Vol 26, No 1; Article by Pragyan Rath and Apoorva Bharadwaj; March 2014
This research aims at deconstructing the use of symbols in two advertisements for washing powder, Nirma andWheel, broadcast on Indian television channels and examines them in the light of semioethics -- responsible use of symbols -- that underlies marketing communications. The researchers are of the opinion that the communication strategists authoring marketing messages are responsible not just for propagating their products but also for producing ideologies that are capable of making an impact on the shaping of contemporary society. Such messages therefore should be crafted with critical insight so that they herald positive mutation in the social fabric in lieu of becoming, unknowingly and unwittingly, the votaries of a flawed social system. The researchers' study of the two specific commercials is informed by various theories including a) Jameson's political unconscious; b) Marcuse's understanding of Freudian psychology and Marxist interpretation of production; c) Petrilli's understanding of semiotics and ethics; d) Berger's and Schroeder's art, branding, and marketing; e) Showalter's gender analysis; f) Marcuse's literary genres like milk narratives and chivalry; and g) Munter's persuasive strategies. An inter-disciplinary approach is adopted to derive multifarious meanings that can be discovered invested in simple persuasive presentations, which in turn can act as potent forces shaping the psychological contours of a gendered society. The originality and value of the paper lies in the intellectual interpretation of the aforementioned ads that can give fresh insights into the study of marketing communications as a discipline with the potential to engender a new social agenda.
