”TO BE OR NOT TO BE WOKE?” : En multimodal kritisk diskursanalys av performativ aktivism bland varumärken som kapitaliserar på sociopolitiska aspekter med avstamp i internetfenomenet ”Woke Washing”.

Sammanfattning

This study analyzes a commercial by Gillette (2019) and a commercial by Pepsi (2017), which are based on the movements Me Too and Black Lives Matter. The purpose of the study is to examine the commercials with a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) and with the help of associated semiotic resources analyze communicative and visual performances that appear in the commercials. Through MCDA, the study aims to find underlying messages, portrayals and representations that may indicate to a performative brand activism or Woke Washing in each commercial. The study is based on theories about representation, brand activism, Woke Washing and gender studies. The results of the study indicate that Gillette's commercial has two themes that stand out. The first theme concerns masculinity and ethnicity. The result is that they almost exclusively portray white men in their commercial. The second theme concerns masculinity and women at a disadvantage, and the result is that they try to include themselves in the Me Too debate, which mainly concerns the female gender, while they are at the same time portraying women who are treated badly by men in the commercial. In their commercial, Gillette tries to sell a lifestyle rather than their own products, and this means that there is no performative brand activism occurring in the commercial. What indicates to Woke Washing in the commercial is that they have not done a consistent job to counteract the macho culture and its effects on the male and female gender. In Pepsi's commercial, two themes were identified. The first theme concerns representation and ethnicity. The result is that they are more intersectional in the representation of different social groups in the commercial. However, they have made the choice to give Kendall Jenner, who is a white woman, interpretive precedence in a demonstration that has connections to Black Lives Matter and concerns black people. The second theme concerns representation and commercial framing, and the result is that, through their brand colors and soft drinks – Pepsi makes a consistent commercial framing throughout the whole commercial, and this means that a performative brand activism thus occurs. What indicates to Woke Washing in the commercial is the fact that they commercialize on an expression taken from a socio-political aspect.