Volume 11 - Issue 54

/ June 2022

367

https:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.54.06.35

How to Cite:

LytvynenkoA., Zavіalova, O., Kalashnyk, M., Varadi, N., & Enska, O. (2022). Semiotics of advertisment. Amazonia

Investiga, 11(54), 367-373. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.54.06.35

Semiotics of advertisment

СЕМІОТИКА РЕКЛАМИ

Received: July 1, 2022 Accepted: August 2, 2022

Written by:

Аlla Lytvynenko141

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8572-4774

Olha Zavіalova142

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9483-5871

Mariya Kalashnyk143

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6432-2776

Natalia Varadi144

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4175-4928

Olena Enska145

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8860-3495

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to clarify the main

trends in modern research on the semiotics of

advertising. The peculiarities of semiotic models

of modern media advertising as a kind of

visualized marketing communication are

highlighted and the prospects of formation of

semiotics of advertising as an autonomous

direction in the stream of semiotics as a general

discipline are determined. Modern advertising is

interpreted as an artifact of mass culture. It is a

cultural product of the postmodern aesthetics,

which is special in terms of semantics and

semiotics. The article proposes to consider it as a

separate direction in the context of semiotics as a

science. The presented research is mostly

theoretical and generalizing.

The authors used the logical method of

integrative cognition to analyze the approaches

to interpreting the semiotics in the advertisement

field and the descriptive analysis to show how

signs transformation influences on the final

perception of advertising text. The main thesis of

the article is the need to consider the semiotics of

advertising as an excellent signing system.

Анотація

Мета статті – з’ясувати основні тенденції

сучасних досліджень семіотики реклами.

Висвітлено особливості семіотичних моделей

сучасної медійної реклами як різновиду

візуалізованої маркетингової комунікації та

визначено перспективи формування семіотики

реклами як автономного напряму в руслі

семіотики як загальної дисципліни. Сучасна

реклама трактується як артефакт масової

культури. Це особливий семантико-

семіотичний культурний продукт естетики

постмодерну. У статті пропонується

розглядати його як окремий напрям у контексті

семіотики як науки. Представлені дослідження

мають переважно теоретичний та

узагальнюючий характер.

Автори за допомогою логічного методу

інтегративного пізнання проаналізували

підходи до інтерпретації семіотики в

рекламному полі та дескриптивного аналізу,

щоб показати, як трансформація знаків впливає

на кінцеве сприйняття рекламного тексту.

Основною тезою статті є необхідність розгляду

семіотики реклами як чудової знакової

системи.

141

Department of Cultural Studies, Poltava National Pedagogical University named after VG Korolenko, Poltava, Ukraine.

142

Fine Arts, Musicology and Culturology Department, Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko, Sumy,

Ukraine.

143

Department of Musical and Instrumental Teacher Training, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv,

Ukraine.

144

Department of History and Social Science, Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, Berehove,

Ukraine.

145

Department of Arts, Musicology and Cultural Studies Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko, Sumy,

Ukraine.

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Keywords: advertising, semiotics, semantics,

culture of postmodernism, modeling of

consciousness.

Ключові слова: реклама, семіотика,

семантика, культура постмодернізму,

моделювання свідомості.

Introduction

The semiotics of advertising expands and

deepens the understanding of the subtleties of the

functioning of the advertising message, at least as

a sign, economic, political (consumer) and

communicative phenomena (Compagno, 2021;

Lelićanin & Šošić, 2021). The symbolic nature of

the advertising text is beyond doubt. The

disclosure of such fundamental concepts of

semiotics as "text", "sign", "interpretation",

"symbol" is a necessary theoretical and practical

prerequisite for composing a seemingly literate

(equivalently successful, effective, efficient)

advertising message, as well as for adequate

reading of the finished advertisement.

The signs, in their most general sense, are the

simplest explanation of the semiotics object of

study, or semiology as a science. The

Encyclopaedia Britannica specifies statements

about the manner of using signs (i.e. sign-using

behavior) (Britannica, 2020). The “father” of

semiotics, F. de Saussure, as a linguist,

considered semiotics from the viewpoint of

linguistics and presupposed its task in the study

of "the life of signs in society" (Britannica,

2020). Ch. Pierce gave semiotics a

multidisciplinary meaning, which made it

possible to study sign systems through a set of

interdisciplinary connections. The semiotics of

advertising analyze the advertising message from

different points, clarifying its structure and

semantics, understanding the basis for the

suggestive effect of advertising. In a more

pragmatic secondary derivative vector, semiotics

is perceived as the science of principles and

algorithms for constructing other advertising

texts, considering the structural sections of

advertising, advantages and disadvantages of

composition, the connotation of tokens used in

the text, image aesthetics etc.

Thus the purpose of the article is to clarify the

main trends in modern research on the semiotics

of advertising. Our study consists of analysis of

differ approaches of using semiotics in

advertising texts and successful examples of

transformation sings into famous ads.

This article analyzes the main trends of modern

research on the semiotics of advertisement,

highlights the features of semiotic models of

modern media advertisement as visualized

marketing communication and identifies

prospects for the semiotics of advertising as an

autonomous direction in the stream of semiotics

as a general discipline.

Theoretical Framework

According to Pierce's approach to semiotics, the

thesis that a sign can never have a definite

meaning is fundamentally important because the

meaning of a sign must constantly be specified in

accordance with numerous contexts influencing

its perception by the recipient (Britannica, 2020).

F. de Saussure described it as two inseparable

components of the structure of the sign: the

signifier, which is actualized in the language as a

set of speech sounds or printed or written signs,

and signified, associated with the concept or idea

that stands behind the sign.

The practice of research on the semiotics of

advertising and the main achievements in this

area currently belongs to the Western world.

However, Ukrainian scientists have also actively

developed this perspective of semiotics.

Currently, the scientific discourse has formed a

general idea of semiotics in advertising and the

basics of understanding the semiotic essence of

an advertising product.

Akayomova (Akayomova, 2011) does not

consider semiotics in general, but its branch -

psychophysiological semiotics - as a field of

knowledge that focuses on working with

advertising texts and since the late 20th century

has a deep knowledge of the laws of pair clearing

communication between buyer and market.

Slovak researcher Solík (Solík, 2014) notes that

the world of advertising works quite thoroughly

with signs and sign systems monetizing them.

The author identifies three main semiotic

evalation methods: interpretation, formalization,

linguistic analysis. Every creative product,

including advertising, can transform into

semantic unit. Due to the diversity nature of this

phenomenon, the understanding of such units

requires interpretation – both at the semiotic and

semantic levels. The reader's personality

(individual or collective) plays an important role

in the process of interpreting any text.

Lelićanin & Šošić. (Lelićanin & Šošić, 2021)

determined that advertising communication has

LytvynenkoA., Zavіalova, O., Kalashnyk, M., Varadi, N., Enska, O. / Volume 11 - Issue 54: 367-373 / June, 2022

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the following features: the communicator

(initiator of communicative interaction) is the

creator or promoter of advertising, the recipient

is a potential consumer, and the text is a

commercial appeal focused on achieving

advertising goals.

Babushka (Babushka, 2018) offered an original

view of this problem, the research is devoted to

identifying the specifics of the phenomenon of

festivity. According to the categories of

semiotics, the essence of festivity is the inversion

of the official model of life, which is realized by

replacing the signs of everyday world order with

“world upside down.” The researcher analyzed

the hyperfestivism of the modern world, which

transformed the vacation into a spectacle and so

on show-business, developing a type of Homo

Festivus (Clark, 2019). Carnival freedom and the

phenomenon of festivality form a semiotic

dominant of advertising, which subordinates the

established way of life to the immanent impulses

of the laughter (Babushka, 2018).

Alternatively, such festivality fully correspond to

the spirit and principles of composing discourses

of postmodernism with its intertextuality,

eclecticism, alternative reality and palimpsest

(Lelićanin & Šošić, 2021). The considered

research determines the tendencies of separate

semiotics of advertising from a circle of other

semiotic systems. The semiotics of advertising,

especially the media, is syncretic. You can trace

the two-way influence between the person

(recipient, audience, potential consumers) and

the advertiser (creator of the advertising

product). If we consider advertising only in sync,

it is a completely postmodern product because in

advertising (especially dynamic) you can trace

the whole extract of the culture of

postmodernism.

Kourdis (Kourdis, 2018) emphasize the semiotic

dimension of Greek subtitles and commentary of

French TV commercials dealing with personal

care products. The study concerns both the

interlingual and intersemiotic level. The author

concluded, that the main findings are that the

subtitling does not move away from the source

language, preserving the same semantic

isotopies, and that the intersemiotic translation

occurs between the French utterances or the

Greek subtitling and the content of the image.

Dwita (Dwita, 2018) reviews the use of English

language in advertising to improve the image of

the product that associated with sophisticated and

cosmopolitan products. The paper's analysis has

implications for advertising for middle class

consumers in Indonesia. The impact of English

as prestigious language associated with high

status, modernity and sophistication can bring an

effect to consumers' attitudes to have good

impressions about the products being advertised.

Safavi (Safavi, 2021) investigates the member

units of sign systems used in contemporary

Iranian advertising slogans according to the

Organon Model introduced by Karl Miller. The

result of this research shows the tendencies of

Iranian advertising messages to lean towards the

descriptive type of conative function.

The analysis of visualized advertising goes

beyond the analysis of purely verbal text

contained in a commercial or on a banner. The

authors insist that advertising product levels

should only be considered together. The task of

the study will then be not only to analyze each

level of advertising (media, text) but also to

reveal the synergies between them. The direction

of the research requires an analysis of three

traditional sections of semiotics: syntactic,

semantics, and pragmatics. All the principles

were analyzed in our study.

Methodology

To achieve the goal of the study, the authors used

the logical method of integrative cognition to

analyze the approaches to interpreting the

semiotics in the advertisement field. The use of

this method allowed us to comprehensively

analyze the viewpoint on the semiotics of

advertisements on the concrete examples to

better understand the material under study.

Descriptive analysis is used to show how signs

transformation influences on the final perception

of advertising text.

The involved methods demonstrated that the

main task of advertising is to influence the final

consumer, to focus his choice on a specific

product or service. The study bases on the

advertising products of the Coca-Cola company.

The conducted analysis showed that visual

advertising has a better impact on the recipient

than sound or print, because it is involved more

centers of perception. And when several types of

semiotic signs are combined (visual and print,

visual and sound, visual, sound and print), such

advertising has the greatest impact on the

consumer. Also an important aspect is the

combination of semiotics with traditional cultural

values: the Coca-Cola advertisement in the

Christmas cartoon was more popular compared

to the usual commercials of this company.

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Results and Discussion

To be successful, the advertising text must

involve, in particular, an idea of the model of

perception of the recipient. As mentioned above,

this is also a problematic field of semiotics,

which does not study sign systems abstractly, but

in the framework of linguistic pragmatics

(studies the actualization of subjective (i.e.

human) factor at all levels of the language system

and specifically within human communication).

If we consider the advertising text in the plane of

pragmatism as a philosophical doctrine, it will be

maximally targeted, all its components

(especially due to the conciseness of the

advertising product, limited, condensed) will

concentrate on content and will be aimed at

implementing the intended pragma by decoding

signs (verbal and nonverbal).

Advertising aimed at achieving a communicative

goal should be built as a means of information

with a pre-planned specific message, which

should be conveyed as simply and clearly as

possible. This explains the thesis expressed in the

literature review about the limited range of

interpretations that media advertising has

adopted from film production (quite clearly can

be traced on the example of interpretations of

literary texts and films based on its plot). Typical

successful advertising in general by its nature,

cannot be in such an interpretive environment,

where there are endless opportunities for the

interpretation of connotative meanings. The

principles of advertising determine certain

"semantic conservatism", which means that the

main thing - consciously or subconsciously to

influence the commercial behavior of consumers

or subconscious perceptions of the brand.

Additionally, this should ideally be realized in a

way that is pre-selected by the manufacturers

(marketers). The very notion of "semantic

conservatism" is a prerequisite for our statement

about the archetypal nature of advertising

semiosis, which we will propose to consider

below the example of the analysis of specific

advertising products of Coca-Cola.

We can assume that the recipient (in advertising,

this image is as generalized and collective) and

the ads creator have a lot in common, although

their final goals are differ. From the semiotics

point of view, it is realized in the need to better

and as quickly understand the signs: the

advertiser – to encode an advertising product as

easily as possible, and potential consumers - in

the process of decoding content, to capture in

advertising the meanings. Semiotics examines

the mechanisms and functions of text and visual

communicators, encouraging marketers not only

to produce successful advertising but also to

better understand social processes. Advertising is

a litmus test of the social worldview. If we

consider the evolution of advertising and the

evolution of society – in diachrony – we can trace

the instantaneous connection between the

slightest change in worldview dominants in

society and the way and manner of advertising.

Semiotics studies how signs catalyze meaning,

suggesting such interpretations depend on the

structural set of signs that appears during the

definition processes.

Advertising tries to influence on consumers and

to make them to purchase or to use services.

Ideally, advertising not only leads to the

conversion, but also ensures the formation of the

brand and constantly maintains a high level of its

visibility. To this end, advertising should contain

appropriate permanently recognizable markers

(slogan, trademark, semantic accent, etc). The

purpose of advertising – to persuade them to buy,

evaluate, influence (elements of suggestion,

incentive) – to transform the consciousness of

recipients, increase their need to buy a particular

product or service. Advertising as a tool for

persuasion is influenced by verbal (word-

forming, syntactic and lexical) and non-verbal

factors. Accordingly, the advertising product

itself contains verbal (text) and non-verbal levels.

As for non-verbal, they are video, images, music,

sound effects.

Visual images (videos, banners) can convey

much more information than words and sounds.

That’s why they are the main points of semiotic

analysis of any media advertising. The

consumers process, perceive and memorize

images faster than words. The one more

important ability of images is to create a mood.

That is, it is a means of holistic emotional impact

on the recipient. Analyzing video advertising, we

paid attention on color, shape, attributes, the

heroes of advertising, and the emotional

background. Often, video advertising can be

deprived of any text or at least its sound. This is

what characterizes the brand advertising of Coca-

Cola TM, in which the video series is mostly

enhanced by lines of text that are simply

displayed on the screen (Fig. 1, Fig. 2):

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Fig. 1. Coca-Cola German-language advertisement [Official Coca-Cola YouTube Channel]

Fig. 2. Advertising for the Coca-Cola brand [Coca-Cola YouTube channel]

Summarizing the numerous Coca-Cola

commercials, it is easy to see that almost all of

them are aimed at young audiences. The focus is

on the company of active young and successful

people who have fun. The traditional semiotics of

this promotional product changes significantly

during Christmas period. Then, in contrast, the

archetype of family, unity, and festivity,

regardless of age, race, sex, etc., appear in the

center. For example, in one of the international

New Year commercials 2021–2022, we see how

the residents of an entire apartment building are

united by the idea of giving a vacation to a single

woman, building a whole structure to deliver a

gift to her and not leaving her alone.

Interestingly, the video features representatives

of all races. It is a tribute to globalization

processes, the idea of world peace, and the idea

of eradicating all discrimination. Coca-Cola

advertising is known to has become an informal

symbol of Christmas in most countries. The

appearance of New Year's advertising of the

brand is expected in the same way as the

appearance of a Christmas tree or the start of

Christmas fairs.

The understanding of each semiotic sign may

differ in different cultures and social strata, as

advertising is formed by culture and, conversely,

contributes to the formation of culture. It is not

always possible to rely on publicly available

symbols, as semiotic signs are often culturally

determined. Therefore, for some countries, there

is a need to create different commercials - with

different accents, for different holidays, with the

actualization of specific ethnic or national

dominants. For example, below is a screenshot

from a video released specifically for the Chinese

New Year celebrations. As you can see, it is

presented in the form of a cartoon with the

traditional character of the Chinese vacation - the

symbol of 2022, the tiger (Fig. 3).

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Fig. 3. Fragment of the commercial for Coca-Cola Chinese New Year Real Magic

An important element of advertising is music,

without a doubt - this is the most commonly used

acoustic element in advertising. It also has

semiotic characteristics. They were associated

with symbolic sound stimuli. Music can

understand without language. It consists of such

semiotic elements as tones created by musical

instruments. The symbolic interpretation is in

chords, their sequence, pitch, tempo, repeats,

performance etc. A certain pattern of tones create

joy, sad, nostalgic, and many other emotions. The

main purpose of advertising is to identify the

music that the recipient likes with the concrete

product in such a way, that the conditioned

stimulus (product) could provoke a conditioned

reaction of pleasure, even without music.

Analysis of the semiotics of musical series used

by Coca-Cola suggests that the mood is mostly

nostalgic-dramatic at the beginning and joyful-

carefree at the end of the plot (for New Year's

videos) or dynamic-carefree, cheerful in most

videos aimed at branding or presentation of a

new product.

The example of Coca-Cola brand advertising

clearly shows an appeal to all the basic

archetypes identified by KG Jung, as well as

additions based on their other, secondary. The

tendency to postmodernist principles of

modeling reality, festivals, and reflections on

world trends in the field of, for example,

humanitarian policy can be clearly seen here. Of

course, the format of the article does not allow to

thoroughly investigate the semiotics of

advertising of even one brand, but it provides a

key to understanding the semiosis of media

advertising.

The article gives a general understanding of the

modern concept of "semiotics of advertising" and

proposes to consider it as a separate area in the

context of semiotics as a science. The paradigm

of advertising includes the creation of meanings

that develop an autonomous ideology and

integrating external codes common to the

concrete society or ethnically (nationally)

labeled. Without interaction with the social

element, it is impossible to decode the meaning

of the semiotic nature of the advertising product.

The production and receipt of advertising is

associated with the characteristic processes of

semiosis, which differ from other types of audio-

visual products. However, just like culture,

advertising cannot be reduced to only semiotics

– because it is impossible to reduce material life

only to semiotics tends. Therefore, it is proposed

to separate the semiotics of advertising in a

separate area of semiotic research (such as

linguosemiotics, biosemiotics or ethnosemiotics,

etc.).

Interpretation of advertising, in our opinion,

should consider scientific advances in the

understanding of the collective subconscious and

archetypes that permeate the world of

advertising, creating an ideological illusion for

the recipient, which offers to purchase goods or

services, that is the goal of advertising when it

comes to brand advertising). The actualization of

archetypes in advertising corresponds to the

vision of the role of advertising not entirely in

creating new meaning, but, in contrast, in the

mutually beneficial (win-win) use of those signs

and symbols that have already proven

productive, effective for potential consumers of

advertising.

Conclusions

Thus, advertising offers a model of the world that

is recognizable to the potential consumer (at the

level of emotional desire) and is desirable. When

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confronted with modern media advertising, the

average recipient is subconsciously exposed to

powerful suggestive influences. The main thesis

of the article is the need to consider the semiotics

of advertising as an excellent signing system.

The task of semiotics within the advertising

sphere is to single out universal signs, model the

recipient's reaction, and implement it in the text-

multimedia field. As an inevitable artifact of the

mascot, it is a special semantics and semiotics

cultural product that actualized the collective

subconscious, to attract the widest possible range

of consumers, who use symbols in the

advertising text trying to convey the need to

purchase the advertised product.

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