Eliciting Emotions as Cultural Mediation: Advertising and the Non-rational Space between Culture and the Economy

This paper explores the connections between emotions, culture , economy within the framework of marketing practices, focusing on the case of advertising. In this way, grounded on the discourses of London-based advertising practitioners, this research analyzed the role of emotions in advertising communication in order to comprehend how advertisers organize the elicitation of emotions as a process of cultural mediation. It is argued that the elicitation of emotions in advertising constitutes what Moor specialIntscript denominates a work of 'culturalisation', a process that comprises the continuous interpretation and redefinition of culture through emotionally laden messages. In the case of British advertising, this is observable in the mobilization of consumers through humor and feelings associated with togetherness, which the interviewees identified as the most typical emotional resources to foster loyal relationships between brands and consumers. It is concluded that the advertising process of cultural mediation depends not only on the interpretation of cultural meanings but also on the identification of what Scribano specialIntscript calls social sensibilities, which constitutes an example of how emotions mediate the relationship between culture and economy in the marketing industry.