Gender and Patriarchy in Shakespearean Ads for Cars

Ads for cars are often mentioned in studies on the representation of gender and patriarchy in advertising. Likewise, the fairly recent research on women and automotive culture specifically lingers on ads. Yet, in the field of Shakespearean studies, investigations into the use of Shakespeare in advertising, by now well established, include only scattered insights into the representation of women. This chapter puts the above-mentioned fields of inquiry in conversation, analysing Shakespeare-inspired adverts for automotive brands from a feminist perspective and showing how the playwright and his works are used as powerful meaning clusters in the negotiation of gender roles within car culture. Important gender issues are conveyed through, and simultaneously in contrast with, the playwright’s and his characters’ iconicity, in modes that Douglas Lanier has effectively called “appropriative” and “juxtapositional” (2007, 98).