Fear appeals in marketing communications of banks and insurance companies in the continuum of dramatic-tragic situations: The Semiotic Perspective

Christo Kaftandjiev,Elena Shustova

doi:10.5937/intrev1802083k

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to analyze from semiotic standpoint financial ads and other marketing communications, based on fear appeals, during an economic crisis. A matrix which combines content and formal (sign) elements, forms the semiotic perspectives on which the article draws the conclusions. The content (pragmatic) elements are the fear appeals. The formal elements are the different signs and semantic concepts by which admen express fear appeals in their dramatic and tragic hypostases. The analysed semiotic concepts used in advertising and other marketing communications are sign systems of body and face; stylistic figures (iconic comparison, iconic metaphors, iconic hyperbole, iconic opposition, iconic allusion); semantic concepts (redundancy and intertextuality) and, some syntactic concepts as context and Ambient. One of the main conclusions is that advertising and other marketing communications of some world companies are so developed and sophisticated that, for a proper analysis of their campaigns, new semiotic concepts may have to be introduced. The main paper's contribution to the existing semiotic literature is that any semiotic notion is not only an abstract phenomenon, but also a communicative approach or even communicative strategy. Communicators use these approaches actively and skilfully in the different communications, including advertising.

Highlights

Ad Appeals Ad appeal is the psychological motif that “pulls” the customers to the advertised product/service
The following topics are discussed in this article: psychology and advertising, ad appeals; psychoanalysis and advertising; Abraham Maslow and advertising; fear appeals; financial crisis; semiotics – iconic metaphors, intertextuality, semantic field; theory of archetypes; eschatological myths
In ads we find dramatic appeals and appeals, by which admen interpret reality in a tragic way – like in ancient Greek tragedy

Summary

Literature Review

The following topics are discussed in this article: psychology and advertising, ad appeals; psychoanalysis and advertising; Abraham Maslow and advertising; fear appeals; financial crisis; semiotics – iconic metaphors, intertextuality, semantic field; theory of archetypes; eschatological myths. The subconscious (archetype appeals) and the psychology of emotional influence in advertising are studied in Robert Heath’s book He provides an in-depth analysis of such important topics as attention memory; emotion and consciousness; the subconscious and communication; emotions and attention, the Subconscious Seduction Model (SSM), etc. (Witte and Allen, 2000) In another study the authors examined the existing scientific literature regarding fear appeals used in advertising. The same author explores important aspects related to the use of rhetorical (stylistic) and visual (iconic) figures such as metaphors and metonymies in another study. He raises important questions concerning the problem, if visual is isomorphic to verbal. We consider Meletinsky’s book to be very important because it examines in detail eschatological myths (the myths of the last days.) These myths are activated in times of human crises – wars, natural disasters, etc. and financial crises. (Meletinsky, 2014)

Main Text

ConclusionS