> Today's consciousness wranglers, in contrast, are a far more upbeat lot.
> Weaned on the latest cultural-studies theory, which holds that Disneyland
> is a text, and which refuses to privilege Graham Greene over the Jolly
> Green Giant, they hardly feel they are slumming when they make the jump to
> the dark side. After all, if you're going to write a dissertation on the
> semiotics of Playtex, you might as well get paid for it -- by Playtex.
>
> "Once clients look at things in a semiotic way, they never go back," says
> Virginia Valentine, president of Semiotic Solutions, whose clients include
> Coca-Cola, Mazda, Safeway, and SmithKline Beecham. "My own degree is in
> critical theory and literature. The theory base we use comes from the
> French, from Saussure and Levi-Strauss, with a healthy dose of Levinson,
> British cultural studies, and Russian formalists, who were of course the
> great theorists of carnival ..." Her voice drifts off knowingly. "We're
> very proud of what we've been able to do here. We have, I believe, taken
> the whole body of semiotic theory and adapted it to consumer brands. We've
> fit the semiotic project within the commercial process without losing the
> rigor, without losing the systematic approach, and still staying true to
> the theoretical principles."
>
> Valentine explains how this works in practice. "It's all about how brands
> make meaning," she says. "And how meaning is literally deconstructed and
> reconstructed. It's quite fascinating, actually. We've worked on a number
> of retail projects. And what we've found is that everything signifies.
> Everything. Whether it's sanitary protection or the interior design of a
> supermarket or the viscosity of a product, it will all signify. And
> advertising is only going to work if it taps into a ready-made coding
> system in the consumer's head."
>
> I ask Valentine if she is troubled by the fact that many of her favorite
> theorists developed their theories as a weapon against capitalism; that the
> interpretive tools on which she relies were originally intended to expose
> the structure of advertising as a system of power and oppression. "It's an
> interesting point," she says. "It's certainly true that my understanding of
> brands is essentially a Marxist understanding. It has angered some
> academics that this theory, which was originally presented as revealing the
> strategies behind advertising and marketing, is now being used in the
> service of advertising and marketing."
-- bill