CONSTRUCTION OF YOUTH IDENTITY IN ADVERTISEMENTS: THE CASE STUDY OF “GENÇ TURKCELL”

This article engages to critical analyses of “genc turkcell” (youth turkcell) advertisements by turkey’s one of the leading gsm companies turkcell. it points at the ways in which particular discourses constitute certain youth identity. advertisements represent youth as having desirable lives, listening to rock music, living apart from their families, spending most of their time in pubs and university campuses. advertisements don’t necessarily refer to the lives of youth who sustain their lives in conditions of deprivation. referring to ngo research with the title “turkey’s youth profile”, this paper argues that youth identity by genc turkcell reflects the minority among youth in turkey. from psychoanalytical point of view, advertising aims to inform audience about their lacks regarding their youth, thus invokes desire to fullfill lacks by consumption. with advertisements, audience are exposed to a state of mind which lacan calls “mirror stage”, characterized by particular ego formation by transition to “symbolic” from the “imaginary” register. in conclusion, referring to theories of judith williamson, louis althusser, jacques lacan and slavoj žižek, this paper shows that advertisements are ideologically coded as “dream images”, by which youth audience can exercise certain regime of desire; seeing the lives of the privilaged other.