Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans - and a Lot to Teach Us About Culture in Advertising
 

We’ve prepared something truly special for our Ad Black Sea community. Together with UN Women Georgia, we’re continuing our mission to explore and challenge gender bias in marketing communication - this time, through a deeper look at how advertising shapes culture itself. Join Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel, acclaimed cultural theorist and author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers, for an exclusive talk: Narrative Power: Advertising as a Cultural System

American Eagle's campaign with Sydney Sweeney broke the internet this summer, revealing a split in the marketing community: some criticized the campaign as harmful, while others dismissed the backlash, pointing to engagement as proof of its success. This brings up a question that’s become increasingly urgent for brands in recent years: what role do brands play in culture, and how do marketers navigate tensions within it? During this webinar, Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel shows how advertising works not just as a tool to sell products, but as a cultural system that shapes everyday meaning in society. Drawing on advertising and media studies, this talk explores the power advertising has to construct and shape narratives about identity, aspiration, and human value. Using both contemporary and historical examples, Dr. Gabriel will invite us to reflect on how advertising functions as a system of “narrative power”- and what that means for the future of creativity in practice.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel is a cultural theorist, researcher, and critic whose work examines how hidden narratives and social norms shape society. Dr. Gabriel is the author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers (2024), an award-winning book on cultural strategy and innovation in business. Formerly a senior researcher at Reddit, Dr. Gabriel has advised some of the world's top brands, including Nike, Disney, Samsung, Diageo, and American Express, on shifts in consumer behavior and emerging cultural trends. Her cultural commentary has appeared in The Guardian, Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, and Teen Vogue, and has been featured by preeminent marketing organizations, including the World Advertising Research Center (WARC), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the American Marketing Association (AMA). A disruptive thinker at heart, she has spoken about the power of culture to global audiences from the stages at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and Advertising Week New York. Prior to her work in the commercial sector, Dr. Gabriel spent a decade in academia, earning a B.A. and a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from Duke University.

Register now for this online event to secure your place and be part of the conversation shaping the future of cultural creativity. 

November 20 | 20:00 (GMT+4)