The Meanings of Images Across Cultures

In this paper we present our videodisc project (a videodisc of multinational print advertisements) asking the question, "Who will be the audience?" In order to answer it we engage in a comparative analysis of the construction of the readerlconsumer (audience) in French and American advertisements. Our first comparison takes into consideration the imaging of men and women in perfume and cosmetic ads. Next, we look at Americans and French looking at each other across the ocean: stereotyping constructions by the foreign 'other' help us to destabilize our most cherished notions of ourselves and at the same time allow us to open ourselves to new ways of being in the world.