상조광고의 웰다잉 담론 분석 연구: 광고 재현과 수용자 댓글을 중심으로

초록

This study examines how funeral service advertisements represent well-dying discourse and how audiences interpret and negotiate these representations. We conducted a discourse analysis of 76 TV commercials from major Korean funeral service companies aired between 2007 and 2025, along with a thematic analysis of 2,693 viewer comments collected from tvcf.co.kr. The advertising analysis revealed that funeral service ads translate the core attributes of well-dying—proactive preparation, family-centered relational ethics, integration of life and death, and dignified closure—into commercial language. Specifically, advertisements individualize death preparation as a self-management task combined with the temporal imperative of “in advance,” moralize it by mobilizing values of filial piety and family consideration, authorize it through expertise and financial strength, and ultimately present it as a practical task achievable through funeral service consumption. The audience response analysis showed that viewers actively negotiate rather than passively accept advertising discourse. While preferred readings marked by emotional resonance dominated responses to family-centered relational ethics, negotiated readings weighing costs and benefits emerged regarding the economic rationality of funeral service products, and oppositional readings appeared in response to the commercial resignification of death and distrust toward the funeral service industry. This study extends consumer responsibilization theory to the end-of-life domain and identifies how Korean familism combines with neoliberal governmentality to form a distinct pattern of responsibilization. Furthermore, by demonstrating that accumulated industry distrust serves as a boundary condition that impedes the completion of responsibilization, this research provides a critical understanding of the commercial recontextualization of well-dying discourse.

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