In this article, I engage to a critical analysis of an advertisement campaign by Orkid, a brand of female hygiene products. Orkid is the Turkey branch of Always brand, who ran a “like a girl” campaign in June 2014. In follows, the campaign was also broadcast in Turkey with the Turkish translation of the hashtag, “kız gibi”, however with striking differences. While the tone of critique of sexism was much evident in Always campaign, it was less in Orkid’s. Such that a group of feminist activists in Turkey criticized Orkid’s advertisement for not challanging sexism enough, while they spoke fondly of the original Always advertisement for countering gendered stereotypes. What I found puzzling in this regard was that despite Always advertisement is postfeminist in certain aspects, it was perceived as a feminist discourse by Turkey’s feminist audiences presumably due to the different degrees of patriarchy experienced in Turkey’s cultural context. My analysis aims to show that there are different ways in which postfeminist discourse is audienced across cultures, which points out the glocalized nature of postfeminism as both global and a local entity. Below, you can find the links of the full article as well as the abstract.

Link for the full article

Reference: Alparslan Nas (2016) “Glocal Limits of Postfeminist Advertising: The Case of Orkid’s #LIKEAGIRL Campaign”. The Journal of International Social Research 9(4): 883-842

Abstract

Postfeminism emerged as a critical interrogation of contemporary feminism, particularly drawing attention to the ways in which feminist motifs are incorporated in consumer ideologies through advertising and popular culture. This article aims to problematize the local articulations of postfeminist representation from the perspective of Turkey’s contemporary advertising landscape. A global brand of women’s hygiene products, Always launched its “#likeagirl” campaign in June 2014. As the Turkey branch of Always, Orkid adapted the campaign and broadcast an advertisement on TV in January 2015. On discursive level, both ads share in common postfeminist sensibility as they sound women’s certain problems by at the same time not providing a radical critique. However, feminists in Turkey observes that Orkid ad is less progressive than the original Always ad, which they celebrate for sounding women’s issues despite its postfeminist character. Analyzing two ads and their feminist articulations, this article problematizes the cultural limits of postfeminism in Turkey’s social landscape to point out the complexities of a glocal postfeminist experience.

Keywords: Advertising, Gender, Glocal, Feminism, Postfeminism.