Relevance is a key concept in understanding advertisements, because it is a primary component of all aspects of human communication. The term was introduced by Sperber and Wilson (1995), building on earlier work in pragmatics, in particular the work of H. P. Grice. Sperber and Wilson's approach to communication is based on the observation that much natural communication does not involve sequences of totally directly informative utterances, or questions followed by literal answers. However, speakers and hearers in a conversation each assume that the others are rational and cooperative participants, and therefore conversation moves forward as each hearer finds the relevance of what was just said. You can read more about the strictly linguistic side of relevance on a separate page. Tanaka (1994) presents a very thorough analysis of advertising based on the concept of relevance.
Every advertisement is interesting from the perspective of relevance. Here are two examples of text that have relevance in the advertisement in which they appear. Click on each image to see the original and a discussion of the relevance and how it is constructed in the advertisment.
Showing posts with label concepts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concepts. Show all posts
Monday, April 28, 2008
Anchor and relay
Anchorage is text (such as a caption) that provides the link between the image and its context; the text that provides relevance to the reader. The term was introduced by Barthes (1977). Daniel Chandler's website "Semiotics for Beginners" provides a full overview of Barthes' motivations and reasoning (go to http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem09.html), if you would like to find out more. Chandler quotes Hall (1981) to the effect that "It is a very common practice for the captions to news photographs to tell us, in words, exactly how the subject's expression ought to be read". This is a key aspect of the construction of an advertisement that we will investigate.
Barthes introduced the idea of anchorage along with another, the idea of Relay, which is a reciprocal relation between text and picture, in that each contributes its own part of the overall message. It also relates a sequence of pictures to each other. This technique is typically how comic-strip panes transition from one to the next, but is quite rarely used in advertising. If you do find any advertisements that have several panes or frames with some obvious transitioning from one to the next, you have found a good example of relay.
When you see a complete advertisement, you get a certain kind of meaning for the image, within the overall context that the advertisement provides. It may seem as though the image was "made for" that particular advertisement. However, a moment's thought will let you realize that, to a certain extent, any image can have any meaning (see Unit 2, the arbitrariness of the sign). The text of an advertisement is primarily the extra information that guides the reader to a particular interpretation of the whole, and thereby a particular interpretation of the image.
Look at advertisement 32 State Farm, for example (below). What meaning does the underlying image have? Could you imagine it being used for some other advertisement?
Barthes introduced the idea of anchorage along with another, the idea of Relay, which is a reciprocal relation between text and picture, in that each contributes its own part of the overall message. It also relates a sequence of pictures to each other. This technique is typically how comic-strip panes transition from one to the next, but is quite rarely used in advertising. If you do find any advertisements that have several panes or frames with some obvious transitioning from one to the next, you have found a good example of relay.
When you see a complete advertisement, you get a certain kind of meaning for the image, within the overall context that the advertisement provides. It may seem as though the image was "made for" that particular advertisement. However, a moment's thought will let you realize that, to a certain extent, any image can have any meaning (see Unit 2, the arbitrariness of the sign). The text of an advertisement is primarily the extra information that guides the reader to a particular interpretation of the whole, and thereby a particular interpretation of the image.
Look at advertisement 32 State Farm, for example (below). What meaning does the underlying image have? Could you imagine it being used for some other advertisement?
Denotation and connotation
A simple sign has a signifier which denotes its signified; at the second level of connotation, this whole sign becomes a signifier for another signified. Williamson (1978) discusses a series of advertisements for Chanel beauty products which were presented at the time with an image of the actress Catherine Deneuve. At the first level, the advertisement associates the products with Catherine Deneuve, and at the second level, we get the connotations of Catherine Deneuve in the context of beauty products as a signifier: she connotes the classy, chic lifestyle of a mature and sophisticated woman (p. 100).
Indexical components of advertisements typically have connotations, which connect the advertisement to a larger cultural context.
For example, think about the way that hair is portrayed in advertisements for hair products: either immaculately styled, or free-flowing and in motion (look at 43 Aveda or 44 Herbal Essences). The styled image is used in advertisements that connote (a woman, typically) getting herself ready to socialize; the free-flowing image connotes freedom in life: freedom from worries about hair, freedom to travel, freedom of expression.
To take another example, cigarette advertising typically associates the product with different cultural contexts: the wide-open Wild West image of Marlboro is very familiar. Other types of context are quiet, individual settings, or general social fun situations. Compare the Images in 08 Polo and 72 Newport. In the former, the product is placed near some other familiar individual accompaniment, coffee in this case. This Image is indexical for a scene which connotes "a quiet smoke". The juxtaposition of the two objects leads to an identification of the two, and properties associated with a cup of coffee transfer to the cigarettes (see Williamson, 1978, p. 22).
Indexical components of advertisements typically have connotations, which connect the advertisement to a larger cultural context.
For example, think about the way that hair is portrayed in advertisements for hair products: either immaculately styled, or free-flowing and in motion (look at 43 Aveda or 44 Herbal Essences). The styled image is used in advertisements that connote (a woman, typically) getting herself ready to socialize; the free-flowing image connotes freedom in life: freedom from worries about hair, freedom to travel, freedom of expression.
To take another example, cigarette advertising typically associates the product with different cultural contexts: the wide-open Wild West image of Marlboro is very familiar. Other types of context are quiet, individual settings, or general social fun situations. Compare the Images in 08 Polo and 72 Newport. In the former, the product is placed near some other familiar individual accompaniment, coffee in this case. This Image is indexical for a scene which connotes "a quiet smoke". The juxtaposition of the two objects leads to an identification of the two, and properties associated with a cup of coffee transfer to the cigarettes (see Williamson, 1978, p. 22).
Advanced analytic concepts
In this unit we will consider some slightly more advanced analytic concepts that will allow us to get to the heart of the analysis of advertisements. Taking the idea of the sign from Unit 2, we extend it to the two levels of signification which are called denotation and connotation. These aspects of meaning are largely tied to the image component of an advertisement. The other concepts that we look at here involve the interplay between text and image: anchorage, which provides some guidance to the reader of how to interpret the image, and relevance, which is concerned with how the overall message emerging from the components of the advertisement is determined by the reader. The ideas of denotation/connotation and anchorage derive from work in semiotics going back to the original work of Saussure, as developed primarily by Roland Barthes.
- denotation/connotation;
- anchorage;
- relevance.
- denotation/connotation;
- anchorage;
- relevance.
Presupposition in Basic analytic concepts
An important aspect of any communication involves the presuppositions that are present. Presuppositions may be even more critical in television advertising (see Geis 1982) than in print advertising. However, even in print advertising, presuppositions are an important component of the overall message. As the name implies, a presupposition is a necessary precondition for the processing of any communication.
Presuppositions typically involve the existence of some object or idea:
This presupposes that there is something that is "this juicy", and then makes an assertion about that thing. One important function of the presupposition here is to promote a kind of ideology within advertising, in this case, the idea that "juiciness" is somehow related to shampoo and hair. Most product ranges have some cultural values imposed on them in this way, and advertising is the main mechanism for achieving this.
The next piece of text has a similar function:
This presupposes that there are leglines, curves and compliments, and thereby implicates that these things are related. **Can we find a jeans ad about ruggedness instead?**
A further example of presupposition, of a fact or proposition, is evident in this text from Apple Computer:
"I used to think it was my fault that Windows didn't work properly".
The phrase "fault that P" is presuppositional, with respect to P. Presuppositions hold constant under what linguists call the Negation Test: negating the part of the sentence above P still leads to the necessity of assuming P to be true. Consider the examples in (1) and (2):
(1)a. It is your fault that I am lazy.
(1)b. It is not your fault that I am lazy.
(2)a. It is your belief that I am lazy.
(2)b. It is not your belief that I am lazy.
In the examples in (1), whether the positive or negative version, it is presupposed that I am lazy. On the other hand, in (2), my laziness is the object of someone's belief, but there is no hidden factual claim. Due to this difference, (1)c is non-sensical, while (2)c is perfectly natural.
(1)c. It is your fault that I am lazy, but in fact I am not lazy (non-sensical).
(2)c. It is your belief that I am lazy, but in fact I am not lazy.
Returning to the Apple text above, the words do not directly assert that Windows does not work properly, but they presuppose this. And, given the Negation Test, we can see if that if text had been "It wasn't my fault that Windows didn't work properly", the presupposition would still be there.
Authors' note:
We are using the text above as a linguistic example, not as an endorsement for any product. In fact, this website was created on two laptop computers running Microsoft Windows XP.
To summarize, presuppositions are a crucial part of advertising as they can cause the reader to consider the existence of objects, propositions, and culturally defined behavioral properties: for example, "Have you had your daily vitamins?" presupposes that you take or need "daily vitamins", thereby creating and perpetuating the idea that the behavior of taking vitamins daily is part of our culture. Similarly, "What's great about Chuck Wagon dog food?" (Geis 1982, 45) presupposes that there is something great about the dog food---though exactly what is left open.
Presuppositions typically involve the existence of some object or idea:
This presupposes that there is something that is "this juicy", and then makes an assertion about that thing. One important function of the presupposition here is to promote a kind of ideology within advertising, in this case, the idea that "juiciness" is somehow related to shampoo and hair. Most product ranges have some cultural values imposed on them in this way, and advertising is the main mechanism for achieving this.
The next piece of text has a similar function:
This presupposes that there are leglines, curves and compliments, and thereby implicates that these things are related. **Can we find a jeans ad about ruggedness instead?**
A further example of presupposition, of a fact or proposition, is evident in this text from Apple Computer:
"I used to think it was my fault that Windows didn't work properly".
The phrase "fault that P" is presuppositional, with respect to P. Presuppositions hold constant under what linguists call the Negation Test: negating the part of the sentence above P still leads to the necessity of assuming P to be true. Consider the examples in (1) and (2):
(1)a. It is your fault that I am lazy.
(1)b. It is not your fault that I am lazy.
(2)a. It is your belief that I am lazy.
(2)b. It is not your belief that I am lazy.
In the examples in (1), whether the positive or negative version, it is presupposed that I am lazy. On the other hand, in (2), my laziness is the object of someone's belief, but there is no hidden factual claim. Due to this difference, (1)c is non-sensical, while (2)c is perfectly natural.
(1)c. It is your fault that I am lazy, but in fact I am not lazy (non-sensical).
(2)c. It is your belief that I am lazy, but in fact I am not lazy.
Returning to the Apple text above, the words do not directly assert that Windows does not work properly, but they presuppose this. And, given the Negation Test, we can see if that if text had been "It wasn't my fault that Windows didn't work properly", the presupposition would still be there.
Authors' note:
We are using the text above as a linguistic example, not as an endorsement for any product. In fact, this website was created on two laptop computers running Microsoft Windows XP.
To summarize, presuppositions are a crucial part of advertising as they can cause the reader to consider the existence of objects, propositions, and culturally defined behavioral properties: for example, "Have you had your daily vitamins?" presupposes that you take or need "daily vitamins", thereby creating and perpetuating the idea that the behavior of taking vitamins daily is part of our culture. Similarly, "What's great about Chuck Wagon dog food?" (Geis 1982, 45) presupposes that there is something great about the dog food---though exactly what is left open.
Given and new in Basic analytic concepts
It is commonplace in the analysis of the meaning contribution of a linguistic unit such as a sentence to split the information into Given information and New information (e.g. "Today for my breakfast I had ... waffles", in which only "waffles" is New information). It is possible for a sentence to be all-New, but all-Given sentences are (by definition) uninformative, and therefore have only specialized or restricted usages.
Each sentence has an opportunity to present New information, or at least highlighted information. A common strategy in advertising language is to use very short potential utterances as sentences, to maximize the amount of highlighted information that is being presented. (See also Leech 1966 on 'disjunctive syntax'.)
In the first example here, the prepositional phrase "Behind you" is presented at a separate unit, and in the second, the adverb "Beautifully" has the same status. Let us consider the examples as single utterances:
"Everything has its place behind you."
"Jeans that fit beautifully."
These do not have the same meanings as the original Texts. Just looking at the jeans example, the original asserts that these are jeans that fit (implying they fit well), presenting the verb "fit" as New information, then following up with the further New information that the jeans fit beautifully. In the revised version, only "beautifully" is New information. Additionally, by segmenting the first utterance in the original as "Jeans that fit", the advertisement authors create the implication that there may be jeans that do not fit (well), due to the Principle of Relevance.
We explore the Organization of 47 Dodge further in Unit 7.
In the Riders jeans example, the first "sentence" is a noun phrase (e.g., part of "These are [jeans that fit]."), and the second is an adverb. None of these usages are peculiar to advertising language; one can easily imagine the following regular conversations, where such words are phrases function as complete utterances:
A: Look out!
B: Where?
A: Behind you!
A: How do they fit?
B: Beautifully, thank you.
The given-new organization can also be found in the Image layout of advertisements.
Each sentence has an opportunity to present New information, or at least highlighted information. A common strategy in advertising language is to use very short potential utterances as sentences, to maximize the amount of highlighted information that is being presented. (See also Leech 1966 on 'disjunctive syntax'.)
In the first example here, the prepositional phrase "Behind you" is presented at a separate unit, and in the second, the adverb "Beautifully" has the same status. Let us consider the examples as single utterances:
"Everything has its place behind you."
"Jeans that fit beautifully."
These do not have the same meanings as the original Texts. Just looking at the jeans example, the original asserts that these are jeans that fit (implying they fit well), presenting the verb "fit" as New information, then following up with the further New information that the jeans fit beautifully. In the revised version, only "beautifully" is New information. Additionally, by segmenting the first utterance in the original as "Jeans that fit", the advertisement authors create the implication that there may be jeans that do not fit (well), due to the Principle of Relevance.
We explore the Organization of 47 Dodge further in Unit 7.
In the Riders jeans example, the first "sentence" is a noun phrase (e.g., part of "These are [jeans that fit]."), and the second is an adverb. None of these usages are peculiar to advertising language; one can easily imagine the following regular conversations, where such words are phrases function as complete utterances:
A: Look out!
B: Where?
A: Behind you!
A: How do they fit?
B: Beautifully, thank you.
The given-new organization can also be found in the Image layout of advertisements.
Coherence in Basic analytic concepts
Cohesion is a term from the work on textual structure by Halliday and Hasan (see Halliday and Hasan 1976), given to the logical linkage between textual units, as indicated by overt formal markers of the relations between texts. In English, cohesion is most simply marked by connectives such as and, but, or so. Each piece of text must be cohesive with the adjacent ones for a successful communication. However, readers are very creative interpreters, and formal properties of cohesion are typically not marked overtly.
Vestergaard and Schrøder introduce the notion of Coherence as a way of talking about the relations between texts, which may or may not be indicated by formal markers of Cohesion. Advertising language tends not to use clear markers of Cohesion, but is interpreted as being Coherent. As with all the other linguistic concepts we are using here, the notion of Coherence extends to the relation between Text and Image.
Vestergaard and Schrøder introduce the notion of Coherence as a way of talking about the relations between texts, which may or may not be indicated by formal markers of Cohesion. Advertising language tends not to use clear markers of Cohesion, but is interpreted as being Coherent. As with all the other linguistic concepts we are using here, the notion of Coherence extends to the relation between Text and Image.
Peirce in Basic analytic concepts
The philosopher C. S. Peirce (1960) introduced three categories of denoting expressions or objects:
Icon: which bears a direct visual relationship to what it denotes.
Index: which forms a stable collocation with the entity that it denotes.
Symbol: which has an arbitrary form and denotes its referent by pure convention (see sign).
In an advertisement, any image of the product is an icon, representing the product more or less accurately.
An index in an advertisement is generally quite culturally-bound, representing something by association. A typical example might be a head of a wealthy-looking woman in a diamond advertisement (an index for a wealthy lifestyle) or some friends laughing in any kind of advertisement for a social product (e.g. fun cameras, drinks, cigarettes, certain kinds of clothes). We are unlikely to see three laughing teenagers in a diamond advertisement, or the head of a glamorous woman in a disposable-camera advertisement.
These indexical components of advertisements have connotations, which typically connect the advertisement to a larger cultural context.
Symbols need little illustration; everyone can easily think of company symbols. (The McDonald's "Golden Arches" is of course originally indexical from the name.) In terms of cultural significance, a company is well-served if its symbol becomes an index---a signifier which goes beyond what it directly signifies to some larger association. The symbol, too, may come to be indexical over time. This represents a very strong cultural establishment of the symbol, and may be a very powerful marketing tool.
To summarize, within an advertisement, the Image component may have some part that is iconic to the product, and there may be some symbols such as a company logo, and so on. The overall Image may have some cultural associations, which are indexical to some larger cultural context.
Icon: which bears a direct visual relationship to what it denotes.
Index: which forms a stable collocation with the entity that it denotes.
Symbol: which has an arbitrary form and denotes its referent by pure convention (see sign).
In an advertisement, any image of the product is an icon, representing the product more or less accurately.
An index in an advertisement is generally quite culturally-bound, representing something by association. A typical example might be a head of a wealthy-looking woman in a diamond advertisement (an index for a wealthy lifestyle) or some friends laughing in any kind of advertisement for a social product (e.g. fun cameras, drinks, cigarettes, certain kinds of clothes). We are unlikely to see three laughing teenagers in a diamond advertisement, or the head of a glamorous woman in a disposable-camera advertisement.
These indexical components of advertisements have connotations, which typically connect the advertisement to a larger cultural context.
Symbols need little illustration; everyone can easily think of company symbols. (The McDonald's "Golden Arches" is of course originally indexical from the name.) In terms of cultural significance, a company is well-served if its symbol becomes an index---a signifier which goes beyond what it directly signifies to some larger association. The symbol, too, may come to be indexical over time. This represents a very strong cultural establishment of the symbol, and may be a very powerful marketing tool.
To summarize, within an advertisement, the Image component may have some part that is iconic to the product, and there may be some symbols such as a company logo, and so on. The overall Image may have some cultural associations, which are indexical to some larger cultural context.
Basic analytic concepts
The key concept in advertising analysis is that of the Sign, as defined by Ferdinand de Saussure, which is the combination of a Signifier (below, "sr") and a Signified (below "sd"). Culler (1987) provides an excellent introduction to Saussure's thinking and highly influential ideas.
The importance of the sign has been widely recognized in the previous literature on advertising. Taking a simple case from language, Saussure observed that the relation between Signifier and Signified is arbitrary: the concept of "dog" is picked out by "dog" in English, "chien" in French, "Hund" in German, "inu" in Japanese, and "kay" in Korean, for example. Although each of these sound sequences has a history within its own language, from which we may come to understand why the word is currently the way it is, there is no specific sound sequence which is universally associated with any given meaning (with the possible exception of onomatopoeic words, though even these are quite culture-specific). Hence we say that the "dog"-dog Sign in English is arbitrary, just as the "Hund"-dog Sign in German is (equally) arbitrary.
The "arbitrariness of the sign", as it is called, may strike you at first as a cause for concern, as arbitrariness perhaps suggests randomness, sloppiness, or inattention. But in fact, the arbitrary relationship is a vital and fundamental part of any creative communication system, because new signs can be created as needed. And far from being subject to randomness, a sign-based system works only because all participants in the community agree on what given sr-sd relationships are.
The importance of the sign has been widely recognized in the previous literature on advertising. Taking a simple case from language, Saussure observed that the relation between Signifier and Signified is arbitrary: the concept of "dog" is picked out by "dog" in English, "chien" in French, "Hund" in German, "inu" in Japanese, and "kay" in Korean, for example. Although each of these sound sequences has a history within its own language, from which we may come to understand why the word is currently the way it is, there is no specific sound sequence which is universally associated with any given meaning (with the possible exception of onomatopoeic words, though even these are quite culture-specific). Hence we say that the "dog"-dog Sign in English is arbitrary, just as the "Hund"-dog Sign in German is (equally) arbitrary.
The "arbitrariness of the sign", as it is called, may strike you at first as a cause for concern, as arbitrariness perhaps suggests randomness, sloppiness, or inattention. But in fact, the arbitrary relationship is a vital and fundamental part of any creative communication system, because new signs can be created as needed. And far from being subject to randomness, a sign-based system works only because all participants in the community agree on what given sr-sd relationships are.
Basic analytic concepts
An extremely useful and relevant survey of concepts from linguistics that can be used in the analysis of advertising can be found in Vestergaard and Schroeder (1985) chapter 2 (reprinted 2002). This chapter also illustrates the use of these concepts in analysis.
In this unit, we pick out the simplest concepts:
-the sign: a signifier and a signified
-icon vs. index vs. symbol
-cohesion and coherence in text
-given and new information
-presupposition
The concept of a sign is fundamental to understanding the meaningful elements in an advertisement. Beyond this, there are two key concepts that we will use in the analysis of advertisements from modern-day linguistic theory, namely presupposition, in this unit, and relevance, which is introduced in Unit 3.
These two concepts are important because they allow us to see the primary means by which advertisements can communicate much more information than what is explicitly presented in them. For example, in 29RangeRover below (Dunhill, Rolling Stone, June 20, 2002, p. 16), the text is "Work hard. Be successful. Go someplace where none of that matters." Everyone would agree, we presume, that this can be elaborated in the context of the advertisement to:
Work hard. And if you do, you will Be successful. And if you are successful you can buy a Range Rover. And then you can Go in it to someplace where none of that matters.
This is what the advertisement means. But where do the parts of meaning shown in red come from? This is what we have to understand. In this case, Coherence provides the links between the sentences (e.g. "and if you do ..."), Relevance is what determines that you can buy a Range Rover and go in it to somewhere, for the context of the whole advertisement including Image for a Range Rover. And the presupposition here is that there is somewhere out there where "none of that matters"---in other words, that some utopian place exists for you to aspire to travel to, in your Range Rover. Note that there may not be any such actual place (see Unit 1 on "rational" communication), though in this particular advertisement, it is implied that there is (go here for further discussion).
In this unit, we pick out the simplest concepts:
-the sign: a signifier and a signified
-icon vs. index vs. symbol
-cohesion and coherence in text
-given and new information
-presupposition
The concept of a sign is fundamental to understanding the meaningful elements in an advertisement. Beyond this, there are two key concepts that we will use in the analysis of advertisements from modern-day linguistic theory, namely presupposition, in this unit, and relevance, which is introduced in Unit 3.
These two concepts are important because they allow us to see the primary means by which advertisements can communicate much more information than what is explicitly presented in them. For example, in 29RangeRover below (Dunhill, Rolling Stone, June 20, 2002, p. 16), the text is "Work hard. Be successful. Go someplace where none of that matters." Everyone would agree, we presume, that this can be elaborated in the context of the advertisement to:
Work hard. And if you do, you will Be successful. And if you are successful you can buy a Range Rover. And then you can Go in it to someplace where none of that matters.
This is what the advertisement means. But where do the parts of meaning shown in red come from? This is what we have to understand. In this case, Coherence provides the links between the sentences (e.g. "and if you do ..."), Relevance is what determines that you can buy a Range Rover and go in it to somewhere, for the context of the whole advertisement including Image for a Range Rover. And the presupposition here is that there is somewhere out there where "none of that matters"---in other words, that some utopian place exists for you to aspire to travel to, in your Range Rover. Note that there may not be any such actual place (see Unit 1 on "rational" communication), though in this particular advertisement, it is implied that there is (go here for further discussion).
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