Negotiating subcultural authenticity through interpretation of mainstream advertising

Ilona Mikkonen

This paper explores how subcultural authenticity is constructed and negotiated as members of a subculture interpret mainstream advertising images.

Negotiating subcultural authenticity through interpretation of mainstream advertising

Ilona Mikkonen

Helsinki School of Economics

Introduction

American marketers became interested in gay and lesbian consumer segments in the late 1990s. Several marketing studies have revealed that, at least statistically speaking, homosexuals form a potentially very lucrative market segment. Previously invisible in the commercial sense, the homosexual community was soon labelled a dream market (Kates 1999); better educated, higher than average incomes and (often) no children, and also willing to spend their substantial disposable incomes on personal luxuries such as shopping, cosmetics, dining out and travel (Sender 2002).

Yet, homosexual audiences’ interpretations...

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