Outline and critically discuss the operation of binary oppositions in a single advertising campaign.
For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module,
see the
general criteria.
Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an
alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text
(not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include
author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher.
Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your
text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this
department, click
here.
Advice for this particular assignment:
The most relevant lecture for this topic is
Lecture 3: Paradigms and Syntagms.
Focus on a single advertising campaign, although you may refer to
earlier or later campaigns for the same product and/or rival campaigns by competing brands. Demonstrate your
understanding of relevant semiotic issues and concepts, including binary oppositions, paradigms, markedness and conceptual
alignment (Claude Lévi-Strauss).
Do not first explain binary oppositions in the abstract and then describe the ads
without reference to binary oppositions: apply the concept of binary oppositions to the ads in the campaign.
Specify exactly which oppositions seem to be involved and provide as much
illustrative evidence as possible to back this up.
Investigate whether other viewers/listeners/readers seem to be aware of the same
oppositions. Note that the most useful sources on this topic are Chandler (2007), Cook (1999) and Leymore (1975).
This is an assignment for which the
inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is likely to be valuable. Remember to include a list labelled either Figures or Image sources after your
list of References.
Some suggested reading
- Alexander, Monty (1995) 'Big Talk, Small Talk: BT's Strategic Use of Semiotics in Planning its Current Advertising'
[WWW document] URL
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- Alexander, Monty (2000) 'Codes and Contexts: Practical Semiotics for the Qualitative Researcher'
[WWW document] URL
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- Alexander, Monty (nd) 'The Myth at the Heart of the Brand'
[WWW document] URL
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- Beasley, Ron, Marcel Danesi & Paul Perron (2000)
Signs for Sale: An Outline of Semiotic Analysis for Advertisers and Marketers. New York: Legas
- Chandler, Daniel (1998): Semiotics for Beginners. [WWW document] URL
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html
- Chandler, Daniel (2007)
Semiotics: The Basics (2nd Edn.). London: Routledge
- Chandler, Daniel (2008)
'Advertising'. In Glen Creeber (Ed)
The Television Genre Book (2nd Edn). London: Palgrave Macmillan/BFI, pp. 178-80
- Chandler, Daniel & Merris Griffiths (2000)
'Gender-differentiated production features in toy commercials',
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 44(3): 503-520; [WWW document] URL
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- Chandler, Daniel & Rod Munday (2011)
Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Combe, Ian, David Crowther & Steve Greenland (2003) 'The Semiology of Changing Brand Image', Journal of Research in
Marketing & Entrepreneurship 5(1): 1-24; [WWW document] URL
http://websrv.ewu.edu/groups/cbpacea/2003Abstracts/TheSemiologyofChangingBrandImage.pdf
- Cook, Guy (1992)
The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge
- Danesi, Marcel (1994)
Messages and Meanings: An Introduction to Semiotics. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press [caution - labels photographic media as primarily iconic rather than primarily indexical]
- Danesi, Marcel (2002)
Understanding Media Semiotics. London: Arnold [caution - labels photographic media as primarily iconic rather than primarily indexical]
- Danesi, Marcel (2006)
Brands. London: Routledge
- Dyer, Gillian (1982)
Advertising as Communication. London: Routledge [caution - labels photographic media as primarily iconic rather than primarily indexical]
- Evans, Ian G & Sumandeep Riyait (1993): 'Is the Message Being Received? Benetton Analysed',
International Journal of Advertising 12(4): 291-301
- Falk, Pasi (1997) 'The Benetton-Toscani Effect: Testing the limits of conventional advertising' in:
Mica Nava et al. (Eds.) (1997)
Buy This Book: Studies in Advertising and Consumption. London: Routledge
- Floch, Jean-Marie (2001)
Semiotics, Marketing and Communication. London: Palgrave Macmillan
- Giroux, Henry (1994a): 'Consuming Social Change: The United Colors of
Benetton'. In Henry Giroux (1994)
Disturbing Pleasures. London: Routledge
- Giroux, Henry (1994b): 'Benetton's World Without Borders: Buying Social
Change' In Carol Becker (Ed.)
The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Societyand Social Responsibility. London: Routledge
- Goldman, Robert & Stephen Papson (1996)
Sign Wars: The Cluttered Landscape of Advertising. New York: Guilford Press
- Hawkes, Terence (1977)
Structuralism and Semiotics. London: Routledge
- Hoechsmann, Michael (1997): 'Benetton Culture: Marketing Difference to
the New Global Consumer'. In Stephen Riggins (Ed.)
The Language and Politics of Exclusion: Others In Discourse. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,
pp. 183-202
- Jhally, Sut (1990)
The Codes of Advertising. London:
Routledge
- Kraidy, Marwan M & Tamara Goeddertz (2003) 'Transnational advertising and international relations: US press discourses on
the Benetton "We on Death Row" campaign', Media, Culture & Society 25(2): 147-65 [WWW document] URL
http://mcs.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/25/2/147
- Kress, Gunther & Theo van Leeuwen (1996)
Reading Images: The
Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge
- Lawes, Rachel (2002) 'Demystifying Semiotics: Some Key Questions Answered',
International Journal of Market Research 44(3): 251-64;
[WWW Document] URL
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