ABSTRACT
For a large cadre of critical theorists, an advertisement is a significant mode of ideological indoctrination serving the interests of the capitalist marketplace. In the consumer research literature, reader-response analysis has largely been discussed and implemented as a research method in which consumers are first ask to interpret selected advertisements. This chapter analyses the mytho-ideologies encoded in a set of natural health advertisements, with an emphasis on the sociocultural tensions and myths most relevant to this interpretative community of consumers. It explicates the cultural models women in the 30-50 age group use to understand their bodies, illnesses, and relationships to conventional and alternative medicine. The chapter also shows how the interpretative movement between interpretative community narratives and advertisements offers an additional emergent benefit: highlighting (through another iterative round of analysis) paradoxes and ideological meanings implicit in the consumer viewpoints.
