Andrea Benoit
Assistant Professor (Adjunct) | Western University
Burlington, ON, CANADA
Dr. Benoit's research interests include advertising, branding, consumer culture, and the commodification of social causes
Biography
Andrea Benoit has a PhD in Media Studies from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her research interests include advertising, branding, consumer culture, and the commodification of social causes. Andrea’s PhD dissertation focused on HIV/AIDS awareness and activism within the Toronto fashion industry in the 1980s, and specifically the history of the M.A.C AIDS Fund. She did her BA and MA in English at the University of Toronto, and her MA in the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York University, where she investigated the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Andrea’s professional experience includes a stint in Relationship Marketing at telecommunications firm British Telecom in the UK, and as an on- campus recruiter for D.E. Shaw & Co. in New York City, a Wall Street investment bank. Andrea is Media Action Média’s Secretary and oversees research projects and promotional issues.
Industry Expertise (3)
Education/Learning
Research
Advertising/Marketing
Areas of Expertise (6)
Branding
Commodification of Social Causes
HIV/AIDS Awareness
Advertising Theory and History
Promotional Culture
Media Representations of Women
Education (4)
University of Western Ontario: PhD, Media Studies 2014
University of Toronto: MA, English 1995
York University: MA, Communication and Culture 2009
University of Toronto: BA (Honours), English (Specialist), Women's Studies (Minor) 1992
Affiliations (2)
- Assistant Professor (adjunct) Department of Sociology King's College University at Western University
- Sessional Lecturer Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia McMaster University
Articles (3)
"An advertising world gone completely haywire": MAC VIVA GLAM
Advertising & Social Policy Review2014 The famed drag artist RuPaul opened the 1995 Canadian AIDS fundraiser, Fashion Cares, by descending a long, winding staircase flanked by two human-size red lipsticks. Strutting down the runway to the tune of his song, “House of Love,” wearing his signature red ...
Face Value: Beyond the Surface of Brand Philanthropy and the Cultural Production of the MAC AIDS Fund
University of Western Ontario2014 This dissertation provides a cultural and business history of MAC Cosmetics and its philanthropic arm, the MAC AIDS Fund. MAC Cosmetics originated in Toronto, Canada in 1981 and its growth coincided with the AIDS epidemic. Since 1994, the MAC AIDS Fund ...
'From Our Lips:' Lipstick as Consumer Technology and the MAC VIVA GLAM Advertising Campaigns
Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science2013 Lipstick has remained a stable technology for over five thousand years, while influenced by social and cultural mores, and ideas about sexuality, gender and class. This is particularly evident in the twentieth century since lipstick has become a consumer technology, as ...
Social