Advrtisement Concepts: Major Notions of Intersexuality in Advertising & Symbolism in Advertisement (Coursework Sample)

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1.0 Introduction
Consumer purchase decision is often triggered by a couple of things including experience, interest and in some cases product design. In light of this knowledge, business persons strive to encompass all these factors into one unit in the form of advertisement. The influx of advertisement platforms has availed ample opportunities for business owners to achieve the much-needed publicity for the products. The social media, the internet, and mainstream media have all been utilized in the advertisement. Regardless of the method a business chooses, the advert is likely to take at least three concepts: intertextuality, symbolism, and polysemy in advertising. For this paper, the task conducted is the analysis of these concepts. Besides, the paper will provide examples for these respective concepts.
2.0 Intertextuality
As noted above, the aim of advertisers is to have consumers buy particular products. However, it often goes beyond the sale of a service or product. According to Feng and Wignell (2011), advertisers want consumers to remember the brand besides purchasing a product. The intertextuality concept is often utilized to ensure that people remember a brand and buy its products regularly. Typically, intertextuality interweaves texts with the same texts; a network of textual relation to be precise. It is meant to "arouse people’s attention, memory, interest, and desire, and then stimulate their purchasing action" (Liu and Le, 2013 pp.16). For instance, advertisers often use texts from a film or a play in a bid to remind people. Subsequently, people tend to purchase an item mainly because it reminds them of something with which they had a connection.
For instance, a famous quote by a celebrity is likely to compel a consumer to purchase an item even if they have no connection with the brand (Feng and Wignell, 2011). Usually, this will happen because the consumer has had a connection with the quote or celebrity and because they left a mark in their memory. Some of the strategies used in the intertextuality include allusion, parody, and quotations. Generally, this technique ensures there is a relation between the target texts with the source texts (Liu and Le, 2013). Mainly, the source of texts include sayings, literary works, historical events, proverbs, famous figures films, songs or even names of books. Worth noting is that whatever will be derived from these sources need to have "a sense of intimacy to readers, and attract readers’ attention to advertisements easily" (Sirenko, 2015 pp.4952). That is to say, not every quote will arouse a reader’s or a viewer’s attention; the issue is whether there is a connection.
2.1 Major Notions of Intersexuality in Advertising
2.1.1 Source texts
Source text refers to the text from which an idea or a message is derived. In the advertisement, these are the expressions or signs that an advertiser invokes. They could include images or just texts whose primary source could be paintings, music, major events or widely-accepted social norms and values (Liu and Le, 2013). Every advertiser understands that source texts are crucial in the advertisement because a reader should easily decode an advertiser’s intention or message. A reader reading or a viewer viewing an intertextual advertisement should easily connect the text with the message in the advert. The use of either texts or image in an advert is always dependent on the impact it causes. In some cases, it was noted that images are more effective in arousing readers’ attention than texts (Hackley, C., and Hackley, R.A. 2015).
2.1.2 Intertextual Marks
Another major notion of the intertextual advertisement is the intertextual mark. These ones refer to idioms, words, images or other types of expressions that link the source texts. Han Jinlong adopted this notion in 2005, and its essence is to assist the reader in knowing the source of a text. Often, it could take either implicit or explicit intertextual. In the latter case, texts have clear and direct intertextual marks such as quotation while the former does have it (Torres, 2015). Prior to developing an advert, advertisers have to understand and decide which technique to employ between the two.
2.1.3 Intertextual techniques and examples
As noted above, intertextual takes various techniques including quotation, parody, and allusion. Worth noting is the fact that develops of adverts will analyze the intended audience and identify the relationship with it before releasing it. That is to say, adverts that lack a connection to an intended group will inevitably fail thus adversely affect the sales. For instance, an unpopular old movie will seldom invoke any feelings in the young people’s minds (Liu and Le, 2013). Having elaborated on the essence of intertextual advertisement, this section elaborates on the techniques while offering respective examples. Precisely, this part will discuss three of these techniques and avail an example for each advert of the techniques.
2.2 Parody
A parody refers to a rhetoric device often characterized by an exaggeration of mimicking or imitation of another person’s voice mainly for comical or humorous effect. Typically, a parody generates new expressions normally by altering or merely borrowing some parts of a source. It sometimes adds or takes out some words or just combining several of words. In the recent times, parody has become popular especially in the Western particular in the US (Newman, 2011). Because of being hilarious and comical to the viewers or readers, it makes it easy for the audience to understand both the joke and the message behind the advert
2.2.1 An example of parody: "Making an Ice Idea Better.”
This is an advert that was developed for a Rongsheng Refrigerator. It falls in the intertextual advertisement because the text is interwoven (Liu and Le, 2013). The author of the parody exhibits their creativity prowess by borrowing and altering the original proverb: "Make a nice idea better”. Check carefully the advert and realize that they both sound similar yet have varied meanings. The author of the advert is talking about selling ice while the proverb meant that one ought to improve a nice idea. Here, the reader will evidently be impressed by the advert because the original proverb where the words have been borrowed is popular. Then, the parody will show the author to be pretty creative especially because the advert does not override the positivity of the original text.
2.2.2 Example 2: "Home Sweet Honda”
It is a parody that was created solely to promote Honda cars (Liu and Le, 2013). The parody borrows and alters words from a film titled ‘Home Sweet Home’. The designers of the promotion sought to achieve a goal of winning more clients by the parody. Because the film was quite popular, Honda’s advertisement will inevitably bring back these memories. Moreover, the company is creating an impression that buying their cars will give consumers a ‘home’ feeling. Since the film has a connection with the intended target, it is likely to compel and arouse a buying decision in the consumers.
2.3 Quotation
Unlike a parody that often seeks to create humor, a quotation connects an original text with an advert. An example of a reference in an intertextual advertisement is in the advertisement of Parker pen. The advert ran as "The Pen is mightier than the sword; and some pens are mightier than others" (Liu and Le, 2013). The first part of the advert is the unaltered proverb stating that "the pen is mightier than the sword”. Its meaning was that writing would always exceed violence in terms of effectiveness. However, the second part of the sentence creates a strong impression that in comparison to its rivals Parker pen remains superior. Because of the popular usage of the original proverb, it will be easier for the targeted audience to relate with the advert.
3.0 Symbolism in advertisement
Symbolism in advertisement is meant to represent a company or a particular brand. Just like the intertextual advertisement, this technique aims at triggering people’s mind regarding their rules, culture, beliefs and values. Also, symbolism aims at indicating a particular status in a culture since all societies evolve from a system of symbols. Failure to understand a social, cultural and popular background of an audience is likely be a detriment to a business (Liu and Le, 2013). Advertisement taking on a symbolism ought to have a connection with the people it targets. Also, it is imperative to have clear information on the cultural perception of some shapes, numbers of even drawings. For instance, it was noted that the Japanese culture is apprehensive of number 4 as they perceive to have a bad luck (Chang, 2010). Thus, anyone making an advertisement ought to have this information before creating an advert that portrays the number otherwise. The following section provides examples of symbolism in advertisement while critiquing the same.
3.1. Example 1: "Verdadero Amigo.”
The above statement is the Coca Cola’s latest line used mainly in the Latin America. It is simply translated to mean "True Friendship" and is symbolized by a fist bump of two individuals. In the symbol, it is not just the words that leave meaning to the target audience but mainly the symbol (Marlow, 2015). As noted above, it is vital for companies to understand the times, cultures and values of a society. Presently, many youths use the fist bump as a sign of friendship. Hence, when Coca-Cola replicates this symbol in their products, it inevitably connects with the youths.
3.2 Example 2: ‘Iâ€&trade...