Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:09:59.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Keep calm, stay safe, and drink bubble tea’: Commodifying the crisis of Covid-19 in Singapore advertising

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Rebecca Lurie Starr Open the ORCID record for Rebecca Lurie Starr [Opens in a new window] ,
Christian Go Open the ORCID record for Christian Go [Opens in a new window]  and
Vincent Pak Open the ORCID record for Vincent Pak [Opens in a new window]
Rebecca Lurie Starr*
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
Christian Go
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
Vincent Pak
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
*
Address for correspondence: Rebecca Lurie Starr Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences National University of Singapore Block AS5, 7 Arts Link Singapore 117570 rstarr@nus.edu.sg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Advertisements employ multimodal configurations of semiotic resources in an effort to lead consumers to draw particular meanings from desired consumption behaviors. This analysis examines the deployment of such resources in advertising during the global Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on the Southeast Asian nation of Singapore. We identify five discourses that offer distinct framings of Covid-19 as a challenge for workers, a wellness issue, a threat to home and family, a challenge for women, and a threat to the Singapore lifestyle. Undergirded by neoliberal notions such as the productivity imperative, these discourses rationalize a range of consumer behaviors as necessary and justified in the struggle to defeat the virus. Advertisements are argued to place the burden of navigating the pandemic primarily on women via the evocation of power femininity. We propose a new framework, crisis commodification, as a means of understanding the ideological mechanisms at play in Covid-19 advertising. (Critical discourse analysis, crisis commodification, semiotic analysis, advertising, public health, Southeast Asia)*

Type
Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 333 - 359
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors thank Michelle Lazar, Andre Theng, Raymund Vitorio, Roey Gafter, and Mie Hiramoto for their comments and support. Portions of this project were presented at the Workshop on Gender and the Covid-19 Pandemic, hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster at the National University of Singapore in November 2020; we thank the attendees for their helpful feedback.

References

Agha, Asif (2011). Commodity registers. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 21:22–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alltucker, Ken (2020). ‘Medication I can't live without’: Lupus patients struggle to get hydroxychloroquine, in demand for COVID-19. USA Today. April 18, 2020. Online: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/04/18/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-creates-shortage-lupus-drug/5129896002/; accessed June 7, 2020.Google Scholar
Amoruso, Sophia (2014). #GIRLBOSS. New York: Penguin Random House.Google Scholar
Banet-Weiser, Sarah (2018). Empowered: Popular feminism and popular misogyny. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Barbee, Harry; Moloney, Mairead Eastin; & Konrad, Thomas R. (2018). Selling slumber: American neoliberalism and the medicalization of sleeplessness. Sociology Compass 12:e12622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Katherine (2011). ‘A delicious way to help save lives’: Race, commodification, and celebrity in product (RED). Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 4:163–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benner, Tom (2020). Singapore closes borders to keep virus at bay, but no shutdown. Al Jazeera. March 22, 2020. Online: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/singapore-closes-borders-virus-bay-shutdown-200322061359901.html; accessed March 24, 2020.Google Scholar
Bouffanais, Roland, & Lim, Sun Sun (2020). Hoarding toilet paper: The mystery of such panic buying explained. The Straits Times. February 14, 2020. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/hoarding-toilet-paper-the-mystery-of-such-panic-buying-explained; accessed May 30, 2020.Google Scholar
Chang, Ai-Lien, & Ng, Charmaine (2020). Coronavirus: All entertainment venues in Singapore to close, gatherings outside work and school limited to 10 people. The Straits Times. March 24, 2020. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/all-entertainment-venues-in-singapore-to-close-gatherings-outside-work-and-school; accessed May 16, 2020.Google Scholar
Cheong, Danson (2020). Coronavirus: Most workplaces to close, schools will move to full home-based learning from next week, says PM Lee. The Straits Times. April 3, 2020. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/most-workplaces-to-close-schools-will-move-to-full-home-based-learning-from-next; accessed May 20, 2020.Google Scholar
Cheow, Sue-Ann (2017). SGSecure sports new tagline, reflecting focus on raising preparedness towards security threats. The Straits Times. September 27, 2017. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/sgsecure-sports-new-tagline-reflecting-focus-on-raising-preparedness-towards-security; accessed June 6, 2020.Google Scholar
Chinese Antique Porcelain (2020). Peranakan Porcelain. Chinese Antique Porcelain. Online: https://www.chinese-antique-porcelain.com/peranakan-porcelain.html; accessed May 30, 2020.Google Scholar
Chua, Beng Huat (2003). Life is not complete without shopping: Consumption culture in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Clammer, John (1997). Framing the other: Criminality, social exclusion, and social engineering in developing Singapore. Social Policy and Administration 13:136–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girlboss (2020). About Girlboss. Girlboss. Online: https://www.girlboss.com/about; accessed May 30, 2020.Google Scholar
Global Wellness Institute (2020). History of wellness. Online: https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/industry-research/history-of-wellness/; accessed June 3, 2020.Google Scholar
Goh, Timothy, & Toh, Ting Wei (2020). Singapore confirms first case of Wuhan virus; second case likely. The Straits Times. January 23, 2020. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/singapore-confirms-first-case-of-wuhan-virus; accessed May 16, 2020.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Hansen, Anders, & Machin, David (2019). Media and communication research methods. 2nd edn. London: Macmillan International Higher Education.Google Scholar
Hatherley, Owen (2016). Keep calm and carry on: The sinister message behind the slogan that seduced the nation. The Guardian. January 8, 2016. Online: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/08/keep-calm-and-carry-on-posters-austerity-ubiquity-sinister-implications; accessed June 5, 2020.Google Scholar
Heller, Dana (2005). Introduction: Consuming 9/11. In Dana Heller (ed.), The selling of 9/11: How a national tragedy became a commodity, 1–26. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, Joan C.; Chee;, Lynette Mun;, Chow & Lee, Charmaine (2011). Shopping, tourism, and retail in Singapore. Managing Leisure 16:36–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiramoto, Mie, & Ling Teo, Cherise Shi (2015). Heteronormative love makes a house a home: Multimodal analysis of luxury housing ads in Singapore. Journal of Language and Sexuality 4:223–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irving, Henry (2014). Keep calm and carry on: The compromise behind the slogan. Online: https://history.blog.gov.uk/2014/06/27/keep-calm-and-carry-on-the-compromise-behind-the-slogan/; accessed June 5, 2020.Google Scholar
Kickbusch, Ilona, & Payne, Lea (2003). Twenty-first century health promotion: The public health revolution meets the wellness revolution. Health Promotion International 18:275–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, Naomi (2005). The rise of disaster capitalism. The Nation. May 2, 2005. Online: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/rise-disaster-capitalism/.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowska, Natalia (2020). The commodification of motherhood: Normalisation of consumerism in mediated discourse on mothering. Social Semiotics 30(4):563–90. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2020.1762986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, Linette (2019). Tommy Koh laments that Singapore is a First World country with Third World citizens. The Straits Times. October 1, 2019. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/tommy-koh-laments-that-singapore-is-a-first-world-country-with-third-world-citizens; accessed June 6, 2020.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George, & Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lazar, Michelle M. (2003). Semiosis, social change and governance: A critical semiotic analysis of a national campaign. Social Semiotics 13:201–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazar, Michelle M. (2006). ‘Discover the power of femininity!’: Analyzing global ‘power femininity’ in local advertising. Feminist Media Studies 6:505–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazar, Michelle M. (2014). Recuperating feminism, reclaiming femininity: Hybrid postfeminist I-dentity in consumer advertisements. Gender and Language 8:205–24.10.1558/genl.v8i2.205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeBesco, Kathleen (2011). Neoliberalism, public health, and the moral perils of fatness. Critical Public Health 21:153–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ledin, Per, & Machin, David (2020). Introduction to multimodal analysis. 2nd edn. New York: Bloomsbury.10.5040/9781350069176CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Chun Wah (2003). A study of Singapore's English channel television commercials and sex-role stereotypes. Asian Journal of Women's Studies 9:78–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Philip (1984). Down in campaign country. The Straits Times. August 9, 1984. Online: https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19840809-1.2.87.5.1; accessed May 23, 2020.Google Scholar
Mah, Nicola S. (2015). The paradoxical discourse of fear in Singapore: NCPC crime-prevention posters. Singapore: National University of Singapore MA thesis.Google Scholar
National Environment Agency (2020). Prevent Aedes mosquito breeding. National Environment Agency. Online: https://www.nea.gov.sg/dengue-zika/prevent-aedes-mosquito-breeding; accessed May 23, 2020.Google Scholar
Ortmann, Stephan (2009). Singapore: The politics of inventing national identity. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 28:23–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pak, Vincent, & Hiramoto, Mie (2020). ‘Itching to make an impact’: Constructing the mobile Singaporean voluntourist in travel narratives. Social Semiotics. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2020.1766263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Joseph Sung-Yul, & Wee, Lionel (2012). Markets of English: Linguistic capital and language policy in a globalizing world. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pilzer, Paul Zane (2002). The wellness revolution. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, & Wodak, Ruth (2001). Discourse and discrimination: Rhetorics of racism and antisemitism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reuters (2020). German baker's ‘toilet roll cakes’ flying off shelves too. New Straits Times. March 27, 2020. Online: https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/03/578566/german-bakers-toilet-roll-cakes-flying-shelves-too; accessed May 16, 2020.Google Scholar
Rubdy, Rani (2003). Creative destruction: Singapore's Speak Good English movement. World Englishes 20:341–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubinstein, Peter (2020). How the wellness industry is taking over travel. BBC. February 5, 2020. Online: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200203-how-the-wellness-industry-is-taking-over-travel; accessed June 3, 2020.Google Scholar
Sandberg, Sheryl (2013). Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Schuller, Mark, & Maldonado, Julie K. (2016). Disaster capitalism. Annals of Anthropological Practice 40(1):61–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semino, Elena; Demjén, Zsófia; & Demmen, Jane (2018). An integrated approach to metaphor and framing in cognition, discourse, and practice, with an application to metaphors for cancer. Applied Linguistics 39(5):625–45.Google Scholar
Sim, Walter (2015). Singaporeans see virtues like compassion in themselves but view society as materialistic. The Straits Times. July 24, 2015. Online: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singaporeans-see-virtues-like-compassion-in-themselves-but-view-society-as-materialistic; accessed May 23, 2020.Google Scholar
Starr, Rebecca Lurie, & Kapoor, Shrutika (2020). ‘Our graduates will have the edge’: Linguistic entrepreneurship and the discourse of Mandarin enrichment centers in Singapore. Multilingua 40(2). Online: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/multi-2020-0033/html.Google Scholar
Teo, Peter (2005). Mandarinising Singapore: A critical analysis of slogans in Singapore's ‘Speak Mandarin’ campaign. Critical Discourse Studies 2:121–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uy, Gustavo Fidel (2019). 6 Singapore social media stats marketers should know. Tech in Asia. Online: https://www.techinasia.com/singapore-social-media-stats; accessed May 23, 2020.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallis, Patrick, & Nerlich, Brigitte (2005). Disease metaphors in new epidemics: The UK media framing of the 2003 SARS epidemic. Social Science & Medicine 60:2629–39.10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.11.031CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed