Women “in motion”: the kinaesthetic viewing experience in Chinese viral advertising films

ABSTRACT

Visual imagery provides aesthetic experiences for viewers, and viral advertising films address viewers’ experience of movement which has not been analysed. Developing visual analyses, this study uses phenomenological approaches and the concept of kinaesthetic empathy, defined as the ability of viewers to react to movements, also in film. It considers Chinese Wei movies (“microfilms” or viral advertising films) with reference to examples by Audi and Swarovski as representatives of China's post-socialist marketing culture. Women in these films are presented as “in motion,” yet still are often delimited by traditional gender stereotypes. These films are potentially ambivalent ideological carriers that encourage women to reinvent themselves through consumption within traditional gender roles but may also suggest the pursuit of different experiences as movement is abstract, transitory and cannot be commodified.

KEYWORDS:

• Film Studies
• Phenomenology
• Visual culture
• Feminism
• Advertising

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mengyin Li, Hiu K. Chan, Ana-Mariya Chankova, Bogdana Storozuk, and Jing Zhao for support in data gathering and discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Brigitte Biehl (Biehl-Missal) is a Professor at SRH Hochschule der populären Künste hdpk in Berlin, Director of Studies of the B.A. Creative Industries Management, and Director of hdpk’s Institute for Professional Development. She has published extensively on aesthetic dimensions of marketing and consumption, and interdisciplinary and critical approaches to marketing and management, drawing on film, dance and theatre.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The University of Essex, Essex Business School [UROP Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme].