On the use of narrative discourse in advertising:: hibridity, textual voices and gender identities

This article deals with the use of narrative discourse in advertising and its effects on the ideological construction of gender identities. Specifically, it examines hybrid advertisements that contain first and third person narratives with the aim of pursuing a twofold objective. First, it seeks to investigate the structural organisation of these narratives and its contribution to the overall purpose of the advert. Second, it explores the issues of textual voices and reader positioning by analysing how the narrator and the advertising firm/charity organisation address readers. The results reveal differences regarding the structure of first and third person narratives, the latter showing a tendency to present the commodity as the solution to a problem or to an unexpected situation. In addition, the narrative voice appears to serve both a persuasive and an ideological function inasmuch as it invites readers to enter the narrator's fictional world and represents gender identities.