Ricky G. Basilio

The power of the internet to spread information at lightning speed is immensely remarkable. For educational and political to commercial purposes nowadays, the internet is at play. For instance, product advertisements are no longer just seen on television, billboards, and magazines as they were, traditionally. The digital power that dominates the world today makes it easier and faster for advertisers to reach their target audience.

One of the leading trends among advertisers nowadays is the use of memes, particularly Facebook memes, to reach their target market. Essentially, advertisers use memes to alter the brand perception of their target customers by using and targeting different emotions whether to laugh, cry, or any other reaction (Vasile, 2021). Hence, building engagement between the brand and the audience is crucial to the brand’s sustainability and longevity in today’s fast-changing and extremely competitive business world (Mckay et al., 2014).

However, although most memes are funny with their satirical and humorous design, they could be used as tools for oppression. Some memes could promote stereotypical ideology for women reinforcing the archaic notion about women who are expected to act the way they are expected to by society (Etee, 2020). According to Kulkarni (2017), people may find relief in humor but if it helps propagate false concepts it becomes a tool for oppression.

Needless to say, the role of advertisers in making or changing people’s cognitive perceptions about gender is crucial. It is for this reason that advertising tools such as Facebook memes be studied to determine whether or not they contribute to promoting gender equality.

This paper contains a multimodal critical discourse analysis of the portrayal of women in selected Facebook memes of White Castle, a whisky brand in the Philippines. The study focused on women's representation in alcoholic drinks memes with the presupposition that contemporary Facebook memes of White Castle reinforce sexism.

Review of Related Studies

What You Need to Know About Memes in Advertising

The term meme is defined by Oxford Dictionary as an idea that is passed from one member of society to another, not in the genes but often by people copying it. Richard Dawkins, in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene”, introduced the meme concept. In its contemporary and simple meaning, memes could be images, short videos, or a piece of text copied and made trending or viral, often with slight variation, by internet users typically for humor or fun (Etee, 2020).

Many marketers use memes as effective tools to promote their products. Generally, memes have helped draw consumers’ attention and product promotion (Bury, 2016). According to Levinson (2001), as cited by Bury (2016), memes bring the following advantages to an advertising campaign: a meme is a basic unit of communication; it can motivate people to buy the product, and it is simple and easily understandable without language.

Women Portrayal in Facebook Memes

Social media platforms such as Facebook have been a rich field for the investigation of gender representation. In fact, several studies had been done on women's portrayal in Facebook memes. For instance, Shahid et al. (2021) in their study entitled “Exploring Women Representation in Meme Discourse: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Memes from Pakistani Facebook Pages” found out that women have negative representation in the selected Facebook memes both linguistically and visually – hence – concluding that social media perpetuate stereotyping of women and patriarchy. Women stereotypes depicted by the same study are the following: talkative, irrational, troublesome, selfish, housewives, and an object of entertainment and satisfaction.

Meme-related research in Malaysia by Ze (2021) on “Reinforcing or Resisting? A Study on the Influence of Internet Memes on Sexism Among University Students in Penang” concludes internet memes reinforced sexism and that critical digital literacy knowledge helps discuss and combat sexism constructed in the internet memes. The same paper posits that sexism indeed continues to exist in the new media, in particular, through internet memes where fun and humor overshadow the sensitive and offensive message embedded in them.

Saddiqi et al. (2018) in their content analysis of internet memes for threads of sexism in new age humor found clear evidence of internet memes promoting and encouraging casual sexism despite it appearing less harmful, derogatory, or offensive. Moreover, Saddiqi et al. (2018) concluded that the rapid creation and distribution of such memes virtually open access to a massive audience that can eventually result in stimulating sexist attitudes.

A study on a similar subject in Indonesia by Siregar et al. (2018) examined internet memes for stereotyped language about women. The result of the study found women were stereotyped in the following categories: personality traits (temperamental during PMS, slow or less credible about time, and aggressive; women’s physical appearance, women’s domestics behavior, women’s occupations, and women’s driving attitude.

Methodology: How Were the Memes Analyzed?

The examination of the selected memes in this study is through the application of multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA). Multimodal critical discourse analysis has been the most appropriate approach to media text analysis such as print ads and memes. This approach emerged through the efforts of Kress van Leeuwen, Bob Hodge, Kay O’Halloran, Michael Baldry, and Paul J. Thibault who looked into how the combination of language, image, and other modes of communication make meaning (Atalay, 2015).

Multimodal discourse has become inevitably important as people rely on the production and consumption of information through the internet. As this study used memes as the subject of analysis, it examined the language and image modes of the sample texts to decode women's representation that is rather overshadowed by humor and fun.

How Were the Data Chosen?

With this exploratory study on the representation of women in alcoholic drink memes, the researcher chose one brand of local whisky in the Philippines. Given the limitation of time for this project, only three latest Facebook memes from a single brand were selected for analysis.

The researcher chose White Castle Whisky Facebook memes for this study. White Castle Whisky has been known for its calendar issues with sexy female models in bikinis standing beside a white horse (PhilStarLife, 2020). Recently, the same brand has been making headlines for its unorthodox calendar issues using a male model in 2021 and an open queer social media personality in 2022.

The sample memes analyzed were retrieved from the official Facebook page of White Castle Whisky. It is worth noting that the analysis focused on language and image in the memes only and it did not include captions and comments about the memes.

White Castle Whisky Memes: The Analysis

Women Are Too Emotional

Figure 1.

The meme in figure 1 shows two (2) images. One image is showing a man standing at a beach with his arms wide open as he looks up in a freedom pose. On the other side, there is an image of a crying woman while being hugged by another woman with someone offering a bottle of White Castle Whisky. On top of the two images is the word “MALAYA.” or “FREE.”. Moreover, there is a red “X” symbol on the man’s image and a green “P” symbol on the woman’s image.

The meme depicts a scenario of a relationship breakup wherein the woman is presented to be too emotional or heartbroken. On the other hand, the breakup seems to be a relief for the man with him showing a gesture of liberty. The presence of the “X” and “P” symbols in the meme projects what the advertiser is presenting to be okay and not okay in the relationship breakup between a man and a woman. Despite the meme’s projection in favor of women’s reaction after the breakup with the use of the symbol “P”, it still reflects how emotionally fragile women are particularly in terms of their relationship with men. While men consider a breakup as freedom, women are left in extreme emotional devastation.

Women are Vulnerable and Excluded

Figure 2.

The second meme in Figure 2 with the text “PAANO ANG TAMANG PAG-INOM NG ALAK?” (HOW DO YOU DRINK WHISKY?” shows the image of four (4) men and three (3) women in a drinking session. At the front is the man raising his ring finger while pouring the White Castle Whisky into a glass. At the back is seen each of the three other men hugging or kissing a woman. In this meme, red “X” symbols are on those three men and women at the back, and the green “P” symbol is on the front man. Lastly, at the bottom are shows the hashtags “#WHITECATLELIGHT & #DAPATLIGHTLANG!”.

Although the direct or literal message of this meme is for men to be sensitive enough not to bring their girlfriends in a drinking session with a single friend, some connotations about women can be drawn from the image. For instance, the putting of the “X” on the image where men are hugging and kissing women in a drinking session is an exclusion of women from an activity that is perceived to be masculine.

Most notably, the image presents women as vulnerable in a setting that is seemed dominated by men. This interpretation is strengthened by the text in the meme “PAANO AND PAG-INOM NG ALAK?”(HOW DO YOU DRINK WHISKY?). If you analyze all the elements, it can be answered with “Drink whisky without women”. However, there is no categorically strong element in the meme that solidly supports whether drinking whisky without women excludes them or keeps them safe.

Women are Objectified

Figure 3.

The meme in figure 3 shows two (2) images. At the top of the meme is seen the text “Asking for???”. On the left side is the image of the famous American pop singer Ariana Grande with the number 34+35 and her name below it. The image on the right side shows a man and woman who looks like they are having a conversation with the man holding a bottle of White Castle Whiskey while staring at the partly exposed boobs of the woman. There is a red “X” symbol below the image of Ariana Grande and a green “P” below the image of the man and the woman. At the bottom left side is the brand logo of White Castle with the number “69” below it. Finally, the hashtag “#WhiteCastleLangMalakas can be seen at the bottom right-hand corner of the meme.

Every element in this meme contributes to a clear objectification of women. The most obvious is the man staring at a woman's chest exposed by her wearing a sando. The image of Ariana Grande and her surname which in the Italian language means LARGE supplements the meme highlighting the voluptuous woman whom the man was staring at. Even the numbers “34+35” and “69” (69 is a sexual intercourse position) all sexualized the entire meme with the text “Asking for???”.

The Bottom Line

This study aimed to examine women's representation in selected contemporary alcoholic drink Facebook memes. Based on the analysis using multimodal critical discourse analysis the following are the conclusions on women's representation in White Castle Whiskey advertising Facebook memes:

1. Women are too emotional.

2. Women are vulnerable and excluded.

3. Women are objectified.

The result of this analysis agrees with the results of the studies conducted by Shahid et al. (2021), Ze (2021), Saddiqi et al. (2018), and Siregar et al. (2018) proving that women are still being stereotyped in contemporary media specifically in Facebook memes.

The time limitation of this study prevented it from covering a larger scope of data to analyze. Hence, it is highly recommended that future studies cover wider coverage including other contemporary alcoholic advertising tools like television advertisements. Moreover, a study of gender representation in different brands advertising tools for comparison or an analysis of the development of gender representation in alcoholic advertisements through the years is encouraged.

Bibliography:

Atalay, G.E. (2015). Use of multimodal critical discourse analysis in media studies. The Online Journal of Communication and Media. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327885258_USE_OF_MULTIMODAL_CRITICAL_DISCOUSE_ANALYSIS_IN_MEDIA_STUDIES

Etee, N.J. (2020). The portrayal of women in facebook memes. Global Journal of Human-Social Science. DOI: 10.34257/GJHSSCVOL20IS7PG19

Kulkarni, A. (2017). Internet meme and political discourse: A study on the impact of internet meme as a tool in communicating political satire. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3501366

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Saddiqi, N. (2018). Analysing threads of sexism in new age humour: a content analysis of internet memes. Indian Journal of Social Research. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327137322_ANALYSING_THREADS_OF_SEXISM_IN_NEW_AGE_HUMOUR_A_CONTENT_ANALYSIS_OF_INTERNET_MEMES.

Shahid et al. (2021). Exploring women representation in meme discourse: a multimodal critical discourse analysis of selected memes from Pakistani Facebook pages. Journal of Development and Social Sciences.DOI: http://doi.org/10.47205/jdss.2021(2-IV)77

Siregar, A.L.(2018). Stereotyped language about women

on internet memes of meme comic Indonesia. Jurnal Linguistik Terapan Pascasarjana. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24114/lt.v15i2.12350

Vasile, S., Mototo, L., & Chuchu, T. (2021). Using “memes” as a marketing communication tool in connecting with consumers within the age of digital connectivity. International Review of Management and Marketing, 11(3), 30–35. Retrieved from https://econjournals.com/index.php/irmm/article/view/11313

White Castle Whisky reveals their 2021 calendar... boy. (2020). The Philippin Star. https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-make-a-check-mark-on-keyboard-4768091

Ze, T.K. (2021). Reinforcing or resisting? a study on the influence of internet memes on sexism among university students in Penang. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Media and Communication. Retrieved from https://ejournal.usm.my/jcimc/article/view/151/124

Women in Alcoholic Drink Advertising Memes