‘Foundation’ Story of Turkey’s İşbank and the Republic of Turkey: A Corporate Advertising Analysis Using Greimas’ Actantial Model and a Cultural Perspective

Abstract

This study aims to examine the basic signs of the corporate advertising theme ‘Foundation’ of Turkey’s İşbank according to its cultural perspective. Thus, a two-stage analysis was performed. First, a semiotic analysis using Greimas’ Actantial Model as a reference is employed, adapting the stages and steps of narrative analysis to the selected advertisement. This method was used to analyze the visual, written, and verbal codes of the corporate advertising, thus seeking to discover the hidden meanings on the surface from a deeper, more holistic perspective. At the second stage, corporate advertising is considered from the cultural perspective and analyzed under the headings of rituals, symbols, values, and heroes. This analysis reveals how the meaning embedded in corporate advertising was created in the form of storytelling. From these two stages of analysis, the findings obtained using these two methods indicate association between the bank and Republic of Turkey. It is recognized that the foundation story of Turkey’s İşbank is an allegory of the foundation of Republic of Turkey. At the second stage’s analysis, İşbank’s film advertisement was successful in conforming to the cultural perspective. Thus, a rich meaning was created by employing rituals, symbols, values, and heroes within the framework of storytelling from a cultural perspective.