y features
FIGURE 4.
ad rm//y features?a worker in an Indonesian shoe factory who is running
(barefoot, without the Nikes she makes but cannot buy) to escape the harsh
working conditions she must endure to earn a fraction of the price the
shoes actually sell for, to consumers much like the one viewing the ad. In
this moment, the viewer feels off-balance because the expectations for and
the reality of the ad are at such odds. This realization produces
a variety of
emotions in the viewer?outrage at the unfair labor practices and guilt
over
buying (perhaps, even at that moment wearing) Nike products?and hope
fully shocks the reader into viewing the Nike company in a different light, and to changing his or her consumption practices with regard to Nike.
Reverend Billy, too, engages emotions in his work. He says that when he
is preaching:
It feels GREAT! … I feel SO GOOD preaching in a Disney store! … It is time to be
rude. It is time to be embarrassed. If you really do something that just makes you SHAKE with the feeling of being inappropriate, you’ve probably found a strut, a
structure of their culture that was supposed to be there. (Reverend Billy, as inter
viewed in Sharpe, 2001)
This emotional energy is also felt among some audience members who
witness Reverend Billy’s performances, as evidenced by data
we gathered
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