The utilization of commercial media to engage and positively impact communities

Abstract

Historically, corporations have targeted homogenous consumer groups through mainstream and social media. However, due to the radically shifting global marketplace and consumer demographics, corporations are developing heterogeneous visual narratives that fluidly cross cultural boundaries, engage the growing socially-minded consumer groups, and positively impact communities. Across organizational settings (e.g. for profit, non-for profit, and academia), these narratives are being disseminated to culturally diverse audiences to promote social change on a local, national, and/or international level. In this paper, the authors examine commercial imagery that creates compelling visual and written narratives to engender social and cultural change. Select campaigns developed by large corporations (e.g. Levis, Nike, Apple, and Dove) are presented to better understand cultural contexts, local/global consumer environments, and social impact. The authors then consider the function of these concepts as tools students may use to create successful visual narratives, and as illustrations of the challenges that may exist in a culturally diverse academic setting. Unique classroom settings are contextualized through four presentations on the topic, each in a culturally diverse setting. These settings include The United Nations Education First (UN/EF) Summer School; The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia; The Kaliningrad State Gallery, Russia; and Parsons School of Design, New York. The students’ diverse perspectives provide insight into how visual and cultural language function in a commercial and educational context on a local, national, and international basis.