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CCT210 Group Summary - Advertising Semiotics
 * update: I am putting all this content into a word document and severely cutting down on the details because our summary is 7 pages. When I cut it I will send the final copy to Rhon before our class today* -Monika
 * 1) Intro + Brief History (p. 178 - 184) = Rajvir
 * 2) Creating a Signfication System (p. 184 - 188) = Omon
 * 3) Advertising Textuality (p. 188 - 192) = Dipika
 * 4) Connotative Chaining (p. 192 - 195) = Komal
 * 5) Ad Campaigns (p. 195 - 200) = Monika

Rajvir's part: · Advertising is designed to influence attitudes and lifestyle behaviours by implicitly suggesting how we can best satisfy our deepest desires and aspirations through consumption. · Ads are effective because they reflect 'shifts' already present in popular culture. · It visualizes human beings as 'recurrent units' that can be classified into 'taste groups', 'lifestyle groups', or 'market segments', which can be managed and manipulated according to the laws of statistics. · Advertising falls into two main categories: o (1) Consumer advertising: directed towards the promotion of some product o (2) Trade advertising: a sales pitch is made to dealers and professionals through appropriate trade publications and media. · Campaigns aim to saturate the signifying order with advertising messages by spreading advertising messages constantly through numerous and varied media. This creates the illusion that there is a correlation between the products advertised and social processes and trends. As Barthes often claimed in his writings, for this reason advertising is identifiable as the root cause of neomania.
 * What is advertising? **

** History of Advertising **  · The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century dramatically changed the advertising industry; fliers and posters could now be printed quickly and cheaply, and posted in public places or inserted in books, pamphlets, newspapers, etc.  · In the 1920s, the increased use of electricity led to the possibility of further entrenching advertising into the social landscape through the use of new electronic media.

** Trend in Advertising **  • 19th Century and earlier: literal description of product.  • Late 19th - early 20th century: consumption as a way of solving social problems  • 1930s: advertising began to reflect the qualities and values that were important to consumers.  • 1950s: advertisements began to promote images of the product that consumers could identify with.  • Post 1960s: advertising became more concerned with invoking subliminal and unconscious desires.

** Spreading the Message **  · The two main techniques used by advertisers to embed advertising into the social mindset are called //positioning// and 'image-creation'.  · // Positioning // is the placing or targeting of a product for the right people.  · Creating an image for a product involves fashioning a 'personality' for it with which a particular type of consumer can identify.