The creation of complicity a semiotic analysis of an advertising campaign for Black & White whisky

273

The creation of complicity A semiotic analvsis of an advertising campaign for B&k & White whisky Denis BERTRAND

*

A qualitative pre-test study. employing the structured semi0t1c methodology of Greimas and the Paris school, was conducted on four print advertisements conceived for a Blnck & l1711re whisky campaign, and this article presents the major l’lndings. Both the content and expression of the advertisements are examined, in terms of elementary oppositions, of InarratIve organization, of cultural values, and of linguistic and pl,l\tic manifestations. Finally, the ironic quality of the enunci,~tlon. playing on cultural stereotypes, is shown to demonstrate .tn equivalence between the ‘author’ of the campaign and the urget public envisaged.

1. Introduction In June 1985, CLM/BBDO, a Paris advertising agency, produced a campaign project consisting of several advertisements for Black & White whisky. Originally four advertisements were devised, named ‘Family’, ‘Tunnel’, ‘Yin and Yang’ and ‘Martial Arts’ (referred to subsequently in this paper as Al, A2, A3 and A4, respectively) which might be subjected to modification or above all to extension through additional advertisements expanding on the chosen concept. It was a print-media campaign destined for the French press, and the objective set out in the copy strategy was to re-endow the brand with an image of an institution in terms of whisky * Author’s address: D. Bertrand, Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France. This article has been translated Joanna Weston. Intern. J. of Research North-Holland 0167-8116/88/$3.50

Researcher,

in Marketing

0 1988,

Elsevier

by David

4 (1988)

Science

B.E.L.C., Sugarman

273-289

Publishers

9 rue and

and with a new positioning, according to which Black & White becomes the ‘Chanel’ of whiskies. The concept which the agency settled on was placed firmly outside of the theme of ‘whisky’ itself, and consisted of exploring and articulating the relationships of meaning between black and white. Within this context, the IPSOS organisation was invited to carry out a pre-test before final acceptance of the project. This was with a view to globally determining the coherence of the campaign project and also in order to anticipate and evaluate its pertinence and effectiveness. In other words, it was necessary to verify the correspondence - or lack of it between the intrinsic significance of each advertisement as compared to the intended message as set out in the copy strategy, with particular reference to the risks of contradictions, ambiguities or ‘interference’ connotations which they might contain. For this qualitative phase of research, a semiotic approach was employed. Furthermore, pertinence was to be evaluated with regard to discovering and assessing the understanding of the whole set of advertisements by the target, with regard to the meaning produced. Following on the semiotic study, and taking its conclusions into account, a quantitative impact study was programmed to be carried out subsequently. The scope of this paper, though, is limited to a presentation of the qualitative analysis, and as such it constitutes an opportunity for the reader to evaluate the usefulness of semiological methodology as applied to a concrete case-study. However, the reflection of this

B.V. (North-Holland)

Al

A2.

‘Family’.

‘Tunnel’.

Personne n’est tout noir, personne n’est tout blanc. Black &K%ite Scotch whisky -23.

‘Yin-Yang’.

.

.

i

-

I

JIasimpkitk estle luxedeceuxqui ont atteintla perfection.Black&White ScotchWhisky A4.

‘Martial

arts’.

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paper goes further, into two different realms. Firstly, that of the theoretical model, in order to demonstrate that its span not only takes in adjoining structures through which the legibility of messages is organised (which forms their grammar and their coherence on the level of their immanence), but also the strategies of formalisation in discourse, which are linked to enunciation and to the ‘generation’ of an addressee (which forms the basis, on the level of manifestation, of their persuasive organisation). The second realm concerns the recent evolution in advertising discourse which is centered on the interactive aspect of reading, and seems to call for just such a theory of intersubjective relations as those which are postulated and implied by the message. It is above all in this respect that the example analysed in this paper seems to me to be particularly significant. Semiotics takes as a general goal the objectiuisation of the generation and the recording of meanings, whatever the language or other form of expression through which they are manifested, and its task is particularly important when several different substances of expression are associated in order to bring about semiosis (as, for example, the association of verbal and visual elements). The prevailing theory to which reference is made in this paper is in the stream of which the principal branches are the works of Saussure, Hjelmslev and Greimas. i It is structural in its theoretical basis and generative in its strategic methodology. This means that first of all, freeing itself from the empirical appearance of meanings, it reconstructs them as a complex network of contextualised or contextualisable interrelations. It is, as Saussure said, the difference which makes meaning exist. The dynamic variety of the different types of differences is inscribed within representa. ’ The key bibliographical references on semiotic given in Bibliographic sCmiotique (1982). Historical ceptual development is covered in Coquet (1982).

theory are and con-

o/complicity

tional models, some highly abstract in nature, such as the ‘semiotic square’, others closer to the dynamics of discourse, such as ‘narrative syntax’, both of which models we shall see exploited, along with others, in the following pages. It is with the object of managing the complexity and being able to go deeper without losing the way that a strategy must inevitably be developed. It could be said that the strategy of semiotics rests on the twin pillars of hierarchised stratification of levels of description and the interdefinition of concepts. The first illustrates the generative nature of the theory; progress is ‘upwards’ from the most general structures (said to be ‘deep’ structures) towards the most specific, the most articulated (said to be ‘superficial’ ones), and in this way the ‘generation’ of meaning is simulated. Conversely, progress is ‘downwards’ from the superficial structures imposed by the linear nature of the text which meets our eyes, towards the deep structures which organise and govern, and it is here that the analysis of meanings is carried out, momentarily immobilised at the different levels of recognition. This type of pathway relies on a general principle of interdefinition of the procedures and concepts utilised at each level to ensure the internal cohesion of the description. The ‘scientific’ aim of the theory, doubtless an illusory one where the social sciences are concerned, is compensated for, if not actually equalled, on the basis of a postulate of its rational homogeneity. This procedure functions above all where it is necessary to bring to light the internal organisation of the utterance-discourse, both on the level of the paradigms which organise the utterances (&on&) in content classifications and on the level of sequences and combinations (or ‘syntagmatic structure’) which orients them, finalises them, and, through articulation of virtual and implicit elements, ensures a predictable ordering. But does this make it open and fertile? Above all, does it allow us to describe, with the same guaran-

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/ The creation

tees, the intersubjective manipulations which arise from its formalisation as discourse, i.e., the forms of its actual production? This point, already essential from a theoretical aspect, becomes capital when analysing such a specific form of discourse as that of advertisements. The following analysis will endeavour to show, using the Black & White campaign as an example, how we participate in the construction of intersubjectivity. To do this, we will obviously not take empirical subjects, which are in any event inaccessible, as our point of departure but rather the manner in which the text, both in literal and ideal terms, produces subjects by producing their inter-relations. ’ Before reaching the stages of the author (the copy-writer), the commissioner (the advertiser) or the target (the potential consumer), we will attempt to examine the positions and the enunciative stances induced by the textual element of the message. We will attempt to objectify the subjective areas, the production of subject-effects within the discourse strategy: the typical addresse envisaged by the writer, or the ‘model reader’ (Eco (1979)), who is called upon to re-work the meaning in accordance with the persuasive effects which the enunciator has placed in his text and which analysis can identify at different levels of structuration. This aspect seems to me to be particularly important in the example under study here, since the CLM/BBDO campaign makes no attempt to highlight a product (tlie advertisements do not mention the product outside of the utterance ‘Scotch whisky’); nor does it attempt to highlight a brand and its institution (Black & White), perhaps contrary to appearances. On the other hand, it clearly sets out the elements of a particular intersubjective relation of

’ The problem of subjectivity in discourse has been studied particularly by Coquet (1985, 1986). After a long period of inattention, due to methodological reasons, the theory of enunciation and intersubjectivity is undergoing major research in the field of contemporary semiotics.

ojcompl~ity

277

which the utterance of the brand serves as the medium, and through this the campaign aims at the setting up of a complicity, or connivence (or a ‘secret understanding’) based upon an ironic form of participation which makes demands upon the addressee and tends to produce the effect of an implied ‘community’ of readers. There is no attempt to inform, or to convince, but rather to set off a process of self-persuasion. Extending somewhat beyond this specific example, there is a more general dimension of contemporary advertising discourse, the apparent paradox of which is perhaps less unexpected than generally thought. By, in a first instance, working directly upon the partners in the communication act, this type of message simply serves to display and amplify the common, if frequently obscured, goal of all advertising discourse: the receiver is invited to become a co-enunciator (or accompliceenunciator). This analysis will therefore try to show the cognitive exercise which allows the transfer to take place from a highlighting of the object to the formation of a ‘concert of subjectivities’. 1.1. Meaning strategy and the main lines of the campaign Three of the four advertisements studied here (Al, A2, and A3) are in final form (and have already appeared in the press), while the fourth, ‘Martial Arts’, is still in rough form. I have nonetheless chosen to include it in the analysis, in part because of the significtice of the ‘differential’ gap. Other advertisements were also produced subsequent to pre-testing, but have not been included in this paper. The strategy of signification seems to obey two general and constant principles which also correspond to two of the elements of the analysis - that of the internal structure of the utterance (both text and image) and that of the formalisation of discourse, or enunciation

278

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itself, which is how the structuring of the content takes place in final form. The first principle is that of symmetry, based initially on the opposition of contraries, i.e., black uer.ruS white, and then rigorously extended through the generation of binary relationships: symmetry in the layout of images and of text; symmetry between the dynamic (soliciting imaginary narrative in Al and A2, ‘Family’ and ‘Tunnel’) and the static (evoking serenity and perfection in A3 and A4, ‘Yin-Yang’ and ‘Martial Arts’), between the western (Al and A2) and oriental (A3 and A4) cultural worlds, and between figurative representations (Al and A4) and abstract representations (A2 and A3). Through the development of symmetrical relations, the reading of the advertisements may be regarded as an exercise in rationality. The second principle, that of the break in symmetry based on ironic inversion, is linked to the first so intricately that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them. The devaluation of the exclusive opposition between black and white, the paradoxical axiological investment (the dynamic process is associated with the axiological value ‘death’; the static world is associated, on the other hand, with the value ‘life’), the distortion of relations between cultural worlds, between the figurative and the abstract, between the signifier and the signified, all provoke effects of double meaning and invite the reader to undertake a simultaneous double reading. On the level of the utterance, binary opposition is resolved in conciliation (Black ‘&’ White), and on the level of the enunciation, the recognition of distortion produces complicity. Conciliation and complicity, which as we shall see are structurally equivalent, are thus the two key concepts of the campaign. In a general fashion, it seems as though the rigour of logical opposition is expressed only with a view to it being distorted, and the reader of the advertisements passes between ‘inverted content’ and ‘posited content’. This reversal,

of complicity

which defines the essential function of foundation of values in mythical tales (Levi-Strauss (1958)), here characterises, around the principles of symmetry and rupture, the ideological discourse which the brand emits about itself. The fertility of the semantic variations (which were yet further enriched in subsequent campaigns) contributes to the specification and valorisation of the Black & White identity: an identity destined for a specific target. Before being an empirical or critical reader, the target of the message is the addressee of the utterance as envisaged by the message strategy. For this reason, the reader cannot be considered in the analysis as a ‘given’, but rather as a ‘construct’. He is the effect of the meaning formed by the competences which create his image. Semiotics considers him as an empty space, the theoretical point of convergence of these competences. They alone can be described and categorised on the basis of discourse. Here, they are logical (ability to recognise the binary structure), cultural (full command of universes of values) and critical (recognition and derision of stereotypes). The empirical reader solicited by the campaign must therefore be defined by this combination of competences. Beyond any doubt, the target of this campaign is a member of a socio-economically elevated tier of French society. If the reader conforms to the discourse strategy which is addressing him, then the target will be attained and the new positioning of Black & White whisky, the central objective of the copy strategy, will be achieved.

2. From opposition

to conciliation

In accordance with the generative model outlined above, the advertisements will now be analysed layer by layer, starting with the elementary relations which form the categories, then examining the successive levels of enrichment which refine them in the process

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of ultimately producing the specific items of discourse which can be read. 2.1. Relations and elementary

of complicity black

279

(Bl

White Sl .

(WI

-52

values

The semiotic square is a graphic representation of elementary semantic categories which form a micro-universe of meaning. It is based upon the postulate that any unit of meaning (or semantic category) only is what it is (i.e., it can be identified and analysed as such) because of the body of differences which unite it to other categories and distinguish it from them. In this way, it is a model for virtual and predictable relations: the effective values of terms are determined by a system of logically organised connections of contradiction, contrariety and implication. Potential semantic positions and processes can therefore be entered quite naturally onto the semiotic square. This is not the place to engage in a theoretical and abstract defence of the model: we shall rather restrict ourselves to an examination of its methodological efficiency. For the semiotic square is an extremely convenient instrument for expressing, in rational terms, the flow of effects of meaning which form the coherence of a given discourse always assuming, of course, that the discourse in question lends itself to such a process without too high a conceptual cost. 3 This is clearly the case here for the semantic interplay between black and white. In the light of the schema in fig. 1 and the three variations (figs. 2, 3 and 4), it becomes apparent that independently of any subsequent semantic enrichment, the simple opposition of the relations of contrariety (of the type ‘either black or white’) gives way to complex relations (of the type ‘both black and white’). Let us examine things more closely. 3 The theoretical debate around the semiotic square involves linguists,logicians and semioticians. Various aspects are discussed in Landowski (ed.) (1981). Applications of the semiotic square in marketing communication are described in Floch (1983).

non-white

Fig.

(w)

non-black

1s)

1.

These semantic relations operate equally in terms of the visual and of the verbal. Before looking in detail at the various forms of actualization that they take, it is interesting to observe that the performances which they realize differ according to whether they are operating in visual or verbal form. The ‘family portrait’, in Al, shows the exclusive opposition of the terms ‘either black or white’, and actualizes the elementary value ‘death’. As for the text, it affirms the necessary compatibility of the terms in order to bring out the value ‘life’ (‘neither all black, nor all white’). Such a configuration may be represented on a semiotic square as below (dotted lines indicate positions and paths realized visually, continuous lines indicate positions and paths realized verbally) : “death”

“death’

Fig. 2. ‘Family’.

The image of the ‘tunnel’ illustrates the implication of white by black (of the type ‘if black, then white’), passing by the contradictory term of non-black (constituted by the intermediate zone of broken light which organises and directs the viewer’s vision). The text, however, posits the assertion of the negative value

D. Bertrand

280

‘death’ on the hypothesis term ‘all black’:

Fig.

/ The creation

of the exclusive

3. ‘Tunnel’.

Finally, in the case of A3, the ‘Yin-Yang’ image and the text which accompanies it echo each other, at least at the level of the actualization of semantic categories. The former asserts the compatibility of contraries (‘both black and white’), the latter the compatibility or subcontraries of negated contraries, (‘neither black nor white’). Out of such a dual combination emerge the euphoric values of ‘perfection’ and ‘life’.

I-----Bc____-wI ---------I x “perfection”

I----

- ---------I

w-

* B

“life”

Fig. 4. ‘Yin-Yang’.

The fourth advertisement, A4 (‘Martial Arts’), does not operate through a comparable choice of terms or of relations, except for its use of one of the ultimate values, ‘perfection’, and for this reason it does not prove to be germane to this level of analysis. Nevertheless, it should be said that it expresses the logical and semantic coherence which serves to unify the three other advertisements of the project. This study of the operation of the chromatic categories shows that, black or

o/complicity

white, terms which are in an exclusive position are marked negatively: they define the figurative universe of ‘death’ (the ‘wraiths’ of Al and the ‘despair’ of A2). Furthermore, we see clearly that the Manichean stereotype associations (i.e., black = obscurity = death and white = light = life) are utterly excluded. However, any category which functions as a union between terms (privileging the concept of relation) carries the positive value ‘life’, whether the relation be of the form ‘both.. . and’, ‘neither.. . nor’ or ‘if.. . then’. This is the fundamental value which is explicited by the underlining of the ampersand (‘& ‘) in the announcement of the brand name ‘Black & White’ within each advertisement. As a result, the brand name becomes semantically active, its complete syntagm (and only if it is complete) thereby becoming associated with the euphoric value of ‘life’. (It ought to be possible to envisage this underlining becoming a permanent feature of the brand name in all of its manifestations, e.g., labels, display stands, etcetera, in order to achieve an extension of this concept.) 2.2. A narrative

reading of the advertisements

We have seen that the two elementary values, life and death, are produced by the combination or the exclusion of the two chromatic categories, black and white. Considered on another level, however, they also constitute the terms of a process. In point of fact, each of the advertisements is capable of being read as an elliptical fragment of a more complete narrative, the ‘occult’ parts of which it is possible to extrapolate. The narrative logic accounting for the dynamic orientation of meanings - and thus explaining the predicted routes of our reading - is represented in semiotics according to a model known as the narrative schema. Derived from numerous studies of the age-old narratives of myths and folk-tales, the schema comprises four stages which are chronologically connected (--3) and

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logically presupposed contract ---) qualification t

( +),

/ The creation

as follows:

---) action ---) sanction t t

Not only is the narrative schema hypothetical, it is also theoretical: in other words, the discursive organisation of any given text may actualise only one stage of the schema, or exploit only a fragment of it, but such a fragment will only produce meaning through the relations uniting it with the presupposed ensemble, which operates as a predictive model. On a deeper, or rather more abstract, level, semiotic theory relates narrative sequences to two major classes of fundamental utterances which, formulated in different modes, form the sub-stratum out of which the status and definition of the essential actors of the narrative emerge. These are the utterances which express doing and which express being, and these two forms of utterance control narrative connections - which are in fact transformations of state - according to a straightforward principle: being 1 (initial state) ---) doing

(transformation)

---)

being

2 (f&l

state). The narrative scheza consists merely of the working through of this elementary transformation system, involving increasing levels of complexity. Although this means of analysis has been presented here in extremely summary terms, it should be abundantly clear that the four advertisements of the Black & White campaign represents a powerful polarisation of the two modal utterances (doing and being) constituting the core of any narrative. As a consequence, quite apart from the extreme economy of the messages, there is a strong effect of coherence and complementarity, reinforced by the structure, itself having both dynamic and static qualities, of the captions accompanying the images. Moreover, Al (‘Family’) and A4 (‘Martial Arts’) present a figurative grouping of the actors of the action (Al) or of the state (A4), with accompanying

281

of compliciiy

captions which are expressions of particular subjects: ‘ceux qui( . . .)’ (‘people who ( . . .)‘), while A2 (‘Tunnel’) and A3 (‘Yin-Yang’) concentrate rather on the actual doing (A2 is the adventure of an unspecified hero) or on the actual being (A4 is the state of a universal subject). The distinct treatment of the major axes of narrativity is further illuminated by an examination of the advertisements from the point of view of the twin modes of intersubjective relations which articulate narrative universes: polemical and contractual relations. The breakdown of the four advertisements is as follows: (Al)

‘people

(A2)

‘all (...)’

who

(A3)

‘noone

(...)’

(A4)

‘people

who

(...)’

( _, .)’

: conflict others conflict nature

with \ polemical

with

: peace with \ the world : peace with i I others

I

contractual

It therefore appears that, however succinct its form may be, through the narrative structure of the advertisements, Black & White grasps and embraces several essential syntactical articulations of the universe of the imagination, such as it is expressed in the cross-cultural dynamic of tales. It is hardly surprising that an image of universality results. Table 1 summarises the conclusions of the analysis of narrative readings of the advertisements, clearly bringing out the symmetrical effects which may be recognised, particularly with regard to the relation between visual and verbal forms. 2.3. Cultural

universes

On a ‘superficial’ level, that is to say the level involving the finest articulation of meaning, the structures which we have examined so far are committed to spatial, temporal and personal representations which define, visually and verbally, the specific universe of each

282 Table 1 Narrative

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organisation

of the four

Verbal

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advertisements

Action (doing); dynanism struggle life/death

Visual

/ The creaiion

of the quest;

State (being); and perfection

plenitude

of being;

serenity

Family

Tunnel

Yin-Yang

Martial

Actors (heroes of adventures and mythical heroes)

Acrion (doing) quest for salvation

Slate (being) philosophical concept of state

Actors (practioners of martial arts)

Programmes of action suggested (protection, threat,

Programme of action actualised (deliverance)

Permanence this state

Suspension of any programme (ritualised stance)

Subjecr indeterminate:

Subjec/ universal: ‘ no one ’

Subject ‘people

Utterance affirmation

Utterance affirmation

SubJecl ’ people

etc.)

particularised: who ’

Utlerance dynamic: interpellation

Unerance hypothesis

x dynamic: + conclusion

polemical

text. At this level, it is obvious that the four advertisements of our study share between them a certain number of emblematic figures derived both from occidental and from oriental cultures. Operating through structural equivalences, they extend the interplay of opposition and of combination originally built on black and white. Taking Al first, the western universe is shown by means of a figurative representation. Major figures of popular mythology, both of the past and of the present, have been brought together as if to pose for a pictorial stereotype, the ‘group photograph’. The characters in question have been culled from the leading cultural regions across a vast chronological and geographical field. The Arthurian knight represents the Celtic tradition of medieval Great Britain and France; the Sulpician angel stands for the triumph of the Catholic Church in France, Italy and Spain; the witch comes from the folktales of Eastern Europe; Darth Vador (from the mqvie Star B’ar.s) symbolises the America of science fiction; the ghost comes from the haunted castles of Scotland; and Zorro, finally, appears

of

static:

arts

particularised: who ’ static:

contractual

as the embodiment of the Hispanic universe. The elements of the decor play their role, too, of course: the setting of the haunted house the obvious place for the apparition of so many familiar phantoms - recalls, almost incidentally, the country of origin of the product, Scotch whisky. Note the importance of the figurative detail: as we shall see shortly, in the course of section 3, it is upon this detail that pictorial irony is constructed. It is quite possible to relate the visual content of A2 to the western universe, although here the representation of it is somewhat more tenuous. While it is true that the viewer is invited to reconstruct a figurative object (a tunnel, a cavern or the dungeons of a fortress), the formal rigour of the illustration nevertheless places it at the limit of abstraction. However, it can be said that the layout attracts the eye from the left towards the right, the imposed direction of western reading, thus the direction of the quest for meaning and, here, the quest for salvation! The oriental universe characterises both A3 and A4. Taking firstly the case of A3, it takes the form of an abstract representation: the

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emblem of ‘Yin and Yang’, or the perfect complementarity of the principles of male and female in the Taoist philosophy of Lao Tseu. This pure abstraction is associated with the figurative quality of Chinese ideograms. At the top left, F = ear, and 3 = the hidden part: the ‘back’ side of the ear, hidden and shadowy; principle of female illustrating darkness, the earth, the moon: Yin. At the bottom right, F = ear, and 2 = the illuminated part: the ‘front’ side of the ear, in the light; principle of male illustrating light, the sun: Yang. At the top right, tx = woman, and I> = young; young girl, figurative emblem of perfection (Miao). And at the bottom left, 4f = the turning wheel, the circle, destiny (Zhuan). Such a rigorously precise form of representation, albeit rarely decoded by readers of the advertisement, produced concretely on a sheet of finely woven ivory silk, has the effect of strengthening the rigorous and demanding brand image of Black & White. Advertisement A4 (‘Martial Arts’) also belongs, of course, to the oriental universe, but this time the representation is figurative, echoing the six characters of the ‘group photograph’ in Al. Like them, they could form fighting figures. But here, there is no antagonism: the image only focuses on and retains the final state of perfection. In the western universe, black and white are associated, directly or otherwise, with the Manichean conflict between good and evil; in the oriental universe, black and white are associated in complementary fashion with the non-Manichean concept of perfection. Extending the global effect of meaning produced on the level of narrative, a cultural reading of the axiologies (whether figurative or not) also aims to produce an impression of richness and universality from the articulation of black and white. Black & White manipulates the major cultural sets, and by combining them seeks to find and formulate its own identity.

of compliciry

2.4. Plastic treatment

283

and linguistic

treatment

An analysis of the content (or of the ‘signifiP ‘, in the terminology of Saussure) at its various levels of articulation clearly demonstrates that the proposed scan of semantic variations is not only directed towards extension and diversity, but also, and especially, towards a highlighting of relational networks: starting from the baldest and most clearcut opposition possible (black us. white), the four advertisements together elaborate a discourse which, besides its fruitfulness, seeks to be a discourse of conciliation. What do we find happening on the level of the expression (or the ‘signifiant ‘)? Could we find correlations between the categories emerging from analyses of the two levels, so forming what semioticians of the image and the poetic text term ‘semi-symbolic’ semiotics? Let us first study the plastic treatment (i.e., the visual signifiant). A first glance should confirm the principle of symmetry which we have already encountered. The advertisements form two opposing sets of two: Al and A4 are structured on horizontal and vertical axes, while A2 and A3 are based on circularity. However, it is not advisable to extend this relation so as to form a closed system, since the overall campaign was conceived as a series of advertisements, open to subsequent addition. It seems more profitable to explore the variety of chromatic treatments given to the relations between black and white. The ‘Family’ photo basically plays on values: variations of black running through a rich range of greys, while variations of white take in silver, pale yellow and gold. The ‘Tunnel’, on the other hand, plays exclusively on the contrast between black and white. The white patches on the black ground become progressively denser until they lead the eye to the white ground. The ‘Yin-Yang’ also plays on contrast, but this time there is an interplay of grounds and lines. The passage from black to white is, then, sometimes submitted to a grad-

284

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ual treatment, sometimes to a progressive treatment by category and sometimes to a direct treatment by category (such as outlines). Such diversity as this might appear to be a disparity, spoiling the degree of coherence established elsewhere. This impression seems to be particularly strengthened in the case of the ‘Yin-Yang’, which appears to be an entirely graphic treatment, as opposed to the photographic treatments of the ‘Family’ and the ‘Tunnel’. Furthermore, the ‘Family’ is the only visual to extend the colour range beyond black-grey-white. It would be preferable for the woven silk background of the ‘Yin-Yang’ in the original to appear clearly in the final form of the advertisement. Leaving these not unimportant concrete details aside, the diversity of plastic treatments of the black-white relation corresponds to the diversity of the semantic treatments of ‘black’ and ‘white’, and in this way a first step is taken towards a semi-symbolic closure of the advertisements. But, it is in the relation between the plastic and linguistic dimensions that the correlations are most meaningful. Let us examine the utterances of the first three advertisements: Al:

‘Ceux qui sent tout noir ou tout blanc, sont-ifs vraiment de bons vivants?’ (Can people who are all black or all white ever live it up?)

A2:

‘Si route la page Ptait noire, il n’y aurait plus dhspoir. ’ (If the entire page were black, there would be no hope left.)

A3:

‘Personne n’est tout noir, personne n’est tout blanc. ’ (Nobody is all black, nobody is all white.)

In have and into

the French originals, these utterances as a common characteristic a prosodic syntactic signifiant which brings them the realm of poetry, or rather of the

of compliary

slogan or the popular saying. Each one is composed of two propositional units, with rhythmic structures which are symmetrical and phonetic structures strongly marked by assonance. The assonances are found in ‘blanc’ - ‘vivants’ (/&“a/) in Al and ‘noire’ - ‘espoir ’ (/wa-wa/) in A2. In A3, a comparable effect is achieved through repetition of the opening syntagm. The syllable counts of the rhythms are, respectively, 8/8 for Al, 7/7 for A2 and 5/5 for A3. (It should be noted that in A2, we assume that in the word ‘route ‘, even in the case of silent reading, the unvoiced final vowel is elided, in accordance with the rhythms of spoken French, and not pronounced, as in poetry.) Furthermore, the uneven rhythms of utterances A2 and A3 contradict the overriding and ubiquitous principle of ‘evenness’, which lend a certain Verlainesque lightness to the rather heavy binary structure and tend to facilitate perception of the signifiant. Finally, there is the important role played by negativity, the expression of which could be said to correspond, in a Baudelairian manner, to the chromatic value of the colour black, through extension of the synesthesic relations between sounds and colours. It can therefore be seen that a certain number of correlations exist - at least partially - between the categories which organise the levels of signifiant and signifik. In the three advertisements which reached final form (the exclusion of A4 is again notable), the semi-symbolic coding appears particularly effective. It is indeed striking that the exploitation of the chromatic relations between black and white is both parallel and equivalent to that between the semantic relations of these same categories at the deep structural level. Just as we set out the semantic ‘possibilities’ on the semiotic square, so here, too, we can set out the different possibilities of relations between the same values in the visual world (e.g., contrast, colour values, etcetera). This equivalence, as we have seen, also integrates

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the linguistic signifiant and, in an even clearer fashion, the exploitation of axiological values (i.e., moral, spiritual or aesthetic) between black and white at the level of the respective cultural universes. These correlations, which may be subjected to minute analysis, are in fact grasped synchretistically and simultaneously when the text is read. Far from being gratuitous, they constitute the density and, hence, the efficiency of the message, the perception of which will be even more evident as the same ‘deep’ categories organise the various levels of plastic and linguistic signifiant and signifiP.

3. How to create complicity 3. I. Diversions As we have seen, this campaign is not in any way centered on the object: unlike other advertisements for whisky, it glorifies neither the production process of whisky nor the act of consumption of whisky. On the other hand, it has the effect of bringing the brand name into focus, and demonstrates how fertile it is semantically. However, in these terms, the cultural apparatus employed and the message it conveys could seem to be disproportionately ambitious, if the effect were not corrected - at least partially - by a mode of enunciation and contextualisation which solicits a parodic use of the objects of reference, one which is diverted from its essential purpose and from its significance at the zero degree level of information. Such a ‘diversion’ is accomplished by a series of systematic ruptures between images and texts produced by the crossing and association of heterogeneous references. Hence, in Al, the image represents several major western figurative universes, accumulating periods, genres and stories to form a Potpourri of mythological jumble: the image itself destroys the very credibility of the sin-

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gularity of their adventures. Further, the restriction which is imposed by the phrasal subject of the text (‘Ceux qui ( . . . )‘, i.e., ‘ People who ( . . .)‘), contrasting with the heroic figures, introduces a rupture, and ‘brings down’ the plane of mythical fiction to the level of an ordinary anecdote of everyday life. In A2, the adventure suggested by the image is from the fantasy genre or the horror story, but the textual utterance starting with the words ‘Si toute la page(. . .)’ (‘If the entire page ( . . .)‘) relates the global meaning to the material medium through which it is expressed. The ‘reality’ of the tunnel - or at any rate the illusion of reality implied by the figurative representation of the tunnel - is reduced to the materiality of the printed page: to what, in fact, it truly is. Finally, the abstract Taoist figure (A3) and the sophisticated philophical thought which it conveys in its original context are also diverted in the accompanying caption: it has the status of a quotation or the fixed form of a nugget of popular wisdom, such as is found in folk sayings. These observations demonstrate that while Black & White is associated with the concepts of life and perfection, as well as with the universality of narrative and cultural universes, it is also, certainly on a deeper level, linked to the parodic, alienated and playful manipulation of the same universes. The reader is called upon to exercise a critical and interpretative reading. 3.2. Figures of irony How does alienation operate and what is its function? I contend that it forms part of the general phenomenon of irony, which has been frequently studied by philosophers, literary critics and linguists, 4 and rather less so

4 See in particular (1964).

Kerbrat-Orecchioni

(1976)

and Jankelevitch

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by semioticians. 5 Irony is a phenomenon of discourse which is difficult to describe, because, by definition, it is in the very nature of irony to cover its tracks. However, it plays an essential role in any attempt to fully understand the recent developments in advertising discourse, employing infinite variations on quotations and seeking effects of complicity. It is irony, or at least the exploitation of certain of its components, which upsets here the stability of the forms we saw being established in the first part of this analysis. It is through irony that the rigours of symmetry are challenged, by planting recognisable points of rupture, yet avoiding the complete destruction of symmetry. This is because, as Kerbrat-Orecchionni (1976: 15) has shown, the two superimposed semantic levels present in any ironic utterance are always maintained and ‘neither one must ever obscure the other’. Ranging from knowing chumminess to sly insinuation, irony is uncontestably a complex form of discourse which is worth taking time to analyse. We shall consider three general characteristics which will serve to describe irony in broad outline, and to pinpoint its particular effectiveness in advertising discourse, three figures which correspond in semiotic conceptualisation to the three enunciative positions which are simultaneously involved in the process: the ironic enunciator (El), the target enunciator (E2) and the interpretative enunciator (E3). (a) Irony is a quotation: that is to say that in his utterance, the ironist (El), either through allusion or parody, draws upon an axiological universe, which may be collective or individual, established in other discourse than his own, and the values of which he neither assumes nor endorses. ‘Intellectual distance’ goes hand in hand with ‘non-acceptance’. In other words, the enunciator functions through

5 An extremely Aage Brandt

succinct (1984).

account

is given

by Hamon

and

de

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‘knowing’ (his discourse is both omniscient and true: he is ‘demanding’) and simultaneously through ‘not believing’ (essentially sceptical, his discourse is remote from any affective involvement: he seeks to remain aloof from emotion and from its cognitive avatar, credulity). (b) Irony is inversion and denial, since it asserts the opposite of what it actually says, even as it says it. Herein lies its anti-phrasal nature by which it is defined in traditional rhetoric. By the same token, it appears as an indirect instrument for denunciation, its direction going from the positive (clearly stated) towards the negative (left to be understood). Consequently, it presupposes a ‘target’ (E2) which it defines as an untruthful enunciator. Present or otherwise in the ironic picture, individual or collective, capable of merging with El (in the case of self-irony) or with E3 (in the case of direct conversational attack), E2 represents the enunciator who assumes the axiological universe of reference. (c) Irony, finally, is a mode of conciliution of different subjectivities. It calls for an addressee (E3), who is endowed by El with a remarkable capacity for interpretation. As Jankelevitch (1964: 60) has noted, ‘Irony does not seek to be believed, only to be understood.’ But at the same time, it conceals. The ironist therefore assumes that his audience is capable of adequately reconstructing both the quotation and the denial, while the various language markers asserting them (mimicry, intonation, stress, etcetera) are very frequently absent. Let us consider further this special relation between El and E3, which is both elitist and integrative: E3 is literally advanced to the status of assent. More than any other form of discourse, irony calls upon the addressee, demands him to make a complex interpretative construction, on the basis of a confidence which El has postulated. Assent, therefore, takes place on the basis of a ‘secret agreement’ - a form of complicity - the im-

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plicit solidarity of the subjects. It is in this way that, along with the exclusion of E2, irony is aiming for the constitution of a semantic consensus, and upon that basis, that of an enunciative communion (solidarity of El and of E3). A typology of different forms of ironic activity could be envisaged within this framework: subsets of ironic discourse may be discerned depending upon whether one or other of the characteristics described here (quotution, denial, conciliation) is exploited more manifestly whereas another is in virtual form, and depending, too, on the particular manifestations of enunciative stances, having the form of individual or collective actors. ‘The irony of fate’, as well as ‘self-irony’, and including all the various aggressive or playful variations, could then be categorised according to a homogeneous conceptual basis. But that must be the subject of a separate study. In the domain of contemporary advertising discourse, it is easy to imagine the possibilities afforded by ironic manipulation - a forriori when - as in France - comparative advertising is prohibited by law! In the current example, the Black & White campaign is neither allusively polemic nor implicitly denigratory. It does, nonetheless, contain an ironic dimension, but it only really brings into play the third component of our analysis - that which aims at creating complicity. 3.3. Generating

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course, not aimed at particular people, merely inserts a playful edge into the cliches. At this level of ironic communication, polemical effects are very blurred, if not non-existent. On the other hand, the forms of discourse adopted by El envisage and call upon a particularly active reader-accomplice, who is able to simultaneously recognise the universes of values which have been set up and participate in distancing them. Thus the advertisements particularly favour this relation between El and E3. The addressee of the message is invited not only to show his sophisticated discursive and cultural competence, but also be able to recognise in the enunciator the cognitive expertise of a competent manipulator. He is invited to partake of the pleasure of shared knowledge. The irony, light of touch and inconsequential, thus consists of generating a reader of a particular type: one who is endowed with the ability to recognise the different facets of the discourse of image and text, and who takes his satisfaction from the exercise of a successful piece of communication rather than from the content of the message. 6 A form of double recognition which is at the basis of one of the aspects of aesthetic communication - the enunciator is identified as an author, and the addressee is created, identified and differentiated as an informed ‘amateur’, euphorically mastering, along with his accomplice, the implicit rules of the game.

a reader 4. Conclusions

The ruptures in semantic continuity imposed principally by the contrasting relation between the verbal and the visual in each advertisement certainly constitute the vestiges of denial. However, its force is weakened. The universes of belief which are mutually ‘denounced’ cannot, of course, be assigned to any one particular enunciator. E2, the target enunciator, designates the collective bearer of a body of stereotyped cultural knowledge (fictional, dramatic or philosophical); ironic dis-

This process, focalising and actualising the intersubjective relation of the reading act as such, leads to two conclusions, one concern6 The perspective arising out of this analysis was also confirmed by the Black & White campaign which ran throughout summer in 1987. During this period, the ‘Yin-Yang’ advertisement was used to launch an interactive public videotex (Minitel) service: ‘Log on to 3615, and type ‘Black’ (or type ‘White’). Nobody is all black, nobody is all white.’ The service consisted of games, tests and a chat-line.

288

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ing the internal coherence of the campaign, the other touching on the orientation of this type of advertising discourse. It can be seen that an equivalence takes shape between conciliation and complicity. The latter clearly appears, on the level of the enunciation, as the transfer of the relation ‘both/and’ or ‘neither/nor’, which defines basic organisation on the level of the utterance. Such a structural equivalence between the two levels ensures the coherence of the message. Going yet further, values situated on the life/death axis (and the perfection /imperfection axis) refer back to the individual universe. On the other hand, values situated on the nature/ culture axis refer back to the collective universe. So, it is imperatively through the former that the different advertisements in the campaign are organised. This choice is both interesting and original when one considers that in comparison other advertising campaigns for whisky are, on the contrary, situated at the level of nature/culture values. Stories of the manufacturing process, of travel, of tradition, etcetera, are all themes from the collective universe which go hand in hand with a collective enunciation. More often than not, this consists of saying the cliches together, of participating in and adhering to the values accepted by one and all. In this Black & White campaign, the glorification of the individual universe goes hand in hand with the individual enunciation. The mechanism of irony produces a meaning which is neither given nor acquired, but which remains to be created. The effect of individualisation, which looms on the horizon of values, is reinforced by the mode of the reading itself. It is a widespread appeal to join the ‘elitist’ club of those who have mastered the mechanism of irony. By extending this conclusion, a more general orientation of contemporary advertising discourse may be seen. It is now commonly accepted that what distinguishes and differentiates a company today in the eye of the

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public is its communication. As the quality of products becomes increasingly standardised, a company wishing to distinguish itself must exploit the cultural field, which by its very nature resists any attempt at standardisation. Hence the growing importance of business patronage. In this respect, the Black & White campaign appears particularly interesting. In getting away from product information, it attaches a value to contact between the creator and the spectator, and to a certain extent personalises it. By the same token, the commercial institution is simulating a detachment from the very message which is supposed to promote its products. The campaign ascribes to itself the role of a ‘delegator’, and seeks in this way to be of greater value through the intersubjective encounter it has made possible rather than through direct promotion. It glorifies itself rather through the exchange it allows on the symbolic level of meanings than through what it proposes directly. The image which the campaign thus gives of its institution is indeed that of a patron: it promotes both the encounter and a euphoric complicity of subjects.

References Bibliographie semiotique, 1982. In: Actes semiotiques - Bulletin. Paris: EHESS-CNRS. V no. 22. Coquet, J.-C., 1982. L’ecole de Paris. In: J.-C. Coquet (ed.), Semiotique, I’ecole de Paris. Paris: Hachette. Coquet, J.-C., 1985. Le discours et son sujet I. Paris: Klincksieck. Coquet, J.-C., 1986. Le discourse et son sujet II. Paris: Klincksieck. Eco, U., 1979. Lector in fabula. The role of the reader. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Floch. J.-M., 1983. Le carre semiotique: Pour une topographie du sens. In: I.R.E.P., Semiotique et publicite II. Paris: I.R.E.P. Floch, J.-M., 1985. Petites mythologies de I’oeil et de l’esprit. Pour une semiotique plastique. Paris and Amsterdam: Had&s-Benjamin. Greimas, A.J. and J. CourtCs. 1979. Semiotique. Dictionnaire raisonne de la theotie du langage. Paris: Hachette.

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Greimas, A.J. and J. Court& (eds.), 1984. Semiotique. Dictionnaire raisonne de la theorie du langage. Tome II: D&bats et complements. Paris: Hachette. Hamon, P. and P. de Aage Brandt, 1984. home. In: Greimas and Court& (eds.), Semiotique. Dictionnaire raisonne de la theorie du language. Paris: Hachette, 125-127. Jankelevitch, V., 1964. L’ironie. Paris: Flammarion (collection Champs).

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Kerbrat-Orecchionni, sCmiologie. Lyon: Landowski, E. (ed.), tiques - Bulletin. Levi-Strauss, C., 1958.

289 C.. 1976. L’ironie. In: Linguistique et PUL, 9-45. 1981. Le carre semiotique. Actes semioParis: EHESS-CNRS. IV, no. 17. Anthropologie structurale I. Paris: Plon.