How detergent advertisements can bleach national identity: Postcolonial content analysis of Iranian TV advertisements

This explanatory, descriptive non-experimental research investigates Iranian State TV advertisements during 2011-2016 in terms of using western or western-like signs in detergents. Since the method is content analysis based on postcolonial classification scheme, the aim is to examine the myth of western superiority in the most recent detergent advertisements aired during five years on the anti-colonial, state-governed TV in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Edward Said's postcolonial theory is used as the framework to draw upon the ideological aspect of advertisements. It is inferred that the advancement of western economy attracts the attention of most Iranian companies to associate their products with the west. The reason for this assumption is embedded in the postcolonial term popularized by Iranian scholar, Al-I Ahmad, 'Westoxication". The findings illustrate that, despite the dominant anti-capitalist and anti-colonial ideology in Iran, more than two-thirds of the advertisements (74.40%) shows the dominance of western culture by utilizing western-like setting, personages, music, and authentication in all detergent advertisements. It is concluded that though Iranians maintain some of their religious, traditional, and cultural values, the myth of the superiority of west is reflected in their consumption culture. The results of this study can be of interest to the people in authority of advertisement studies in anti-colonial, developing countries with emerging markets.