Cultural Context and Design of Lexus Campaign - Essay Example

Cultural Context and Design in Lexus Campaign In putting together an advertising campaign for a particular product or service, advertisers are typically only focused on how that advertisement can work to better promote their product or service over their competition. Subtle clues within the action or dialogue can indicate how people react to specific behaviors that may be receiving a new definition thanks to advertisements. The attitudes and philosophy of a given company can often be determined by the advertising they put out. By examining the visual clues, subliminal messages and other aspects of the ad design, not only can the careful observer learn much about the company, but can also assess how the advertisement is impacting or contributing to the general thought and behavior of society as a means of assessing the campaign’s overall effectiveness. These elements are also used to help unite an advertising effort across a variety of media to emphasize a given message. This examination of the signs of a given advertising campaign is what Roland Barthes referred to as semiotic analysis. This process of looking at an advertisement for its deeper cultural meanings and associations enables us to gain a better understanding of the relationship that develops between the product or the advertiser and the viewer or consumer. After examining a little bit about what Roland Barthes meant by semiotic analysis, this process will be applied to the 2010 Lexus advertising campaign to determine what Lexus is attempting to communicate and how this message changes from one form of advertising to another. Roughly speaking, semiotics refers to the process of analyzing the ‘signs’ of a given culture for indications of meaning at varying levels. “Semiology therefore aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification” (Barthes, 1964). Thus, semiotics refers to language, image, color, shape, expression, placement and a number of other contextual clues that combine together in some unique way so as to convey a sense of meaning to a particular cultural group. To discuss these various elements, Barthes and others have provided us with specific terms that help to keep things within an understandable framework. The primary elements that will be concentrated on in this study include signifiers, signified and sign. The sign is the compound element formed by the signifier and the signified. The signifier is “the form which the sign takes” while the signified is “the concept it represents” (Chandler, 2006). While there has been a shift in the way these terms are commonly used, the signifier can be said to be the most basic idea and the signified takes on a broader meaning. Thus, for every image and every word, there is some further meaning, the form of which is interpreted based upon their use in combination with other forms or words forming a denotation and connotation. Like the signified and signifier, the denotative message and connotative message combine together to suggest a deeper ideological myth. “Barthes’ notion of myth is that of a socially constructed reality that is passed off as natural. Myth is a mode of signification in which the signifier is stripped of its history, the form is stripped of its substance, and then it is adorned with a substance that is artificial, but which appears entirely natural” (Ryder, 2004). The depth of the meaning received depends entirely upon the degree to which the message sender (the advertiser) and the message receiver (the consumer) share the same cultural myths and understandings as well as the advertiser’s ability to successfully combine images so as to connect with a particular ideological concept (Chandler, 2006). The 2010 Lexus campaign uses these concepts to communicate a message of playful adult adventure with its new retractable hard-top convertible. This is fully brought to life in the television commercial entitled “Scream”. In this commercial, a slightly elevated beat played on drums and electric guitar are used as background music while a series of individuals are seen with their mouths wide open in obvious excitement as their car, a Lexus IS 250 C convertible in silver, red and royal blue, screams around city corners and smokes tires on top of a city parking garage. The commercial opens with a side view of a man in this pose while the rest of the screen is kept black and the sound of an engine revving up is heard in conjunction with the start of the music. The silver car appears first as it screams along a city street, the driver hidden by mirrored windows that enable the viewer to imagine themselves in the driver’s seat. This scene is shifted out in a stuttering fashion with the image of a red IS with the top down and an African American couple inside, the male at the driver’s seat, both with their mouths open as the car accelerates through an intersection. This is replaced by the sight of a royal blue IS with the top up that pulls around yet another corner, driven by a single white man driving with a permanent scream of excitement. The camera follows this vehicle through the city until it is finally seen screaming to a smoking stop from reverse at the top of a city parking garage. As the car goes through its paces, the voice-over informs the viewer that “this is liberation and acceleration. This is the Lexus IS Line.” The ad finishes with a black screen and voice-over informing the viewer of special lease options currently available at their local Lexus dealer. The heart-pumping music helps to inform semiotic analysis of the facial expressions on the people seen as being something of extreme excitement rather than fear. The freedom of movement expressed in the urban setting as a result of this vehicle suggests, through semiotics, that this car will enable you to escape the typical urban bumper to bumper constraints of the modern city. Through these types of messages, the commercial is very exciting and enticing in encouraging a favorable opinion of the car while encouraging the viewer to action by suggesting a limited timeframe in which they might anticipate receiving a good deal. A print advertisement for the car is displayed in landscape orientation to introduce a similar shift from the typical experience that is conveyed in the television spot. The advertisement consists of approximately two-thirds image and one-third dark grey text box with sans-serif all-cap print that reads “objects in the mirror may appear jealous.” The simplicity of the font signifies the concepts of no encumbrances, no complications that are associated with the ideas of fun and freedom that the company is attempting to attach to the brand. The speeding car featured in the urban environment in the television ad is transferred to the country as the image depicts the silver convertible in clear focus, with another obviously excited individual sitting in the driver’s seat as the rest of the green scenery around them is only clear as a green blur. Even the white stripe that runs along the side of the road is reduced to nothing but a wide, white blur, further indicating the concepts of speed. Although the television commercial focused on the excitement of the car as it existed in the city environment, the print advertisement capitalizes on the sense of freedom and adventure we tend to associate with the wilderness. Static images of the city have a tendency to appear hedged in by the buildings that appear in the television spot, but the ad is kept in relation to the television spot by the use of the silver vehicle, the attitude of the driver seen and the overall pervading mood of the image. There is a sense of openness, freedom, excitement and privilege that is also conveyed in the messages seen in the television spot. The tagline helps, as the music did in the “Scream” commercial, to highlight this sense of fun and indulgence. Another part of the IS campaign is an interactive cell phone application for the Apple IPhone representing a new shift in advertising media. Lexus has become the exclusive sponsor of The Next Move, which is an application that assists urbanites in key cities discover new and ‘hip’ things to do in town. The site uses the red IS convertible as a decorative element on the page as the user navigates to their city of choice. On this page, the viewer looks down into the luxurious interior of the car from above, as if they are getting ready to drop into it and start their evening. When a city is selected, the dark background begins to fall away and the car begins to move off the screen as if driving to that destination. The user of the page then has two options, they can enter their preferred choices of activities or they can choose to ‘randomize the night’. The image on this page features the red convertible poised on the edge of the screen, its tires cocked as if it has just come to a sliding stop on the outskirts of the night-time city-scape visible in the background. This approach invokes the same sense of release and excitement found in the print and television ads even while coming at the topic from an entirely different angle. The use of the new media, the interactivity of the program and the reliability and up-to-date quality of the information provided makes the application itself exciting and new, encouraging these ideas to become more fully associated with the new convertible. The application will put together an itinerary for the user, including the option of mapping the journey, further linking the interactive experience with the idea of real-world fun and exciting freedom of movement among decadent environments. Although each of the approaches taken in each of these three media outlets are vastly different from each other, they are held together by the focus on the convertible, including the use of similar-colored cars, and by the deliberate build-up of mood. The car company has been fighting against an image of an ‘old person’s car’ and this campaign is designed to combat that attitude in every way it possibly can by manipulating the concepts of semiotics. The new car is intended to be exciting and adventurous to the middle-aged consumer as the youngest demographic commonly able to afford the vehicle yet it makes no obvious concessions to age. Instead, they simply continue to feature the age demographic as drivers, but as drivers having one of the best times of their life as they cut loose from expected boundaries and behaviors. This mood connects all of the advertisements across all media to effectively entice the viewer into associating the excitement mood with the image of the car. The company’s inclusion of new media as part of its advertising campaign introduces an even greater sense of adventure as new media is explored and as the user is encouraged to explore through the randomizing application. Even though this application is currently limited to only a few cities, the concept is enticing and fresh as it further works to associate the car with the more happening places of the country. As a result, the campaign is compelling in evoking excitement and interest in the product among the target demographic. Works Cited Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang, 1964. Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners. Wales: The University of Wales, 2006. Lexus “Jealous” print ad. < http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/lexus-is-250-jealous-321481/> Lexus “Scream” TV commercial. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuD8-OUCRe8> Ryder, Martin. “Semiotics: Language and Culture.” Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004. January 13, 2010 Read More