Page 140 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Sport in Advertising • 129

‘can I drive now?’, in an echo of children irritatingly enquiring ‘are we there yet?’
throughout a car journey.
Reece was always shown behind the wheel, despite the other characters moving
between the front and back seats. Gavin had moved to the back of the car for the

second of two sequences involving hitchhiking backpackers. In the first, unable to
tell the sex of the hitchhiker from behind, the car was shown slowing to offer a lift to
a backpacker, only to drive on when he turned out to be male. The second hitchhik-
ing sequence showed Gavin eagerly opening the car door for a female backpacker,
saying, ‘I can budge up’ and making a stereotypic assumption about her nationality
(using Australian slang for a female): ‘Good day, Sheila’.

Getting the Joke: Stepping into Meaning

The differences between the characters in the advertisements are presented to the
viewer without any other comment than laughter or derision targeted at Gavin, en-
abling viewers to similarly distance themselves from his character. As a result, the
world appears as depicted, rather than as an interpretation of reality. The fragmented
and contradictory national identity of British sport viewers is represented by the dif-
ferent national characters in the small space of the car. The viewer is asked to supply
the absent meaning that Gavin’s behaviour is embarrassing, but familiar and well
meaning, to get the joke running throughout the sequences. As a result, the viewer

provides a mirror to reflect back a unified national identity, sealing the fi ssures be-

tween the different nations. This idealised view of the nation/nations of Britain was
constructed as a cosy community of heterosexual men. In one sequence, all four were
heard singing Kenny Rogers’s ‘The Gambler’, adopted as an unofficial anthem by

the English rugby team during the World Cup, indicating that the Britishness that the
viewer is asked to reflect back is one that incorporates the other nations within an ex-

panded notion of Englishness. Other contradictions within the sequence focused on
sexuality. The potential of homosexual desire in men watching other men play sport
was made into a joke to diffuse that tension. In getting the joke, the viewer was re-
quired to supply the ‘obviousness’ that rugby fans are not homosexual. To underline
the message, the characters were depicted as heterosexual predators, only picking
up female hitchhikers. Gavin’s naivety and childlishness was deployed to undermine
any negative readings of the situation.
The sequence of advertisements translated the meaning system of heterosexual
masculinity and national identity onto an object: ‘the new Peugeot 308’. By inter-
spersing the broadcast of the sequences throughout the rugby, the narrative became
interwoven into the sport spectacle. The gaps between the sequences, which were
shown as if they were moments of an unfurling story, were completed by the viewer
supplying the missing reference to the drama of the World Cup competition moving
from stadium to stadium throughout France. As a result, the advertisement organised
an exchange of meaning between the people and the car through an absent reference