Resemiotization and discourse practices in selected television advertisements in South Africa

Abstract

This study demonstrates how advertisers re-voice and re-perform others' gestures and actions (Prior and Hengst, 2010). The focus is on the mobility of semiosis across boundaries and practices. It uses Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001, 2006) Semiotic Remediation/Resemiotization (Iedema, 2003, 2010; Prior and Hengst, 2010) as the theoretical/analytical framework. The idea is to explore how semiotic elements are remediated through intertextual references and multimodality and how semiotic remediation is employed in the process of re-creation and re-purposing of objects and messages in the selected television advertisements. Drawing on MTN, Vodacom, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Nando's television advertisements, the study shows how popular, historical, cultural and political discourse is reproduced and re-lived as a creative idea in the selected television advertisements in the process of re-branding. In this regard, resemiotization or semiotic remediation is seen as social practice and an integral part of the marketing strategy in the South African television advertising industry. Upon examination, the study establishes that some selected television advertisements have been extensively re-worked and re-purposed. Therefore, resemiotization and/or semiotic remediation are found to be resourceful tools for the marketing discourse. Thus, the study found that South African advertising discourse depends primarily on societal discourses such as politics, history, cultural traditions and popular culture as its base for creativity. In terms of language use in South African advertising, the study has revealed that television advertisements are moving towards a localised language practice and/or localised English.