5.6 INTERTEXTUALITY AND CONNOTATIVE CHAINS
A subtext that exists within a text is a meaning which is encoded through
connotations which the producer intends the receiver to recover: where the only intended meaning is the literal one, there is no subtext. As mentioned, almost all advertisements, with the possible exception of classified advertisements, aim to be stimulating to some degree and rhetorical devices including puns, ambiguity and metaphor, are tools copywriters can employ. Beasley and Danesi (2002) exemplify this with a Budweiser beer advertisement showing two young men who are:
“Hanging out together, performing bizarre male bonding rituals and generally expressing culturally based notions of male sexuality. The subtext in these ads is: You’re one of the guys, bud” (p 70)
Intercodality occurs where a subtext is created by combining several codes in tandem. This notion is illustrated by Beasley and Danesi (2002: pp 70-73) by way of an advertisement in which the text is encoded in three segments; these are the product name, which has been carefully selected to generate desired connotations, the art code, which includes logos and trademarks, and the music code, which would include the composition of jingles. The maker and
interpreter of an advertisement must have access to the same codes if it is to be successfully decoded (interpreted). Beasley and Danesi (2002) continue with a detailed description of an advertisement for Iron cologne, which appeared in
depicted in a passionate embrace of a woman and this image is accompanied by another showing the bottle spraying some of its contents. Alongside sits the capitalized text “PUMP SOME IRON”. They claim that, “at the denotative level” (p.
72), the message appears to be urging the reader to enjoy an energetic and satisfying sex life through “pumping iron”, and by either using the cologne or buying it for a male partner. From the elements present in the advertisement, they draw a series of inferences which point to sexual connotations, including suggesting that the spray functions as a metaphor for ejaculation and the reference to pumping iron insinuates masturbation (p. 73).
A possible criticism which may be leveled at Beasley and Danesi (2002), and others who attempt to account for the reasoning processes advertisers, is that they consist of assumptions derived from their analysis of the
advertisements and the elements from which they are composed. These assumptions relate to meanings beyond those which are present at the surface level. The subtexts suggested by Beasley and Danesi (2002) for both the Budweiser and the Iron cologne advertisements may or may not reflect the intentions of the advertiser and the interpretation of the receiver. This cannot reasonably be established and it is not within the aims of this thesis to attempt to do so. It can, however, be proposed that it is entirely possible that these authors have over-interpreted their texts, that they have misidentified metaphors and recovered layers of meaning that were never intended. From the point of view of the receiver, no attempt is made to explain the process by which (a) the message of solidarity in the Budweiser advertisement and (b) the supposed additional sexual meanings in the Iron cologne advertisement, which are claimed to be subtexts, are actually recovered, or the role played by any pre-existing knowledge in achieving the intended understanding.
While intertextuality is a topic referred to by many authors of advertising texts, its presence in advertising is described in the context of theory rather than taught as a technique. Beasley and Danesi (2002) relate how this is used in a couple of advertisements and the first of these is for a sparkling wine called Marilyn Peach. This, they claim, has an obvious subtext relating to the Biblical notion of temptation, with signifiers present including a background which
includes a Garden of Eden scene, Eve tempting Adam and a serpent in the form of a bracelet. The second describes a TV advertisement for Miller beer in which a young man in a bar sees a young woman who may be considered attractive and heads for her, blocking a possible rival in the process. There is a voice-over during this commercial which provides commentary on the action in the style of an American football announcer and ending with the message “Love is a game”
appearing on the screen. The viewer is thus invited to draw the parallels and recognize the intertext between winning a sexual contest and winning in sport;
this applies not just in terms of the real world, i.e. the behaviours such as moving and blocking, but also linguistically, as sports metaphors can be used in sexual contexts, as in “making a play” and “scoring”. In addition to this, there is a further intertext between the love and sport themes, and the genre of television sports commentary (ibid).
Connotation and subtexts are further discussed by Beasley and Danesi (2002) in an attempt to explain how advertisements are able to tap into what is called the
“buying motive” (p. 96). They distinguish between the surface level of
advertising texts, namely the techniques such as characters and jingles, and the underlying subtext in which the signification system is structured around connotative signifieds. Thereafter, they attempt to demonstrate the role played by textuality through decoding a selected advertisement, identifying its
connotative structure of subtexts and examining the verbal and nonverbal elements used in constructing these subtexts. The advertisement analysed illustrated the use of a range of techniques including its layout and design, and the use of ambiguity. It was a printed advertisement which was dominated by an image of a group of young men in black, yet casual, attire with open collars, and was for a cologne by Versace called Versus. In the analysis, the authors highlight ranges of connotations achieved through signification and among these is opposition. The name of the cologne, Versus, which crosses over the entire advertisement, implies this opposition. It is speculated by Beasley and Danesi (2002) that, as the young men are able to afford fashionable clothing and an exclusive brand of cologne, they are likely to be affluent. As such, the men
mysterious and somewhat darker realm in their leisure time, signaled by their sartorial choices and a dash of Versus, and are able to access an underworld of carnal pleasures. Beasley and Danesi (2002: p. 99) propose further, yet hidden, signifiers and signifieds associated with the advertisement should be considered, including the prevalence of the letter “V” and its shape. Aside from the words Versus and Versace both beginning with this letter, the shape of it is also evident in other elements, such as the open-necked shirts of the models. It has the possibility of connoting a fissure or cleft that conjures a mental relation to female sexual anatomy, and reminding the reader that the word “vagina” also begins with a “v”. On the other hand, they suggest the presence of male models only, one model wearing a black leather hat and another a black leather jacket, may be understood to imply homoerotic gratification, especially if the viewer recalls that the late Gianni Versace was a declared homosexual. A number of allusions are made to the Ancient Greek god of wine and carnal pleasures, Dionysus, and parallels are drawn between the carefree and shameless lifestyle of the imagined characters as portrayed by the models, and this mythical deity (ibid). The authors intimate that perfume and cologne bottles are most often designed to be little artistic tokens, sometimes even sculptured and with meanings embedded that suggest the personality the manufacturer intends for the product, and that this facilitates these meanings being textualised in their advertising. A more recent example of this phenomenon can be seen with the male and female body shapes used in perfume bottles by Jean Paul Gaultier. For perfume and other products, the distinctive design of bottles and other kinds of packaging may be a central feature of the signification system the manufacturer has devised. Beasley and Danesi (2002: p. 100) refer to the classic bottle shapes of Coca-Cola and Chanel, while British readers may be equally familiar with those of HP Sauce, Marmite and Dimple whisky. They go on to claim that the multiplicity of possible interpretations of advertisements, e.g. the ambiguity of the Versus advertisement and its potential to be read from a heterosexual or homosexual perspective, imparts “a high connotative index to the product’s textuality” (p. 102) and thus the opportunity to repeatedly use the same signifiers in future advertisements and achieve the same effects. They claim:
“The more interpretations there are, the more the more the product can be shielded from having its signification system ‘unmasked’.
Because the various connotative meanings generated by the subtext are interconnected to the other networks of meanings that are present in a culture, the ad’s signification system is, ipso facto, intertextual, linking its viewer to this network…” (ibid)
This assertion in respect of the Versus advertisement is less than compelling for reasons that are explained. Allen points out that modern theorists regard the act of reading as plunging the reader into a network of textual relations. The
interpretation of a text thus involves tracing those relations and moving between texts (Allen, 2000: p. 1). Fairclough (1992) draws a distinction between manifest and constitutive intertextuality. Manifest intertextuality refers to that which is often signified by quotation marks, and can take forms such as parody and negation. Constitutive intertextuality, on the other hand, is a far broader concept which: “refers to the complex relation of genres or discourse types’ conventions” and is “the configuration of discourse types when the text produced” (p. 85). Clearly, the former does not apply in the Versus example as no direct or indirect quotations or even allusions are made. The claim for constitutive intertextuality is also tenuous. Beasley and Danesi (2002) assume the existence of a dialogue between this text, the advertisement, and other texts yet they are obviously unable to specify which texts they are as they vary from reader to reader49.
The Versus advertisement is re-examined by Beasley and Danesi (2002) from the aspect of connotation and suggested cognitive processes. These processes, which consist of similarity, difference, contiguity, intensity and association, are
49 From a pragmatic perspective, the range of interpretations available due to the 'indirectness' used in such advertising provides the possibility of deniability, especially where innuendo is
said to work in tandem in order to generate cognitive chains as the human mind is disposed to link meanings together according to its own culture-specific logic The first chain suggested is explicated as follows:
“V-shape = femininity = sexuality = forbidden pleasures = sado-Masochistic eroticism = etc” (p. 104).
The Dionysus allusion, which is supposedly present in the subtext of the Versus advertisement, is mentioned again as part of the connotative process in that Versus is a means to fulfill Dionysian urges (ibid). Beasley and Danesi (2002) supplement this by describing a number of other advertisements that they have found in popular lifestyle magazines in the late 1990s. These include themes and images relating to:
• The story of Narcissus (Dooney and Burke, manufacturer of bags and fashion accessories)
• The presence of a satyr, of which the authors claim “in Greek mythology was a minor woodland deity, attendant on Bacchus”50 (Remy Martin cognac).
• Hermes, son of the Roman god, Zeus, and who was reputedly heroic, cunning and “an embodiment of extreme mobility” (ibid). (FTD Florist)
• Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty (Givenchy)
• Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetry, and Daphne, the nymph with whom Apollo was infatuated (Genny Boutique)
• The Greek goddess Gaia, who was the personification of the earth (Prada) (pp. 105-107)
50 This may be an error by the authors. Bacchus was, in fact, a god of the Ancient Romans, although he was equated with Dionysus. Satyrs were a feature of Greek mythology.
Beasley and Danesi (2002) claim the power of the artworks which provide the narratives for these advertisements is to be found through “evoking the connotative chains that myths invariably generate” (p. 107).
The choice of the word “invariably” by Beasley and Danesi (2002) is optimistic. Evoking the desired connotative chains must surely depend upon the existence of the necessary encyclopaedic knowledge in the mind of the reader: without such knowledge, the allusions are wasted and any connotative chain is broken. This might not be an issue for a reader who has benefitted from a classical education, but whether characters such as Dionysus, Daphne or Gaia, and the legends associated with them, would be recognized by a typical reader, or as Eco (1979) refers to such an individual, a “model reader” (see Subchapter 2.9, above), if such an entity exists, is a moot point. The possibilities for the ranges of meanings offered, along with intentional ambivalences, by intertextuality and connotative chains can, in theory at least, be exploited by producers of texts who are able to design them so as to offer different interpretations to different readers. They are, however, reliant upon assumed pre-existing knowledge, including
knowledge of other texts. With a genre such as advertising, where there are very specific and practical goals in terms of changing reader behaviour, it is surely dangerous for analysts to make such assumptions about readers, let alone present these to students as anything other than conjecture. Beasley and Danesi (2002) may have been entirely correct when they identified the intended subtexts and multiple meanings available, and their mapping of the connotative chains in the Versus advertisement. On the other hand, some of the intertextuality and connotations perceived by Beasley and Danesi (2002) may not have ever entered the minds of their producers.
What is perhaps more significant is that one cannot fully ascertain the extent of understanding or the variations of interpretations of those who have viewed this advertisement. Arguably, this highlights a limitation that applies to all semiotic and linguistic theories to varying degrees as well as the advantages of undertaking practical research to test and validate, or
advertising, since it is ultimately dependent upon the vagaries of the interpretative capacities and propensities of both practitioners and consumers. Theories (both semiotic and pragmatic) which attempt to account for the interpretative processes are, as a consequence, themselves characterized by vagueness and lack of corroboration or verification.