LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 6 June 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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Fathoming Hidden Strategies of Two Indian Government Print Ads through Semiotic and Critical Discourse Analysis


Piar Chand, Ph.D., Shivani Chaudhary, M.Phil. and
I. D. Sharma, Ph.D.

Abstract

Copywriters make use of culture of consumers to manipulate them by propagating ideologies. The consumers get carried away by these magical tropes as they know little about how media spreads ideologies.

The present paper addresses this problem and analyses two print adverts issued by Indian Government which appeared on the occasion of National Girl Child’s Day but in different years.

It studies power relationship between media and consumers through the way media dominates the mind with the use of ideology. Semiotic and Critical Discourse Analysis have been used as methodological tools.

It has been found that media exploits and re-emphasizes the existing beliefs of people even in those adverts which are meant to bring a social change. In both the adverts under study, woman occupies a limited space. On the one hand the visual of the first ad is effective since it shows how much a woman has to do; on the other, she appears as a woman in clutches without any significance attached to her own being and dignity. The second advert is highly ironical since in making an attempt to save the girl child, it is only promoting males.

Keywords: Advertising, Strategies, Culture, Semiotic Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis.

Introduction

Advertising is the essence of capitalist society where abundance exists. Since liberalization, privatization and globalization have given an impetus to the growing competition in selling and thereby promotion of goods and services, advertisers are busy looking for lucrative ways to attract customers. The copywriters try to attain the desired goal through the magical language and paralanguage of advertising. They constantly make use of culture of customers trying to manipulate it in the way they want by creating new demands and needs and also by propagating ideologies which happens at an unconscious level. Customers usually get carried away by these magical tropes since they know little about how media spreads ideologies.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Piar Chand, Ph.D.
Professor & Head
Department of Management and Social Sciences
NIT
Hamirpur 177005
Himachal Pradesh
India
piaru@nitham.ac.in

Shivani Chaudhary, M.Phil.
Research Scholar (English)
Department of Management & Social Sciences
NIT
Hamirpur 177005
Himachal Pradesh
India
shivanisoni27@gmail.com

I. D. Sharma, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Vallabh Government Degree College
Mandi 174401
Himachal Pradesh
India
idsmandi@yahoo.com



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