Technology selling sex versus sex selling technology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33919/dasc.19.2.4Keywords:
Digital marketing, Sex/technology products, Webpages, MultimodalityAbstract
The object of this study is to conduct a semiotic analysis of two different websites’ advertising techniques: one that promotes sex toys by emphasizing their technological superiority, and another promoting technology products by employing content of a sexual nature to increase their appeal. By studying and comparing these approaches, useful conclusions can be drawn about the way digital tools utilize the concepts of sex and technology. Digital communication makes use of many different modes, and it is interesting to see both how these are employed to represent sex and technology in digital media. Results show that interactivity plays an important role in the experience and messages delivered by the websites, while sex and technology are presented as opposites and used in balance.
References
Barthes, Roland. 1964. Rhetorique de l'image. Communications 4: 40-51. https://doi.org/10.3406/comm.1964.1027
Barthes, Roland. 2002 [1973]. S/Z. Oxford: Blackwell.
Budd, Mike, Craig, Steve & Steinman, Clayton M. 1999. Consuming environments: television and commercial culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Crissel, Andrew. 1994. Understanding radio. London; New York: Routledge.
Hodge, Robert, & Kress, Gunther. 1988. Social semiotics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kress, Gunther, & van Leeuwen, Theo. 2001. Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.
Kristeva, Julia. 1986. Word, Dialog and Novel, in Moi, Toril (ed.). 1986. The Kristeva Reader. New York: Columbia University Press: 34-61.
Lotman, Juri. 2009. Culture and explosion. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
Nedeljkovic, Uros, Puskarevic, Irma, Novakovic, Dragoljub & Pintier, Ivan. 2013. The effectiveness of sex appeal in print ads in relation to a visual register of the message: Articulating a new framework. Marketing 44: 247-263. https://doi.org/10.5937/markt1303247N
O' Halloran, K. L. 2011 (in press). Multimodal Discourse Analysis. In Hyland K. & Paltridge B. (eds). Companion to Discourse. London and New York: Continuum.
Peirce, Charles Sanders. 1931-1966. Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss, Arthur Burks (eds.), 8 volumes. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press.
Robinson, Helen, Wysocka, Anna & Hand, Chris. 2007. Internet advertising effectiveness - The effect of design on click-through rates for banner ads. International Journal of Advertising 26 (4): 527-541. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2007.11073031
Roehm, Harper A. & Haugtvedt, Curtis P. 1999. Understanding interactivity of cyberspace advertising, in Schumann D.W. & Thorson E. (eds). 1999. Advertising and the World Wide Web. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum: 27-40.
Sebeok, Thomas 1987. Messages in the marketplace. In: Donna Jean Umiker-Sebeok (ed.), Marketing and semiotics: new directions in the study of signs for sale. Berlin, New York & Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter: 21-30.
Stam, Robert. 1992. From Realism to Intertextuality, in: Stam, Robert Burgoyne Robert & Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy. New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics. Structuralism, Post-Structuralism and Beyond. London & NewYork, Routledge: 184-221.
Stewart, D.W. & Pavlou, P.A. 2002. From Consumer Response to Active Consumer: Measuring the Effectiveness of Interactive Media. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 30(4): 376-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/009207002236912
Thibault, Paul J. 2000. The multimodal transcription of a television advertisement: Theory and practice, in Baldry, Anthony (ed.). 2000. Multimodality and multimediality in the distance learning age: Papers in english linguistics. Campobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore: 311-385.
Treise, Debbie, Weigold, Michael F., Conna, Jenneane & Garrison,
Heather. 1994. Ethics in advertising: Ideological correlates of consumer perceptions. Journal of Advertising 23: 59-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1994.10673450
Uspenskij, B.-A., V.-V. Ivanov, V.-N. Toporov, A.-M. Pjatigorskij & J.-M. Lotman 2003 [1973]. Theses on the semiotic study of cultures (as applied to slavic texts). In M. Gottdiener, K. Boklund-Lagopoulou & A.-Ph. Lagopoulos (eds.), Semiotics, volume I, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, 293-316.
Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2001. Semiotics and Iconography, in van Leeuwen, Theo & Jewitt, Carey (eds.). 2001. Handbook of Visual Analysis. London; Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: Sage Publications: 92-118. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020062.n5
Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2006. Towards a semiotics of typography. Information Design Journal 14(2): 139-155. https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.14.2.06lee
Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2011. The Language of Colour. London & New York: Routledge.