Post-structuralism and postmodern advertising

Question 1

What do advertisers now promote, in the post-structuralist era?

Answer 1

Advertising discourse now promotes consumption itself as a way of life, through the circulation of signs, as opposed to telling consumers what the products do or mean

Question 2

What resulted in the rise of poststructuralism?

Answer 2

It has changed due to the shift in the nature of consumption: we no longer consume to satisfy a need, resulting in the erosion between the product and brand, as well as the sign and it’s meaning, according to Baudrillard.

Question 3

What are empty and floating signifiers?

Answer 3

Empty/floating signifiers tend to undermine the relationship between the signifier and the referent e.g. Obama and his 2008 campaign picture by Shephard Fairey, the emptiness of the word ‘hope’ allowing people of different groups to project meaning onto it, allowing it to be related to any unaddressed issue of their choosing

Question 4

What is intertextuality?

Answer 4

Intertextuality is the related to the way in which different layers within a text all refer to one another. It assumes previous knowledge of previous texts to fully relate to the text as a whole, providing a sense of exclusivity e.g. TV shows such as ‘Community’ referencing Orwell’s ‘1984’, or ‘30 Rock’ referencing ‘Amadeus’. Both use their references to parody the texts.

Question 5

What are some of the features that writers can draw attention to when it comes to written clothing?

Answer 5

They can draw attention to:
Vestimentary features: patterns, colour of garments etc
Character features: the piece being discreet or amusing
Circumstantial features: evening, weekend etc

Question 6

What are the three forms of analysis prevalent in post-structuralist semiotics?

Answer 6

1) Intertextuality
2) Bricolage
3) Empty or floating signifiers

Question 7

What are the two forms of analysis under structuralism?

Answer 7

Paradigmatic analysis and syntagmatic analysis

Question 8

What is structuralism?

Answer 8

“Structuralism is based on the assumption that meaning production is a system of relationships codified by culture, and that these semiotic relationships actually structure, rather than mirror, phenomenal reality.” - Laura R. Oswald in ‘Marketing Semiotics: Signs, Strategies and Brand Value’

Question 9

What is the key to understanding the structuralist view of language?

Answer 9

Understanding the for each level of language that there is, there are elements that contrast with one another, in addition to other elements that combine with each-other. The entire linguistic system can be explained in terms of these paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of difference between signifiers

Question 10

What is semiotics?

Answer 10

Semiotics is the production and understanding of signs and signification. Aside from verbal language, semiotics also includes other forms of patterned human behaviour such as images, clothes and cultural artefacts

Question 11

How does advertising differ from subcultural use of bricolage?

Answer 11

Subcultures use bricolage as a type of protest against mainstream culture. This is particularly true for the punk community. Advertisers on the other hand use signifiers of different subcultures to create the idea of individuality

Question 12

What three stages of the fashion system did Barthes highlight?

Answer 12

1) Real clothing - the garments themselves
2) Image clothing - the way that the garments are presented in photographs (model pose, environment shot was taken in etc)
3) Written clothing - The verbal description of the garment, style or look

Barthes was particularly interested in image and written clothing, and the relationship between them

Question 13

What is Saussure’s theory of language?

Answer 13

Sassure views language as having both paradigmatic and syntagmatic dimensions. Syntagmatic relationships relate to the combination of signs to create meaning (the linear dimension) and the paradigmatic being the contrastive dimension, concerned with the substitution of one thing for another within a particular grammatical category

Question 14

What are Kristeva’s two axes of intertextuality?

Answer 14

1) The horizontal axis, connecting author to reader
2) The vertical axis, connecting the text to other texts

Both axes are concerned with understanding the multiple layers of a text that create a type of exclusivity

Question 15

What does paradigmatic analysis examine?

Answer 15

Paradigmatic analysis deals with the connotation of the signifiers within the text, and whether they are positive or negative

e.g. Why has this signifier been chosen as opposed to another one?

Question 16

What is GARAP?

Answer 16

GARAP is a nonsense word made up by Baudrillard to demonstrate the power of signifiers. No signified product corresponds to GARAP yet.

“A pure sign, without a signified, signifying itself”

Question 17

What does written clothing do?

Answer 17

Written clothing emphasizes elements in the image, as well as adding other elements which are not there. It defines what is fashionable from what is not fashionable through use of binary oppositions and the stigma of exclusion

Question 18

What is Barthes take on image clothing?

Answer 18

Barthes says that image clothing cannot adequately represent the fashionability of the garment without written clothing. It draws attention to fashion, but offers imprecise knowledge to the viewer.

“The more photographed dresses I see, the more banal becomes the information… the image replaces the purchase unnecessary.

Question 19

What is Baudrillard’s take on post-structuralism?

Answer 19

Baudrillard thinks that the signifier (as a source of status and indicator of distinction) is what is now most important. Meaning is no longer greatly relevant.

Question 20

What is the aim of structuralism?

Answer 20

Structuralism aims to decipher the meaning of a text (whether the text is a piece of language, a film, style or otherwise) through the discover of hidden or deeper structures, which enables us to decode meaning

Question 21

What does structuralist semiotics concentrate on?

Answer 21

It concentrates on how the differences and oppositions between signs structure meaning. For example, what differentiates a fashionable garment from an unfashionable one? Or distinguishes two brands that sell the same products?

Question 22

What does syntagmatic analysis examine?

Answer 22

Syntagmatic analysis examines the relationships between signifiers in a text e.g. what is the relation between elements of the text?

Question 23

What is written clothing?

Answer 23

Written clothing is the rhetorical description which shows why the purchase of the garment is necessary

“The described garment encourages the purchase”

Question 24

What do structuralists believe?

Answer 24

That texts can be interpreted through their structure. They attempt to apply elements of Saussure’s theory to a wide range of fields

Question 25

What is post-structuralism?

Answer 25

The movement from structuralism (where there is a strict division between the surface signifier and the deeper signified which gives the text meaning), to an era where there may be no distinction between the signifier and the signified, resulting in there being no deeper meaning

Question 26

What does ‘The Fashion System’ show?

Answer 26

It was written by Barthes, who described how fashion is created by binary oppositions

Question 27

What is a binary opposition?

Answer 27

A binary opposition describes the way that signs’ meanings often reside as much in how they differ from others, rather than what they are themselves. It is as much an Apple product because of it’s difference to a Dell product, as it is through it’s identity as an Apple product itself

Question 28

What is bricolage?

Answer 28

Bricolage is the process of taking signs from various areas, genres and styles and mixing them together out of context. Also referred to as ‘pastiche’ by Jameson.

Question 29

What are Featherstone’s three perspectives on consumer culture?

Answer 29

His three perspectives on consumer culture are:

1) The Production of consumption
2) The Sociology of consumption
3) The emotional experience of consumption

Question 30

What is the prosumer?

Answer 30

A term coined by RItzer and Jurgenson to define a consumer being put to work by the culture industry, now expected to apply meaning to empty and floating signifiers. No longer merely receiving information.

Question 31

What is the production of consumption view?

Answer 31

The production of consumption view is a modernist one, that looks at the mass manipulation of the public through the production of goods.

Question 32

What is Baudrillard’s theory of the postmodern consumer society?

Answer 32

He acknowledges that society is essentially still a society of production but that now the orders of production and consumption have become interlinked in a system of objects (otherwise none as consumer society). Consumers have become commodities themselves.

Question 33

According to Baudrillard, what has replaced what in postmodern consumer society?

Answer 33

The homo-economicus (I buy this because I need it) has been replaced by the homo-psycho-economicus (I buy this to relate to the rest of society).

Question 34

What has become more important than the object itself?

Answer 34

The object’s sign value, as the consumed object is thought to signify something about the consumer (status, distinction, wealth etc) in a world where there are no class systems.

Question 35

What is sign value?

Answer 35

The connotative value, rather than it’s actual economical or use value

Question 36

What is the fun system?

Answer 36

Baudrillard’s theory that sees consumers as being needed more as consumers than as workers. The duty of the citizen becomes to consume. The belief that happiness will come from consumption, and the dissatisfaction that comes from not feeling content no matter how much is consumed.

Question 37

What is different about postmodern consumption, compared to modern consumption?

Answer 37

Postmodern consumption is all about feeling part of a collective, which is achieved through consumption (consumption of movies, sports, excercise etc). Belonging is part of the motivation to consume.

Question 38

What is the main discourse through which the industrial production of differences is defined?

Answer 38

Advertising discourse, where differentiation is produced but it is meaningless

Question 39

What does Baudrillard state about advertising?

Answer 39

That is has no meaning, it merely conveys significations, which are never personal.