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Abstract
Aiming to illustrate the populist influences on design mediation, this paper explores the characteristics of a new and legitimate designer profile, persona, or myth recently constructed within the Turkish advertising discourse. To achieve this, three video advertisements that mediate designers and are influenced by the ‘domestic and national’ discourse—a representative of the national populist wave that recently dominated Turkish politics—were analysed. The analysis reveals how designers and their creative labour are portrayed to align with broader political climates, reflecting certain notions of national populism. These new, culturally and politically legitimate designers are portrayed not only as Turkish nationals and patriots but also as the ‘children of these lands’, living, thinking, and feeling like the average and ‘real’ people these political discourses claim to represent. In parallel, the analysis highlights the significant role of populism’s marked opposition towards foreigners and local foreigners while constructing and mediating these designer profiles.
Acknowledgements
This paper is derived from the author’s doctoral dissertation at Istanbul Technical University. The author would like to thank to Gülname Turan for her contributions to an earlier iteration of the paper, together with Doğan Gürpınar, Harun Kaygan, Aren Emre Kurtgözü, and Özge Çelikoğlu, for their valuable feedback throughout the research process.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Political scientist Cas Mudde coined the term ‘the populist zeitgeist’ as early as 2004, revealing that populist discourse is not a normal-pathology alien to mainstream values, but it rather interprets these values and has already become the mainstream (Mudde Citation2004).
2 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister (2003–2014) and President (2014–) of the Turkish Republic.
3 It is important to acknowledge that a significant part of Turkish advertising landscape, particularly in the mid-2010s, has prominently evolved into a platform for expressing loyalty and commitment to the government and the state. This transformation should be linked to the state-business relations that flourished during this period, wherein Turkish capitalism had started to be identified as authoritarian neoliberalism, crony capitalism, or state capitalism (Güven Citation2023).
4 Vestel Türkiye. “Vestel Venus - YARIN.” YouTube video, 1:30. May 16, 2016. https://youtu.be/SuIA52zm3qE.
5 All translations are made by the author from Turkish.
6 Among the four main characters, designer Elif is the only female. In contrast to the male engineers who are depicted in patriarchal roles, engaged in all-men social activities, and embodying attitudes associated with traditional male culture, Elif is portrayed as missing out on a tearjerker movie with her girlfriends. This portrayal serves as both a gendered cliché, and potentially represents the most acceptable night-out activity for a single young woman in the perspective of a conservative outlook.
7 The mentioned first-names include Hasan, Çağdaş, Tarık, Elif, Burak, Can, Merve, Öykü and Umut. This collection forms an inclusive anthology representing the children of these lands, reflecting their common preference among parents from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds.
8 Kelebek Mobilya. “Hangimiz 300 metrekarelik evlerde yaşıyoruz ki?.” YouTube video, 0:43. January 24, 2018. https://youtu.be/Sp0x782gKD8. Kelebek Mobilya. “Hayatınızı Kolaylaştıran Yatak Odaları.” YouTube video, 0:30. February 6, 2018. https://youtu.be/5FjAo0jzRYg. Kelebek Mobilya. “Hayatınızı Kolaylaştıran Mutfaklar.” YouTube video, 0:32. February 6, 2018. https://youtu.be/HJ09APUzsm4.
9 TOGG is an abbreviation for Türkiye’nin Otomobili Girişim Grubu [Turkey’s Automobile Joint Venture Group], which was later maintained as the brand name.
10 Togg (@Togg2022). “Fikri ve sınai mülkiyet hakları yüzde 100 Türkiye’ye ait, küresel bir mobilite markası ortaya çıkarmak hedefiyle başladığımız #YeniLigeYolculuk’ta ilk ve en önemli adım tüketicilerin istek ve beklentileri doğrultusunda atıldı.” Twitter, January 10, 2020. https://twitter.com/Togg2022/status/1215703976873807877.
11 For decades, the aspiration or dream of a Turkish car has been a recurring theme in both political and public discourses, embodying a nationalist utopia.
12 “Turkey Publicizes Prototype of First Indigenous Car.” Anadolu Ajansı, December 27, 2019. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/turkey-publicizes-prototype-of-first-indigenous-car/1685644. Devrim (Revolution in Turkish) was the initial and a similar government-led attempt to produce a national car in 1961, that could not progress beyond the prototype stage (see Kurtgözü Citation2023).
13 Renowned Turkish industrial designer Murat Günak was an advisor for the brand when the video was published. Subsequently, he assumed a full-time position with the title “Head of Design” in April 2021.
14 In ‘An Introduction to Design and Culture’, Penny Sparke (Citation2013) discusses references to artistic bohemianism and avant-garde in the self-representations of the Modernist designers, as well as the adoption of enfants terribles images by certain star designers toward the end of the twentieth-century.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Emrah Özturan
Emrah Özturan holds a full-time position as a lecturer at Özyeğin University’s Department of Industrial Design, and is a PhD candidate in Industrial Design at Istanbul Technical University. His primary research interests include design culture, design history and criticism, media and visual studies, and consumer culture.