About 90 per cent of advertisements are not “culturally congruent”, William D'Silva, Professor of Communication and Social Sciences at the D.J. Academy of Design, Coimbatore, said here on Saturday.
Mr. D'Silva was the resource person for a workshop on “semiotics, structuralism and research methods” organised by the Department of History at St. Aloysius College. Giving examples of advertisements of international brands, he said that most advertisements do not resonate with the people in India.
The imagery and symbolism of many advertisements was derived from biblical tradition.He illustrated by quoting in detail the semiotic analyses of two advertisements. One was the advertisement for a perfume, which depicted a topless woman holding the product in front of her body and behind her was a serpent. The caption of the advertisement urged viewers to let themselves get tempted.
The symbolism employed was that of Eve, who was tempted by the snake to eat the forbidden fruit, in the Garden of Eden. Mr. D'Silva said the Indian mythological tradition was replete with the symbol of the serpent, but it did not connote “temptation” as in the biblical tradition. The second example was that of a stick chewing gum, which was shared by a young man and woman sitting on either side of the aisle of a bus travelling through beautiful landscape. The imagery was reminiscent of a Christian wedding in a church.
