Control, Knowledge, and Persuasive Power in Advertising Creativity: An Ethnographic Practice Theory Approach

Abstract

This paper reports findings from an extended multi-method ethnographic study into the social practices of advertising creativity. The study was conducted in a major Iranian creative advertising agency that has many international clients and earns annual billings equivalent to more than $US100 million. Findings focus on three sets of overlapping aggregated social practices labelled Control Power, Knowledge Power and Persuasive Power that serve to work around tensions over creative output in order to accomplish the dual goals of creating good, effective work and persuading the client to buy in to the creative strategy. We conclude with implications for future practice and research.

‘They Wouldn’t Mind Pushing People Off the Bus’: Exploring Power in Practice Theory through the Work of Simultaneous Interpreters

“…He argues that ‘power relations and their consequences only exist through connections between moments of the performance of practices’ so its reality is ‘effected, and made manifest, in moments of human action and doing’ (Watson, 2017: 171–173). Through studying conflict in creative advertising, Ghaffari et al (2019) similarly theorise power as the result of dynamic interaction in practice, while Janssens and Steyaert (2019), following Watson, use the case of career mentoring to show that power is tied to reproductive work.…”

“…Scholars investigating social phenomena as practices, often explain power through the performativity of everyday life (Bourdieu, 1977; Butler, 1993; de Certeau, 1984; Foucault, 1979). Based on this, contemporary practice theorists frame power as an effect manifested in human action (Ghaffari et al, 2019; Janssens and Steyaert, 2019; Watson, 2017). Full consideration, however, is not given to the wider configurations which form practices (meanings, competencies, and materialities governing social order and performance) and which affect relations of power (Mahon et al, 2017; Müller-Mahn et al, 2018; Pantzar and Shove, 2010; Schatzki, 2015).…”

Las competencias imprescindibles en la actualidad de la creatividad publicitaria

“…Por otro lado, las dinámicas de equipo en el trabajo creativo publicitario son esenciales (Ghaffari, Hackley, & Lee, 2019). Actualmente, los perfiles creativos de las agencias publicitarias deben buscar nuevos caminos en un nuevo entorno mediático (Mahon, 2010) y el big data (Llorente-Barroso, 2020).…”