Abstract
The present chapter discusses a particular advertisement aired for a bank in Turkey from a semiotic perspective. Advertising as film is visual storytelling. A film has language and form, and is made up of parts that relate to one another in specific ways that affect the audience. Film techniques take on a semiotic function in the process of meaning construction. As a cultural phenomenon, advertisements can reveal hidden meanings, such as gender issues and patriarchal discourse in the case of the analysed advertisement.
TopBackground
Advertisers are in the business of changing human behavior through messages, and stories can make that happen (Sharma, 2019) because stories touch upon human emotions and make a connection unintrusively (Kissell, 2019). According to Kim (as cited in Kissell, 2019):
People don’t always react well to being told to buy a product. But, structural elements in the narratives, such as the presence of the main character in a story and their actions in the plot, enable a viewer to relate to the story in the ad, which in turn generates more positive feelings in the viewer. (para. 4)
According to Bruner (as cited in Väre, 2014), this is due to the fact that human beings are culturally conditioned to think in narratives about their lives, to organize their experiences into a narrative form. As narrative advertising leads to narrative processing, individuals create meaning for themselves by incorporating the brand story as props in their own life story (Escalas, 2004). In addition to this, Moraru (2015) stated that “in advertising, narration is used to convey the brand or product message, position it in the minds of consumers, and, ultimately, achieve satisfactory levels of retention” (p.195). Yang (2013) found that, by triggering emotional reactions, “storytelling is more persuasive than statements or quantitative information” (p. 146).
Zatwarnicka-Madura and Nowacki (2018) stated that numerous studies on narrative advertising and storytelling show their effectiveness in influencing the audience. Research on the effectiveness of storytelling shows that its use has a positive effect on communication and behaviour, in particular on the awareness of the message conveyed by the advertisement, on the perception of quality, the attitude towards advertising, the shopping intentions, and the engagement in the content of advertising (Zatwarnicka-Madura & Nowacki, 2018).
As a part of culture industry, advertising practices are symbolically and culturally meaningful. Therefore, advertising has managed to attain culturally and symbolically constructed meanings (Nas, 2015). Advertising as a cultural text reflects a society’s discourses based on social beliefs, values, customs and traditions, and life-styles (Kaya, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Gender: The way of living depending on the biological sex, which is shaped by society.
Referent System: A system according to which the external reality is represented by a collection of signs.
Femvertising: Empowering women in advertising.
Auditory Signifier: Sound, music, words of characters, and silence stand for something; in other words, they have meanings to be interpreted.
Denotation: Primary or literal meaning without interpretation.
Connotation: Meaning that evokes more than the primary meaning. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings, in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.
Signified: The meaning of a signifier, in other words, the explication of that signifier.
Hidden Meaning: The meaning behind something or the deep meaning, which needs to be disclosed by an attentive analysis.
Patriarchy: A social system that gives men superiority as a birth privilege.
Visual Signifier: A picture, figure, posture, gesture, or anything one can see with his/her eyes as being the sign of something. Just like in the case of the auditory signifier, the visual signifier has meanings to be interpreted.