Semiotics and Shock Advertisement

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Public Relations Advertising Marketing Social Media grade: Excellent The University of Surrey (Department of English) course: Language of Advertising language: English abstract: There is advertisement - and there is advertisement: Most ads have the intention to make people aware of a product service or concept followed by the purchase and therefore support the free-market economy (Reschke: 1998 p. 1); but there are ads whose main aim is to inform people more precisely to call their attention to a certain topic. Consequently advertisements cause different reactions: Some ads make people smile or even giggle; some just communicate plane information; whilst others make people think and reflect; and again others literally shock people. Advertising campaigns such as the WWF 9/11 one the Get unhooked ads or Antonio Federici's banned campaign (q.v. Appendix 1-3) are only three examples on the list of campaigns banned in the 21st century due to unethical content. Those offensive advertisements include messages that transgress laws and customs (e.g. anti-human rights) breach a moral or social code (e.g. profanity vulgarity) or outrage the moral or physical senses (e.g. gratuitous use of violence use of disgusting images) (Chan et al.: 2007 p. 608). Researchers found out that adverts which are incongruent with social norms attract attention and are more likely to be retained in memory (Gulas and Weinberger: 2006 p. 173). Attracting interest can be done on different ways: by either using attention attracting pictures sounds signs or just simple words and phrases.