Marketing discourse and semiotics

In everyday life we are regularly exposed to, and interact with, many different forms of advertising. For example, through television and radio commercials, billboards, direct (or junk) mail, and carefully staged large-scale public relations exercises, advertisers draw upon different narratives and discourses to communicate the benefits of their brands, products, and services to us as potential consumers. Within the context of marketing, discourses serve as the places where the advertiser and the consumer communicate, interact and engage in choreographed events within the position of a particular semantic context (Oswald, 2012). Such advertisements are often comprised of several interactive elements which may draw upon images, photographs, music, societal observations, paralanguage, language, scenarios and situations, and the existing preconceptions of consumers in order to spread an advertising message in an effective and entertaining way (Cook, 2001).