Professor of Advertising | Critical Media and Cultural Studies
Istanbul, Turkey
Alparslan Nas is Professor of Advertising at Marmara University's Faculty of Communication. He holds BA and MA degrees in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University and a PhD in Advertising from Marmara University. His research interests include critical advertising studies, gender and media, cultural studies, media sociology, and brand activism. His work examines how advertising and popular media reproduce — and sometimes contest — relations of gender, class, ideology, and power. Through CultPost, he adapts critical theory for broader audiences.
A Turkish-language podcast exploring media, popular culture, and everyday life through critical theory. Selected episodes are adapted into English-language essays.
Orientalism, imaginative geographies, and reading beyond the visible
Love and curatorial power across Pamuk's novel, museum, and series
Reproductive biopolitics and the fragility of rights
Why class inequality stays invisible in advertising
Stuart Hall, articulation, and the possibility of alternative meanings
Palgrave Macmillan — a monograph on the media construction of cultural otherness in Turkey.
View publication ↗"Brand Activism: A Critical Perspective" — a critical look at brands' engagement with social activism. (In Turkish.)
View publication ↗"Nation Branding: Theory and Practice with Examples from Around the World" — an applied study of nation branding theory illustrated with global examples. (In Turkish.)
View publication ↗"Advertising Management" — a co-authored volume covering the discipline of advertising for the Turkish academic literature. (In Turkish.)
View publication ↗International Journal of Communication — how fatherhood is represented in contemporary Turkish advertising.
View publication ↗Feminist Media Studies — a Turkish women's digital campaign against the gendered organization of mosque space.
View publication ↗Springer (Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South) — an autoethnographic approach to a critical journalism assignment in Turkey.
View publication ↗European Journal of Cultural Studies — with Ali Murat Yel, on visual culture and Islamophobia in Turkey.
View publication ↗Connectist — sustainability and the formation of nation brand identity across Europe.
View publication ↗Fe Journal — digital activism and the transforming cultural meaning of veiling in Turkey.
View publication ↗Sakarya İletişim — with Duygu Çubuk, on packaging design as a field of cultural intermediation.
View publication ↗Research on how Valentine's Day advertising in Turkey stages carnivalesque resistance while containing it.
Read PDF ↗Sociální studia / Social Studies — audience responses to Axe Turkey's hegemonic-masculinity campaign.
View publication ↗How audiences articulated diversity and decoded polarization in response to a Coca-Cola nation-themed campaign.
Read PDF ↗Bilig — the textual and visual construction of national identity in Turkey's nation branding campaign.
View publication ↗Idealkent Journal of Urban Studies — green marketing of Istanbul's gated community projects.
Read PDF ↗Fe Journal — gender ideology in Turkey's public service advertisements.
Read PDF ↗Galatasaray Journal of Communication — orientalist discourse in Turkish Airlines advertisements.
Read PDF ↗The Journal of International Social Research — a critical analysis of the local adaptation of Procter & Gamble's "Always #LikeAGirl" campaign in Turkey by its Orkid brand.
Read PDF ↗Ilef Journal — feminist critical analysis of advertising as symbolic violence.
Read PDF ↗Insight Turkey — reading the Gezi Park protests as a fragmented, carnivalesque break from Turkey's unified ideological center-periphery politics.
View publication ↗International Journal of Humanities and Social Science — a postcolonial reading of Halide Edib's writings on India and anti-colonial nationalism during her self-imposed exile from Kemalist Turkey.
Read PDF ↗"The Ontology of the Turkey Brand: Discursive Constructions and Global Flows" — an examination of Turkey's discursive construction as a nation brand and its positioning within global flows.
Read PDF ↗"Ecofeminism as a Consumption Narrative in Postfeminist Media Culture: A Thematic Analysis of Advertisements in Turkey" — Ankara University İlef Journal, co-authored with Fatma Şişli.
View publication ↗"In Memory of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yalçın Lüleci" — Turkish Review of Communication Studies, a memorial piece on the Marmara University faculty member and colleague.
View publication ↗"The Analysis of Influencer Marketing Applications in the Context of Post-Truth" — Düşünce ve Toplum Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, co-authored with Seril Çakmak.
View publication ↗"Minorities in Turkish Cinema" — Düşünce ve Toplum Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, co-authored with Yalçın Lüleci.
View publication ↗"The Cultural Representation of Speed in 4.5G Advertisements in Turkey" — Istanbul University Faculty of Communication Journal.
View publication ↗"Men Cry Too, But... Ways of Interpreting the Critique of Hegemonic Masculinity in the Axe Advertisement" — Erciyes Journal of Communication, an analysis of audience responses to Axe's "Men Cry Too" advertisement.
View publication ↗"A Critical Analysis of Cleaning Product Advertisements as an Instrument of Symbolic Violence Against Women" — Akdeniz University Faculty of Communication Journal.
View publication ↗"The Digital Transformation of Storytelling in the Context of Advertising and Brand Communication" — an examination of how storytelling in advertising and brand communication has been transformed in the digital age.
Read PDF ↗"CEO Branding as Personal Brand: A Systematic Literature Review" — a systematic review of the literature on CEO branding.
Read PDF ↗"Digital Narcissism: A Psychoanalytic Discussion in the Context of Advertising and Branding" — a psychoanalytic discussion of digital narcissism in the context of advertising and brands.
Read PDF ↗"The Construction of Youth Identity in Advertisements: The Case of 'Genç Turkcell'" — Selçuk Journal of Communication, a critical analysis of the youth identity constructed in Turkcell's "Genç Turkcell" (Young Turkcell) advertisements.
View publication ↗"Persuasion and Rhetoric in the Context of Advertising" — an examination of persuasion strategies and rhetoric in advertising.
Read PDF ↗16th Conference of the Global Communication Association, Istanbul, Turkey, 15–17 May 2024, pp. 42–43 (Abstract Paper).
Presentation record onlyNovember 2022 — Intersectionality and the female gaze in Yeşim Ustaoğlu's film Tereddüt.
Read PDF ↗October 2022 — A psychoanalytical critique of desire in Coca-Cola advertising.
Read PDF ↗October 2022 — A critical analysis of heterotopia and power in the series Uysallar.
Read PDF ↗"Media and Gender: History, Representation, Reception" International Conference, University of the Republic of San Marino, 10–11 May 2022, San Marino.
Presentation record only"Inclusivity and Diversity as a Nation Branding Strategy: The Nordic Model" — Galatasaray University Strategic Communication Management Conferences (GSÜSTRAT) – V, December 2021. (In Turkish.)
Read PDF ↗5th International Conference on Teaching, Education & Learning (ICTEL), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, May 2018 — a semiotic reconsideration of advertising literacy.
Presentation record onlyNordmedia 2017 Conference, University of Tampere, 17–19 August 2017, Tampere, Finland.
Presentation record onlyMay 2017 — A new perspective on "goodvertising" in the philosophy of advertising.
Read PDF ↗14th International Symposium Communication in the Millennium, Istanbul University, 5 May 2017, Istanbul, Turkey.
Read PDF ↗August 2016 — Subvertising as a critical activist alternative in Turkey.
Read PDF ↗"Constructing" Middle East: Media, Ideology and Culture, Ankara University Faculty of Communication, 22–23 October 2015, Ankara, Turkey.
View publication ↗ADVED15 International Conference on Advances in Education and Social Sciences, 12–14 October 2015, Istanbul, Turkey.
Read PDF ↗American Anthropological Association, 112th Annual Meeting — Chicago, IL, November 22, 2013.
Presentation record only6th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference, Athens University of Economics and Business, 1–3 July 2013, Athens, Greece.
Presentation record only6th Global Conference — Pluralism, Inclusion and Citizenship, Prague, Czech Republic, 2011.
Presentation record onlyCourses I'm teaching during the Fall 2026–27 semester at Marmara University's Faculty of Communication.
Undergraduate
Surveys the foundational theories of communication — structuralism, semiotics, Marxist media theory, feminism, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, and postmodernism — for the critical analysis of contemporary media.
Undergraduate
Introduces first-year students to the foundational concepts of communication, from persuasion and self-perception to the role of gender and culture in everyday interaction.
MA
Dijital görsel kültürün reklamcılık pratiklerini nasıl dönüştürdüğünü, imajın üretim ve dolaşım biçimlerini eleştirel bir bakışla ele alır.
MA
Pazarlama iletişimindeki küresel trendleri ve bunların tüketim alışkanlıkları üzerindeki etkisini, eleştirel iletişim teorileri üzerinden tartışır.
MA
Küreselleşme ve pazarlama iletişiminin kesişiminde ortaya çıkan güncel olgu ve deneyimleri, marka ve reklam uygulamaları üzerinden inceler.
MA
Propaganda, reklam ve tanıtımın araç ve tekniklerini, tarihsel gelişimleri ve güncel uygulamalarıyla eleştirel bir iletişim perspektifinden inceler.
PhD
Reklam olgusuna kıta felsefesi ve eleştirel teori perspektifinden yaklaşarak, reklamın birey ve toplum üzerindeki etkilerini sorgular.
Completed doctoral and master's theses supervised at Marmara University.
A Deleuzian analysis of nomadic consumption within the framework of rhizomatic brands
Güleser Ekşioğlu
View thesis ↗A phenomenological research on packaging design and Bourdieu's concept of cultural intermediaries
Duygu Uslu
View thesis ↗A research on the consumption practices of the new middle class from Pierre Bourdieu's perspective
Asena Temelli Coşgun
View thesis ↗The effect of advertising on city brand image: The case of Istanbul
Selin Naz Kansız
View thesis ↗Cross-cultural analysis of brand mascots: The case of Spain
Özümsu Alagöz
View thesis ↗Examination of ad avoidance on new media
Feyza Sarıtaş
View thesis ↗The analysis of native advertising in context of consumer cynicism
Buse Birdal
View thesis ↗The use of disgust appeal in advertisements: The case of COVID-19 pandemic
Büşra Çiçek
View thesis ↗Modern kafelerde Filistinli gençlere çok amaçlı alternatif bir mekan bulmak: Nablus örneği, Filistin
Rawan Sami Alameya
View thesis ↗Muhafazakar Youtube vloggerlarının mahremiyet algısı
Ayşe Nur Eren
View thesis ↗Hedonic consumption and advertising in the context of individual anarchism: A cross-cultural study
Muhammet Emin Şimşek
View thesis ↗The analysis of influencer marketing applications in the context of post-truth
Seril Çakmak
View thesis ↗The analysis of color of brands in the context of consumer behaviour
Nuray Yüksel
View thesis ↗Digital transformation in advertising with big data and its reflections on consumers
Onur Konya
View thesis ↗The effects of real time advertisements on consumer behaviour: A research on social media
Müzeyyen Günaydın
View thesis ↗Toplumsal cinsiyet çerçeveleri ve glokalizasyon Nijerya ve Türkiye reklamlarının karşılaştırmalı analizi
Anemikaye Goodluck Mattew
View thesis ↗