Controversies on O Boticários’ advertising campaign “Couples”: The event and affected publics

Abstract

The article focuses on the public-media repercussion of the video “Couples”, one of the pieces of the Valentine’s Day advertising campaign for O Boticário, Brazilian brand of perfumes and cosmetics. In light of the event and controversy notions, we seek to identify which publics have been formed around the debate generated by this audiovisual product and the ways they were affected and positioned regarding the quarrel. We conducted the analysis of the video and a corpus of texts on the subject published in different news sites and comments from readers of these publications. We highlight the ways the controversy “Couples” polarizes two groups and their opposing positions on the controversial public issue, focused on defining if the advertising piece is or not “disrespectful to the Brazilian family and society” for including and recognizing homoaffective relations.

Keywords: event, O Boticário “Couples” advertising campaign, public controversy.