Acknowledgements We would like to express our gratitude to the following persons
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- Advertising and its content during the modern era
- Advertising and its content during the post-modern era
Two modes of significationNarrative mode of signification - traditional advertising The narrative, word-based mode of signification is part of the modern culture. The subject is pictured as an individual with a conscious mind and a rationalist view of the world. The word-based communication can be predominantly informative, representative or symbolic. The aim of the informative communication is to make the consumer-subject to take notice to a product/service of which it was not aware. The utterances in informative communication is purely descriptive. Representative communication cannot, as simple information be characterised as false or true. This type of communication consists of statements which are representative of what they refer to in the real world. The two above mentioned types of communication involves a meaning and a referent in reality. The symbolic communication also have a meaning, but the used symbols are not referents to reality. The symbolic communication presupposes a type of consumer who is willing to pay the price for symbolic accumulation. She or he pays for something that has no referent in reality but only has a perceived meaning to the consumer. As a sum up, it can be said that the main distinction drawn between information/representation and symbols is that while the former points somehow more or less to a reality or a referent, the later can never refer to reality but only to a subjective meaning, created by the consumer her/himself. Figural mode of signification - post-modern advertising Post-modern culture is predominantly characterised as being figural, picture- or image-based. In this mode the subject is pictured as an individual who is less cognitive and more in the grip of perception. The aim of the figural is to impact, impress, overwhelm, etc. It is through the image that the impressions are conveyed. The consumption is here dependent upon the spectator’s wish to consume the image. Advertising and its content during the modern eraFour different approaches to advertising have been identified during the modern era. In the first stage we find the product-oriented approach, which lasted from 1890 until 1925. The advertising was here primarily persuasive and secondarily informational. Instead of informing the consumer about the product the focus of the ads was to represent the function and utility of the product. ( Yaklef 1998). In 1925 the product-symbol advertising developed. This type of advertising focused on the psychological benefits of the product for the consumer-subject. A product was during this time not only represented as something with different function and utility areas, but something that could actually mean something to the consumer-subject. Not only did the consumer buy a product and its functionality but also its deeper meaning, which could only be felt having experienced the product. The advent of symbolic advertising opened up a whole new advertising concept. ( Yaklef 1998). Ads became less informative and less representative of the properties of the product as such, and more geared towards inflating the desires of the subject for the product ( Yaklef 1998 ). Advertising meant to create a desire, within the consumer-subject, that previously did not exist. The goal was to manipulate as far as possible just to create a desire, that more than naturally would exist, among consumers. Or as Baudrillard puts it, consumption has less to do with the consumption of physical objects or the satisfaction of needs, but more with creating lacks and frustration.( Yaklef 1998). After being embraced by motivational researchers in the 1950:s, psychoanalytical thought, with its emphasis on plumbing dreams, fantasies, and symbols to identify the unconscious motives behind people's actions, had a major impact on marketing. ( Mowen 1998) According to Freud, the personality is the product of clash of three forces - the ego, id and superego. Freud states that the ego stands for "reason and good sense while the id stands for untamed passions". The superego can be understood as the conscience or " voice within" a person that echoes the morals and values of parents and society. As with the id, only a small portion of the superego is available to the conscious mind.( Mowen 1998) Advertisers frequently try to move consumers to fantasise about the consequences of using their product. When doing this, they try to take advantage of drives of the different parts of the personality. Different products try to stimulate the drives of, for instance the id, which hopefully will result in a purchase. Companies like to enhance the self-image of consumers. American express showed this successfully in their " Do you know me ?" campaign in 1980. This focused on what was important in peoples self-image. Like one psychologist said, " The great modern nightmare is discovering that you're unrecognised, a nobody. With that card you can be surrounded by strangers, but you walk up and say ' Look what I've got in my hand'. American express used this need to propel itself into leadership in the credit card industry in the 1980:s.( Mowen 1998) So, as stated in the Yaklef article "The goal was to manipulate as far as possible just to create a desire". Traditional advertising tries to make people believe that they lack something that would make them a happier individual. The product becomes " the key to another world" i.e. the Levi's commercials illustrating how the Levi's consumer has success in love. Advertising and its content during the post-modern eraAdvertising during the post-modern era is as mentioned above focused upon the figural and symbolic. There are several motivations of consuming these kind of products, such as the desire for social prestige, approval, pride, ownership, guilt, anxiety, glamour, status, etc. The advent and spread of TV sets, movies, technological improvements, posters etc. have helped spread the use of visual images. The act of consumption is now situated in an artificially social setting, which is referred to as hyperreal. The evolution of new technologies has changed the constitution of the consumer-subject. The role of visual images is to colonise the conscious of the consumer-subject via the unconscious, and entrap the body and mind by using virtual and hyper real settings. Image- based communication creates a void, indicating an absence. The image seeks to avoid reality and to create frustration .( Yakhlef 1998) It is in the figural mode of signification possible to consume a product or a service without actually being present. Whereas in the modern era advertising sought to reveal a false reality, the post-modern era assume no reality. Being able to participate in the act of consumption via TV has created a new situation for the consumer-subject, which is assumed to play two roles. The first being more passive and manipulated of the discourse (being the object) and the second being more critical of the discourse ( being the subject). (Yakhlef 1998) When looking at ads in poster´s term, the situation is a little bit different. To understand the ad one must firstly accept the message ( buy the product), and secondly create the meaning of the ad by making the consumer feel connected with the product and the image it creates. This is a way to empower the consumer. Finally if the communicator has achieved to create a frustrated, unstable and shaky receiver she/he has achieved the goal. The consumer have to be moved by the message. Witnessing the very splitting of the consumer-subject guarantees that the ad ”works”. This correspond with feelings of manipulation among the consumers as described by us under the parts of this paper that concerns the theory of the post-modern consumer. The consumer want to feel that she or he is in charge and therefore also decides what meaning the product has to her or him. Post-modern advertising is shocking for some and liberating for others. Ads show a new-born baby or a dying Aids patient with the United Colors of Benetton. Many ads show no product at all but attract attention with a bizarre combination of visuals and impressions. The pastiche of flashes seems to be basically unrelated to the product or the brand, although the ads may elicit positive sensations and emotions without any deep meaning. Irony and double meaning may be observed in art, architecture, music, products, and advertising. ( W.F. van Raaij 1993) Download 201.4 Kb. Share with your friends:
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