"Get to Know the Unknown": Understanding Religion and Advertising

The relationship between religion and advertising has mostly been theorized in terms of "religion in advertising" or "advertising as religion." This article pursues two goals: First, it offers a substantial critique of previous studies of advertising and religion in order to take...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of media and religion
Main Author: Knauß, Stefanie 1976- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2016]
In: Journal of media and religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Advertising / Religion
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:The relationship between religion and advertising has mostly been theorized in terms of "religion in advertising" or "advertising as religion." This article pursues two goals: First, it offers a substantial critique of previous studies of advertising and religion in order to take stock and discern future directions of research. Second, it presents the results of an empirical qualitative study of print advertisements which responds to some of the open questions of previous research. It shows that advertising partially fulfills religious functions, focusing on those to do with self-actualization and meaning making within an immanent horizon, and less so on community-related functions. Based on these results, I argue that in the study of religion and advertising, "religion" cannot be limited to specific religious traditions, but has to be understood more broadly. Also, the conventional distinction between "religion in advertising" and "advertising as religion" has to be overcome in order to understand the phenomenon.
ISSN:1534-8415
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of media and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/15348423.2016.1177349