a blangkon (a traditional Javanese hat for men) on a motorcycle pointing his
finger in a certain direction. He seemingly tried to help the couple by showing in
which direction the son had gone. The couple also asked a truck driver and a couple of
international tourists. The female international tourist on the still image was wearing a
Batik top of Javanese traditional cloth. The next scene shows a map of Bali Island
hanging on the wall, reinforcing the location of the couple’s presence. The scene
subsequently cuts to the actual presence of the couple. The wife says that they finally
found their son, who was playing with his new friend in a corner. Her husband says
that at that time he surprisingly revealed that the father of his son’s new friend is his
relative. The scene then moves to the images of the husband and his “newly found”
relative, who is cast by a ‘Black’ man. Both of them looked happy and smiled as they
revealed the fact that they have family connection. The husband then describes how
they connected each other as relatives, while the images continue to slide illustrating
his description. He explains that his “newly found” relative is the grandson of the son
of the nephew of the uncle of the brother in law of his eyang’s (Javanese term for
grandfather) nephew, a complicated long line of being related. The next scene shows
his wife smiling and clapping her hands to express her impression toward her
husband’s good memory. Several still images of ‘Black’ men appear in the slideshow, as the husband is describing his family connection to the ‘Black’ man. The
advertisement also demonstrates an image of the ‘Black’ man in Batik, and an image
of the ‘Black’ man with a Chinese man. The advertisement is subsequently closed by
an image of two HSBC credit cards and the world map. A male voice-over is heard
mentioning the motto of HSBC as the worlds local bank.
Four
ethnic/racial
groups
appear
in
the
HSBC
advertisement:
the
Javanese/’White’, the Balinese/’White’, the ‘Black’ and the Chinese. The Javanese
plays the major role in the advertising narrative. They are also depicted being
successful in terms of economic life that places them as the product’s target market,
the HSBC credit card. The term eyang used by the husband when refering to his
grandfather is one symbol that the couple stems from a middle class Javanese family.
Eyang is a term to call grandparents that is used by the Javanese aristocrat family.
Some symbols which are linked to the Javanese also gain high visibility in the
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advertisement. Batik cloth, the Javanese typical wax-resist dyeing cloth, appears in the
advertisement, for example as being wore by a female international tourist and used as
a traditional cradle to lullaby a baby. Blangkon, a Javanese traditional hat for men, is
also visible in the advertisement, though the story is actually set in Bali Island. Added
to that, the strong sense of Javanese is also demonstrated by a picture of a wedding
couple in Javanese traditional wedding dress. All this goes to show that Javanese-ness
retains a significant status and higher position compared with other ethnic groups in
Indonesia. This fact is also illustrated from the undertone of Balineseness in the
advertisement. Although the storyline mostly locates in Bali, the Balinese aspect is
itself underrepresented. There is no image, which shows the particularity or
distinctness of the Balinese. Instead, anything Balinese is merely shown through the
quick image of a panoramic post-card and the Bali Island map. It is important to note
that Bali as being internationally famous is in fact implied by the state as part of the
highlight or peak culture in the country, other than the Javanese and the Sundanese (in
West Java) as the second biggest ethnic group (Vickers and Fisher 1999, p.391; Sutton
1998). However, when the Balinese and the Javanese are present conjointly, the latter
is inclined to be more prominent. The Chinese attain only a superficial representation
similar to the Balinese. The fact that the Chinese man appears and plays an
insignificant and voiceless role in the advertisement shows that ethnic/racial
minorities tend to experience such a token inclusion. When they appear together with
the Javanese, the minorities should accept no more than being in the shadow of the
majority.
It is observable that elements of Javanese ethnicity are palpably used in the
advertisement to generate a sense of its majority. In addition, unlike the
advertisements during the New Order, which attempted to use elements of Javanese
ethnicity to encounter western influence, the HSBC advertisement demonstrates that
during the Post-New Order the Javanese is depicted conforming to the global lifestyle.
As the Post-New Order Indonesia has been increasingly integrated into the global
market, which is signified by the advertised product, the Javanese/’White’ is depicted
being in the centre of modern [westernized] culture. The advertisement, in this sense,
delineates the active engagement of the Javanese in the modern life, by having them
perform as the product’s consumers. By highlighting the Javanese symbols and
traditions, the advertisement implies that only the Javanese who has resources is ready
to welcome the global lifestyle. The Javanese/’White’ is even equated with
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international tourists, who spend their money in the internationally famous Bali. In the
advertisement, the Balinese is positioned as an object which is exotically fantastic and
attractive. The Balinese receives the Orientalist55 viewpoint, not merely from the
Western people as represented by two international tourists in the advertisement, but
also from the Javanese/’White’, who reproduces the Orientalist view toward other
ethnic/racial groups within the same national border. Furthermore, the advertisement
tends to omit the use of ethnic/racial markers and traditions that refer to ethnic/racial
minorities. All this goes to show that ethnic/racial minorities during the Post-New
Order era are still marginalised in advertising narrative and remain located in the pale
shadow of the perceived majority—the Javanese.
5.2. Cultural Appropriation: Mainstreaming Minorities
Ethnic/racial differences in Indonesia have been defined as well through the use
of physical characteristics, particularly the use of skin tone. Dichotomic category of
Blackness and Whiteness, for example, has been discursively constructed not only in
Western society, but also within the national borders of Indonesia. People who inhabit
the eastern islands of Indonesia are considered of Melanesian descent, and are
distinguished from those of Austronesian descent that inhabit the western islands of
the country. Melanesian and Austronesian descendents are largely defined through
their different hair form and skin tone. Melanesian descendents are discursively
characterised by curly hair and darker skin tone. By contrast, those of Austronesian
descent are defined as having straight hair and light skin tone. It could be said that
ethnic/racial
differences
in
terms
of
the
dichotomic
categories
‘Eastern/Melanesian/Black’ and ‘Western/Austronesian/White’ is a result of cultural
politics established by the state. During the New Order era particularly the
‘Eastern/Melanesian/Black’ Indonesians underwent such a marginalization in the
public sphere as experienced by the Black people in most Western societies. Under the
New Order government, this group was considered as remote and far apart, both
geographically
and
culturally,
from
the
center
of
modern
Indonesia
55
Edward Said (1978), in his influential book, Orientalism, elucidated that the essence of Orientalism is
the enduring distinction between Western superiority and Oriental inferiority. The Occident (the West)
imagines and poses the Orient (the East) in a hierarchical way, in which the West is superior and higher
than the East.
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[Western/Java/Jakarta].
As
a
consequence,
the
regime
considered
the
‘Eastern/Melanesian/Black’ Indonesians as peripheral, backward, traditional, premodern, albeit their richness of natural resources (Bertrand 2004, p.221) and cultural
heritages. Papua, for instance, wherein some Papuan tribal groups live, is
economically an important factor of the country. Papua is the site of the world’s
largest gold and copper mining operation, and there are large gas and oil deposits that
belong to Papua (Rabasa and Haseman 2002, p.106). It is a well known fact that the
central government in Jakarta has taken and used those natural resources for the
implementation of national development programs without even involving the
Papuans in the programs. Their region is endowed with rich natural resources, but
they have not received their share of these resources. In other words, the Papuans, as
have many other ‘Black’ Indonesians who inhabit the eastern islands of the country,
have been positioned as the objects of development, which were defined and
structured within the viewpoint of the dominant group. This phenomenon has
demonstrated the hierarchical status between the western region and the eastern region
of Indonesia. In this sense, western Indonesia has imitated and reproduced the
Orientalist viewpoint toward eastern Indonesia. Edward Said suggests, “Orientals
were rarely seen or looked at; they were seen through, analyzed not as citizens, or
even people, but as problems to be solved or confined” (1978, p.208). This sort of
Orientalist view has been reproduced as well regarding the portrayals of ‘Black’
Indonesians in the advertisement under discussion. During the New Order era, the
‘Black’ Indonesians were largely submerged in Indonesian advertisements. Their
simple presence, when they did appear, did not aim to disrupt the dominant principles
of social order. As a result, advertisements tended to depict ‘Black’ Indonesians as
ornamental snippets rather than showing their cultural distinctness. This fact, as has
been mentioned, is related to the state’s cultural policies, which tended to maintain
and display cultural differences within the country merely for tourism purposes. The
tribal groups, for instance, were depicted in atavistic poses to generate exotic aspects
of them. These sorts of images, subsequently, were printed and officially published as
postcards and brochures for tourist promotions (Sunjayadi, 2004). This attempt has
discursively reinforced the position of minorities as secondary citizens.
The similar tendency has been undergone as well by the Chinese ethnicity in
Indonesia. In this case, the dichotomic categories of pribumi, or native inhabitants,
and non-pribumi, or non-native become a significant strategy to define and position
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Chinese ethnicity in Indonesia. The Chinese have been considered as non-pribumi
citizens in the country.56 Since colonial times, they have undergone cultural and
political segregation due to their cultural, religious and economic differences from the
perceived pribumi (see e.g. Yusuf 2005; Allen, 2003; Heryanto, 1998a). During the
New Order Era, the ‘othering’ process of Chinese ethnicity had been particularly
reinforced, as the regime established decrees to prohibit any activities pertaining to
Chinese culture. As Mackie (1990) points out, “The entire Sino-Indonesian minority
has been subject to various forms of discrimination and exclusion from educational,
social and employment rights” (cited in Allen 2003, p.383). Chinese ethnicity in
Indonesia has always been considered different, resulting in discrimination in almost
all aspects of life. The New Order’s government mandated an assimilation project and
compelled the Chinese to conform to it. It is important to note that the New Order’s
assimilationist project called for the Chinese to participate in all activities of the native
Indonesians with all their joy and sorrow (Coppel 2002, p.27). To show their
commitment to the state, the Chinese had been compelled to change their names, both
personal and business, into Indonesian. Added to that, due to the state’s regulations,
Chinese cultural expressions were silenced and excluded in the public sphere. Public
celebration with regard to Chinese cultural expressions such as the Lunar New Year
was forbidden during the New Order era. Another hint to show the state’s denigration
toward the Chinese was their exclusion from the political field. Under no
circumstances could the Chinese be active in the political field. On the other hand, the
New Order’s government tended to allow and even encourage the Chinese to enter
and be active in the economic sector of Indonesia. As a result, according to
Suryadinata in Dawis (2005, p.2), Chinese ethnicity has controlled about 70% of the
country’s private economic sector. Even though a significant part of business profits
remained in the hands of the New Order’s cronies, Chinese economic prowess has
generated prejudice among the other Indonesians, especially the perceived native
Indonesians. The prejudice has worsened the position of Chinese ethnicity in
Indonesian society.
The practice of ‘othering’ the Chinese ethnic group has been articulated and
reproduced by Indonesian media. News media during the New Order era, for instance,
56
Indonesian population is also characterized by immigrants such as Chinese, Indian and Arabian.
Chinese ethnicity, in particular, has been the biggest immigrant group in Indonesia, that is, about 3-5%
of the Indonesian population (see Yusuf 2005, p.105).
121
depicted Chinese Indonesians in negative stereotypes such as corruptors, introverts,
rich but selfish, and outsiders (Yusuf 2005, pp.175-6). In the indigenously produced
television programs, Chinese Indonesians also gained a very limited representation
(Dawis 2005, p.3). The presence of Chinese figures mostly stemmed from drama
series or films that were imported from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore.57 The
situation began to change in the early 1990s, as the New Order government softened
its attitude toward the Chinese.58 After that, Chinese figures have been increasingly
visible in the world of fashion, poetry reading, entertainment programs and talk shows
in Indonesian media (Allen 2003, p.384; Heryanto 1998a, p.105). This tendency was
also revealed in the advertising representation. The thematic silence of the Chinese
was gradually removed from advertising narratives. Chinese cultural expressions
began to be inscribed in the advertising storyline, as illustrated in the advertisement
for Rinso detergent (Figure 5.3.)
Figure 5.3. Rinso Advertisement
57
From 1988 onwards, the kung fu serials were shown on Indonesian television. The Chinese martial
arts series were mostly imported. It should be noted however that there were no local television
programs or advertisements, which used and told stories about the Chinese in Indonesia. See Dawis
(2005)
58
According to Ariel Heryanto (1998a) the situation has changed rapidly after the visit of Chinese
Prime Minister Li Peng in Indonesia in 1990. After that, there was a series of exchange visits by
officials from the two governments. It was followed by the establishment of the Chinese-Indonesian
Institute for Economic, Social and Cultural Co-operation.
122
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
It is an advertisement for a detergent product, Rinso. The first scene of the
advertisement is set in a Chinese restaurant with Chinese lanterns hanging from the
ceiling, Chinese decorations and pictures hanging on the wall, and well-arranged
black tables and chairs. The scene shows a typical Chinese restaurant, which people
can watch in most Chinese martial arts films or drama series. In the first scene, there is
also depicted a man in black dress moving rapidly between tables and chairs with a
particular style of Chinese martial arts. The next scene shows another man in white
dress jumping back rapidly and repeatedly between tables and chairs on the other side
of the restaurant. The scene then cuts to a picture of the Chinese man in black in a
certain martial arts stance. It becomes apparent that those scenes depict a martial arts
fight between two Chinese men, the black versus the white. In those scenes, the
martial arts sounds such as punching or kicking, and Chinese lute music are clearly
heard. The next scene shows that this martial arts fight is part of performance on
123
television, which is watched by two boys in a cozy living room. Those boys are
siblings. The little boy is depicted imitating the hand movements of the martial arts
fight on television. The next scene demonstrates another style of martial arts fight, by
which the Chinese man in white is trying to take a tablecloth with bowls on top of it.
He is trying to remove the cloth from the table without moving the bowls or drop them
on the floor. With his martial arts skill the man is depicted successfully removing the
tablecloth. The little boy is still imitating the fight style and making a fight sound. His
brother is also fascinated with the Chinese martial arts, as he says, “It is terrific!” The
little boy asks his brother, whether or not their mother is at home. As his big brother
acknowledged that their mother is not at home, the little boy moves to a dining table
and tries to remove the table-cloth like the Chinese man had done on television. He
wants to remove the table-cloth without moving everything on top of the cloth, but it
definitely results in a mess. All the food and drinks on the table have fallen and left
flecks of dirt on the white tablecloth. His big brother is not angry; instead, he nicely
asks his innocent little brother to clean it up before their mother gets home. The scene
moves to a big text, “A Miracle”, while the male voice-over says, “You need a
miracle”. The scene then cuts to a picture of a big pack of Rinso, accompanied by
male voice-over underlining that Rinso with Lipomix is necessary to remove the
flecks of dirt. The next scene shows how Rinso works to remove the flecks. Blue
bubbles are seen around the flecks, demonstrating how Rinso Lipomix is working on
the white tablecloth. The strong work of Rinso is emphasized by loud sound effect. As
the scene shows that the flecks are already removed, the male voice-over points out
that Rinso can remove many flecks in only one wash. As the male voice-over states,
“Clean and Fragrant”, the scene shows the older brother holding the washed white
tablecloth. He smells it, while his little brother is staring at him. Both of them
subsequently try to put the cloth on the table. When they are about to finish putting
back all the things on the table, their mother opens the front door. She smiles and says,
“Hello boys, good day”. The boys stand still on the edge of the dining table, then
smile and reply, “Good day, mom”. Their mother comes closer to the table, smiles and
says, “You are so nice, taking care of our home”. The boys are meaningfully staring at
each other and smiling. They give a nice answer, “Of course, whose sons are we?”
But, as the mother moves further, she suddenly finds that she is kicking a glass on the
floor. She looks surprised and is speechless. With a wondering face she looks at her
sons, who are standing still and looking at her in surprise. But they show their
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innocent smiles. At the same time, the jingle is heard reinforcing that Rinso can
remove many flecks in only one wash. The advertisement is closed with a picture of a
big pack of Rinso and a text on its right side “Many flecks are removed, in one wash”.
The Rinso advertisement does not substantially tell a story about the Chinese.
However, it uses and appropriates elements of Chinese ethnicity to tell a story
regarding the selling product. As noted earlier, prior to 1990s the expressions of
Chinese culture were forbidden to appear in the public space, including in the media.
This advertisement, at least, demonstrates the change of situation, in that elements of
Chinese ethnicity are allowed to be visible. As the New Order regime has relaxed its
restrictions pertaining to Chinese cultural expressions, advertisements sought to
respond to it by depicting more and more Chinese figures and culture. The visibility of
Chinese figures and culture, however, still referred to imported films or drama series
from Hong Kong and Taiwan, which have appeared on Indonesian television since
1988. As seen in the Rinso advertisement, the elements of Chinese ethnicity are also
taken from or inspired by Chinese martial arts films. The advertisement, furthermore,
depicts the Chinese ethnicity as part of a performance which is screened on television
and watched by the two boys. This image reveals the fact that Chinese figures and
culture are considered as objects and a spectacle for consumption by the majority. The
Chinese ethnicity appropriated in the advertisement is presented in an isolated
sequence of the narrative, in a sense that they do not play as the main characters and
are not involve in the whole story. They are depicted as secondary characters that
appear superficially and framed in muteness. Their presence is allowed only at the
decorative level. In other words, on the one side the advertisement seems to embrace
Chinese ethnicity by using and appropriating their cultural elements, but on the other
side it continues to symbolically embed Chinese ethnicity to the margins of narrative.
Cultural appropriation as a discursive strategy to represent ethnic/racial
minorities in advertisements became increasingly used after the fall of the New Order
regime. Along with the spreading discourse of multiculturalism, advertisements
during the Post New Order era tend to use the strategy of mainstreaming minorities in
their narratives. In the context of ‘Black’ Indonesians, as shown in the HSBC
advertisement, they are not depicted as being totally isolated from other ethnic/racial
groups anymore. Rather, the advertisement tends to represent the ‘Black’ Indonesians
as having a relationship with other ethnic/racial groups, i.e., with the Chinese and the
Javanese. This tendency is also demonstrated through the Javanese’s recognition
125
toward the existence of the ‘Black’ Indonesian. By depicting the ‘Black’ Indonesian
as having a family connection with the Javanese, the recognition from the majority
toward the existence of minorities seems to be affirmed in the advertisement.
Revealing their family connection, in this sense, becomes a certain mode of
mainstreaming the Blackness in the advertisement, which functions to signify the
acceptance of the majority/’White’ Indonesian toward the minority/’Black’
Indonesian. The same message regarding recognition toward the ‘Black‘ Indonesian is
also inscribed in the advertisement for the cigarette DJarum Black, as seen in Figure
5.4.
Figur 5.4. Djarum Black Advertisement
126
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The Djarum Black advertisement does not specifically tell a story about ‘Black’
Indonesian. But the advertisement attempts to bring a certain message related to the
Blackness. Literally, the advertisement aims to talk about Blackness, which is
associated with the name of the advertised product. The narrative of the advertisement
delineates the Black’s existence and their social role in society. In general, the
advertisement does not particularly render Indonesia, in that there is no specific
signifier which refers to Indonesia, or ‘Black’ Indonesian. The only signifier of
Indonesianness is the model. The setting or location of the story does not refer to
Indonesian panorama either. Added to that, rather than using Indonesian music, the
advertisement prefers to use Western music as the diegetic sound. In this
advertisement the diegetic sound plays a significant role in conveying the message
regarding the Blackness. The advertisement begins with a bird’s eye scene of a red
open car on a street in the middle of a town. The scene shows high buildings with
western architectural style in the surroundings. A man in black with black sunglasses
is depicted riding in the car. At the same time, the popular song “I Got You (I Feel
Good)” is heard from his car-tape. The song is sung in a slow arrangement by a
female singer. The scene shows that the slow-version of “I Got You (I Feel Good)”
makes the man bored. He is subsequently depicted pressing a button on his car-tape.
The song is switched to the same song but with a different arrangement. An aria
version of “I Got You (I Feel Good)” performed by a female singer is heard from the
tape. The car, meanwhile, is depicted passing by buildings and a fly-over. This aria
version has once again made the man bored. He pushes a button on his tape again and
the same song with a different slow arrangement is now heard. The next scene is a
bird’s eye scene of the car passing through a street. Trees with red and gold autumn
leaves are seen in the surroundings. This scene underlines the fact that the advertising
story is not set in Indonesia. The autumn leaves only exist, obviously, in the countries
with four seasons, not in Indonesia, which only has two seasons. The man shows his
127
bored face, while listening to the music. His car is depicted passing through the street
towards a tunnel. When the car is entering the tunnel, he presses a button on his tape.
Now, the soul rhythm of “I Got You (I Feel Good)” sung by James Brown is heard.
This music suddenly livens up the situation. The scene shows that the man is smiling
and moving his head following the rhythm of the song. As the car is passing through
the tunnel, it is dark and black in the surroundings. An eye level camera shoots the car
and the man from behind. As the car is leaving the tunnel, there is nothing left in the
tunnel but darkness. A text “No Black, No Soul” subsequently appears on the next
scene, while the James Brown’s version of “I Got You (I Feel Good)” is still heard.
The advertisement is then closed with the text “Djarum Black, Full of Imagination.”
The word “Black” is highlighted in the text by giving it larger typography than other
words in the texts.
Similar to the HSBC advertisement, there is a mode of mainstreaming Blackness
in the Djarum Black advertisement. The advertisement apparently aims to highlight
the valuable existence of the Black. This message not only refers to the selling
product, but it is also linked to the dominant’s view about Black. As noted earlier, this
advertisement does not refer specifically to the Black Indonesian, but rather to the
Black people in Western countries. It is illustrated, for instance, by the use of a
Western environment as the narrative setting and, most importantly, the use of soul
music as the diegetic sound. The song “I Got You (I Feel Good)” is a hit song by
James Brown, an African American, who is also known as the godfather of soul.
Based on the inequality and denigration undergone by the Black people in Western
countries for centuries, the advertisement attempts to lift up and praise the position of
the Black. The text “No Black, No Soul” attempts to reveal the fact that the Blacks
have played a significant role in society. Soul music, as part of Black cultural
products, is used and appropriated in the advertisement to sell the product. Through its
image and narrative, the advertisement highlights the valuable existence and
contribution of the Black to society. This message could be linked and appropriated to
the position of the ‘Black’ Indonesian. Similar to that of the HSBC Bank, the Djarum
Black advertisement uses the notion of Blackness to show its concern toward the
existence of ‘Black’ Indonesian.
It must be admitted, however, that despite the presence of Black music, the
advertisement simply erases the Black performers or Black figures from its narrative.
If the advertisement seeks to show its concern toward the Black, a significant question
128
that arises is why is there no presence of Black people, or particularly ‘Black’
Indonesian, in the advertising narrative? Market consideration seems to be the main
reason on this point. There might be an anxiety that the White majority might not buy
the product if they are totally excluded from the advertising text. Following this line
of reasoning, the advertisement tends to make the presence of the Black “audible”, but
at the same time it operates the erasure of Black performance from the screen. This
practice of racial representation, according to Shohat and Stam (1994, p. 224), is like
“granting a White signature on what are basically Black cultural products.” This
practice becomes a symbol that the White merely welcomes the Black music, but the
Black people remain emasculated. It would appear, then, that images of the Black, if
they do appear, only delineate their submerged position and lack of voice before the
majority. It is revealed as well in the HSBC advertisement, which tends to frame the
‘Black’ Indonesian in muteness. This representation conveys their low status to voice
or show their point of view. The presence of ‘Black’ Indonesian in this regard, is
tolerable only on the decorative level as they appear only in the background, playing
narrow and insignificant roles, and saying no words at all.
The close examination of advertisements during the Post New Order era also
demonstrates that the ‘Black’ Indonesian is still defined within the parameter of
exotica, just as is the case of Chinese ethnicity during the New Order era in 1990s. In
the Rinso advertisement, Chinese ethnicity is depicted as a spectacle and an object
from the majority’s point of view. As shown in the advertisement, two boys who
represent the indigenous Indonesians are watching the Chinese martial arts on
television. Both of them are depicted being attracted, amused and curious toward the
spectacle. Chinese ethnicity, in this sense, is defined within the parameters of exotica
and otherness, which generate amusement and curiosity among the majority. The
similar mode of representation is used to depict the ‘Black Indonesian’. According to
Gosh (2003, p.279), to gain the “essence of exotica” the use of imaginative landscape
is often preferable. In this sense, images of dark forests and animals are mostly
visible. By associating ethnic/racial minorities with forests and animals,
advertisements reinforce the viewpoint of the majority toward the minorities as
primitive and wild. As seen in the final scene of HSBC advertisement, an image of a
tiger appears when the Javanese is describing his family connection with the ‘Black’
Indonesian. The presence of the tiger is associated with the minorities, especially the
‘Black’ Indonesian, to generate the sense of exoticism. This sort of representation
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illustrates a tendency by which the majority group continuously talks about and
considers the ‘Black’ Indonesian as different and separate.
It has been demonstrated that both advertisements, HSBC and Djarum Black,
show their ambiguity in positioning the ‘Black’ Indonesian, just as the Rinso
advertisement does in representing the Chinese ethnicity. On one side, the
advertisements seek to enunciate their acceptance and recognition toward the Black’s
existence by appropriating and mainstreaming the Blackness in their narratives, but,
on the other side, the advertisements continue to symbolically restore the Black to the
submerged position. It would appear, then, that the acceptance toward the minorities,
especially in the context of ‘Black’ Indonesian, tends to result in a sort of cultural cooptation. For being accepted by the majority, the minorities are required to conform or
mingle with the majority’s culture. The HSBC advertisement, in my view,
demonstrates this tendency. As seen in the Figure 5.5., one scene of the advertisement
shows a still image of the ‘Black’ man in a Batik shirt. As has been mentioned, Batik
is a Javanese typical wax-resist dyeing cloth, which has become part of official
national dress-code since the government of the New Order. This is another example
of how the New Order’s government sought to impose Javanese aesthetic form onto
other ethnic groups in every corner of Indonesia. Meanwhile, the ‘Black’ Indonesian
in the advertisement is not attached with certain cultural elements, which signify his
ethnicity/race.
Figure 5.5. ‘Black’ Indonesian in Batik Shirt
The tendency that the ‘Black’ Indonesian should conform to the majority’s social
order is also seen from the scene wherein their sons are playing together. As the
Javanese couple found their son, they saw him playing with the son of the ‘Black’
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Indonesian. The son of the ‘Black’ Indonesian, however, is not depicted as ‘Black’ as
his father. In contrast, the son of the ‘Black’ Indonesian is depicted having the White’s
physical characteristic, similar to the son of the Javanese. His physical identity as a
‘Black’ Indonesian is simply removed and replaced with a new identity as a ‘White’
Indonesian. This politics of representation has demonstrated a new face of symbolic
racism toward the ‘Black’ Indonesian, i.e, by embracing them on the one hand, and
sustaining domination over them on the other hand.
In addition, under the conditions of globalization, the global market economy
has constantly intensified its effort to transform people into global consumers. In this
regard, both majority and minority groups are also persuaded to engage in the global
cultural exchange. In this understanding, majority groups are considered as more
readily prepared to live up to global values. As a result, minority groups, which are
regarded as pre-modern or even backward, are located in the margin of global-local
nexus. The HSBC advertisement illustrates this fact, by having the ‘Black’ Indonesian
perform in a minor role. The product itself, as a transnational bank, is a representation
of global culture, which is attempting to inject its influence in the country. In the
advertisement, it is seen that the ‘White’ Indonesian, particularly the Javanese, is the
group who readily engages in the global lifestyle. At the same time, despite their
simple presence, the ‘Black’ Indonesian is depicted having a complicated and remote
connection with the Javanese. It shows that there is still a distance between the
‘Black’ Indonesians and the global lifestyle. In this sense, they are depicted as not yet
prepared to follow and adjust to the global lifestyle. This fact is also illustrated in the
Djarum Black advertisement, which is saturated with western symbols. As mentioned
earlier, despite mentioning the significant contribution of the ‘Black’ in society, they
remain visually excluded from the advertisement. Although the advertisement seeks to
talk about the ‘Black’, it prefers to cast the ‘White’ in its narrative. The ‘Black’, it
seems, has been prevented from taking an active part in the global modern life.
Advertising narrative seeks to ensure that the ‘Black’ remains restricted in their due
place in the ethnic/racial hierarchy, which enduringly privileges the ‘White’
Indonesians.
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5.3. Individualizing Minorities
As indicated earlier, images of minorities in Indonesian advertisements during
the Post New Order era tend to be freed from the presence of certain ethnic/racial
markers, which signify their cultural distinctness. In the HSBC advertisement, for
instance, certain elements of ethnicity are merely used to signify the Javaneseness.
The other ethnic/racial groups appearing in the advertisement are signified particularly
by physical characteristics. The presence of ‘Black” and the Chinese in the
advertisement are detached from certain cultural elements that refer to their ethnicity.
Their individual figures are present in the advertising story, but their Blackness and
Chineseness are not defined and constructed through the presence of cultural
elements, which are so-called ethnic/racial markers. The tendency to individualise
minorities by having individual figures perform without the presence of certain
ethnic/racial markers is conspicuously used by advertisements during the Post New
Order era, especially with regard to Chinese ethnicity.
It has been argued that there have been changes of situation pertaining to
Chinese ethnicity in Indonesia since the early 1990s. It should be noted, however, that
those changes have not reached a fuller recognition of the Chinese. Therefore, during
the Post New Order era the state has provided a wider space for Chinese Indonesian to
openly discuss and express their cultural experiences in the public sphere. This has
resulted in an upsurge in the number of Chinese ethnics seeking to increasingly
engage in political and cultural activities, which was prohibited under the New
Order’s government. The governments during the Post New Order have increasingly
attempted to remove racial discrimination toward Chinese ethnicity. Under President
Abdurrahman Wahid (1999-2001) particularly, the state officially revoked
discriminative regulations pertaining to the Chinese, which were produced during the
New Order era. As an example, President Wahid revoked a Presidential Decree of
1967, enabling the Chinese to openly celebrate their cultural expressions in the public
sphere. As an example, the state has allowed Chinese ethnic groups to openly
celebrate the Lunar New Year, and established the day as a national holiday.
Regarding media representation of Chinese ethnicity, there is an increasing
willingness to feature Chinese cultural expressions in the media. Media, in this sense,
provide a space for Chinese to discuss the visions they have for their future in
Indonesia (Turner 2003, p.338). In other words, there is a greater space for the
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Chinese Indonesians to be present and “speakable” in Indonesian media. In the course
of advertising, Chinese Indonesians have been increasingly used to sell product.
During this new era, they are also present in the more significant roles than during the
preceding era, as shown for instance in the advertisement for Mototek (Figure 5.6).
Figure 5.6. Mototek Advertisement
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The Mototek advertisement is an advertisement for automotive technical supports.
The advertisement is opened with a scene of a Chinese woman lying on a bed. The
story is apparently set at nighttime, as the woman is about to sleep. The diegetic sound
of crickets chirping is heard, reinforcing the time setting of the narrative. The woman
is lying on the left edge of bed, with her back to the right side. It seems that she is
attempting to keep herself away from something which exists or is happening on the
right side. Her eyes are opened. A frown on her face shows that she is somewhat
irritated by something. As the camera moves to the right side of the bed, a loud
snoring sound is heard. The scene then shows the legs of someone who is lying under
the bed, whereas the upper body is invisible. It becomes apparent that the
advertisement is telling a story about a couple in their bed room. The woman can
hardly sleep because she is disturbed by the snoring sound of her husband. Her
husband is not lying beside her on the bed. He is, instead, sleeping under the bed due
to his loud snoring sound. By sleeping under the bed, it is likely expected that his
snoring sound will not be too loud for his wife. It does not quite work, actually, as his
snoring sound is still loudly heard and makes his wife keep awake at night. The
Chinese husband, in contrast, is depicted tightly sleeping, although he is lying in an
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improper and uncomfortable place. This image is linked to the general assumption,
which is cultivated by the New Order regime, that Chinese [male] is an eager business
man. In the daytime they spend their time and energy for running their big business. It
is unsurprising, therefore, if they sleep tightly at night and even snore loudly. In the
advertisement, the snoring sound of the Chinese husband is associated with the selling
product. The snoring husband is equated with a technically troubled car which
produces a snoring sound. As depicted in a later scene, the text “We love fixing cars”
shows the product that the advertisement is selling. In the last scene, the name of the
institution, which provides the automotive technical supports, and its hotline are
clearly depicted.
It could be observed that a Chinese individual figure plays the major character in
the advertising storyline. As seen in the advertisement, the Chinese wife is the only
character, who is clearly visible. The other character, her husband, is partially visible,
as the advertisement only depicts his legs and the sound of his snoring rather than his
whole body. It should be admitted, however, that the Chinese woman is depicted
passive and voiceless. The main focus of the advertisement is actually her snoring
husband, which is associated with the selling product. What is more, the presence of
the Chinese woman in the Mototek advertisement is not specifically bound up with
her ethnicity in a sense that the advertisement does not play on the unique cultural
values and symbols of her ethnicity. Despite its use of a Chinese individual figure, the
advertisement does not depict and tell a story regarding elements of her Chineseness.
In line with the increasing willingness to provide better space for Chinese Indonesians
during the Post New Order era, Indonesian advertisements seem to respond to it
positively. Chinese individual figures have been increasingly present to play main
characters in the advertising storyline, as shown in the Mototek advertisement.
However, the tendency that unique elements of Chineseness are simply erased from
the advertising narrative, indicates that Chinese Indonesians find their space in
advertisements only as individual figures. Meanwhile, as a cultural group with their
distinct cultural values and experiences, Chinese Indonesians remain demeaned and
occupy the margins of representation. The way to position Chinese Indonesians in
terms of individual figures rather than as an ethnic group is also found in the HSBC
advertisement. One of its scenes depicts a Chinese man standing side by side with a
‘Black” Indonesian, as shown in Figure 5.7. In the context of the HSBC
advertisement, the Chinese man plays an unclear and insignificant role in the
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narrative. The advertisement depicts him in an isolated sequence, without even
granting him the status of secondary character. His function in the advertising
storyline is totally unclear. His presence in the HSBC advertisement is, to some
extent, similar to the Chinese woman in the Mototek advertisement. He appears in the
advertisement without showing or expressing his Chineseness. The advertisement
presents an individual Chinese figure, without giving him a chance to express his
distinct identity as a member of the Chinese ethnic group.
Figure 5.7 Chinese and ‘Black” Indonesian in HSBC Advertisement
Both advertisements, HSBC and Mototek, were produced during the Post New Order
era. Both of them are willing to feature Chinese persons, but without embracing their
particularities as members of an ethnic group. It is revealed as well with regard to
‘Black” images. The HSBC advertisement, for instance, depicts the ‘Black” but erases
his ethnicity; or, Djarum Black seeks to talk about the ‘Black” but prefers to keep
‘Black” performers invisible in the advertisement. All this goes to show that in line
with the spreading discourse of multiculturalism, individualising the minorities
becomes a preferable strategy to demonstrate advertising’s concern toward
ethnic/racial differences in Indonesia.
5.4. Ambiguity of Image
The notion of ethnic/racial groups in Indonesia has always been located within
the discourse of nationhood. The complexities of ethnicity and race have generated
certain anxiety about frictions or disunity of the nation. It is not surprising that the
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notion of ethnicity and race in Indonesia has been suppressed and subordinated to the
nation cause. Advertising portrayals of ethnic/racial groups, to some extent, have
illustrated this line of thinking. The close examination of ethnic/racial representation
in Indonesian advertisements reveals that there has been a thematic silence pertaining
to ethnicity and race on account of national unity as well as of market consideration.
During the New Order era, as the state officially forbade any sensitive and
inflammatory issues of ethnicity and race in Indonesian media, ethnic/racial groups
have often been filmically excluded. For more than two decades portrayals of
ethnic/racial groups gained very limited space in advertising. There was an inclination
that minorities, both indigenous and non-indigenous, to be invisible and unheard in
advertising texts. In my close examination, I reveal three types of ethnic/racial
dichotomy, which are mostly inscribed and sometimes overlapped in the
advertisements under discussion, that is, Javanese/Non-Javanese; Indigenous/NonIndigenous; and ‘White’ Indonesian/’Black’ Indonesian. Most importantly, I also
reveal three kinds of discursive strategies used by advertisements to define and
construct ethnic/racial differences in Indonesia, i.e., ambivalent function of cultural
tradition, cultural appropriation by mainstreaming the minorities and individualisation
of minorities.
During the New Order era in the 1990s, advertisements conveyed overtones and
undertones of ethnic/racial groups through the narrative of good/bad and
modern/traditional. Those narratives generated images of ethnicity/race, which
articulated and reinforced the prominent position of the Javanese in Indonesian
society. Advertisements, in this regard, inclined to be confident in their categorization
of differences by giving a high visibility to the majority, that is, the Javanese. When
they did appear, the minorities, especially the ‘Black’ Indonesian and Chinese
Indonesian, gained only a simple presence. They were depicted in a minor and distant
role and placed in an isolated sequence of narrative. During this era, ethnic/racial
markers were conspicuously used and present, but they functioned differently for the
Javanese and for the Non-Javanese. Javanese ethnic markers were knowingly used in
advertisement to revitalize and preserve their valuable expressive forms and to show
its continued relevance to modern Indonesia. But, when it is related to the NonJavanese, ethnic markers function to generate and underscore their backwardness and
pre-modernness. The non-Javanese that are represented as minorities, both indigenous
[‘Black’ Indonesian in particular] and non-indigenous [Chinese in particular], appear
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only at the decorative level as ornamental snippets. It was observable that their
presence was defined within the dominant group’s feelings and beliefs about
minorities. The ‘Black’ Indonesians, for instance, are depicted as steeped in their
traditions, which keep them primitive and pre-modern. The Chinese Indonesians,
meanwhile, appear as an object and spectacle for the majority due to their traditional
cultural expressions. Minorities are depicted merely as objects from the majority’s
point of view so that they remain positioned within the parameters of exotica and
otherness. Their ethnic/racial elements are aesthetised and fetishised for the
amusement of majority.
During the Post New Order era, as there is political willingness to recognize the
rights of ethnic/racial minorities, the concerning issues become culturally
omnipresent. It should be stressed, however, that ethnic/racial minorities remain
filmically submerged in advertisements. Through the narrative of good/bad and
educated/ignorant, advertisements incline to embrace cultural differences and interethnic relations in their representation. It is observable however that the ‘White’
Indonesians remain dominant and gain higher visibility than the ‘Black’ Indonesians.
Despite depicting inter-ethnic relationships, the presence of minorities, especially
‘Black’ Indonesian and Chinese Indonesian, has been subordinated to the majority.
The visibility of ‘Black’ Indonesians, for instance, is hardly separated from the
presence of ‘White’/Javanese. In this sense, they are depicted as less modern, less
knowledgeable and less self-confident than the ‘White’/Javanese. When they do
appear conjointly, the narrative works to confine the ‘Black’ Indonesians to the
periphery and ensure the ‘White’/Javanese play the core of the advertising narrative.
In the case of Chinese Indonesians, there is an inclination to include more Chinese
Indonesians in the advertising storyline. Unlike advertisements during the New Order
era, advertisements during the Post New Order era show their willingness to represent
minorities by having ethnic/racial individuals perform without highlighting their
ethnic markers. Advertisements, in this sense, seek to erase out distinct elements of
ethnicity/race from performances by ethnic/racial individuals. Ironically, this attempt
is merely imposed to the ethnic/racial minorities, as the Javanese is still allowed to
display their distinct cultural values and symbols in advertisements. What is more, as
depicted in the advertisements during the Post New Order era, the indigenous ‘White’
Javanese as the majority group of the country is positioned as the most readily
prepared to welcome and live up to global culture. Simultaneously, ethnic/racial
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minorities are prevented from being actively engaged in the global modern world. By
doing so, advertisements demonstrate a new face of symbolic racism by showing their
ambiguity in depicting and positioning minorities. They enunciate recognition and
disavowal regarding ethnic/racial minorities at one and the same time. As has been
shown, advertisements during the Post New Order era are able to recognize yet ignore
ethnic/racial minorities. In this sense, advertisements tend to appropriate and
mainstream ethnic/racial minorities in their narratives, though it leads to a sort of
cultural co-optation by the majority. All this goes to show that advertisements work
narratively to ensure the continuation of normal and single hegemonic discourse
regarding ethnic/racial differences within the national borders of Indonesia.
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Chapter 6
Class in Commercial Narratives
It has been argued that very little attention has been paid to the notion of class in
many forms of popular culture (Foster 2005, hook 2000, Bettie 2000, James 1996).
Bell hooks, among others, calls class the uncool subject, when comparing to race or
gender (2000, p.vii). Despite the ongoing widening gap between the rich and the poor,
the discussion of class is increasingly sidelined. Ortner (1991), however, argues that
class actually continues to appear in popular discourse, but just not in terms we
recognize as being ‘about class’ (in Bettie 2000, p.18). Class relations, in this
understanding, are actually present among imagery of popular culture, but it is
articulated through other terms such as gender, race or sexuality. In the context of
advertising, the notion of class is also inscribed in its imagery. Myths of the rich have
been entailed in the process of selling products. Most of advertising imageries are set
within wealthy class milieus, which are associated with a consumerist lifestyle. It is
not surprising that the lower class tends to be marginalized in advertising
representation. Advertisements have nothing much to say about the lower class. This
inclination, however, sounds plausible with regard to the position of advertisements as
engines of consumption. As Valdivia (1998, p.228) points out, it makes little sense for
advertisements to represent a class that is below the levels of consumption, to which
people are supposed to aspire. To stimulate the purchase of products, it is hardly
surprising that advertisers tend to focus their energies on addressing social groups
with higher amounts of disposable income. Advertisements, therefore, have been
marked mostly by images of upper and middle class with their cultural preferences
and tastes, which are associated with products. The products, according to Barthel
(1988, p.88), can function as essential signs of status in a society, which help people
to communicate quickly where they stand in the social hierarchy.
Class serves as one critical perspective which structures the narrative and
imaging system of advertisement. Distinctive markers are produced and reproduced in
advertisements to signify class subjects and class relations. It is important to note that
class, in fact, is not an easy concept to grasp. There is no simple and universal
conception to understand class. Marxist tradition, for instance, considers that
possession or the lack of means of production is the foundation of class identity in the
capitalist society. In this logic, society is split up into two classes, that is, bourgeois
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and proletarian. Similar to Marx, Weber also sees that classes are formed around
economic interests, but he disagrees with Marx that economic forces are the primary
dimension of societal position. In Weber’s view, an individual’s position within a
society does not depend exclusively upon his or her relationship to the means of
production (Edgar and Sedgwick 2002, p.45), but entails other resources as well,
especially the ability to labour, the skills and credentials or qualifications, which
affects the types of job one is able to obtain (Giddens and Griffiths 2006, p.303). What
is more, Weber asserts that different societal positions are not merely based on an
economic dimension, but he complements it by the dimensions of status and power.
Unlike Marx, who believes that status distinctions are the result of class division in a
society, Weber argues that status often varies independently of class divisions. One
could still enjoy social esteem, although for instance, he or she has a lack of wealth.
Taking his cues from Weber, Bourdieu has a more extensive theory of class. In his
book Distinction, he argues that together, the economic, social and cultural conditions
constitute class (2000, p.114). Class and status are, actually, related dimensions of
social life. Bourdieu observes that distinctions of economy necessarily engender
distinctions of culture. Therefore, different ranks of class will choose, maintain and
exhibit different tastes and preferences, which function to represent class position in a
society. What is more, the dominant class tends to use the power of its position to
impose recognition of distinction between good taste and vulgar taste, between
legitimate and illegitimate styles, and thereby strengthens the boundaries between
classes in a society.
In the context of my study, I refer to Bourdieu’s theory of class, which links
class position with cultural preferences and tastes, as the point of departure. I believe
that different cultural preferences and lifestyles exhibit different class positions in the
society. Lifestyles, in addition, are related to possession of material and cultural
resources to which individuals have access. It should be noted that in this study I refer
to three major class divisions (upper, middle and lower class) to delineate different
class positions. Following these insights, I address this chapter to reveal how class
subjects and class relations are inscribed in advertising representation during two
different eras in Indonesia. I aim this study to reveal the way in which advertisements
give narrative to the notion of class. In addition, I situate my analysis in the sociopolitical context during the two different eras. By doing so, it enables me to identify
differences of class imagery between those two eras. As described earlier, class can be
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read and expressed through other cultural differences such as gender or race. In other
words, class is not merely presented and expressed through the presence of wealth,
which is manifested through choices of fashion, setting, or décor. Rather, skin colour
and gender behaviour also function as signs of class rank (Brown 2005, p.75).
Accordingly, this chapter is also aimed to reveal how advertisements entail other
categories of difference to express class relations, while selling products. The first
section of this chapter is concerned with the representation of middle class in
Indonesian advertisements. It is important to note that the phenomenal economic
growth of the 1990s resulted in the growing number of middle class in Indonesia,
which promptly became the significant agents of contemporary consumer culture.
This section is aimed to analyse how advertising imagery provides cues related to the
phenomena. Subsequently, in the second section I deal with the notion of classmobility. I attempt to reveal how desire for class-passing is presented and expressed in
the advertisements. Finally, I close this chapter by analysing links between class and
geographical location. I focus specifically on rural and urban images, and how these
images are linked to the notion of class.
6.1. The Myth of Hero
As mentioned earlier, advertisements have very little to say about the lower class
due to their lesser amount of disposable income. Their lack of wealth has placed them
in the lower rank of the social hierarchy, which results in their limited presence in
advertisements. If they do appear, the appeals of the lower class are different from
those of the upper and middle classes, and thereby class boundaries are reinforced. As
shown in the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement (Figure 6.1.), the lower class is depicted
as deviant and rule breaker, whereas the higher class appears as the opposite.
Figure 6.1. Daihatsu Rocky Advertisement
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement is opened with the scene of a red Daihatsu Rocky, which is
entering a large storage-house. The scene is set in the daytime, as the sunshine is
penetrating through the roof and the wall. A lower tone of music is heard, giving a
mood of tension. “They are coming,” a male voice is heard. The next scene shows a
boy standing next to a hefty man in a dark blue t-shirt. Behind the boy, two men are
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standing ready. One of them is holding a long wooden stick. They are about to
welcome the coming car. The scene then moves to the car driver, who gets out of the
car. The driver looks tense and wary. As the scene moves to the boy and the men
again, the man in a dark blue t-shirt says, “This is the child, where is the money?” He
pushes the boy to the front, while receiving a bag handed over by the driver. It
becomes apparent that the advertisement is about a story of child kidnapping. The
three hefty men are the kidnappers who ask for a ransom. The Rocky’s driver comes
to deliver the ransom and exchange it for the kidnapped boy. After the exchange, the
kidnappers promptly open the bag. Instead of money, the bag is filled with gas, which
envelopes the kidnappers as they open the bag. One of the kidnappers warns, “Watch
out, gas!” But too late, the smoky white gas chokes them quickly. One of them shouts
again, “Stop them!” Another kidnapper, who is standing and watching at the upstairs
floor, replies, “Ok, Boss”. As the kidnappers move to stop them, the driver is already
moving the car. The next scene shows a big barbell dropping from above to stop the
car. But the driver has excellent driving skill and can easily avoid the barbell. The car
then moves faster and leaves the storage-house. The boy sitting next to the driver
shows a bit of his anxiety. He touches the front of his hat and looks at the driver, while
his other hand holds a red Power Ranger toy. In the storage-house’s front yard, the car
has to cope with another obstacle. To stop the car, a bunch of logs is dropped from a
truck. But once again, the driver can turn the car aside in time to avoid those logs. The
car subsequently moves away from the storage-house and crosses train tracks. The
next scene shows the car’s rear shock absorber, which is specially designed to provide
a stable suspension. It works to provide comfort for the passengers of the car. As a
result, the boy is depicted sleeping in comfort, although the car is passing through
heavily corrugated roads. The next scenes show how the car climbs up a step ladder
without any problems. It is apparent that the scenes are situated in a train station, as
green train wagons are seen not far from the step ladder. The car’s rear shock absorber
is shown again in the next scene, followed by the scene of the sleeping boy. Those
scenes reinforce the message that the Daihatsu Rocky with independent rear shock
absorbers provides comfort and stability for its passengers. The car, subsequently, is
depicted passing smoothly through a pool of water. All the scenes demonstrate how
the car can successfully negotiate difficult obstacles without losing any comfort for
the passengers. At the same time, a short jingle is heard, “Daihatsu”, which is
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followed by a male voice-over, “Daihatsu Rocky, is different!” The advertisement is
then closed with the text “4x4 [new] Rocky, independent suspension.”
As seen in the last scene, the advertisement is selling a four-wheel-drive vehicle,
Daihatsu Rocky, which is suitable for adventure purposes. Driving over corrugated
roads and nature is not a problem, since the vehicle provides independent suspension.
The advertisement, it could be said, sells a product by weaving the story of
domination, conquest and strength. It should be stressed that it becomes a typical and
prevalent way in vehicle advertisements, narrating a snippet of an adventurous male
life. As Frith (1995, p.191) asserts, automobile advertising frequently refers to nature
as an obstacle, which by means of the product can be surmounted [by men]. By doing
so, the advertisements remind us that man is indeed the most powerful being on earth.
A four-wheel-drive vehicle especially is considered as a macho, masculine vehicle
(Lauer 2005, p.158). The same image is also attached to the Daihatsu Rocky. As
shown in the advertisement, all diegetic characters in the advertising narrative are
male, including the kidnapped child. The advertisement entails concern about
inhospitable environments, self-defense, invincibility and safety, which is intricately
related to the male world. It is important to note that by depicting a male adventure
experience with four-wheel-drive vehicle, the advertisement shows visual signals of
class distinctions. The selling product itself is an icon of class. It functions, in this
advertisement, to communicate a middle-class lifestyle.
As mentioned earlier, the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement tells a story of child
kidnap for ransom. The kidnapped boy is obviously a child from an affluent family. It
is seen, for instance, from his clean appearance. He wears a nice t-shirt, a hat and
holds his red Power Ranger robotic toy, a toy which is afforded only by the middle
and upper class. His appeal is different compared with his kidnappers. The kidnappers
in this advertisement are depicted as hefty, rude, and sloppy men. It is shown by the
way they dress and by their body language. In other words, costume and appearance
become social codes, which signify the different ranks of class. The lower class is
depicted less attractive and their choices of dress are less tasteful and less expensive
than the middle and upper class. Another marker of their lower class status is their
ignorance, as they are easily deceived by the Rocky’s driver. As shown in the
advertisement, the kidnappers are fooled by the driver, as they do not anticipate the
possibility of being deceived. What is more, the man can bring the boy back and run
him safely with his vehicle. Although trying hard to blockade the vehicle, the
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kidnappers are depicted having not enough resources to catch or even stop them. At
the end, the man with the Daihatsu Rocky and the boy are depicted winning, as they
can get out of trouble. The winning, in my view, represents the winning of middle
class over the lower class. In this advertisement, the members of lower class are
depicted as villains, rule breakers, rude, dirty and physically strong but ignorant. What
is more, the lower class appears as being eager to make money by committing such a
crime. The ransom, in the context of the advertisement, can be used as capital to
improve their life chances and, if possible, for social climbing. However, the story
does not intend to allow the lower class criminals to win. The advertisement prefers to
inscribe a story of class warfare. The warfare between middle class and lower class is
begun as the kidnappers are choked with the white smoky gas, which spreads out from
the bag. They attempt to stop the vehicle by using strong physical tools, such as the
big barbell and a bunch of logs. This fact demonstrates that to show their power, the
lower class tends to use strong physical tools which function as their weapon against
the middle class. In other words, to show their power the lower class relies particularly
on the usage of physical tools rather than on tactic and strategies.
The middle class, in contrast, is depicted as heroic, wealthy, clean, strong and
educated. The presence of wealth is represented mainly by the product itself. It should
be stressed on this point, that, along with the growing middle class groups in
Indonesia since the early 1990s, new symbols of middle class lifestyle are increasingly
circulated in the country. It is a well known fact that prosperity, which followed
economic liberalism in the early 1990s, has resulted in the emergence of an affluent
urban middle class in Indonesia (Vickers 2005, p.198; Robison 1996, p.79; Hooker
1993, p.3). Their affluence has supported expansion in all areas of capital spending,
increased investment on housing, clothing, entertainment, private education and also
transportation. The boom of the middle class in this country, then, manifested itself in
symbols of a consumer culture and lifestyle. As Heryanto (1999, p.165) asserts, the
middle class in Indonesia has been described as the main agent of contemporary
consumer culture and lifestyle. Consumption and public display became the most
legitimate ways to mark the middle class off from others [lower class] socially.
Advertisements play a significant role to stimulate people’s participation in consumer
lifestyles. The four-wheel-drive Daihatsu Rocky offers an adventurous lifestyle for the
middle class. This advertisement is connected to the fact that the growing middle class
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in the 1990s has resulted in high levels of vehicle sales in Indonesia (Robison 1996,
p.80).
It is essential to realise that there is an assumption that crime never ceases to be
an aspect of the lower class life (Lea 1999, p.312). This Daihatsu Rocky
advertisement articulates and reproduces the assumption through its imagery of lower
class. In the context of New Order Indonesia, the prosperity resulting from the New
Order’s policy of economic liberalisation since the late 1980s, in fact, has widened the
gap between the rich and the poor (Vickers 2005, p.199). As Rasyid (1995, p.157)
asserts, despite its success in reducing the percentage of people living below the
poverty line, there were many people who were unable to benefit directly from the
development process. Some even considered themselves as marginalized or victims of
the development. Furthermore, the New Order government had to deal with the basic
problems of unemployment and underemployment, the rates of which had been
increasing since the beginning of 1990s. Such a condition resulted in the widening gap
between the rich and the poor, especially in some Indonesian urban areas, which
undoubtedly led to such a class conflict. The Daihatsu Rocky advertisement, to some
extent, represents the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Indonesia during
the New Order era of the 1990s. What is more, its narrative reinforces the distinctions
between the rich and the poor, and suggests clear boundaries between them. Such an
image, in my view, also represents the fact that social cohesion in Indonesian society,
especially in the big cities, was getting weaker. People tended to be more
individualistic and to have less concern about others. The Daihatsu Rocky
advertisement has illustrated that social cohesion between the middle and the lower
class has been eroded, and, thereby, the boundaries between them were sharply drawn.
In the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement the product itself functions as a class
marker, which distinguishes the lower and the middle class within the narrative. In
addition, the advertisement also depicts the product as the vehicle of a hero who has
bravery to save other people’s lives. It is important to note, however, that, in the
advertisement, the middle class hero comes to save a middle class kidnapped boy. In
other words, he comes to save his own class. The class warfare depicted in the
advertisement, therefore, is aimed to preserve and sustain the boundaries between the
lower and middle class. Unlike the lower class, the middle class gains its power not
only through physical strength but also, and mostly, through its knowledge and
intelligence. As shown in the advertisement, the middle class hero successfully
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deceives the lower class kidnappers with his tactic to fill the bag with gas instead of
money. Added to that, by means of the vehicle and his high skill of driving, he can
avoid all the obstacles and run away from the kidnappers without using any heavy
physical tools. The middle class, in other words, relies on brain activity rather than
physical or muscular activity. On this point, the advertisement makes use of different
codes of masculinity to symbolize different positions of class. The lower class
masculinity is represented by physical strength, including its mechanical extension
into hard instruments such as the big barbell and bunch of logs, and aggresiveness.
This masculinity, according to Fiske (1993, p.201), is the style of masculinity that is
fantasised by young boys, who have not strong bodies to grant them the power and
who also occupy powerless positions in the family and school. This immature
masculinity is also attached to the lower class men, whose bodies are strong enough,
but occupy powerless social positions in a society. Since their masculinity requires
them to be dominant, the lower class men make use of their physical strength and
aggresiveness to meet this requirement. The middle class men show what Fiske (Ibid,
p.200) terms “adult masculinity”. They use their physical strength and its extensions,
such as mechanical and driving skills, but their masculine power is exercised more by
social means than physical, i.e., through the work of the brain and the ability to plan.
Both lower class/villain masculinity and middle class/hero masculinity in the Daihatsu
advertisement in fact equally exercise violence. However, the middle class/hero is
depicted more successful in his violence, while the lower class/villains are not. All
this goes to narratively underscore the powerless social positions of the lower class.
In addition, advertising narrative not merely uses the theme of getting and
keeping of wealth to praise the position of the middle class, but also insidiously
denigrates the lower class by depicting them as deviants or criminals, being greedy,
ignorant and losers. Images of the lower class in the advertisement, in my view, imply
prejudice or anxiety among the middle class about social tensions, which were
possibly ignited by the lower class due to their socio-economic problems. As
described earlier, during the New Order era, fragile situations lay beneath the general
recognition of success in economic development. The feeling of being marginalized
among the poor could result in various kinds of extreme acts that destroy everything
symbolizing prosperity (Rasyid 1995, p.156). Following this logic, the rich apparently
seek to keep their own property safe from such attack. It would be apparent, therefore,
that images of lower class people in this advertisement are taken from the eyes of the
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middle class rather than from the eyes of the lower class. The life of the lower class, in
this respect, is judged and stereotypically visualized from the perspective of the upper
and middle class. Ehrenreich (2001) also reveals the same fact on her study of
disappearance of working class people in American media. She points out,
“[W]orking class people are likely to cross the screen only as witnesses to crimes or
sports events, never as commentators, or even when their own lives are under
discussion, [they never appear] as “experts”” (2001, p.40; internal quote in original). It
would be apparent that the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement is mainly about the middle
class constructing values for themselves by distancing and denigrating the lower class.
The advertisement is about praising the position of the middle class in a society, by
depicting them as the heroic, the morally excellent and, thereby, the winner. It
becomes obvious that the advertisement works to ensure the middle class to be
superior in the narrative. As seen in the advertisement, the middle class is clearly in
the position to create and drive the narrative.
After the fall of the New Order regime, images of the affluent middle class as
the heroic and the virtuous remain visible. Class relations between the rich and the
poor, however, are depicted in a more modified way. It is illustrated, for instance, in
the cigarette advertisement, Dji Sam Soe (Figure 6.2.)
Figure 6.2. Dji Sam Soe Advertisement
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The Dji Sam Soe advertisement is set in a train station. It is opened with a scene of a
middle-aged woman, who is walking in the station. Non-diegetic music is heard,
mixed with the diegetic sound of train station noise. The woman wears glasses and
covers her head with a scarf, but lets her front hair remains visible. Her right hand
holds a dinner container and in the left hand she holds a train ticket. A bag is hung on
her left shoulder. The scene also shows a train parked on its track and some other
people walking to catch a train. The woman stops a young man in a black jacket who
is walking toward her. She shows her ticket to the young man. The scene apparently
narrates that the middle-aged woman is looking for her train and not able to find it yet.
She shows her confused face, as the young man is looking at her ticket. The next
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scene demonstrates the young man raising his shoulders, indicating that he does not
know either. The woman, then, promptly walks forward. She tries to walk faster to
catch the train she has not found yet. The scene moves to an image of a man opening
his handbag and pulling out pieces of paper. He is sitting in a train. With white shirt
and glasses, the man looks like a young professional. He is holding the papers from
his bag and reads them. In the same scene is viewed from the train window next to the
man as the middle-aged woman is passing by. She catches the man’s attention, as she
stops with a confused face. She looks at a train, which is parked on the track across
from the man’s train. The man keeps looking at the woman as she decides to get into
the train. The scene moves to a train conductor who is asking people to get into the
train immediately. It seems that the train on the cross track is going to leave within
minutes. The man suddenly looks anxious. It is apparent that the woman has got his
serious concern. He is probably worrying that the woman might get into a wrong train.
The next scene shows the train conductor again, taken from the man’s eyes. The
camera then moves to the woman. She is still standing not far from the entrance and
looks very unsure. The man promptly leaves his seat and gets out from his train. He
walks quickly toward the other train to help the woman. He takes the woman’s ticket
and reads it. The scene then shows the man waving his hand and telling her that she is
getting into a wrong train. At the same time, the train conductor blows his whistle,
giving a signal that the train is going to leave. Both of them look panicky, but the man
quickly asks the woman to come with him. He holds the woman’s hand and takes her
to his train. The scene moves to a dark scene indicating that some of the shooting have
been skipped. The next scene is set on a moving train. The middle-aged woman smiles
while taking food from her dinner container. The man is also eating food from the
woman’s dinner container. Both of them are depicted having dinner and sharing
stories. The woman, however, still looks timid, whereas the man attempts to comfort
her by showing his down-to-earth personality. A male voice-over is heard,
accompanying a later scene of the advertisement. The voice-over says, “Sometimes,
not being silent means gold for others”. The advertisement finally is closed with a text
“Dji Sam Soe Filter, Crossing Boundaries.”
The last text “Crossing Boundaries” reflects the advertising story of a middle
class man crossing class boundaries by giving a hand to a lower class woman. The
saying ‘the clothes make the man’ is applied in this advertisement. According to
Valdivia (1998, p.227), social class is often described in terms of clothing. White
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collar workers are considered as middle class workers. The man in Dji Sam Soe
advertisement apparently personifies this idiom. He wears a white-collar shirt and
glasses, which generate the image of a well-educated, middle class man. This image is
reinforced by the scenes, in which he is depicted opening his bag, pulling out papers
and reading them. These scenes illustrate that he is a young professional and a hard
worker. In contrast, the lower class middle aged woman in the advertisement is
depicted as timid and less educated. She wears glasses too, but it is aimed to signify
her state of age rather than her knowledge or educational status. Her appearance is
old-fashioned, with a loose outfit and a headscarf. Her lack of knowledge is illustrated
through her face and body language, as if it is her first time being in a train station.
The Dji Sam Soe advertisement depicts a similar image of middle class as the
Daihatsu Rocky advertisement. In this advertisement, the middle class man is also
depicted as the virtuous, the hero, who readily gives a hand to others, particularly, for
the lower class. What is more, as shown in the advertisement, the man does not merely
help the woman, but he also lets himself share food with the woman. He is not
reluctant to eat lower class food with lower class manners as he eats the food with
bare hands. Though nowadays eating with the hands has become a new eating style
even among the upper and middle class in Indonesia, this habit is basically considered
belonging to the lower class, based on the assumption that the lower class can not
afford any eating utensils. The text “Crossing Boundaries” is well-matched on this
point. Instead of reinforcing the class boundaries, the man is depicted crossing the
boundaries which separate his class position and the woman’s. He asks the woman to
sit with him, and what is more, he also opens himself to ‘go down’ and experience a
slice of life of the lower class.
Similar with the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement, the Dji Sam Soe advertisement
works to ensure the middle class a place to create values for themselves. It is
observable, for instance, that the advertisement seeks to convey a normative message,
especially for the middle class, to show concern and do something for someone in
trouble. In the context of Indonesia, it is a well known fact that in 1997, a year before
the fall of the New Order regime, the Indonesian economy began to deteriorate. Due
to the economic crisis of 1997-1998, the number of people living in poverty increased
sharply (Rabasa and Chalk 2001, p.15), which led to the significant fall in real
standards of living (Rigg 1997, p.112). More specifically, the crisis primarily
worsened the life chances of the lower class. People from the lower socio-economic
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level had to survive and live at a very minimal standard. The Dji Sam Soe
advertisement, accordingly, addresses the affluent middle class to give more concern
about the lower class. In other words, the advertisement attempts to improve social
cohesion between classes, which had been getting weaker, especially during the
1990s.
It is important to note that, unlike advertisements during the New Order era, the
Dji Sam Soe advertisement does not depict the middle class man as the hero of his
class. Instead, the advertisement depicts the middle class as the hero for lower class.
Added to that, during the Post New Order era, the lower class is represented
differently. Although the advertising narrative is still driven by the middle class
perspective, the lower class is not depicted or represented negatively, such as deviant,
rule breaker or loser. Yet, the image of the lower class as being ignorant or having
lack of knowledge is still intact. But, despite their timidness and lack of knowledge,
they do not appear totally weak and dependent upon the people from a higher rank of
class. The advertisement, hence, provides a space for the lower class to negotiate their
position in the face of the middle class. It is illustrated, for instance, in the scene in
which the middle class man and the lower class woman sit and have dinner together in
the train. It is narrated that the middle class man comes right on time and saves the
woman from getting into a wrong train. Although it might be not aimed as a reward,
the woman does provide dinner for the man, as they sit together in the train. She
shares her food with the man, which she brought from home in her dinner container.
Her food, in my view, represents the pride of the lower class, since the food embodies
her hard work, both in earning the money for the food and in producing or cooking the
food. The pride of the lower class, sometimes, is simply overlooked by those in the
higher rank of class. It is often claimed that only the middle class can necessarily
provide assistance to the lower class. The advertisement, in contrast, illustrates that
the lower class can provide something valuable as well for the middle class. It
obviously symbolises the fact that the lower class works to nourish the middle class.
By providing dinner for the middle class man, the lower class woman does not fully
owe him, if rational calculation will be applied on this point. Most importantly, it is
observable that despite their timidness, lack of knowledge and, generally, socioeconomic problems, the lower class still has a bargaining position in the face of those
in the higher rank of class.
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6.2. Guardian of Class-Mobility
In the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement, as discussed earlier, the lower class is
depicted committing a certain crime—kidnapping—to earn some money, possibly, to
improve their life chances. It would appear, then, that the advertisement has entailed a
desire for class mobility, especially among those who reside in the lower rank of class.
Advertisements play a significant role in generating desire for class mobility in
society. More specifically, advertisements provide certain cues about how to move
upwardly, especially through consuming activities. Foster (2005, p.4) calls this
process “class passing”, that is, moving through social positions because of a change
in job, marriage, or any number of plot contrivances. In the context of advertising,
products can function as agents, which facilitate people to engage in class-passing.
The advertising model, according to Foster (2005, p.24), also plays a significant role
as a mirror to the class-passing.
In the Daihatsu Rocky advertisement, the desire for upward social mobility and
class-passing is associated mainly with the lower class. They seek to move their social
position upwardly by practicing crime. The middle class, in contrast, is depicted not
exercising class mobility and class-passing, but as the guardian of their own class. The
middle class, in the advertisement, attempts to protect and secure its position. It is
illustrated, for instance, from the scene in which the middle class man comes and
rescues the kidnapped middle-class boy. Added to that, the middle class man is
depicted showing his readiness and bravery to oppose people who attempt to take his
material possessions forcibly. In other words, the middle class is depicted not merely
as the guardian of its own people, but also guardian of its own wealth or property. The
advertisement works to ensure the middle class maintains its position and protects
itself from any external threats, which can reduce or disrupt its position. The rich
people, indeed, attempt to protect their economic power and material privileges
available for them and their family. They will make efforts to ensure their offspring
stay continuously in their class, or, if possible, are mobile upwardly to the higher rank.
It is illustrated, for instance, in the Sustagen Junior advertisement in Figure 6.3.
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Figure 6.3. Sustagen Junior Advertisement
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement presents a mother as the first narrator telling a story about her son.
She describes how her son is growing to be an active and ingenious person. As she
says, “My genius is getting busy,” the scene shows a boy is running toward a fish
bowl in the middle of a room. He watches a goldfish, which is swimming in the bowl.
His mother, at the same time, describes, “It began with the biology practical.” Her
son’s curiosity about the life of goldfish in the water is associated with Biology, the
science of life and living organism. The next scene shows the boy holding and trying
to play a violin. His mother says that he wants to give a solo concert. The scene then
moves to an image of the mother sitting on a chair with the son on her lap. The boy
moves his hands, as if he is conducting a concert. The next scene shows the boy on a
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treadmill. He tries to run on it, but he falls. The scene illustrates the next activity of
the boy, which is described by his mother as a marathon runner. The mother is
depicted in the next scene, happily laughing at her active, genius son. She looks happy
and proud about her son’s curiosity. She continues to narrate, “He learns to march;
wants to join a marching band.” At the same time the scene shows the boy marching
before a mirror. He looks at his reflection in the mirror, as he moves his legs and
hands. The next scene shows he is blowing a baritone horn, a musical instrument
which is commonly used in a marching band. Subsequently, the mother describes her
son’s curiosity about photography. The scene depicts the son playing with an old
camera. He curiously touches the camera with his fingers. The boy is described by his
mother as eager to be a photographer later in his life. The mother then says that her
genius boy is about to enter the important phase of his life. She, therefore, gives her
son Sustagen Junior, the product which is useful to support his physical and mental
development. She claims that she gives her son only the best products. At the same
time, the scenes show images of the products and the son, who is playing with the
products. He is holding a big magnifying glass and is looking at the product with it, as
if he is an expert who is analysing the product. The scene moves to a picture of the
son, who is looking directly at the camera and smiling. His voice-over is also heard,
mentioning the name of the product, Sustagen Junior. The advertisement is closed
with the scene that informs about the producer of the product, Mead Johnson, which
claims itself to be the world leader in nutrition.
The mother, in this advertisement, does not merely describe her son’s curiosity
and activities, but the narrative of her son implies her own expectations as a mother,
and of her son’s bright future. They, mother and son, are depicted as members of the
rich. Some markers which refer to their state of wealth are readily seen in the
advertisement. Their appearance palpably shows to which class they belong. The
room where the advertisement is set also presents certain class markers, such as the
standing lamp, the painting hanging on the wall, and the beautiful vase with flowers.
But there are some more obvious markers of the rich present in the advertisement. All
the son’s activities entail high cost instruments and a high level of education. The
Biology practical is associated with education. The bowl with a goldfish is used to
generate the biology association. Having an aquarium with a goldfish at home is not a
hobby of the lower class. The violin, treadmill, baritone horn and camera are
obviously expensive instruments which can be afforded only by upper or middle class.
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Added to that, activities that use those instruments frequently require a certain level of
education. Those activities reflect cultural preferences and tastes, which correspond to
their education level and social class. Similarly, the mother and the son become
objects of luxury as well, communicating the social status of the husband. Their
appearance and preferences for luxury goods and activities obviously indicate that the
husband must be rich or powerful.
It becomes apparent that the advertisement is about the life of the middle or
upper class, both of which can afford such expensive instruments and a good level of
education. The mother, in my view, projects her own desire for class-mobility to her
son, as if those activities are her son’s desire. She tends to stimulate and facilitate her
son to have the expectation of being a violist, photographer, marathon runner or
marching band player. In other words, she will guide her offspring to have good life
chances. Therefore, she attempts to provide her offspring with a better education,
facilitate them to engage in good activities and, thereby, her offspring can gain a
greater capacity to move upwardly in society. Or, at least, she attempts to secure their
current position of class. Bourdieu (2000, p.132) observes this tendency and argues
that the dominant class and middle class, who are the richest in economic capital, tend
to make increased use of educational opportunities to ensure their class standing.
Better education and academic qualifications become important investments and the
central mechanism for securing and upgrading their position in the class structure.
In the context of the Sustagen Junior advertisement, the product functions as an
agent which helps the mother to prepare and guide her son to achieve a greater
capacity to enjoy a superior social standing. As narrated in the advertisement, the
product is useful to support the physical and mental development of children. From an
early age, the son is well prepared by his mother, physically and mentally, to secure
his class position, and, more importantly, to move upwardly to the higher rank. It
would be apparent, then, that middle class women, especially mothers, are charged
with the responsibility to protect and secure her family’s class from within.
Sustainability of her family’s class position depends on her success in preparing her
offspring physically and mentally. It becomes obvious that women, in the role of
mothers in particular, are often considered the guardians of class and the guardians of
class passing (Foster 2005, p.27). Different from middle class men, who are attached
with responsibility to protect his class from external threats, middle class women are
responsible for the protection of their class from threats which come from within. Her
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offspring are obviously the main factors which play a significant role to secure her
current class or ensure its upward mobility.
As described earlier, during the New Order era the lower class was depicted
doing class passing by practicing crime. It should be admitted that the desire for
upward mobility in a society is possessed mainly by the lower class people. They
always attempt to find ways in which they can cross barriers and move to a higher
rank of class. During the Post New Order era, the desire for class-passing among the
lower class is still present in the advertisements. It is illustrated, for instance, in the
advertisement for detergent, Surf, in Figure 6.4.
Figure 6.4. Surf Advertisement
Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The Surf advertisement is an advertisement for a detergent product. It opens with a
scene of a woman, and two boys wearing school uniform. The woman is depicted
sitting down and handwashing clothes in a big pail. A big pack of Surf detergent is
seen leaning on the left side of the pail. Her son, one of the school boys, is standing
next to her. He wants to say good bye to his mother before leaving for school. He
gives his hand to his mother who then looks at him. Meanwhile, the other schoolboy,
who wears glasses, is waiting behind him. He also says goodbye words to his friend’s
mother. The mother gives her right hand to her son, while her left hand is still in the
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pail washing some clothes. Her son bends down to kiss his mother’s hand. He
continues to kiss for a little while. He obviously does not want to take his nose from
his mother’s hand. His friend has already moved. As he realizes that the boy is still
kissing his mother’s hand, he turns back and says, “Come on, Warsito, we could be
late.” Warsito’s mother keeps washing with her left hand. She lets her son continue
kissing her hands, but her attention is paid to her washed clothes. Warsito’s friend
comes and takes Warsito’s left hand. He keeps saying, “Warsito, come on!” But
Warsito does not care for his friend’s words. He keeps kissing his mother’s hand. His
mother slightly looks at his face and touches his head, but then continues to
concentrate on her washing in the pail. His friend draws Warsito’s hand, trying to
release him and asking him to go. But Warsito does not want to release his mother’s
hand; instead, he holds it more tightly and keeps putting his nose on it. In the last
scene, his mother asks him to go, but she still focuses on her washing. Warsito’s
friend also keeps trying to release him from his mother, but it does not work. A verbal
text is then shown on the right above the scene, “Surf, new fragrance”. The text is also
spoken by a male voice-over. It is revealed then that the little Warsito is sticking his
nose to his mother hand due to the new fragrance of the detergent used by his mother.
The Surf advertisement depicts a snippet of lower class life. It is illustrated
mainly from the woman’s activity and the setting. Warsito’s mother is depicted
washing clothes with her hands. She uses a big pail to soak the clothes. The floor
around the pail is unplastered, looking dirty and wet. This is a common view among
lower class families in Indonesia, washing clothes by hand instead of machine. Unlike
the upper and middle classes, the lower class cannot afford a washing machine. If they
do have money, they will prefer to save their money for other needs such as food,
clothes, or children’s education rather than for a washing machine. Regarding the
notion of social climbing and class-passing, the advertisement depicts how the lower
class also has desires to change their class position upwardly through education. As
seen in the advertisement, Warsito and his friend represent the lower class children,
who are preparing for their future by attending school. They represent the desire of
class mobility among the lower class people, and education becomes a central
mechanism that enables them to make it real. The presence of Warsito’s mother in this
advertisement also illustrates that, similar to a middle class mother, she has the same
responsibility to guide her son in achieving a better capacity for his future life. In
other words, the lower class mother also plays a significant role as the guardian of
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class-mobility. In this understanding, she will not allow her offspring to remain in
their current position of class. It is undeniably true that she will always support her
offspring to seek upward class mobility. The image of Warsito kissing his mother’s
hand before he leaves for school indicates that his mother’s blessing is important for
his activities in school. As shown in the advertisement, his mother also touches
Warsito’s head as he is kissing her hand. However, the lower class mother in this
advertisement is not depicted giving intense support for her son as shown by the
middle class mother in the Sustagen Junior advertisement. The lower class mother, in
contrast, divides her attention between her son and her own duty, which in the
advertisement is represented by the washing activity. She does not show her own
desire for her son’s class mobility. She indeed tells Warsito to release her hand and
agrees with Warsito’s friend that he should leave for school immediately. But she has
a lack of enthusiasm to motivate her son to go to school. It indicates that the lower
class prefers to be pragmatic. They prefer to deal with current, actual things which
exist right before their eyes, rather than deal with future, bombastic, high sounding
things that need specific efforts to achieve. It is not because they have no dreams or
expectations, but their real situation tends to compel them to be realistic. The way in
which Warsito’s mother pays more attention to her washing clothes rather than to
showing her support to Warsito illustrates this tendency. She prefers to deal with her
current duty, which exists before her eyes, rather than with her son’s preparation of his
future class-passing. Added to that, in the context of Indonesia during the Post New
Order era, as mentioned earlier, after the economic crisis in 1997-1998 many people
were unable to access a good standard of living. Lower class families could not afford
education for their children. Based on data from the National Education Ministry,
there were about 255,000 fewer children in school as a result of the crisis (Hartono
and Ehrmann 2003, p.193). Poor people tended to withdraw their children from school
to reduce education related costs. Warsito illustrates this phenomenon. He is depicted
being in-between, between his mother/home and his friend/school. Warsito represents
the lower class position in the sense that, on the one hand, he expects and desires
better capacities to gain better life chances in the future, but, on the other hand, he
must deal with his actual socio-economic situation in everyday life.
It should be admitted, however, that the lower class in the Surf detergent
advertisement is depicted not as good as the depiction of middle class. Compared with
the image of the middle class in the Sustagen Junior advertisement, the lower class in
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the Surf advertisement is depicted as having low motivation and lack of enthusiasm in
pursuing a greater capacity to be upwardly mobile in society. It is different with
middle class people, who are depicted more enthusiastic in seriously preparing their
offspring to do class passing in the future life. Upward class mobility is considered as
beginning from home, and therefore, the mother is depicted as the most responsible
for that. In the context of the Surf advertisement, the lower class is depicted as the site
from where the middle class could have originated. The upward social climbing of the
lower class, in this respect, is enabled and underpinned by the figure of mother. In
other words, codes of femininity, especially through the figure of a mother, are used in
the Sustagen Junior and Surf advertisements to ensure the nurture and social survival
of the middle class.
6.3. Locating Class
As mentioned earlier, discussions of class could be expressed through other
categories of difference. Geographical location, such as rural and urban, is also
potentially used to express class (Southworth and Stephan-Norris 2003, Thompson
2004). A dichotomy of rural and urban space, to some extent, provides certain markers
which describe social class. Advertisements also use the distinction between urban
and rural to express and narrativise the notion of class. It is illustrated, for instance, in
the Indomie advertisement, as shown in Figure 6.5.
Figure 6.5. Indomie Advertisement
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement is opened with a long-shot scene of a train running through
meadows and fields. It is depicted that the train is entering a rural area, with green
fields and plantations in the surroundings. The rural setting is also illustrated from the
old train station. As the train is stopped, a boy with red t-shirt and a red hat gets out of
the train. He is directly welcomed by a boy who is standing near a bicycle, and a
middle-aged woman. The woman is a Javanese, which is seen from her traditional
dress and hairdo. The boy smiles and looks happy meeting the boy with a bike. He
then turns to the Javanese woman, smiles and hands her his backpack. She smiles and
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receives the bag and bends her body slightly, showing her politeness to the boy. The
way she bends her body to honour the boy demonstrates that the boy has a higher
social position than the woman. The boys, subsequently, are depicted leaving the
station after saying goodbye to the Javanese woman, who waves her hand. It becomes
apparent that the advertisement is telling a story about an urban boy, who comes to the
village. He might spend his holiday or leisure time by visiting the rural area. The rural
boy in the advertisement serves as his companion, who guides the urban boy to look
around the village. The advertisement, then, depicts their bicycle tour around the
village and plantation. They ride the bicycle, the rural boy pedals it and the urban boy
sits on the back. The urban boy looks fascinated to see the plantation and the rural life.
He meets a flock of ducks marching on the street. It is a common view in Indonesian
villages that farmers shepherd their ducks, cows or buffalos in rice fields or meadows.
As seen in the advertisement, the two boys get off their bike and walk through a
meadow with buffalos on it. The rural boy takes the urban boy to the village and
plantation. They meet farmers working in rice fields and in the plantation. The
working farmers who are harvesting the fields are mostly women. As depicted in the
advertisement, the two boys take a part in harvesting red onions and red chilli. The
urban boy gains many experiences of living in the village and plantation. He enjoys
feeding chicken or riding on a bullock cart. The rural boy acts as a very good guide,
who always accompanies him and makes him enjoy his stay in the village. In later
scenes, the urban boy is depicted at home, sitting at a dining table and remembering
his village tour. As he is recalling the scenes in the village in his mind, his mother
comes and serves him cooked instant noodles. The boy looks happy and smiles. His
mother also serves another plate for her husband who is also sitting at the dining table.
The advertisement is finally closed by squeezing the scene and adding the text
“Indofood” below the scene. It is apparent that all the village tour scenes in the
advertisement are the flashback memories of the urban boy. He is already at home
with his urban middle class family. The advertisement itself attempts to show that
Indomie instant noodle is made from natural ingredients, which are planted in
Indonesia and by Indonesians, and [the noodle] is produced for the consumption of
Indonesians. To convey this message, the advertisement divides its scenes into two
groups. Firstly, the village scenes, which depict the working farmers, the plantation,
the plant-harvest, the cattle and other rural life experiences. These scenes are
associated with the natural ingredients of the selling product. Secondly, the urban
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scenes, which depict the urban middle class boy sitting with his parents consuming the
product.
It is observable that the advertisement generates a dichotomy of rural-urban
space in its narrative, through which class hierarchy is described and expressed. The
rural or village setting, in this sense, is positioned as a site of nostalgic memory
(Thompson 2004, p.2357), which has become prevalent nowadays among the urban
middle class. This understanding implies that there is a distance, physically and
mentally, which separates the rural/village and urban. The village, which is perceived
as a site of rural backwardness, tradition, and naivity (ibid), gives a certain nostalgic
imaginary to the urban people. It is shown in the advertisement as the urban boy
comes to the village and is eager to discover how life goes there. He looks happy and
fascinated as he experiences some pieces of village life such as feeding the chickens,
harvesting red onions, and riding a bullock cart. It is observable that the village
becomes an exotic, nostalgic place for the urban, offering natural and unique objects
to be seen. As depicted in the advertisement, a village with fields, meadows and cattle
provides a marvelous panorama of nature, which amuses the urban boy. Added to that,
the sense of exoticism is also depicted through the villagers’ hospitality toward the
urban, and the presence of mutual intimate ties among the villagers. It should be noted
that all these figures tend to be forgotten and hardly found in the urban life. It is not
surprising that, after he comes back to his urban life, the boy misses his village
experiences and attempts to recall his nostalgic memory of it.
It is worthy to note that differences between urban and rural, in this
advertisement, are implied differences between the working/lower class and middle
class. The rural people in this advertisement are especially represented by the rural
boy, who accompanies the urban boy to look around the village. He is the guide, who
provides comfort for the urban boy and makes him enjoy his stay in the village. In
brief, the rural boy dedicates himself to serve the urban boy. It is also evident from the
scene in which he takes the urban boy on his bicycle. He pedals the bicycle and the
urban boy sits at the back. By doing so, he lets himself devote his energy to ride the
bike for the comfort of the urban boy. Added to that, the Javanese woman who
welcomes the urban boy in the train station illustrates the hierarchy of position
between herself and the urban boy. As described earlier, she bows her body to honour
the urban boy and brings his backpack. Her body language indicates that her position
is lower than that of the urban boy.
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The other rural people depicted in the advertisement are the working farmers.
There is no indication of the presence of landowners in the advertisement. It is
important to underline that the working farmers depicted in the advertisement are
mostly women. They work in the fields to provide natural ingredients, which are
utilised to produce the selling product, Indomie. As the advertisement shows that the
product is consumed by urban middle class people, it could be asserted that the
working rural farmers devote their time and energy to provide materials for the
consumption by the urban middle class. Class relations are visually engraved in the
imagery of rural and urban in this advertisement. Differences between rural and urban
indicate and describe differences between the middle class and the working/lower
class. The urban is equated with middle class that deals with consumption activities,
whereas the rural is equated with working/lower class that deals with the production
activities.
Links between lower class and production activities can be revealed as well in
the Dji Sam Soe advertisement. As described earlier, the lower class woman shares
her food with the middle class man. She brought the food from home in her dinner
container. It is obvious that the lower class woman cooked the food herself at home.
As she sits in the train with the middle class man, she serves the food for him and for
her self. She is subsequently depicted having dinner together with the man. They eat
the lower class’ self-cooked food, which is served from her dinner container. On this
point it should be stressed that the lower class woman produces and provides
something which is beneficial for the middle class man. The lower class woman deals
with the food production [by cooking it], and the middle class man deals with the
consumption. What is more, the lower class woman is also depicted providing
companionship for the middle class man during the train ride. It is similar to the rural
boy, who does the same for the urban boy during his stay in the village. The lower
class woman and the rural boy are, briefly, there for the good of the middle class or
the urban. It is observable that the lower class functions to play motherly roles such as
nurturing, caring and nourishing for the middle class.
However, it is interesting to note that the Dji Sam Soe advertisement, which was
produced during the Post New Order era, does not tend to make a clear separation
between lower and middle class. The middle class man, for instance, is not depicted
eating the food alone. Instead, he eats the food produced by the lower class woman
together with her. The companionship depicted in the advertisement is also not merely
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done by the lower class for the middle class, but it works in reverse too. It is revealed
that during this era, although the lower class still shows their timidity and reluctance,
they are depicted having more power to negotiate or bargain with the middle class
when compared with the previous era.
6.4. Narrativising Class Distinction
Images of class in Indonesian advertisements during the New Order and the Post
New Order era have shown slight changes. Since class still matters to consumption,
people with a lack of disposable income are tended to be marginalized, if not absent,
in the advertising narratives. Class positions, according to Bourdieu (2000), are
symbolically expressed through cultural preferences and tastes, such as choices of
dress, leisure activities, sports, or even body language. In the process of selling
products, advertisements inscribe myths of class, which are also manifested through
the choice of product and lifestyles. In the context of Indonesia, discussion of class
cannot be detached from socio-economic dynamics occurring in the country. During
the New Order era, images of class were inscribed through the narratives of
strong/weak and educated/ignorant. In line with the tremendous economic growth
under the New Order government, during the 1990s the so-called urban middle class
grew phenomenally. The newly rich middle class in Indonesia in this period has been
described as the main agent of contemporary consumer culture in a sense of their
conspicuous consumption lifestyle. Advertisements, on this point, played a significant
role in stimulating and facilitating this lifestyle. It was not surprising that images of
middle class were prevalent in advertising during this era. Advertising narratives were
driven by a middle class perspective, which, no wonder, praised its own position and
denigrated those who resided in the lower position. The presence of middle class was
signified by cosmopolitan fashionable outfits and adventurous lifestyle. The latter was
associated with the middle class image as hero. Middle class is personified by the
figure of a virtuous, educated, masculine hero, who showed his bravery and readiness
to protect his own class from external threats. For doing so, the middle class hero
relied on brain activity rather than on muscle or physical strength. Added to that, the
middle class was also represented having a great concern for securing their position
and wealth, and for achieving a greater capacity for social climbing and class passing.
Education as a central mechanism for securing position and for moving upwardly in
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society was taken in the limelight. A middle class family, therefore, was depicted
providing a better education for their offspring from an early age, leading them to
superior social standing and power in their future life.
The lower class, during the New Order era, was depicted less positive than the
middle class. In their marginal presence, the lower class was depicted as deviant, rude,
the loser and lacking in knowledge, or ignorant. Since the lower class was considered
as ignorant, advertisements tended to picture them relying upon their muscle or
physical strength rather than their brain in dealing with their works. Desire for class
mobility and class passing was also owned by the lower class. However, due to their
limited resources, the lower class was depicted practicing crime in order to acquire
economic power for social climbing. This sort of image was related to the widening
gap between the rich and the poor during the 1990s. It is important to note that,
despite the New Order’s rapid economic growth, over half of the population still lived
in absolute poverty (Wie 2000, p.173). The wealth was only available for and enjoyed
by a few, which resulted in obvious envy and resentment from the poor. Advertising
imagery and narrative of the lower class as deviants or villains could be said to be a
result of anxiety among the middle class about the resentment of the poor. Added to
that, if they did appear together with the middle class, the lower class was positioned
as the one which served and provided materials and comfort for the middle class. It
could be concluded that during the New Order era advertisements tended to reinforce
class distinctions between the lower and the middle class. Advertising narratives
particularly worked to ensure the middle class maintained and sharpened the
boundaries between their class positions. In this process, the product serves as a
significant agent which facilitates the middle class to secure its position, or to be
upwardly mobile to the higher position.
During the Post New Order era until 2005, there have been slight changes
regarding images of class in Indonesian advertisements. The notion of class was
inscribed mainly through the narrative of educated/ignorant. Class relations, in this
context, were depicted more fluid and permeated. Class distinctions were obviously
present, but not in terms of opposition. The middle class was still depicted as a
morally excellent educated hero. But, unlike during the New Order era, the middle
class hero during the Post New Order era was not depicted protecting his own class.
Instead, he appeared as the hero for the lower class. The middle class, therefore, was
depicted crossing the boundaries and having empathy towards the lower class.
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Advertisements sought to illustrate the middle class as down-to-earth people and
having tolerance towards others, especially those who resided in the lower rank of
class. What is more, the lower class during this era appeared as people with pride or
dignity. They are depicted having bargaining power in the face of the middle class.
They did not appear as the ones who always provide comfort, materials or
companionship for the middle class either. Instead, advertisements illustrated that both
classes operated in an exchange relationship.
The lower class, in addition, was still presented as having a lack of knowledge,
or being ignorant. Although during the Post New Order era the number of people who
lived in a poverty increased sharply, the lower class was not depicted and narrativised
as deviants or criminals anymore. Instead, due to their socio-economic condition after
the economic crisis, the desire for upward class mobility and passing embraced the
lower class. Similar to the previous era, education as the central mechanism for
moving their social position upwardly was taken in the limelight. Family played a
significant role in preparing their offspring’s education. However, perhaps due to their
vulnerable economic position, the lower class children were depicted being trapped in
the middle, between staying at home and helping their parents to support the family
economy, or attending school for class-passing in their future life.
It is important to note that gendering class has obviously taken place in
Indonesian advertisements during the two different eras in Indonesia. Women were
positioned as the guardians of class and the guardians of class mobility. They were
charged with the responsibility to prepare and facilitate their offspring to achieve a
superior social position, or at least to secure their current social position. Added to
that, stereotypical traits of the lower class, such as being uneducated, having
illegitimate tastes of dress, or showing timidity, were embodied in women.
Advertisements during the two different eras in Indonesia also inclined to position
middle class women as consumers rather than producers. In contrast, lower class
women were positioned as producers rather than consumers. Men tended to personify
middle class characters with morally excellent traits and behaviours. It is not
surprising that men were mostly depicted exercising their economic power and
enjoying cultural privileges available to them.
In addition, codes of masculinity and male conduct were used in the
advertisements under discussion to narrativise class distinction in terms of opposition.
The advertisements also made use of different codes of masculinity to symbolise the
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different social positions between lower and middle class. Those codes are
functionalised in the narrative to maintain and reinforce class borders that need to be
defended. Codes of femininity, especially in the figure of motherhood, were used to
narrativise the permeability of class boundaries and the possibility of social climbing
and class-passing. Advertisements during the New Order and the Post-New Order era
have shown the same tendency to place women as heroes of class in terms of
nurturing the middle class. The lower class, particularly, is depicted playing a
motherly role of nourishing the middle class. It could be said, on this point, that the
existence of the middle class is narratively enabled and underpinned by women and
the lower class.
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Chapter 7
Commercial Narratives of Indonesianess
In the previous chapters, it has been revealed how advertisements weave
together stories of the products and definitions of social relations regarding gender,
ethnicity/race and class. Such definitions are not created in a vacuum; rather, they are
produced within a certain social location. In the context of this study, advertisements
under discussion are situated within an Indonesian locality, since they were produced
and circulated within the national borders of Indonesia. Those advertisements,
accordingly, contain certain ideas and narratives with regard to Indonesianess. It
should be not forgotten that those advertisements have been honoured with Citra
Pariwara Awards. The award winner advertisements get the honour to represent
Indonesia in international advertising competitions. It would be reasonable to assume,
therefore, that those advertisements are part of the project of Indonesian nationbuilding. In this sense, an advertisement functions as a site in which the notion of
Indonesianess is symbolically constructed, displayed and negotiated.
Benedict Anderson’s (1991) influential work describes nations as imagined
communities. He argues that nations are socially constructed and imagined, in the
sense that members of a nation do not know each other, but they still have feelings
and imagination to consider themselves a community. As an abstract concept, nation
needs to be expressed and embodied through something material such as flags,
costumes, or, according to Stuart Hall (1992), through representation. More
specifically, Hall argues that nations are formed in part through representations, which
form the narrative of nation. He defines it as
[A] set of stories, images, landscapes, scenarios, historical events, national
symbols and rituals, which stand for or represent the shared experiences,
sorrows and triumphs and disasters, which give meaning to the nation (1992,
p.239).
Following this insight, it could be said that an advertisement is one of the significant
sources of images and narratives which articulate the symbolic making of nation. In
this respect, advertisements entail shared values, way of life and history of people
within borders of nations in order to construct a discourse of nationhood. It is
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important to note that such discourse is not stable and fixed; rather, as Hogan (2003,
p.102) identifies, the discourse is constantly shifting, shaping and being reshaped by
changing social conditions. Imagination of nationhood, therefore, is always a subject
to change. It can never be fixed or considered finished.
As mentioned earlier, I make the assumption that the advertisements under
discussion perpetuate narratives of Indonesianess with which large numbers of the
national audience can identify, and thereby generate shared feelings of national
belonging. Based on this assumption, I address this chapter to reveal how narratives of
Indonesianess are created, maintained and negotiated through advertisements which
were produced and distributed during two different eras in Indonesia. More
specifically, I aim to examine how gender, ethnicity/race and class are mobilized,
functionalised and made use of to construct Indonesianess in advertisements. The
question of how Indonesian identities are symbolically embodied and transmitted
through discourses, images and narratives of gender, ethnicity/race and class gains
particular attention in this chapter. In addition, I address this chapter to reveal how
images of Indonesianess embedded in advertisements work to articulate, naturalize or
challenge forms of social hierarchy within the national borders of Indonesia.
7.1. Inscribing Indonesianess through Gendered Bodies
It has been argued that national identities are experienced and transmitted
through images of gender. Radcliffe (1999, p.214) has observed that national identities
are performed through spectacles, often with specific gendered connotations and
representations. In this sense, national identities could be mapped or inscribed on
gendered body. Lippe, for instance, argues that the nation in 18th and 19th century
Europe was mostly inscribed on male bodies such as kings, prime ministers, army
commanders or bishops (2002), p.373). Female bodies, meanwhile, with attributes of
beauty and gentleness, are used to produce positive images of nationhood. More
broadly, Yuval-Davis (1997, p.23) mentions that women are particularly positioned as
“symbolic border guards”, which function to identify and distinguish the members and
non-members of a certain imagined community. She asserts
[Those symbolic border guards] are closely linked to specific cultural codes of
style of dress and behaviour as well as to more elaborate bodies of customs,
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religion, literary and artistic modes of production, and, of course, language
(Ibid).
In the context of Indonesia, it is a well known fact that gender is intimately
incorporated into national order and national cultures. As discussed throughout the
chapter on gender, it has been revealed that gender plays a pivotal role to epitomize
Indonesia. The state has been very much involved in the construction of gender roles,
which are related to the project of nation-building. In this section, therefore, I aim to
examine how advertising images of gender articulate and symbolize the formation of
gendered nationhood in Indonesia. I argue that images and narratives of manhood as
well as of womanhood in advertisements offer significant cues about how gendered
nationhood is imagined, maintained and negotiated. In the previous chapter on gender,
it has been analysed how women are positioned in the advertisements during two
different eras in Indonesia. In this section, I particularly recall two advertisements, i.e,
the Bodrex advertisement and the Konidin advertisement, which in my view provide
an important account of women’s position in the construction of Indonesianess.
Recalling the discussion in chapter 4, the Bodrex and Konidin advertisements were
produced and circulated in two different eras in Indonesian history. However, both
advertisements perform a similar mode of representation of women. They contrive a
story that entails particular definitions of Indonesian womanhood, which are linked to
the advertised product, i.e. medication products. The Bodrex advertisement, which
was produced during the New Order era, relates the story of a nagging and unruly
overweight housewife, who is associated with a painful headache suffered by her
husband. The advertisement uses the woman’s body and her emotional behaviour to
symbolize a sort of illness, which should be immediately overcome by a certain
medicine. The Konidin advertisement, which was produced during the Post New
Order era, performs a story of an educated and professional woman who needs a
medicine to overcome her cough. The advertisement visualizes the cough by showing
her fluctuating inner-body processes. There is a colour transformation from red into
blue to visualize her inner processes before and after she takes the medicine. I would
argue that the cough, which is signified by the red colour, can be read as the
uncontrolled nerves and emotions of a professional woman. In other words, the
uncontrolled inner body of the woman is considered as something unhealthy, an
illness, which is in the advertisement represented by the cough. As a result, the
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woman needs an efficacious medicine to overcome this unhealthy condition
immediately.
Both advertisements seek to associate women’s emotional side with a sort of
illness, something which is improper and unhealthy, and thereby needs to be
recovered from or healed. Both advertisements present a story, which is organized
through illness-healing binarism. The healing metaphor used by those advertisements,
in my view, is linked to the notion of an ideal body for the nation. In this respect,
emotional bodies are considered as improper and harmful for the nation’s virtue. As
Lippe (2002, p.381) points out, the construction of nation is usually tied to the idea of
rationality. The nation needs individuals who can act rationally to achieve their overall
purposes. Failure to act rationally can potentially create a harmful situation for the
nation. Emotional individuals, in other words, could be problematic for the nation
insofar as they do not learn to manage and control their emotions. In this
understanding, emotions, nerves and desires are considered as elements of an “animal
nature” that need to be controlled (Seidler 2007, p.9). It is often the case that women’s
bodies are considered as emotional bodies that are unable to control their nerves.
Since women’s bodies function as “symbolic borders of nation” (Yuval-Davis 1997,
p.23), what happen to those bodies, inner and outer, becomes crucial for the nation’s
virtue. Women’s emotional bodies are perceived as a sort of threat for the nation’s
progress. This notion is largely manipulated to exclude, inferiorize and subjugate
women in the nationalist projects. Emotions become signs of weakness, which may
threaten and be harmful to positive images of the nation. As a result, women are
expected to learn how to control and manage their expressions of emotion and desire
if they want to be actively engaged in the nation’s progress. This idea has been
illustrated through advertising images both during the New Order and the Post New
Order Indonesia, as exemplified by the Bodrex and Konidin advertisements.
I argue that the way advertisements delineate women’s emotional status is linked
to the idealized Indonesian femininity that is pivotal in the project of Indonesian
nation-building. Advertisements use the healing metaphor to delineate and narrativise
ideal bodies of nations. In this sense, advertisements symbolize expressions of
emotion and desire as illness or disease, which need to be immediately healed or, if
necessary, eliminated. It is important to note that advertisements not merely symbolize
expressions of emotion as the illness, but the women who are unable to control their
nerves are also defined as the illness itself. This depiction underlines the idea that
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emotional women are not adequate in public virtue and can be an obstacle for a
nation’s progress. It is linked to the notion that if women stray from the ways they are
expected to behave, national identity is at stake (Wieringa 2003, p.72). A woman as an
emotional body, therefore, is considered a threat that could be harmful for the nation,
just like an illness that can destroy the health. Advertisements during the New Order
era demonstrate that bodies which are driven by uncontrolled emotions and desires
cannot be tolerated. Advertising, hence, prefers to punish such bodies and make them
vanish, as depicted in the Bodrex advertisement. The advertisement has demonstrated
that women Other, who act improperly due to their inability to control their
expressions of emotions, become the objects of punishment. Such a portrait of women
as emotional individuals, unsurprisingly, is largely used to legitimize the effort to
inferiorize and exclude women from the central projects of nation-building. As has
been shown in Chapter 4 under the New Order government women obtained restricted
opportunities for being actively engaged in nationalist issues. During this era, women
as citizens were largely linked to the duties that are suited to their kodrat (inherent
nature) as loyal wives and educators of children (Gardiner 2002, p.102; Blackburn
1999, p.200). Accordingly, they had a lack of opportunity for being subjects in the
construction of Indonesianess, for instance by being actively involved in Indonesian
public politics. This fact has highlighted the idea that, by nature, women lack the
characteristics that are required for political life. Citizenship, in other words, is mostly
embodied and disseminated through the images of manhood. Men are posited as
active citizens that are identified with mind and reason rather than with emotions. As
depicted in the Bodrex advertisement, men symbolize the rational body that is able to
regulate its emotions and desires. Men, in this regard, should act to protect the nation
from certain threats, which in the advertisement are symbolized by the illness. Since
women’s emotional bodies are considered as the illness, in order to protect the nation
men are expected to exert control over such bodies and, for the sake of nation’s virtue,
men should destroy those emotional bodies.
During the post New Order era, women’s bodies are continuously used to
delineate and symbolize uncontrolled emotions and desires. Advertisements during
this era still consider women as individuals who should cope with their uncontrolled
nerves and desires, as depicted in the Konidin advertisement. However, instead of
punishing and eliminating emotional women, advertisements during this era prefer to
heal or instill recovery in those women. The illness is not equated with the women’s
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bodies, but rather it refers particularly to the uncontrolled nerves and desires within
the bodies. As shown in the Konidin advertisement, women are urged to cope with
and, by means of the product, heal the illness. The advertisement has articulated the
notion that uncontrolled nerves and desires can weaken women’s bodies, including the
body of educated intellectual women. On this point, the advertisement has created an
ambivalent effort to portray and position women. Images of rational women have been
diminished by stressing women’s emotional side and claiming that emotional bodies
can result in the nation’s peril.
Healing the illness and learning to regulate their expressions of emotions and
desires, become significant requirements for the women before actively participating
in nation-building projects. Despite those requirements, advertisements during this era
have sought to provide a wider space for women to be active citizens. Choosing to
teach women to manage their uncontrolled emotions rather than removing emotional
women, in my view, has symbolized the open door for women in the nation-building
missions. It is linked to the fact that during the post New Order era Indonesian women
become increasingly involved in political activities (Blackburn 1999, p.201). In line
with the replacement of the Minister for the Role of Women with the State Ministry
for the Empowerment of Women in 1999, Indonesian women have been obtaining
greater opportunities for being active actors in nationalist issues. Man, meanwhile, is
positioned as the woman’s guide, who teaches her how to control her nerves. Man is
considered as having good self-control, and thereby is more capable to regulate the
expression of emotions and desires than women. Although advertisements during the
post New Order illustrate the open door for women in nation- building projects, it has
been shown that women’s behaviour remains the subject to be controlled by men.
What is quite certain is that advertisements during two different eras in Indonesia have
narratively worked to legitimize and naturalize the marginalization and exclusion of
women in the project of nation-building. In this regard, the stereotypical idea which
identifies women with emotional bodies is continuously underscored. This fact has
revealed that women’s bodies and behaviour are not perceived as private matters.
Since they are supposed to function as the nation’s border guard, women’s bodies
ought to be appropriately compatible with public virtue.
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7.2. Constructing Indonesianess through Family Reproduction
7.2.1. Functioning Maternity to Nurture (Male) Future Leaders
As has been described, women are often invisible in the rational and impersonal
nationalist projects. As citizens, participation by women in the formation of
Indonesian nationhood is directed into restrictive roles which are mostly linked to
reproductive and maternal activities. In accordance with it, family metaphor is
simultaneously used to delineate the making of women as national subjects. Women,
as active makers of future opportunities for their offspring, become such a prevalent
theme to mention in this context. In advertising, such a theme has been widely used to
define and construct ideal Indonesian femininity as well as masculinity. Several of the
advertisements under discussion have played a significant role to underscore this
tendency. Recalling the Sustagen Junior advertisement discussed in chapter 6, for
instance, the advertisement contrives a story that entails the definition of womanhood
and manhood by presenting images of the mother-children relationship. The
advertisement, which was produced during the New Order era, assigns woman to
family roles, particularly, as a nurturer of children and an active actor in creating
future opportunities for her children. Interestingly, advertisements during the New
Order era prefer to cast male children rather than female children in the story of
mother-children relationships. As depicted in the Sustagen Junior advertisement, the
woman shows her maternal creativities in forming a basis for the future life for her
son. It is narrated that as, a mother, she is responsible for paving the way toward the
future success for her beloved son. This sort of narrative is in accord with
McClintock’s (1995, p.45) argument that subordination of female to male within
families is often perceived as natural. It is often the case that women are insidiously
urged to devote most of their energy to their husbands and children rather than for
themselves as individuals. This perceived naturalness of gendered hierarchy is not
only limited to the private sphere, but is extended to public sphere. In the public realm
of nationhood, gendered hierarchies are accordingly expressed and naturalized by the
use of family metaphor. In the course of New Order Indonesia, this fact was subsumed
in the state’s priorities for women as citizens. In this regard, ideal Indonesian
femininity was embodied within familial space as a “companion of husband,
supplementary income-earner, housekeeper” (Blackburn 1999, p.200) and, most
importantly, as “nurturer of the next generation of leaders, usually male” (Gardiner
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2002, p.102). Gender ideology sanctioned by the New Order state inclined to give no
room for women to stand forward in their own right. Although the state’s gender
ideology was increasingly criticized during the last decade of the New Order era, it
offered a little help for women to dismantle their assigned roles which built around the
perceived inherent nature as loyal wives and mothers. Advertisements, in this regard,
inclined to simply ignore such voices against restricted women’s roles sanctioned by
the state.
As mentioned earlier, advertisements during the New Order era contrived a story
of mother-children relationships, which mostly entails male children rather than
female children. This inclination, to some extent, is incorporated with the state’s
predisposition to project male children as the next generation of the nation’s leaders.
Men in the New Order’s perspective were considered as leaders in many dimensions,
i.e, leaders of the household, of communities and, ultimately, leaders of the nation.
Male children, therefore, should be educated and nurtured appropriately to fulfill such
roles in their future life. Women, on this point, should show their maternal creativities
to teach children about goodness and appropriate conduct, as illustrated for instance in
the Maggie Mi advertisement (Figure 7.1.).
Figure 7.1. Maggi Mi Advertisement
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement is opened with a long shot scene of two sibling children sitting on
terrace stairs in front of a house. The house looks cozy with a small garden and plants
at the front. As the scene moves forward, some introductory music is played. The
bigger child asks his little brother to sing a song together following the music.
Through the song he attempts to teach his little brother about appropriate conduct
regarding eating. The next scenes show the older brother singing the song, while his
little brother listens and pays serious attention to him. He also moves his hands and his
body around. He acts like a teacher for his little brother, while singing the lyrics,
“Before we eat, brother. Wash your hands first. Keep clean, brother, for your own
health”. He stops singing in the next scene, and turns his head towards the house. He
then increases his voice to call his mother. “Mom, ready?” he asks her mother, who is
in the kitchen preparing a meal for the boys. The scene then moves to a close up scene
of the product’s brand Maggi, rich of taste. At the same time, a female voice-over is
heard explaining that instant noodle Maggi Mi with egg amuses children during their
meal time. The scenes continue to move forward depicting the mother cooking the
instant noodles. She is also depicted serving the cooked noodles in bowls and putting
some vegetables and meat on it. After the noodles are ready, she carries the bowls of
noodles on a serving tray to her children. She smiles and sings to them, “Eat much and
eat it up!” The two children run avidly toward their mother and take the bowls from
the serving tray. The bigger boy puts one spoon of noodles to his mouth and produces
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a sharp sound as he smacks his lips. His little brother suddenly admonishes him. He
moves his spoon and sings to his big brother, “Hey...don’t smack your lips while
eating!” He subsequently laughs at his big brother, who looks irritated. Their mother
also laughs to see her younger son admonishing his big brother. She looks proud of
her younger son, but also shows her uncanny feeling at the same time. She might
never have expected that her younger son would teach his big brother about certain
appropriate conduct. The big brother himself looks embarrassed and irritated due to
his brother’s critique. The next scene shows again a package of Maggi Mi and a
basket of eggs on a table, while the female voice-over says, Maggi Mi, rich of taste.
The scene moves forward to depict the big brother, who is continuing to eat his
noodles. This time he is eating without smacking his lips. The advertisement is closed
with a close-up scene of his smiling face. During this closing scene, the voices of both
children are heard singing together “Let’s eat together” as background music.
The advertisement contrives a story of a mother with her responsibility to teach
her male children about appropriate conduct. Since male children are mostly projected
to be future leaders of the nation, the woman as a mother is urged to make it work.
The advertisement endows the woman with certain maternal creativities to nurture
qualified male leaders. It is illustrated, for instance, from the way the woman chooses
and serves the meal for her children. More importantly, the advertisement seeks to
show the woman’s reputation in educating her male children about culturally
acceptable conduct. Perceived as the next generation of nation leaders, the children in
the advertisement should learn to eat in a proper manner. They should understand
certain eating behaviours such as washing hands before eating, eating up the meal and
never smacking the lips while eating. The woman in the advertisement, however, is
not overtly depicted teaching her children about such conduct. As shown in the early
scenes, her older son has replaced her role as he seeks to teach his little brother about
the conduct. This fact speaks for itself that the older son is not ignorant of it, and, for
sure, he got the lesson from his mother. He has made it evident to all that his mother is
an incredible nurturer. This evidence is reinforced by his little brother, who switches
the role in the late scenes, teaching his big brother. As his big brother smacks his lips
while eating, he interrupts and admonishes him. He reminds his big brother that it is
inappropriate. By doing so, the little boy has proved that their mother has done well in
educating them. It becomes a notable reputation particularly since it is unusual for a
younger child teaching and admonishing his older sibling. The mother, as depicted in
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the advertisement, acts as an observer. She is fulfilling her moral obligation to ensure
that her boys do not stray from the ways they are expected to behave. It is highly
apparent that those images are largely incorporated within the New Order’s ideology,
which restricts women’s roles in the nationalist project by stressing mainly on their
reproductive functions. It is also implied from the way, in which the advertisement
excludes the male’s reproductive roles from the narrative. Women’s roles in national
imagery, in other words, are only defined through their maternal activities in the
family, while men have been prioritized as active agents in the national development.
Therefore, from an early age men should be well prepared and educated for becoming
the next generation of nation’s leaders.
It is important to note that although the rights of women and men have been
granted equality in the nationalist project as stipulated in the 1945 Constitution, the
New Order state has formulated and idealized women’s roles, which were suited to
kodrat (the inherent nature) of women, i.e, as mothers and wives. It is not surprising
that in many dimension women’s roles were defined around the concept of family.
Women were attached with moral obligations to maintain familial as well as societal
norms and spirits, which were crucial for nation’s progress. In this sense, they were
particularly put at a disadvantage in being posited as passive recipients of the New
Order’s policies. By emphasizing women’s role around the familial space,
advertisements during this era underscored the clear segregation of gender roles
within the family as well as in the nation-building project.
Entering the more democratic era after the downfall of New Order state,
increasing voices against the belittlement of women as citizens have had a growing
appeal. New organizations that emerged among young, well-educated urban women
have become increasingly vocal (Blackburn 1999, p.201), urging equal rights and
opportunities between men and women in the project of nation-building. Democratic
reforms in Indonesia after 1998 have resulted in legal procedures59 which guarantee
women’s involvement in all fields of life of the nation, including women’s
participation in political activities. There still are, however, obstacles which tend to
retard the enhancement and improvement of women’s contributions to the national
development. Not only is there a strong persistence of patriarchal attitudes in the state,
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Law No. 12/1999 is one of the legal procedures which guarantees enhancement of women’s social
roles. This Law requires the government to formulate national policies to forbid and eliminate
discrimination (including by gender) in the workplace.
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but many efforts have been made to domesticate women’s roles. Male biased
interpretations of religious teachings should be mentioned as one of significant
obstacles in enhancing women’s contributions to the nationalist project. As Megawati
Soekarnoputri announced her candidacy for President in 1999, for instance, her gender
became an intense political dispute based on male-biased religious assumptions. It was
a battle of words between Indonesian Muslim scholars who were for and against
having a woman in the highest position of the nation (Doorn-Harder 2002, p.165). The
debate, which was concerned with a major issue of whether or not Islam allows a
woman to become the leader of a nation, caught the national attention. As the largest
Muslim country in the world, such debate has influenced and successfully divided
public opinion in Indonesia. As a result, Megawati was locked out of the presidency,
though she eventually won the vice-presidency60. The misuse of interpretations of
religion to circumscribe women’s political participation revealed the sustaining
cultural obstacles to women’s socio-political contributions in the Post-New Order
Indonesia. Under such conditions, advertisements produced during this era also show
their persistent favor to represent male children as the next generation of nation
leaders. Advertisements show the tendency to weave narratives, which symbolically
grant privileges to male children in ways that imply a skepticism of women’s
eligibility as active citizens. It should be noted however that despite such themes of
skepticism, advertisements did not simply ignore and omit women’s resistance from
their narratives. It has been illustrated, for instance, in the advertisement for
toothpaste, Pepsodent (Figure 7.2)
Figure 7.2. Pepsodent Advertisement
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It is important to note that by July 2001 Megawati has taken over the presidency from President
Abdurrahman Wahid after he was impeached due to his unsatisfactory performance as a president. At
the time of replacement religious arguments against a woman president were politically brushed aside
and forgotten.
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement is opened with a scene of a girl standing on a chair facing a big
poster of a male pilot on the wall. On her left side her brother watches her while
playing with a toy aeroplane in his hand. He notices that his little sister has a kind of
hope of being a pilot. He then starts to plague her, “Hah…wanna be a pilot? There is
no chance for a chocolate-addicted person.” The scene moves to a medium long-shot
scene of a living room, where the conversation is set. In the foreground, a toy
aeroplane is shown on a table. Other toys, such as a big teddy bear doll, are neatly
placed in a shelf shown at the right of the scene. The children’s mother is depicted
tidying up something in the left corner of the room. The scene moves forward to a
close up scene of the sister, who looks irritated with her brother. She puts her hands on
her waist in annoyance and replies, “What’s wrong with that?” Her brother moves his
finger up and explains, “Pilots may not have holed teeth.” He acts like a teacher who
is giving advice to his student. He attempts to ridicule his sister, as he is convinced
that his sister has holed teeth. She certainly contests his words and states, “I have no
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holed teeth. Right, Mom?” She finally calls for her mother’s help to support her. Her
brother does not take her words seriously. Instead, he keeps showing his mocking face
while playing with his toy aeroplane. The scene cuts to a close-up scene of their
mother, who turns her smiling face toward her children. She affirms her daughter,
“Yes [you don’t have any holed teeth]. Our toothpaste is excellent.” The scene moves
forward to show the product. A tube of Pepsodent in its box appears on screen
accompanied by a male voice-over, “The new Pepsodent with a system that prevents
holed teeth. Its Calcium and Fluoride overcome the initial symptom of holed teeth.”
The advertisement subsequently shows the simulation of how Pepsodent’s system
works to protect the teeth. An image, which compares a tooth with and without
Pepsodent, is also depicted in the advertisement. In the next scene the siblings appears
again. The sister is depicted sitting at a table and working on something in front of
her. Her brother is at her right side lowering his body toward her and starting to tease
her again, “You give up of being a pilot, won’t you?” She does not look as irritated as
shown in the earlier scenes. Still, her expression shows that she is getting annoyed
with her brother. She turns her face toward him and says, “Yes, I wanna be an
astronout instead.” The next scene shows a drawing she is working on. It is a colorful
drawing of a rocket and an astronaut on the moon. The astronaut is drawn holding a
bar of chocolate. Seeing this drawing, her brother continues to mock and ridicule her,
“There’s no chocolate on the moon.” She calmly replies, “Huh…envious!” The
advertisement then is closed with a scene of the product, and a text, healthier and
stronger teeth, appears below the scene.
The advertisement, in my view, has articulated the fact that women still face
societal discouragement toward women’s participation in the fields traditionally
regarded as the male domain. As shown in the advertisement, the brother reveals his
skepticism and denial toward his sister’s opportunity to be a pilot or an astronaut. As
he expresses his discouragement, he is depicted holding his toy aeroplane. This image
symbolizes that being a pilot has been a male territory, which thereby gives the
brother a sort of legitimacy to judge his sister’s capacity for inclusion in the
profession. The ways in which he teases his sister and gets her annoyed somewhat
represent the half-hearted male’s political will to recognize women’s equal rights as
citizens. It is similar with the case of Megawati Soekarnoputri’s failure in the
presidential election in 1999, as mentioned earlier. It should be noted, however, that
women during the Post-New Order era also demonstrate their persistence of spirit and
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effort while being continuously belittled. They attempt to resist the efforts, which are
aimed to circumvent their rights as citizens. As depicted in the Pepsodent
advertisement, the sister shows her resistance against his brother’s mockery. She
attempts to contend and argue against her brother in order to show her capacity.
However, the advertisement does not endow her with self-sufficiency, as she is
depicted calling for her mother’s support and encouragement to come up against her
brother. What is more, at the end of the story she decides to give up her hope of being
a pilot, which, to some extent, implies male’s triumph in deflating women’s spirit and
demands for equality. The advertisement also reveals that insofar as the girl prefers to
be actively engaged in the traditionally perceived male territory, she will continuously
face patriarchal discouragement.
The mother in the Pepsodent advertisement, is depicted showing her maternal
creativity by choosing excellent toothpaste for her family. By doing so, she has
enabled her children, especially her daughter, to fulfill their hope as a pilot or an
astronaut. Added to that, she is positioned as moral encourager to support her daughter
entering the fields which were previously regarded as male territory. The mother, in
this sense, is responsible for facilitating female children to obtain equal opportunities
with male children. The advertisement seems to demonstrate its concerns to improve
and enhance women’s public participation in the Post-New Order Indonesia.
However, this inclination works in the reverse, as the advertisement prefers to support
male persistence in obstructing women’s progress. As shown in the Pepsodent
advertisement, the sister finally decides to give up her hope of being a pilot due to her
brother’s challenge. Although she changes her hope into another perceived masculine
profession, as an astronout, the advertisement continues to emphasize the fact that the
obstacles coming from male counterparts remain persistent. Symbolically, it implies
that Indonesian men are still reluctant to see women having direct access to the
nationalist project. It is not surprising that in the context of nation-building, women
continue to appear in a symbolic or metaphoric role as guardian mothers of the nation.
It has been underscored by advertisements, which still favor to assign Indonesian
women to familial roles, particularly as the formers of children’s future opportunities.
In this regard, advertisements continue to prefer giving emphasis to women’s maternal
creativities, while excluding male’s reproductive roles from the narratives.
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7.2.2. Ethnicised/Racialised Familial Space
The iconography of familial space, as mentioned earlier, is frequently made to
define gender roles in the project of nation-building. In fact, family images can be
used as well to figure ethnic/racial relations within nations. ‘Unity in Diversity’ is one
of expressions which implies that there is no need to problematize ethnic/racial
differences within national unity because they are a family. Such is the case of
Indonesia’s national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), which has
been designated on purpose to keep the different ethnic/racial groups within
Indonesian national borders united. It is important to note, however, that familial
themes often depict forms of social hierarchy which are deemed a natural social
arrangement. On this point, Anne McClintock argues,
The family image came to figure hierarchy within unity as an organic element
of historical progress, and thus became indispensable for legitimizing exclusion
and hierarchy within nonfamilial social forms such as nationalism, liberal
individualism and imperialism (1995, p.45; italic in original).
Following McClintock, Patricia Hill Collins (1998, p.64) asserts that there is an
appropriate set of family values that are simultaneously socialized to reinforce the
hierarchy within the assumed unity of interests symbolized by the family. In the
course of ethnic/racial relations, familial values that perceive domination of men over
women, adults over children, bigger over smaller as something natural, subsequently
use majority-minority status to legitimize ethnic/racial hierarchy within the assumed
unity. In this regard, the majority residing within the unity of nation is thereby granted
greater power and access to rights and resources as national citizens. As a result,
nationalist projects tend to be the projects of the ethnic/racial majority, whereas the
minority is positioned on the margins of nationalist agenda. As occurred in the New
Order Indonesia, the national motto, Unity in Diversity, which was established as a
cornerstone of the nation-building project, has been politically used to praise the
Javanese majority above the other ethnic/racial groups in Indonesia. The state had put
in efforts to unite cultural differences by emphasizing unity at the expense of
diversity, which thereby resulted in the marginalization and exclusion of minority
groups from nation-building projects. It is not surprising that despite various
ethnic/racial groups residing within Indonesian national boundaries, the Javanese
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became the personification and symbol of Indonesianess. As discussed in the previous
chapter on ethnicity/race, it has been revealed that Javanese ethnicity also gained a
greater visibility on Indonesian television than ethnic minorities living in the country.
In the course of advertising, despite the ban on inflammatory subjects related to
ethnicity/race in Indonesian media, elements of Javanese ethnicity have been used in
advertising narratives, whereas elements of non-Javanese ethnicities remained
filmically submerged. This fact has provided understanding of constructions of
Javanese/first class- and non-Javanese/second class-citizenship within the national
family of Indonesia. Recalling the Citra White and Baygon advertisements discussed
in the chapter on ethnicity/race, both advertisements made it evident how the elements
of Javanese ethnicity appeared to play a major role in the narratives. Both
advertisements were set in the Javanese familial space without the presence of nonJavanese ethnic markers. The Javanese performed the one and only leading role in
both advertisements. If applied to the family rhetoric that perceives the bigger will be
entitled to greater power than the smaller, the advertisements have narratively worked
to legitimise and naturalise Javanese domination in the national family of Indonesia.
Iconography of familial space has been used as well to signify the position of
Chinese ethnicity as a perceived non-native ethnic group in Indonesia. In this regard,
non-native/Chinese ethnicity was positioned in the face of native ethnic groups of both
Javanese and non-Javanese ethnicities. As depicted in the Rinso advertisement
discussed in Chapter 5, status and position of non-native/Chinese has been defined in
the native’s family living room, as the native watched the elements of Chinese
ethnicity which were being screened on television. Chinese figures and cultures were
not merely placed as objects and spectacles for the pleasure of the native, but, more
than that, their presence was secondary and superficial in a sense that they appeared
only at the decorative level on the margins of narrative. The native as the majority was
entitled to greater power over the minority/non-native, which in the context of Rinso
advertisement is represented by the Chinese. It made it evident that minorities were
most characterised in terms that place them on the margins of familial space relative to
the majority. In other words, by using family metaphor, advertisements during the
New Order era have worked to naturalize ethnic/racial hierarchy within the national
family of Indonesia.
Javanese’s domination in the construction of Indonesianess during the New
Order era was, in fact, not unchallenged. Prior to the fall of the New Order regime,
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Indonesia had to face certain incidents of ethnic rioting which put the nation in
turmoil. Ethnic minorities that felt marginalized and excluded from the center of
national projects sought to contest Javanese domination, which had been upheld by
the New Order government for decades. This situation initiated increasing concern
about recognition towards minorities and cultural differences living in every corner of
Indonesia. In this way, familial terms became prevalently used to express such
recognition. The Post-New Order government has been putting serious efforts into
maintaining family unity within the national borders. Unlike the former government,
which rendered the national motto, Unity in Diversity, into homogenization of culture
in order to gain national unity, the Post-New Order government, by contrast, is
seeking to give emphasis to the diversity of culture within the national family. Family
ties became significant factors which connect and bind individuals as the members of
a family. This notion has been applied as well in the context of advertisements.
Recalling the HSBC Bank advertisement discussed in Chapter 5, this advertisement
narrates a story which weaves inter-ethnic relations with the notion of family. In the
advertisement, Javanese ethnicity remains playing the leading and major role of the
narrative. Javanese ethnic markers also appear to have a greater visibility over the
other ethnic/racial groups depicted in the narrative, i.e., Balinese, Chinese and the
‘Black’ Indonesian. It is significant that relationships between the Javanese and the
‘Black’ Indonesian became the center of the narrative. The Balinese and the Chinese,
meanwhile, are merely placed at the decorative level. What is interesting in the
advertisement is that the Javanese expresses recognition towards the existence of
‘Black’ Indonesian by revealing that they have a family connection. Note, however,
that the advertisement requires the presence of blood ties to define the membership of
Black Indonesian in the Javanese family. Therefore, in the advertisement, the Javanese
reveals the blood ties which bind him and his ‘Black’ relative, as he asserts, “He is the
son of the nephew of the uncle of the brother in law of my grandpa’s cousin.” The
long and complicated family connection is a result of inter-ethnic/racial marriage
between Javanese/White Indonesian and ‘Black’ Indonesian. The presence of a stillimage of a wedding couple in Javanese traditional wedding dress symbolizes that it is
about crafting a family, which is aimed to be a Javanese family. In this regard, the
‘Black’ Indonesian seems to conform to Javanese family attributes in order to be a
legitimate member of the family. The blood ties resulting from the inter-ethnic/racial
marriage serve the function to legitimize the ‘Black’ Indonesian’s membership in the
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Javanese family. According to Patricia Hill Collins (1998, p.70), members of “real”
families linked by blood are expected to resemble one another, sharing similar
physical, intellectual and moral attributes. Those who lack biological similarities
become defined as family outsiders. In the context of the HSBC advertisement,
despite the presence of blood ties, the ‘Black’ Indonesian lacks biological similarities
in terms of physical attributes with the Javanese. However, the advertisement
illustrates that the ‘Black’ Indonesian is required to put an effort into reducing the
dissimilarity by adopting Javanese ethnic markers. A still-image of the ‘Black’
Indonesian in a Batik shirt, the Javanese typical wax-resist dyeing cloth, which has
become part of official national dress-code since the government of the New Order,
demonstrates that the ‘Black’ Indonesian is required to conform or mingle with the
Javanese. The dissimilarities within the [Javanese] family, however, have been totally
resolved as the advertisement prefers to depict the son of ‘Black’ Indonesian sharing
similar physical attributes with the Javanese rather than with his own father (Figure
7.3).
Figure 7.3. The son of ‘Black’ Indonesian in HSBC Advertisement (link)
The son of the ‘Black’ Indonesian in the advertisement has lost his physical attributes
as a member of ‘Black’ Indonesians. His ethnic/racial attributes as ‘Black’ Indonesian
by descent are simply removed and replaced with new ones, which are similar to his
Javanese counterpart. This depiction, in my view, implies a sort of ethnic/racial
purification within the family, which resonates with the idea of familial progress of
humanity argued by Anne McClintock, who examined racial hierarchy in Western
imperialism during the 19th century. She argues that the progress of humanity takes on
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the form of the family (1995, p.38), which places the White race on the top of family
tree. In the context of the HSBC advertisement, Javanese/’White’ is the ethnic/racial
group which resides at the top of the family tree. Family terms and blood ties are used
by the HSBC advertisement to superficially embrace and recognize ethnic/racial
minorities, but insiduously emphasize the dominance of Javanese/’White’ over other
ethnic/racial groups within the national family of Indonesia. Images and narratives of
ethnic/racial reconciliation, which has its right moment during the new era, are merely
functionalised to maintain the prominent position of the Javanese in the nation rather
than to promote distinct and varied experiences of minorities. The nation as a family is
personified and symbolized by the Javanese family. In other words, advertisements
during the Post-New Order era work narratively to sustain the Java-biased
Indonesianess within the family unity of Indonesia in the guise of a celebration of
ethnic/racial differences.
7.3. Figuring the Nation: Flashing-Back through Time
It has been argued that nation is a modern project, which is imagined through
references to the past and speculations about an infinite future (see e.g. Bishop and
Jaworski 2003, McClintock 1995, Kandijoti 1991). Using Roman mythology, Nairn in
Bishop and Jaworski 2003, p.248) symbolizes imagery of the nation as Janus faced,
referring to the two-faced god who looks both backwards and forwards. The nation,
according to Nairn, is constructed by looking simultaneously backwards into the past
and forwards into the future. Nostalgia for the past, in this logic, plays a significant
role to identify and map the present and future progress of the nation. Using Walter
Benjamin’s insight,61 McClintock points out, “[t]he mapping of Progress depends on
systematically inventing images of archaic time to identify what is historically new
about enlightened, national progress” (1995, p.358). The spatial dimension, in this
regard, becomes crucial to imagine and figure the nation. Historical and traditional
references have been largely used to express the novelty of nation. To identify what
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In this regard, Walter Benjamin notes that a central feature of 19th century industrial capitalism was
“the use of archaic images to identify what is historically new about the ‘nature’ of commodities.” In
the mapping of progress, therefore, images of archaic time were systematically evoked to identify what
was historically new about industrial modernity.
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kind of progress the nation has achieved, flashing back to a certain historical juncture
is considered indispensable.
In the context of advertisements, I make the assumption that images of
nationhood constructed through advertising narratives also entail the nostalgia for
certain mists of the past. Several advertisements under discussion show this
inclination. Imagination of Indonesia is symbolically built around the connection of
the past and the present, which tends to be equated with traditional and modern.
Flashback plot and dissolving images, on this point, are used to narrativise a story of
Indonesianess. The Citra White advertisement discussed in chapter 4, for instance,
employs a flashback plot and dissolving images to delineate the connection between
traditionality and modernity in Indonesia. Filmic technology has enabled people to
travel back to the earlier time and arrive back at the present, passing through the
passage of time. Such filmic technology plays a crucial role in the Citra White
advertisement to bridge traditionality, symbolized by the Javanese princess and
elements of Javanese culture, and modernity, symbolized by mixed-blood women with
their modern and westernized lifestyle. The flashing back images, in addition, have
been used to emphasize the important relevance of traditionality to the Indonesian
modern life. A similar technique and theme is revealed as well in the Mustika Ratu
advertisement. In that advertisement, Javanese ethnic markers play a major role in the
whole narrative and work to symbolize Indonesian traditionality. Unlike the Citra
White advertisement, which employs a flashback plot and dissolving images to travel
back and forth through the passage of time, the Mustika Ratu advertisement uses
images of a book, which is opened page by page (Figure 7.4.).
Figure 7.4. Images of Opening Book in Mustika Ratu Advertisement
The opening book has the same function with the flashback plot, that is, to symbolize
the connection of past events to present events. Similar to the Citra White
advertisement, the past event in the Mustika Ratu advertisement refers to
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traditionality, which is symbolized by elements of Javanese culture. The present event
refers to modernity, which is symbolized mainly with westernized behaviours and
lifestyles. It is observable that both advertisements aim to emphasize the fact that
Indonesian traditionality can be revitalized and made relevant to the modern life. This
notion is underlined particularly by the female voice-over in the Mustika Ratu,
“For centuries, [Javanese] princesses have been admired due to their secret of
enduring beauty, which brought them a harmonious life. Mustika Ratu inherits
the valuable secret and has revitalized it for the beauty of modern women, in
Indonesia as well as in other countries.”
In the advertisement, there is an exoticization of tradition by presenting elements of
Javanese culture such as attire, traditional dance, traditional wedding dress and
ceremony, and a Javanese palace. These images appear to be contrasted with
modernity by depicting the same people with modern attributes, doing modern and
westernized activities. The images of an opening recipe book are placed in-between,
between the display of traditional images and display of modern images. Those
images apparently function like a border, which divides the traditional from the
modern. However, as mentioned earlier, this advertisement does not attempt to draw a
clear line between traditional and modern. By contrast, the advertisement seeks to
show the connection and relevance between the two different epochs, between the past
and the present, between the traditional and the modern. Accordingly, in the Citra
White and Mustika Ratu advertisements, the traditional and the modern elements have
got mixed up. The mixture is symbolized in some ways, among other things, through
the product itself, through the mixed-blood models, through the house decoration—
furniture with Javanese ornament stands side by side with a piano. This mixture
implies the way in which advertisements imagine the modern Indonesia. In this
regard, modern Indonesianess is characterised by global norms and practices
emanating from the West, and interwoven with local traditional norms and practices
referring mainly to Javanese culture. It should be noted that, by emphasizing the
relevance of traditional elements to the modern life, revitalization and preservation of
traditionality seems to be the main message of the advertisements. It is related to the
New Order’s cultural politics that were promoted to protect [Javanese-based] national
culture and, for television particularly, as Sen and Hill (2000, p.119) observe, to avoid
all possibility of becoming a channel for the spread of foreign ideology and culture,
which could weaken the national character and national defense. Although in the last
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decade of the New Order era, the state’s control over media products was getting
looser, the notion of protecting national culture remained intact. As illustrated in the
advertisements, Indonesian women are depicted being engaged in the modern
westernized life-style while remaining Indonesian. Modern Indonesian women are
assigned to be the embodiment of a harmonious combination of traditionality and
modernity. This kind of construction is enabled and facilitated by the flashing back
and dissolving images employed in the advertisements. It should be admitted that this
imagination of Indonesian nationhood is not merely gendered, but it is also ethnicized
as the Javanese ethnicity is mainly used to personify Indonesian culture. By excluding
the other ethnic markers residing in Indonesia, those advertisements show its
contribution in placing ethnic minorities as unwitting members of the nation, either in
the past time or in the present time.
Flashing back to a past time with regard to the construction of Indonesianess is
also revealed in advertisements during the Post-New Order era. Mapping the nation’s
progress by means of past events has become crucial for the Post-New Order
government in a sense that they put in a great effort to build a more democratic state
after the fall of the New Order regime. Improving the past for the better future of the
nation seems to be an important agenda in the Post-New Order Indonesia.
Advertisements seek to delineate the progress and the transformation toward a better,
modern Indonesia. Images of past and present events are used in advertisements to
illustrate such progress. I refer again to the HSBC advertisement, because in my view,
the advertisement provides an incredible cue about national imagination regarding
ethnic/racial hierarchy. The advertisement also employs a flashback plot in telling a
symbolic story about Indonesianess. As the Javanese who rules the advertising
narrative tells a story verbally about his family connection to the Black Indonesian, a
series of still images, which are framed in a photo album and presented in a slide show
mode, appear on the screen. Those flash-back images contain a story of how the
Javanese and the Black Indonesian are bonded to each other as a family. In its
imagery, the past in the HSBC advertisement refers to ethnic/racial minorities. The
present refers to the modern Javanese family and symbolized by their leisure activities
such as vacations, shopping and credit-card ownership. The past and the present are
equated with the traditional/minorities and the modern/majority respectively.
However, unlike the advertisements during the New Order era, the flashing back
images used in the advertisement do not aim to delineate a harmonious connection
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between traditional and modern. Rather, those images work to enable the modern
majority to meet the traditional minority, and, thereby, help the latter to transform into
modern. The majority is positioned as the harbinger of modernity and progress, and,
as such, first class and active citizen, while the minority is considered as backward
and primitive, and thus second class citizen. By claiming their family connection, the
Javanese comes to help the minority transform into modern and active citizens. Such
transformation, however, should be undertaken under the control and guidance of the
majority.
In the advertisement, the product that symbolizes the global and modern norms
functions to enable the Javanese to travel back to a past time, analyse his family tree
and finally reveal his Black relative. It is a kind of localizing the global and
globalizing the local at the same time. The notion of globalizing the local is present
particularly when the Javanese couple engages in the display of consumption as the
consequence of the product. The images illustrate the celebration of global behaviour
and lifestyle. At the same time, the global product has opened the chance to meet and
find the Javanese’s local long family line. This image fits exactly into the product’s
motto The Worlds Local Bank. The advertisement, it could be said, aims to present the
global with a local twist. To avoid the sense of ‘global cultural invasion’, indigenizing
or localizing the global forms becomes a favoured strategy. The advertisement
becomes a site for negotiating and mapping the nation in conformity with the global.
It would appear, then, that in the construction of modern Indonesianess in the age of
globalization the Javanese, as the ethnic majority, continue to provide dominant
aspirations. Ethnic/racial minorities, meanwhile, remains engaged in as the second
class citizens.
7.4. Classing the Nation
The construction of Indonesianess, as revealed in the former sections, tends to
entail certain definitions of tradition and modern. By using the flash-back images, the
advertisements under scrutiny tend to define what should be located at the earlier time
and overcome, and what should ideally exist and remain at the present time. The
presence of the past actually functions to mark the newness that is generated at the
present time. The present certainly is associated with the modern, which is identified
to the nation’s progress. In advertisements, the newness and the modern are mediated
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through the rituals of consumption. If the modern is identified with the nation’s
progress, it would appear that consumption becomes a site in which the nation is
constructed, imagined, and negotiated. In Indonesia, as in other countries,
consumption is central to middle class social life. Heryanto (1999, p.165) identifies
that the middle class in Indonesia is the main agent of contemporary consumer culture
and lifestyle. They always need various ways to exercise their economic power and
enjoy their material privileges. Their desire for consumption and new lifestyles has
been positively responded to by the media and advertising. As big spending
consumers, the middle class is the most important market for consumer products that
advertisements sell. It is not surprising that the middle class has become the central
and prevalent theme in the media and advertising narratives. This fact draws attention
to the idea about centrality of the middle class to the construction of nationhood. Since
advertisements give a central point to middle class life, it would hardly be an
exaggeration to say that advertisements tend to produce imagination of the nation with
reference to the idealized life of middle class and rituals of consumption in which the
middle class is engaged. Following this logic, visions of modern Indonesianess in
advertisements tend to be middle class biased. The notion of the modern family in
Indonesia has been defined from the perspective of middle class. Familial space as a
site for constructing and negotiating women’s roles in the nation-building project
inclines to be modern middle class territory. During the New Order era,
advertisements tended to display images of family, in which women’s roles as defined
by the New Order’s gender ideology are represented. As illustrated in several of the
advertisements under scrutiny such as Maggi Mie, Sustagen Junior or Rinso, an ideal
family is constructed around the idea of a nuclear family with one or two children, a
full-time mother, and economically self-sufficient. Mother is always depicted doing
her maternal and domestic activities, while the figure of father is simply excluded
from the advertisements. The absence of father in the advertisements might function
to generate the impression that the father is working outside the house as the main
bread-winner for the family.
The advertisements tend to locate women with traditional roles in a modern
familial space, which is linked to the idea of passive women citizens in the modern
family unit of Indonesia. Advertising images imply the centrality of urban middle
class to the imagination of modern Indonesia, which is organized through gender.
Urban middle class itself has been considered a symbol of a modern group. Urban is
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always contrasted with rural, which is largely figured as a site of backwardness,
underdevelopment, naivety and tradition (Thompson 2004, 2357). Urban is thereby
intimately linked to the notion of modernity, that is, as a site in which tremendous
capitalist economic growth is experienced and celebrated. In this understanding,
middle class is central to the urban life. The dichotomy of rural-urban, which is
equated with tradition and modern, has been well illustrated in the Indomie
advertisement discussed in chapter 6. In the advertisement, the rural norms and lived
experiences appear and locate in the memory of an urban middle class boy, who is
sitting with his parents in the family dining room. The use of flashback plot to depict
the rural has symbolized traditionality, pre-developed, as well as exoticism. This
depiction has implied the opposite image of the urban, which is imagined as the
future-oriented nation. Urban middle class families, accordingly, function to
symbolize the imagined modern Indonesia.
The perceived traditional roles of women, which place women at home as
submissive wives, full-time mothers, active formers of children’s future opportunities,
and nurturers of nation’s future leaders, are fitted particularly to urban middle class
women. An urban middle class family, with its economic sufficiency, could perfectly
facilitate and enable the fulfillment of those perceived traditional roles of women. A
middle class mother has resources to provide her children, especially male-children,
with appropriate education, food, health and leisure activities, which will enable them
to be appropriate future leaders of the nation. By means of consumer products as seen
in the advertisements, those perceived traditional roles are hardly considered as
burdens. By contrast, doing such domestic duties can even be very amusing. It would
hardly be experienced by lower class women. I argue that lower class families face
many difficulties in carrying out those perceived traditional roles of women due to
their economic insufficiency and limited social capital.
Advertisements have discursively produced a vision of modern Indonesia based
on an idealized portrait of an urban middle class family. They do not merely provide
space for the middle class to constitute and reconstitute their identities, but also work
to articulate and define the relationship of the urban middle class to the nation. By
engaging in the rituals of consumption, as depicted in the advertisements, middle class
women are not only enabled to constitute their identities as modern women, but also
to underpin the state’s interests in the project of nation-building. It is important to note
that during the New Order era of the 1990s, there were well-educated, urban, middle
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class groups that became increasingly active in challenging the state’s visions of
Indonesianess, which belittled the roles of women citizens (Sadli 2002, p.83,
Blackburn 1999, p.201). The middle class, in fact, could be a potential political force
to bring a new vision of modern Indonesia, which provides greater possibilities for
women in the project of nation-building. However, as Robison (1996, 81) observes,
the middle class in Indonesia had been reluctant to upset the balance of power,
because they still required the financial resources and coercive powers of the state to
preserve social order. More specifically, the middle class have been heavily dependent
on the state for jobs, careers, contracts and most broadly as the engine of Indonesian
economic growth. As a result, the middle class in Indonesia during the New Order era
had not been a socially dominant force that is autonomous from the state. It could be
said that the Indonesian middle class has played a central role as the engine for
Indonesia’s growing economy, but had not become an engine of political
transformation. Advertisements during the New Order era tended to articulate this
fact, by depicting images of the urban middle class underpinning the state’s vision of
Indonesianess through rituals of consumption.
Depictions of modern Indonesia during the Post-New Order era remain built
around the urban middle class life. Urban middle class is central in the advertising
narratives and has become a central locus of the construction of modern
Indonesianess. The BNI Visa Card advertisement (Figure 7.5), for instance, shows
how Indonesianess is shaped through the consumption practices of the urban middle
class.
Figure 7.5. BNI Visa Card Advertisement
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Source: Courtesy of Documentation of PPPI
The advertisement is opens with a long shot scene of a rural street in sepia. A river is
seen on the left scene with a growth of natural bush along its edge. Some banana trees
are also seen on the background. An old car is depicted passing on the street, on which
two elementary students are seen from the opposite direction. Bleating of goats is
heard as the background, generating a sense of ruralness in the story. One of the
students is a boy, who is coming back from school by foot. The other is a girl who is
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depicted riding a bike behind him. She is stopping her bike as she reaches the boy.
“Are you tired?” she asks him in a friendly manner. “No”, the boy replies. “I can take
your bag”, she offers the backseat of her bike. She puts her own bag in the metal
basket hanging on the front of the bike. He takes the nice offer. The next scene shows
them running together; she holds the bike and he pushes it from the back. The scene
moves to a low angle scene that depicts the children passing over a river bridge. Rural
scenery with a river and natural bush on its bank and stands of banana trees in the
surrounding appears in the scene. As they reach the end of the river bridge, an Islamic
prayer call is heard. Not far from a mosque, they stop. “Don’t you have to pray?, she
asks her male friend and points her finger to the mosque. The boy says, “Yes, indeed.”
He promptly holds his bag, but the girl stops him. “You don’t need to bring it. I’ll
watch your bag”. The boy takes a sarong out of his bag. It is a cloth wrapped around
the waist and worn as a skirt by Indonesian men during their prayer or other religious
occasions. Combined with a Peci, a cap of Indonesian Muslims, the sarong becomes a
common attribute during Islamic rituals. “I am waiting over there”, the girl tells the
boy and points her finger to a hut next to the mosque. The next scene shows the
praying ritual, while the girl is waiting and reading a book at the hut. As there are only
male Muslims who come to the mosque and perform the prayer, it becomes apparent
that it is a Friday prayer, which only obligates men to attend. The scene then cuts to
the boy who is depicted holding two bowls of Cendol ice after the prayer is over. He
smiles and comes to the girl. The next scene shows the girl is enjoying the ice. They
are depicted talking and laughing while enjoying their ice. The scene now changes to
a close-up shot of the girl’s neck. The scene seeks to capture her Christian cross
necklace to underline the different religious beliefs the children embrace. This image
then dissolves to a colourful image of her adult life. The transition from sepia image to
a colorful image symbolizes the shifting passage of time, from past to present, from
younger age to older age. Now the little girl has become an adult woman, wearing the
same necklace and doing the same activity with the same male friend. As the scene
begins to show their adult life, a sound of a bell is heard together with background
music. As shown in the scene, they are having dinner together in a modern restaurant.
In their adult life, each has got married and has a small happy family with one child.
The next scene shows the man calling the waiter to get the bill. As the waiter comes to
present the bill, a Christmas tree is seen at the background indicating that it is
Christmas time. The families are apparently celebrating Christmas. As the man is
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about to pay the bill, the woman stops him and says “No, please don’t! You bought me
Cendol ice [referring to their childhood]. So, it is my turn now.” She holds the man’s
hand to stop him from paying the bill, and then puts her blue credit card on the bill.
This scene seems to resemble the scene of their childhood, in which the girl stops the
boy from carrying his bag to the mosque. The scene moves forward to the image of
the two families sitting around the dinner table at the restaurant. The advertisement is
then closed with the image of two blue BNI credit cards with the motto, which is seen
below the scene and is read by a male voice-over “BNI Credit Card, make every
transaction fraught with meaning.”
The advertisement, as mentioned earlier, uses two types of images to
differentiate the past and the present, which is aimed to signify the traditional and the
modern. The sepia images are used to symbolize the past time, the traditional, and the
rural in a way that the past events are narratively set in the rural area. The perceived
traditionality in the advertisement is not merely identified with ruralness, but also
symbolized through social relationships and values, such as togetherness, friendship,
tolerance, and attention to others. It is shown mainly by the girl as she offers her
bike’s backseat for the boy’s bag and gives him a hand to watch his bag while he is
performing the Friday prayer. The boy, on the other hand, pays back her attention and
friendship symbolically by treating her Cendol ice. Those images have illustrated the
sense of communality, which is mostly identified with the rural.
The colorful images in the BNI advertisement are used to signify the modern
future life of the children. As entering adult life is symbolized by the dissolving
image, the advertisement depicts them in colorful images. It symbolizes that their
present life is more colorful, more alive and more interesting. In their present life, they
appear to be urban middle class people who have a small happy family and economic
sufficiency. It should be noted however that the perceived traditionality which
characterizes the rural has not changed. The images of friendship, togetherness and
tolerance remain palpable. The advertisement, for instance, depicts the man’s Muslim
family joining the women’s Christian family to celebrate Christmas. It resembles the
woman’s tolerance when waiting and watching the bag while he is performing the
Friday prayer in their childhood. For symbolically paying back the man and his
family’s tolerance and attention, the woman pays the bill of their dinner with her
credit card. She literally reveals, however, that she is treating him, because in the past
he treated her Cendol ice. It would appear then that it is all about exchange.
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Everything is supposed to be paid back: what you get is what you give. Even images
of togetherness and tolerance, which are considered traditional social values, are
framed and organized with the logic of rational calculation. In the advertisement, this
logic is perfectly embodied in the advertised product, i.e., the credit card, which
enables people to pay everything back through rituals of consumption. The images of
past/traditional and of present/modern are shaped with reference to an urban middle
class lifestyle. What is more, the modern nation of Indonesia is imagined and
identified with practices that are based on the logic of calculation and rational
exchange. In this understanding, patterns of consumption which characterise urban
middle class life play a significant role in defining and disseminating narratives of
modern Indonesianess. It is illustrated as well in the HSBC advertisement, which
identified modernity as a celebration of consumption. Participation in the modern
Indonesia, as depicted in the advertisement, comes to mean participation in the
modern consumption. Unlike the BNI Visa Card, which defines the past and present in
terms of social location rural/urban, the HSBC advertisement represents the past and
the present in terms of ethnicity/race. However, both advertisements offer a similar
way to participate in modern Indonesia, that is, through new patterns of commodity
consumption.
During the Post New Order era, the urban middle class has been showing their
commitment to be a more dominant and autonomous political force. It has been
revealed, particularly, in the discussion of gender equality in Indonesia. Legal
procedures which guarantee women to gain more direct access to the project of
nation-building are the result of persistency of political ideas carried out by the
Indonesian urban middle class. Added to that, women’s movements, which are
identified as urban middle class movements, have shown their influence, albeit
relatively small, in the representation of women in advertisements. Despite restricted
space, advertisements during this new era have allowed women to voice and resist
their marginalization in the project of nation-building. Nevertheless, political visions
of middle class remain narratively marginalized in advertisements during the Post
New Order era. Narratives of Indonesianess, instead, have been constructed and
negotiated with reference particularly to the middle class celebration of modern
consumption.
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7.5. Constructing Ideal Bodies of Nation
The close examination of advertisements during the New Order and the Post
New Order era has revealed that the notion of Indonesianess is constructed by making
use of similar metaphors and discursive strategies. Differences of gender,
ethnicity/race and class are mobilised and functionalised through the images and
narratives to define Indonesian nationhood. Female/feminine body, particularly, has
been used by advertisements during the two different eras in Indonesia as a significant
site in which ideal bodies of nation are established. Illness-healing binarism becomes
a favourable metaphor to delineate and draw a clear border between the good for the
nation’s progress and the threat which could be harmful for the nation. In this way,
advertisements narratively work to ensure that women would not stray from the ways
they are culturally expected to behave in order to protect the nation’s virtue.
Male/masculine body is functionalised to maintain male domination in the project of
Indonesian nation-building. During the Post New Order era, especially, despite the
opening door for women in the nation-building mission, the masculine aspect
dominates mainly to underscore male’s reluctance and societal discouragement toward
women’s active participation in the nationalist projects.
Ethnicised/racialised bodies are utilised as well by the advertisements under
discussion to narrativise modern Indonesianess. In this respect, family reproduction
becomes a discursive strategy to regulate and manage those bodies to fit the perceived
ideal family unity of Indonesia. Family connection, blood ties and inter-ethnic/racial
marriage are used by advertisements to construct discourses regarding a harmonious
national family. It is worth considering, however, that iconography of familial space
also narratively function to figure and naturalise ethnic/racial hierarchy within the
Indonesian family. During the New Order era, advertisements tended to place
ethnic/racial minorities on the margins of familial space relative to the Javanese as the
perceived ethnic/racial majority. Discourses of the prominent Javanese position in the
national family of Indonesia were clearly rendered by advertisements. After the fall of
the New Order, advertisements attempted to blur the borderline between majority and
minority by embracing the minorities and emphasizing that majority and minority
should be considered a family. However, the familial discourse represented by
advertisements requires the minorities’ conformity and intermingling with the
majority. In other words, advertisements during the Post New Order era continously
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work to construct and sustain the Javanese-biased Indonesianess within the national
family of Indonesia.
It would appear, then, that discourses, images and narratives of Indonesianess
produced and transmitted through advertisements during the New Order and the Post
New Order era have equally involved the notion of body. Indonesianess, in this
understanding, has produced and required certain types of bodies. Differences of
gender and ethnicity/race and class, which are crucial to the construction of
nationhood, are discursively constituted and made manifest through the body. Added
to that, the advertisements under discussion tend to consider body as a crucial
symbolic border, which functions to establish the ideal nationhood. In this way, body
should be continuously managed and governed to conform to the ideals and the needs
of the nation. This notion is related to Foucault’s view on the rise of biopolitics during
the 18th century of Europe, which suggests that body is a crucial locus in which power
over life evolves. More specifically, he argues, “The disciplines of the body and the
regulations of the population constituted the two poles around which the organization
of power over life was deployed” (Foucault 1984, p.269). Body, in this understanding,
becomes a pivotal issue for modern power, particularly, for the state power. State and
its agencies, according to Foucault, attempt to manage people by disciplining the
individual body and exerting regulatory control to the social body (population). In the
context of nationhood, body is disciplined and governed in certain ways that are
connected with the project of nation-building. Gendered and ethnicised/racialised
bodies are mobilised and functionalised as bodies of nation, which are constituted in
order to be controlled, surveyed and maintained for the nation’s virtue. As depicted in
the advertisements under discussion, in order to construct images and narratives of
Indonesianess, advertisements entail certain type of gendered and ethnicised/racialised
bodies. The female/feminine body, in particular, becomes an object of power, which is
attached to moral obligations to maintain familial and societal spirits and norms that
are crucial to the positive images of Indonesia. The images of good woman and good
mother, on this point, can be read as products of biopolitics exerted by and through
advertisements. Similar to gendered bodies, iconography of familial space is
performed in advertisements to mold ethnicised/racialised bodies to conform to the
ideals of an Indonesian national family. It could be said that those gendered and
ethnicised/racialised bodies are discursively governed in order to foster the good life
of the Indonesian nation. This inclination, to some extent, is linked to the Indonesian
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state’s biopolitics. In order to ensure, support and reinforce its power, the Indonesian
state during the New Order and the Post-New Order era has attempted to manage and
have control over members of the Indonesian population by exerting certain
regulatory control. Issues of national policy such as in regard to gender or
ethnicity/race, as indicated earlier, have been established to mould the population to
conform to the needs of the state.
As depicted in the advertisements under discussion, definitions of the good as
well as the needs of the nation are largely linked to the Indonesian urban middle class.
On this point, it becomes obvious that the construction of Indonesianess in
advertisements is mainly conformed to the middle class. Biopolitical techniques of
power rendered through the portrayal of good mothers, the figure of male future
leaders, or the use of blood relations regarding the notion of ethnicity/race, are applied
mainly to foster the life of the middle class. Advertising images and narratives tend to
highlight the life of the urban middle class and make it central to the imagination of
modern Indonesia. What is more, the narratives of modern Indonesianess are largely
situated in the rituals of consumption and display of global lifestyles, which are
primarily practiced and afforded by the urban middle class. All this goes to show that
the body is not merely governed to fit the ideals of middle-class-nation, but also to
conform to the national and global economy through the celebration of modern
consumption and global lifestyles.
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Conclusion
Representations of gender, ethnicity/race and class explored in this study
demonstrate the interplay of advertising images and narratives and the socio-political
contexts in which the advertisements appeared. In the context of socio-political
transition in Indonesia, i.e., from the New Order era to the Post New Order era, it has
been revealed that the transition has opened an interstice, in which dominant and
hegemonic discourses related to gender, ethnicity/race and class in Indonesia are
perpetuated, negotiated and challenged. The close examination to advertisements that
were studied suggests that there have been changes and modifications in the
constructions and representations of gender, ethnicity/race and class during the Post
New Order era when compared with the New Order era. The modes of talking about
gender, ethnicity/race and class during the Post New Order era have been modified in
conjunction with the increasing critiques and resistance against dominant discourses
about those identities/differences established during the former regime. It has been
demonstrated that advertisements during the New Order era tended to articulate and
reproduce dominant and hegemonic discourses about gender, ethnicity/race and class
that were politically sanctioned by the state. The interstice opened by the political
transition in Indonesia made possible the interlocutions and negotiations between the
perceived ‘majority/center/self’ and the perceived ‘minority/marginal/other’ in terms
of gender, ethnicity/race and class. More specifically, advertisements during the Post
New Order era until 2005 tend to accommodate and appropriate critiques, negotiation
and resistance against the construction of the perceived ‘minority/marginal/other’. It is
different from advertisements during the New Order era in 1990s, which preferred to
simply overlook those critiques and challenges. Mainstreaming the perceived
‘minority/marginal/other’ has become a favourable discursive strategy to modify the
construction and representation of gender, ethnicity/race and class in Indonesian
advertisements during the Post New Order era. However, close analysis to those
advertisements has demonstrated that advertisements also show a tendency to
perpetuate and maintain the dominant and hegemonic constructions of those
identities/differences.
Advertising appropriation of critiques and resistances against the dominant
constructions works only at a decorative and superficial level in a sense that the
perceived ‘majority/center/self’ remains controlling and driving advertising narratives.
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In this respect, the critiques are incorporated into advertising images and narratives
but remain subsumed under dominant perspectives. Mainstreaming of the perceived
‘minority/center/self’ has been organised and framed within the perspective of the
perceived ‘majority/center/self’. Added to that, the mainstreaming has been simply
neutralised and nullified as advertisements narratively work to ensure the dominant
position of the perceived ‘majority/center/self’. Advertisements also made use of the
selling products and filmic technology to uphold and perpetuate the dominant
construction of gender, ethnicity/race and class. In other words, the modified mode of
talking about gender, ethnicity/race and class in advertisements during the Post New
Order era is not supported and affirmed by the substance of representation of those
identities/differences. The content of talking or discourses about of gender,
ethnicity/race and class is not drastically and significantly changed from the New
Order to the Post New Order era.
It has been observable that advertisements during the Post New Order era tend
to demonstrate recognition and disavowal of the perceived ‘minority/marginal/other’
at one and the same time. As a result, ambiguity of images in terms of gender,
ethnicity/race and class becomes visible, which in my view has underscored the fact
that advertisements play a crucial role in upholding the continuation of ‘normal’,
dominant and hegemonic constructions of gender, ethnicity/race and class. What I find
more important in this study is that margins of identity politics of gender,
ethnicity/race and class in the studied advertisements could be revealed. The
ambiguity of images has implied the interlocutions and negotiations to represent and
position the perceived ‘minority/marginal/other’ in terms of gender, ethnicity/race and
class within socio-political transition of Indonesia.
In the context of gender, it has been shown that the modes of talking about
womanhood and manhood are slightly changed and modified. Advertisements during
the New Order and the Post New Order have made use of different codes of
femininity and masculinity in conjunction with the shift in political regime. During the
New Order era, codes of domesticated femininity as being central to the New Order’s
gender ideology were palpably used in advertisements. It has been identified that
women’s desires of moving beyond the boundaries of domesticated femininity
embodied in the figure of homebound ideals and guardianship of traditions have been
rendered as well in advertisements. Those desires, nevertheless, were simply negated
and overlooked by the endorsement of male characters that narratively functioned to
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discipline and restore women in the subservient position. Codes of masculinity and
male conduct, on the other hand, were functionalised in advertisements during this era
to ensure and emphasise the privileged position of men in the patriarchal order. After
the fall of the New Order era, as discourses of women’s empowerment and gender
equality began to be widely discussed in Indonesia, advertisements were obviously
keen to appropriate feminist rhetoric of liberated and empowered women. Unlike
advertisements during the New Order era, women’s desires to be liberated from
domesticated roles and to be active in the public sphere are increasingly
accommodated and represented in advertisements during the Post New Order era.
Men, however, are not represented as having tremendous fears and feelings of threat
by women’s desires for empowerment. They are instead depicted welcoming the new
Indonesian women into the public realm. However, the close examination of the
advertisements has revealed that what appear on the surface to be progressive
representation of women are, in fact, not progressive. In this understanding, women
have been liberated and empowered superficially. Independence, self-sufficiency and
capability of women in the public realm have been largely linked to glorification of
body image and woman’s domesticated role as nurturers. In other words, advertising
appropriation of feminist rhetoric works only at the decorative and surface level. In
this respect, advertisements functionalise the selling products and filmic technology to
enable men to sustain their masculine credentials and restoring the ‘liberated and
empowered’ women to their due position in the patriarchal order.
Constructions of ethnicity/race in Indonesian advertisements during the two
different eras demonstrate a similarity albeit in slightly changed and modified forms.
It has been demonstrated that advertisements during the New Order and the Post New
Order era have equally constructed three types of discursive dichotomy to narrativise
ethnic/racial relationships in Indonesia, i.e., Javanese/Non-Javanese, Indigenous/NonIndigenous and ‘White’ Indonesian/’Black’ Indonesian. During the New Order era,
there had been a thematic silence with regard to ethnic/racial groups in Indonesia,
except when related to Javanese ethnicity as the perceived majority within the
country. During this era, as the state officially forbade any sensitive and inflammatory
issues of ethnicity and race in Indonesian media, the perceived ethnic/racial minorities
gained very limited representation and were filmically marginalised in advertisements.
Closer examination suggests that advertisements during this era tended to articulate
and reinforce the prominent position of the Javanese ethnicity, by giving an overtone
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of Javanese ethnicity within advertising narratives. The perceived ethnic/racial
minorities, by contrast, appeared only as ornamental snippets in minor and isolated
sequence of narrative. In addition, they were defined through the eyes of the perceived
majority, and posited within the parameters of exotica and otherness. It has also been
observable that advertisements during this era made great use of physical
characteristics, cultural events, languages and other elements, which are perceived as
ethnic/racial markers, to highlight the differences between the perceived majority and
minority. What is more, advertisements aesthetised and fetishised certain markers of
the perceived ethnic/racial minorities for the amusement of the perceived majority.
During the Post New Order era there has been a tendency to appropriate the
discourse of multiculturalism, which has been placed in the limelight to counter the
dominant position of the Javanese as polticially sanctioned by the former regime. In
line with the spreading discourse of multiculturalism, advertisements during this era
tend to appropriate the discourse by mainstreaming the perceived ethnic/racial
minorities in advertising narratives. Unlike advertisements during the New Order era,
it has been shown that advertisements during the Post New Order era attempt to
appropriate recognition and embracement toward ethnic/racial minorities living in the
country. It can be seen, for instance, with regard to images and narratives of the
‘Black’ Indonesian and the Chinese. Advertisements during this era present
ethnic/racial minorities as having a family connection to the Javanese majority. The
family connection has been used in advertisements to symbolise the majority’s
acceptance of the existence of the minority. In other words, inter-ethnic/racial
relationships have gained an overtone in advertising narratives. It has been revealed,
however, that advertisements tend to functionalise the recognition and embracement
toward minorities to suggest cultural co-optation in a sense that the minorities should
conform or mingle with the majority’s culture. Furthermore, advertisements make the
presence of the minority “audible”, but at the same time they operate the erasure of the
minority’s performance from the screen. Ethnic/racial minorities, if they do appear,
only suggest their subjugated position and lack of voice in the face of the Javanese
majority. In the context of a local-global nexus under the condition of globalisation,
advertisements narratively grant a privilege to the Javanese majority to welcome and
live up to global modern lifestyles. Ethnic/racial minorities, meanwhile, are prevented
from being actively engaged in the global modern world. Advertisements demonstrate
an ambivalence in depicting and positioning ethnic/racial minorities by recognizing
206
yet disregarding them. The mode of representation of ethnic/racial minorities has been
modified, but the advertising tendency is to ensure narratively that the prominent and
dominant position of the perceived majority remains intact.
With regard to representation of class, advertisements during the New Order
and the Post New Order era equally demonstrate the centrality of the middle class.
Advertising images and narratives, in this understanding, have been controlled and
driven from a middle class perspective. During the New Order era, class distinctions
were represented in terms of opposition. Codes of masculinity and male conduct had
been functionalised in advertising narratives to maintain and reinforce class
distinctions, and class borders needed to be defended. Advertisements also made use
of different codes of masculinity to symbolise different social position between the
lower and middle class. The lower class was attached with immature masculinity,
which tended to use physical strength and aggresiveness to gain domination. The
middle class, in contrast, was endowed with what Fiske (1993, p.200) names “adult
masculinity”. They also use their physical strength and its extension such as
mechanical and driving skills, but their masculine power is exercised more by social
means than physical, i.e., through the work of the brain and ability to plan. It has been
shown that representation of the lower class was less positive than that of the middle
class. The lower class appeared as a threat, which could be harmful for the middle
class’ social position. Advertisements, on this point, grant power to the middle class to
defend and secure their social position. The selling products were functionalised as
well in the narratives to enable the middle class to defend its class border and to
facilatate them moving upwardly to a superior social position.
Advertisements during the Post New Order era demonstrate that class
distinctions are not represented in terms of opposition. Class relations during this era
are depicted as being fluid and permeated. The middle class is depicted crossing the
class boundaries into the lower position and vice versa. In addition, advertisements
make use of codes of femininity, especially through the figure of mother, to
narrativise the permeability of class boundaries and the possibility of social climbing
and class-passing. Women are depicted playing a motherly role to nurture their
offspring to move upwardly to a higher social position.
It has been revealed as well that advertisements during the New Order and the
Post New Order era have demonstrated a similar tendency to position women as
heroes of class in terms of nurturing and nourishing the middle class. What is more, a
207
close examination of advertisements suggests a feminisation of the lower class. In this
way, the lower class is represented playing a motherly role of nourishing the middle
class, just as a mother nurtures her offspring. It could be said that the existence of
middle class is narratively enabled and underpinned by women and the lower class. It
has been obvious that despite the slight change in the way in which class subjects and
class relations are narrativised in Indonesian advertisements, the dominant position of
the middle class remains palpable.
This study has been concerned as well with the way in which Indonesianess is
imagined, maintained and negotiated through advertising images and narratives. It has
been revealed that in the construction of Indonesianess advertisements during two
different eras have mobilised and functionalised identities/differences of gender,
ethnicity/race and class. More interestingly, the advertisements that were examined
have made use of similar metaphors and discursive strategies to generate and construct
the ideals of Indonesian nationhood. It has been shown that images and narratives of
Indonesianess produced and transmitted through advertisements during the New Order
and the Post New Order era have equally involved the notion of body. Certain types of
body have been required and constructed to conform to the ideal Indonesianess. In this
respect, certain types of gendered, ethnicised/racialised and classed bodies have been
entailed to narrativise the ideals of Indonesian nationhood. The female/feminine body
has been used by advertisements during the two different eras in Indonesia as a
significant site in which ideal bodies of nation are established. Illness-healing
binarism has become a favoured metaphor to establish the good and the threat which
could be harmful for the nation. In this way, advertisements use the selling products,
the storyline and filmic technology to ensure that women would not stray from the
ways they are culturally expected to behave in order to protect the nation’s virtue. The
male/masculine body appears to highlight male domination in the project of
Indonesian nation building. The female/feminine body, on this point, becomes an
object of power, which is attached to moral obligations to maintain familial and
societal spirits and norms that are crucial to the positive images of Indonesia. Figures
of a good woman and good mother, as sanctioned by the state’s gender ideology, can
be read as products of biopolitics exerted by and through advertisements. Despite the
opening door for women in the nation building mission, the masculine body during the
Post New Order era is used mainly to underscore male’s reluctance and societal
208
discouragement toward the enhancement of women’s participation in the nationalist
projects.
Similar to gendered bodies, iconography of familial space has been used in
advertisements to mold ethnicised/racialised bodies to conform to the ideals of a
national family of Indonesia. The ethnicised/racialised bodies used in the
advertisements that were studied have been discursively managed and controlled in
order to foster the good life of the Indonesian nation. Family reproduction becomes a
discursive strategy to regulate and manage those bodies to fit the perceived ideal
family unity of Indonesia. Family connection, blood ties and inter-ethnic/racial
marriage appeared in advertisements to construct discourses regarding a harmonious
national family. However, iconography of familial space has functioned as well to
figure and naturalise ethnic/racial hierarchy within the Indonesian family. During the
New Order era, the Javanese’s prominent position in the national family of Indonesia
was apparently rendered by advertisements. This situation has not significantly
changed during the Post New Order era. In other words, advertisements during these
two different eras in Indonesia have equally worked to construct and maintain the
Javanese-biased Indonesianess within the national family of Indonesia.
Imaginery of Indonesianess rendered in the studied advertisements has suggested
the centrality of the urban middle class. It has been revealed that the nation’s virtue
has been largely linked to the life of the urban middle class. Biopolitical techniques of
power rendered through advertising representation of good motherhood, the figure of
male future leaders, or the use of blood relations have been used mainly to foster the
life of the middle class. Advertisements during the two different eras have also
contextualised the construction of Indonesianess in the local-global nexus, which have
been manifested through the rituals of modern consumerism. Conforming to global
modern lifestyles but remaining ‘Indonesia’ has been narrativised as well in the
examined
advertisements.
During
the
New
Order
era,
gendered
and
ethnicised/racialised bodies were managed and controlled narratively to protect the
perceived Indonesianess, while permitting them to conform to the global lifestyle.
During the Post New Order era, as celebration of global modern lifestyles has been
placed in the limelight, Indonesianess has been defined with reference to middle class
modern consumerism. It would appear, then, that gendered and ethnicised/racialised
bodies have been governed and functionalised in advertising narratives to conform to
209
the middle classed-nation and fit to the national and global economy through the
celebration of a global modern lifestyle.
This study has demonstrated that Indonesian advertisements play a crucial role
in perpetuating and challenging the ideology of dominance and subordination in terms
of gender, ethnicity/race and class through their images and narratives. Looking at
advertising representation of gender, ethnicity/race and class in the context of of
socio-political transition has made it possible to reveal how the shift of ideologies in
Indonesian political transition has intimate implications for the way in which
formations of identity/difference are constructed, negotiated and challenged in
television advertisements. It could be concluded, then, that even a short narrative in a
television advertisement can promote ideological issues which function to strengthen
or negotiate certain discourses about identity/difference. This study has provided a
contribution to the growing field of Cultural Studies, especially in the context of nonWestern media and its interconnection with Western and global media in general.
More specifically, it has offered unique insights into the way in which dimensions of
‘majority/center/self’ and ‘minority/marginal/other’ are discursively constructed in
Indonesian advertisements and how those dimensions have differences and
connections with similar dimensions explored within Western perspectives. In this
respect, this study has revealed the productivity of a Cultural Studies approach, not
merely in dealing with spatially different media products, but also in connecting and
bridging the gap between Western and non-Western in terms of advertising
construction of identity/difference. As a result of this study, a contribution has been
made to the expansion and enrichment of existing Western media studies, especially
in the course of advertising representation. It has opened and developed new and
alternative insights into grasping the way in which Western and non-Western studies
of advertising within the growing field of Cultural Studies tradition are, in fact,
interconnected and complementary to one another. In other words, this study has
shown its engagement with the effort that aims at facilitating cross-cultural
understanding between Western and non-Western concerns in terms of media
products.
210
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Appendix
Tabel 1. List of Advertisements 1993-1998 and 1999-2005
Citra Pariwara 1993--1998
Product and
No.
Advertising Title
Year
1
Indomie ‘Whistle’
1993
2
Dancow Milk ‘Kite’
1993
3
Pucelle Perfume
1993
4
Cuddle Baby Powder
1993
5
Belia Cosmetics
1994
6
Haseline Snow
1994
7
Komix Cough ‘Bus’
1995
8
Amalia Cosmetics
1995
9
Bodrex ‘Wife’
1995
10
Brylcream
1995
11
Mouten Candy ‘Cat’
1996
12
Maggie Mie
1996
13
Sustagen Junior
1996
14
Daktarin ‘Dancing’
1996
15
Citra White
1996
16
Amco Jeans
1996
17
Sunlight Cream
1996
18
Daihatsu Rocky
1996
19
Mild Menthol ‘Ice’
1996
20
Dua Kelinci Peanut
1997
21
Baygon Coil
1997
22
ABC Alkaline
1997
23
Brisk Hair Cream
1997
24
Rinso Tablecloth
1997
25
Teh Kotak Tea
1997
26
Taman Dayu
1997
27
Indosat ‘Guitar’
1997
28
Mustika Ratu ‘Palace’
1997
29
Boom Candy
1998
30
Pepsodent Toothpaste
1998
31
VIM
1998
32
Gibolan EGB 761
1998
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Citra Pariwara 1999-2005
Product
and Advertising Title
Hansaboy
Arctic Candy ‘Park Bench’
Kijang SUV
WRP Diat
Clear Shampoo ‘Squad’
Pepsodent ‘Pilot’
Coca Cola ‘Soccer’
Marbels Candy ‘Magnet’
Konidin ‘Psychiatrist’
Feminax ‘Belly Dancing’
BNI Visa and Master Card
Sampoerna Hijau ‘Bedug’
Dji Sam Soe ‘Train’
Fanta Sport ‘Kuetek’
Relaxa Candy ‘Cinema’
Worldvision ‘Papua’
Dancow Milk ‘Cat and Dog’
Daktarin Cream ‘Mencongkel’
Refrigerator ‘Tanto’
A Mild ‘Bus Stop’
Molto ‘Flower’
Molto ‘Lullaby’
Djarum Black ‘I Feel Good’
Frozz Candy ‘In the Bus’
SGM Milk ‘Grandma’
Surf Detergent ‘Pamit’
Milo ‘Mango’
AC Panasonic ‘Remote’
HSBC Credut Card ‘Bali ‘Holiday’
Blandongan Coffee ‘Insomnia’
Konidin ‘Curly’
Nutrisari ‘Jacuzzi’
Protecal Solid
Formula Toothbrush ‘Shark’
BNI Bank ‘Hairy Leg’
Exelcom ‘Dating’
Year
1999
2000
2000
2000
2000
2000
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2003
2003
2003
2003
2003
2003
2004
2004
2004
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
226
Tabel 2. Binary Categories and Its Intersection
Strong-Weak
New Order
Daihatsu Rocky
Mild Menthol
Boom Candy
Gibolan EGB 761
Dua Kelinci Peanut
New Order
Komix Bus
Rinso Tablecloth
Daktarin Dancing
Sunlight Cream
Bodrex Wife
VIM
New Order
Amalia Cosmetics
Citra White
Teh Kotak Tea
Pepsodent Tooth
Mustika Ratu
Indosat Guitar
Intersection
Strong/Weak
Strong/Weak+Modern/Tradisional
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive+
Good/Bad
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive
Post-New Order
Arctic Park Bench
Protecal Solid
Marbels Magnet
Dancow Cat and
Dog
Refrigerator Tanto
Milo Mango
AC Panasonic
Good-Bad
Intersection
Post-New Order
Good/Bad+Active/Passive
Clear Squad
Good/Bad+Active/Passive+
Educated/Ignorant
Daktarin Crème
Good/Bad+Strong/Weak+
Active/Passive
A Mild Bus Stop
Good/Bad+Active/Passive
Formula Toothbrush
Good/Bad+Modern/Tradisional+
Active/Passive
Konidin Curly
Good/Bad+Strong/Weak+
Active/Passive
Modern-Traditional
Intersection
Post-New Order
Modern/Tradisional+Active/Passive
Sampoerna Hijau
Modern/Tradisional+Good/Bad+
Active/Passive
Worldvision Papua
Modern/Tradisional+Strong/Weak
Molto Flower
Modern/Tradisional+Active/Passive
Djarum Black
Modern/Tradisional+Active/Passive
Nutrisari Jacuzzi
Modern/Traditional
Kijang
Intersection
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive+
Good/Bad
Strong/Weak+Educated/Ignorant
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive
Strong/Weak+Active/Passive
Strong/Weak
Intersection
Good/Bad+Strong/Weak
Good/Bad+Strong/Weak
Good/Bad+Educated/Ignorant
Good/Bad+Educated/Ignorant
Good/Bad+Strong/Weak
Intersection
Modern/Tradisional+Good/Bad
Modern/Tradisional+Active/Passive+
Educated/Ignorant
Modern/Tradisional+Good/Bad
Modern/Tradisional+Good/Bad
Modern/Tradisional+Strong/Weak
Modern/Tradition+Active/Passive
227
Table 2. Continued
New Order
Mouten Kucing
Brisk Hair Cream
Haseline Snow
ABC Alkaline
Dancow Layang-Layang
Active-Passive
Intersection
Post-New Order
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Hansaboy
Baygon Coil
Amco Jeans
Pucelle Perfume
Active/Passive+Good/Bad
Active/Passive+Modern/Tradisional
Active/Passive
Active/Passive+Educated/Ignorant
Active/Passive+Good/Bad+
Modern/Tradisional
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Active/Passive
Belia
Brylcream
Cuddle Baby
Active/Passive+Modern/Tradisional
Active/Passive
Active/Passive
New Order
Maggie Mie
Sustagen Junior
Taman Dayu
Indomie
Konidin Psychiatrist
Pepsodent Pilot
Relaxa Candy
Molto Lullaby
SGM Grandma
Exelcom
Coca Cola Soccer
Feminax Belly
Dancing
WRP Diat
Frozz in the Bus
Educated-Ignorant
Intersection
Post-New Order
Educated/Ignorant+Active/Passive
BNI Visa
Educated/Ignorant+Active/Passive
Dji Sam Soe Train
Educated/Ignorant+Strong/Weak
Fanta Sport
Educated/Ignorant+Modern/Traditional
Surf Detergent
Blandongan Coffee
BNI Bank
HSBC Credit Card
Intersection
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Active/Passive+Educated/Ignorant+
Strong/Weak
Active/Passive+Educated/Ignorant
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Active/Passive+Educated/Ignorant+
Strong/Weak
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Active/Passive+Strong/Weak
Active/Passive
Active/Passive+Educated/Ignorant
Active/Passive+Educated/Ignorant
Intersection
Educated/Ignorant+Active/Passive
Educated/Ignorant+Active/Passive
Educated/Ignorant+Good/Bad
Educated/Ignorant+Good/Bad
Educated/Ignorant+Good/Bad
Educated/Ignorant+Good/Bad
Educated/Ignorant+Modern/Tradisional+
Active/Passive
228
LEBENSLAUF
Name
Geboren
Anschrift
Email
: Dr. phil. Ratna Noviani
: 24.11.1975
: Pesona Merapi A-18, Jl. Kaliurang km 8,5
Yogyakarta 55581 Indonesien
: [email protected]
Akademische Ausbildung
2005 - 2009
: Promotion in Medienwissenschaft an der Ruhr-Universität,
Bochum, Deutschland.
Dissertationsschrift: „Identity Politics in Indonesian Advertising.
Gender, Ethnicity/Race, Class and Nation in TV Advertisements
during the New Order and the Post-New Order Era”
1998 – 2000
: Magister in Soziologie an der Gadjah Mada Universität,
Yogyakarta, Indonesien.
Magisterarbeit: „A Midway in Understanding Adverts: Between
Reality, Representation and Simulation”
1993 – 1998
: Bachelor in Kommunikationswissenschaft an der Gadjah Mada
Universität, Yogyakarta, Indonesien.
Bachelorarbeit: „Reception of Urban Housewives toward RCTI
TV’s Program ‘Hidup Sehat Cara Hembing’ (A Healthy Life
with Hembing)”
Beruflicher Werdegang
2001 – heute
: Dozentin im Institut für Komunikationswissenschaft,
Muhammadiyah Universität, Yogyakarta, Indonesien
2002 – heute
: Forschungsmitglied am Zentrum für soziale und politische
Veränderungen, Muhammadiyah Universität, Yogyakarta,
Indonesien
2001 – 2004
: Editorin für die nationale Ausbildungszeitschrift „Gerbang“,
Indonesien
2000 – 2001
: Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der
Kommunikation, Yogyakarta, Indonesien
Akademie
der
229