“Acredite na beleza”: a construção dos sentidos de paternidade em filmes publicitários de O boticário sobre o dia dos pais

Abstract

practices related to fatherhood. Contemporary examples include legal issues such as the recognition of paternity through DNA testing and changes in social perceptions about it, such as the appreciation of paternal presence during childbirth and the extension of paternity leave. These socio-historical and legal transformations that we have observed encourage research on discursive production related to fatherhood. Contemporary changes, such as DNA recognition and the extension of paternity leave, influence representations and practices about paternity, stimulating research into the discourse associated with the subject. Considering this scenario, the thesis approaches advertising as an effective discursive materiality in producing effects on fatherhood and advertising films, through elements such as music, words, slogans and short narratives that construct representations of everyday life, highlighting special moments between dads and sons. There is a symbolic influence of advertising, which goes beyond the sale of products and shapes attitudes, values and aspirations related to fatherhood, often simplifying and idealizing the complexity of this experience. The research questions the meaning effects emanated by advertising films, considering how the media, through campaigns like these, contribute to the construction of the "ideal father". It also addresses the challenges inherent to the commercial appropriation of fatherhood by the capitalist system, given that the commodification of the father figure can distort reality, perpetuating stereotypes and unrealistic expectations, in addition, the pressure to meet these standards can create economic tensions in fathers, encouraging spending on products and services that promise to express paternal love, but which, in reality, are commercial products. In this context, the research examines how commercial films construct discursive representations of fatherhood. In these films, elements such as music, language, slogans and short narratives create images of everyday life that highlight special moments between fathers and their children. In this way, as well as promoting products, advertising exerts a symbolic influence that shapes attitudes, values and aspirations in relation to fatherhood, often simplifying this complex experience; contributes to the construction of an “ideal father”; and produces commodification effects that distort reality, perpetuate stereotypes, create unrealistic expectations and associate affection with consumption. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)Thus, the theme of the present study consists in the presentation and the construction of fatherhood in advertising films from the company O Boticário, broadcast between 2015 and 2019, exploring how the media discursively constructs the father's place in contemporary times. The analysis considers elements such as slogans, images and narratives present in the advertisements, as a significant materiality, from the theoretical-methodological perspective of Pecheutian Discourse Analysis, seeking to understand how language constructs meanings about fatherhood within certain production conditions. In this way, the analytic concepts are based especially on the contributions of Michel Pêcheux, and on the re-elaborations of these concepts by Brazilian researchers, such as Eni Orlandi, considering the intersection between language, subject, ideology, memory and historicity in/of discourses. From this perspective, the analysis seeks to understand how such discourses influence contemporary social relations, especially in the context of historical and ideological transformations. A diversity of representations about fatherhood are analyzed, suggesting that advertising plays a significant role in the construction, maintenance and symbolic reproduction of fatherhood, shaping and being shaped by cultural and social transformations.