Page 135 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

124 • Sport, Media and Society

same company. For example, Lifebuoy, Lux and Dove soap are all brands of the
company Unilever; nevertheless, these products are sharply differentiated for us in
advertising campaigns.
Nike, Adidas and Reebok are all well-known brands of sport shoes, clothing and
equipment. Advertising strategy for these brands constructs an identity for each by
marking it as different from the others. Nike style is constructed as different from
Adidas style or Reebok style. In the United Kingdom, all three manufacture boots
(cleats) for soccer. Many things are common to all three lines: the function of each
boot is the same; the sport is the same; all are associated with global football celebri-
ties playing in the English Premier League. However, the advertising strategy for each
brand draws on existing meanings of soccer and soccer stars in the United Kingdom
to differentiate its product. Nike has tended to use players with controversial reputa-
tions such as the French footballer Eric Cantona, who gained notoriety for launching
a kung fu–style kick at a Crystal Palace fan while playing for Manchester United in
1995. Nike has run advertising campaigns that feature a new, faster, more effi cient
version of soccer, transferring the associations with edginess to their product. In these
advertisements, soccer is framed as rationalised, postnational entertainment.
Meanwhile, Adidas advertising campaigns have focused on the idiosyncratic nature
of soccer customs and meanings in the United Kingdom. One advertisement series
from 2005 featured a narrator questioning the logic of traditions associated with Brit-
ish grass roots football, accompanied by the song ‘Sound of the Suburbs’ by the 1970s
British punk band the Members. The song detailed the banality of English suburban life.
Nostalgia and an emphasis on the local in the context of global football differentiate the
Adidas product from Nike. By contrast to these aesthetically styled campaigns, Reebok
campaigns have emphasised everyday football integrity on the part of celebrity players
such as Ryan Giggs, with straplines such as ‘I am what I am’ and ‘true football’.
As we engage with the meaning systems of the advertisements and make our
choice of product, we, too, become differentiated into Nike, Adidas or Reebok con-
sumers. The relationship between choice and personal and social identity can be
linked to broader social relationships. Jhally (1990: 6) stated, ‘Goods always mean
something within a social context where different interests are being played out.’ Our
interests may be shaped by our sense of who we are and how we perceive the world.
Bourdieu (1979) argued that our ‘tastes’ or ‘manifested preferences’ were largely
shaped by our class identities or habitus. For Bourdieu, habitus refers to the ways that
individuals develop their ideas about the world, their values, desires and ambitions.

He argued that consumer and lifestyle choices reflected a conscious and unconscious
impetus towards creating and maintaining class-based distinctions. Our choice of
products represents an expression of ‘class, background, and cultural identity. Hence
the connection between taste, identity, and everyday acts of consumption’ (Paterson
2006: 37). The associations between class and taste have implications for maintain-
ing inequitable power relations and social hierarchies. Later work has challenged
the centrality of class structures in determining taste, arguing that consumption can