Brand Antarctica: How Global Consumer Culture Shapes Our Perceptions of the Ice Continent

The continent of Antarctica was imagined before it was ever seen, notes Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen in Brand Antarctica, and it has loomed large in the cultural imaginary from the time of Shackleton on. While expedition sponsors and early advertisers were not the first to treat Antarctica as a cultural signifier more so than a continent with specific material conditions, the era of exploration kickstarted the ascendancy of Antarctica the brand and the eclipsing of Antarctica the continent. Brand Antarctica underscores this transition from the outset by asking, “What does Antarctica mean to you?”—the answer to which may have little or no basis in the material condition of the continent (xi). While chilly locales seem particularly open to this treatment (Alaska, the polar North, and the mountaintops of Everest and Kilimanjaro), Nielsen’s book makes the case for Antarctica as uniquely suited to projections of meaning. Brand Antarctica defines “Antarctic” advertisements as those with visual or textual markers that signify Antarctica, even though these markers are not always rooted in physical reality. For example, the book notes that penguins and ice are key images used in Antarctic-themed advertising, whether or not the penguins depicted are native to Antarctica, Africa, or South America, or whether the icy landscape is Arctic or Icelandic.Having situated the subject of the book squarely in the realm of the conceptual rather than the material, the book organizes the Antarctic advertising imagery into five conceptual framings or tropes: “heroism, extremity, purity, fragility, and transformation” (4). In describing the trope of Antarctic heroism, the first chapter sketches out the history of Heroic Era Antarctic exploration between 1897 and 1922, and explores the commercial nature of the expeditions, their stories, and the advertising and product placement that capitalized on them. It deftly analyzes a 1914 Shackleton celebrity endorsement of the concentrated beef drink Bovril, moving from a visual analysis of the map-illustrated advertisement, to the etymology of the brand name and its connotations of strength and virility, and finally to an analysis of the trope of the hero in extreme conditions who is sustained by consumer products familiar to those at home.The chapter on heroic Antarctica lays the groundwork for many of the tropes discussed in subsequent chapters: the race to the pole by heroic men; the icy environment at once harsh and fragile; and the qualities of strength, courage, and adventurousness that the continent symbolizes for many. A subsequent chapter shows how the idea of Antarctic heroism shifts with the times to remain salient in a more contemporary marketplace, with military veterans, women, and people of color following in the footsteps of Heroic-Era explorers. The chapter also details how descendants of those explorers have sought to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors either by launching Antarctic expeditions of their own, or by joining a tour company’s commercial trip as celebrity guests. These “in the footsteps of” journeys are analyzed as opportunities for advertisers to capitalize on renewed associations of their products with a burnished and reinvigorated heroic Antarctic mystique.The extreme weather conditions that made heroes of Antarctic explorers are also used to show consumer products performing heroically under adverse conditions. The chapter on cold weather branding examines advertisements for cars, watches, and clothing that are said to function reliably in Antarctica’s cold, windy, and remote environment. Antarctica’s importance to changing ideas of masculinity is invoked in this chapter as well. It points out that World War II soldiers were deployed to Antarctica after the war to help establish infrastructure for scientific research, and posits that the extremity of the continent replaced that of the battlefield as a site of masculine identify formation, as reflected in and reinforced by Antarctic advertisements for liquor and machinery.In subsequent chapters, the materiality of Antarctica continues to take a back seat to the abstract meanings advertisers attach to the continent. The chapters on Antarctica’s ostensible purity and fragility are replete with incisive readings of advertisements for cleaning products, liquor, and clothing. Brand Antarctica makes it clear that the purity and fragility framings are created and deployed by advertisers to make money or wield influence; what is less clear is whether the material conditions of Antarctica could also be considered fragile or pure in an empirical or scientific discourse, and, if so, what the implications of that might be.Chapter 4, “Purifying Antarctica,” reiterates the point famously made by Bill McKibben in The End of Nature (1989): that humans have altered the Earth’s atmosphere and environment to the point where it is impossible to find a place on Earth that is apart from and unaffected by human behavior. However, whereas McKibben’s work calls for ameliorating human-caused environmental damage, chapter 4 suggests that scientists’ attempts to avoid contaminating subglacial lakes with drills are driven not by stewardship or science, but by rhetorical notions of contamination and purity. In this way, the five framings used in Antarctic advertising seem at times to eclipse concerns or concepts from other discourses, although Brand Antarctica asserts that the framings are, in fact, relevant to the material condition of the continent itself. This apparent tension could be a rich area for future analysis.As a culmination of themes explored throughout the book, the chapter “Destination Antarctica” examines the ways in which Antarctic tourism is marketed as both a catalyst for personal transformation and as a form of adventurous recreation. The tropes of Antarctic heroism, fragility, and purity are shown to be strongly at work in advertisements seeking to lure tourists to the continent. Some advertisements count on the enduring appeal of the Heroic Era, with tours that include visits to the sites of Scott’s and Shackleton’s huts. Some “last chance” advertisements urge environmentally aware tourists to visit before the fragile continent irrevocably succumbs to climate change. Still others blend multiple framings, marketing “expeditions” instead of “cruises” to would-be adventurers, and then airbrushing the exhaust out of images of the ship in Antarctic waters.“Destination Antarctica” also effectively discusses the forces of power and profit at work beneath Brand Antarctica. It points out that the tourism trade association known as the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) asks its members to refrain from using “last chance” language in its advertising, since the organization maintains that Antarctic tourism can be conducted sustainably into the future. In fact, the chapter shows IAATO to have real influence over the material condition of the continent, and its advocacy for tour operators is portrayed as more powerful and nimble than the official consensus-based decision-making of the Antarctic Treaty System. In fact, IAATO is shown to have been so successful at advancing its own brand that it, rather than the Antarctic Treaty System, is often associated with the regulation of Antarctic tourism.Nielsen’s book is a lively and insightful contribution to the literature of wilderness and polar landscapes, with astute and engaging analyses of advertisements and their cultural contexts. It also, at times, seems equivocal about the material fate of the continent at its heart. This may be strategic: Brand Antarctica acknowledges that conceptual framings can have real material impacts (xi), and notes that it does not seek to “make value judgements about what constitutes ‘good’ or ‘bad’ use of Antarctica and Antarctica imagery” (21). This judgement-free approach may contribute to the expansive feel of the book and its wide range of analyzed materials. In an era of ecological catastrophe, the stakes of representations and conceptual framings are high, and Brand Antarctica contributes to the important work of humanities scholarship about Antarctica, polar regions, and wilderness more generally.