Kitsch, irony, and consumerism: A semiotic analysis of Diesel advertising 2000-2008 - Essay Example

Kitsch, irony, and consumerism: A semiotic analysis of Diesel advertising 2000-2008 Advertising for the Diesel clothing label, like all advertising,is attempting to sell their target consumer a specific product. Like many other advertisers, they attempt to seduce the consumer with glossy ads of beautiful people wearing beautiful clothing made by diesel. However, Diesel marketers do not use market research to pre-test or post-track their ad campaigns as is customary in the marketing industry (Arning 22).

Diesel advertisers apply a “kitsch aesthetic and a camp sensibility” to their advertising through the use of allegorical strategy and figurative representation (Arning 21). The Diesel Company is a global image advertiser that produces ad campaigns twice a year rather than the trendy digital, interactive advertising used by their competitors (Arning 22). With styles reminiscent of 1950s advertising, Diesel ads invests most of its media in polished, ostentatious print ads that many contemporary magazines have long since abandoned (Arning 22).

No other brand currently organizes and brings to mind artificial philosophy more astutely than Diesel or manages to commune symbolically with their consumer market (Arning 23). The tagline ‘‘For Successful Living’’ remains its slogan and Diesel remains the “postmodern brand” whose excellence is evident in the way it incorporates the edifying logic of late models of entrepreneurship (Arning 23). The unique ability of the company to proliferate the qualities of shoppers through symbolism while simultaneously denouncing the enterprise allows the company to salvage extinct social mores and present them as authentic (Arning 23).

Diesel established its trade by focusing its criticism on the foibles within the fashion industry and plays on humanity’s doubts about the future to promote their own conceptualization of what the future might bring (Arning 37). Diesel ad campaigns like “Take Action” and “Global Warming Ready” play significantly on political diatribe to promote their agenda as one of eclectic modernism that transcends even the most eco-friendly companies (Arning, 36, 38). Other campaigns like “The Future: A Musical to Believe In” present the future as a celebration of humanity and have pronounced camp and kitsch attributes (Arning 40-41).

Representing the future in this manner exposes Diesel as a constructor of “futurology” (Arning 41). The lighthearted entertainment presented in this ad is in keeping with variety shows such as vaudeville, burlesque, or comedic opera (Arning 41). Deisel’s penchant advertising in the vein of modern musicals, movies, and other popular media draws it into the same category as cabaret, operettas, and vaudeville revues that used limericks and comedic sketches to convey their stories (Arning 41).

Diesel has implemented an approach of skepticism towards the future that marketers and advertisers have incorporated into their ad campaigns and this approach has successfully set Diesel apart from their competitors (Arning 42). The incorporation of images of “endism and loss of faith in the possibility of progress”, which implements a retrospective view that seems to add a historic element to the present (Arning 43). Their ad campaigns are dramatic and their marketing department applies innovative techniques to track the progress of their ads (Arning 44).

The kitsch and camp elements of their ads draws a unique market share singular to their line. Diesel ads dramatize their appeal while mocking the competition for doing the same in a trendy fashion that ads witticism, narcissism, and beauty into each print campaign. Works Cited Arning, C. “Kitsch, irony, and consumerism: A semiotic analysis of Diesel advertising 2000–2008.” Semiotica 174–1/4 (2009): 21–48.