Semiotics of Advertising

We will discuss possible approaches to the use of semiotics and semantics and pragmatics in the analysis of advertising discourses in different English language media, e.g. print, TV spots, billboards. We will dap into the rhetoric and stylistics of consumption. The aim of this session is twofold: By analysing advertising discourse, we want to gain insight into the construction of advertisements and at the same time provide a means for a de-manipulative look at the discursive construction of social and cultural identities and realities. This session leads into the linguistic and semiotic analysis of advertising texts and images using a constructionist approach, combined with the analytical framework of social semiotics, visual design, rhetoric, stylistics, text linguistics, and critical discourse analysis.