1) Edmonton City Centre mall advertisements attempt to portray the downtown area as trendy, professional, and sophisticated to revitalize the urban core. 2) The black and white photos in the ads are meant to signify elegance, formality, and prestige to target business professionals. 3) The slogan "Your Space" aims to make viewers feel like they belong in the upscale urban lifestyle depicted in the ads.

1. “ Your Space” Group 3: Mall Advertisements and the Solicitation of Lifestyles Britney.Diana.Lara.Charles

4. The advertisement campaign for City Centre contains the slogan, “Your Space”. Through this message, the advertisement seeks to, “ interpellate the viewer-consumer in constructing them within the “you” of the ad” (Sturken & Cartwright). These words aim to interpellate the viewer as belonging to a community in which they too can be part of a classy, sophisticated and trendy urban culture. There seems to be a conflict between the message the mall conveys in its slogan and advertisements, and the overall message the city of Edmonton intends for the downtown core. The words “ Your Space” are meant to simultaneously interpellate all the office workers and business people that frequent the mall during the weekdays, as well as other Edmontonians in the general population. Yet, the malls hours of operation reflect the fact that “Your Space” is more curtailed to the business and office people who work downtown. For example, the mall’s weekday hours correspond to conventional business day hours of operation. This is in contrast to most of the other Edmonton malls that stay open until at least 9 pm during the weekday. Furthermore, it is not surprising then that during the weekends City Centre is uniquely quiet in comparison to other local malls in the city. So the question is, how is the “ordinary”, non-downtown core worker, supposed to be interpellated by the message in these advertisements when they cannot even access them during the times that suit there leisure and shopping schedules most?

9. These two pictures interpellate the viewer with the promise of an idealized future self (Sturken & Cartwright, 2009). The attainment of that ideal self will be realized once the consumer chooses the appropriate fashion choices, which can be found in the mall. It is implied that people who look and dress a certain way are in tune with themselves, have confidence, and garner attention from others on a different level than those who do not appear in a similar manner. Thus, even if the viewer is not the one for whom these images are meant for, interpellation works to instill in them the dominant aesthetic and consumption ideologies that is central to a modern, capitalist society. Also, the context of City Centre Mall within a business and office district implies that success is obtained if these ideologies, that are signified in these images, are understood and practiced by the viewer-consumer.

10. Charles Peirce offers another perspective on interpreting advertisements, which compliments Barthes’ theories. Iconic signs resemble their object in one way or another. This is an arbitrary image of a man, but due to the dominant aesthetic ideology, we come to associate the picture with style and fashion. Furthermore, the image and words together are meant to be a sign of character, which makes it an indexical image.

11. Through interpellation and City Centre Mall’s choice of advertisements, we have come to realize that photographic advertising engages a viewer to question their own position in Edmonton’s downtown core. These photographs allow a viewer to analyze their personal role within the world of fashion and mainstream style and how it can influence their own ideologies of urban downtown culture. Through interpellation and City Centre Mall’s choice of advertisements, we have come to realize that photographic advertising engages a viewer to question their own position in Edmonton’s downtown core. These photographs allow a viewer to analyze their personal role within the world of fashion and mainstream style and how it can influence their own ideologies of urban downtown culture.