The materialization of the
interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising
Adriano Charles Cruz∗
Sergio Mendonça†
Índice
Initial Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 Advertising: a node in the discursive network . . . . . . . .
2 The competition between hermanos: from the soccer to the
discursive area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Final Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
2
9
14
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Abstract
This article discusses the presence of otherness in advertising discourse. We articulate a parallel between the advertising and the discursive conception of Discourse Analysis of the French line. From a
literature review, we question the concept of creativity present in the
professional discourse. The paper is composed mostly by statements
of Skol (Bear Company), chosen for its importance in the marketing.
Our analysis showed the complex marks of interdiscursivity and alterity present in the materiality of these ads.
∗
Professor of Communication at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
(UFRN). E-mail: [email protected].
†
Advertiser, masters in communication at UFPE and professor at Faculdade
Metropolitana da Grande Recife and at the school of Marketing (FMGR/FAMA).
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
Initial Considerations
The frontiers of a book are never clear-cut [...] it is caught
up in a system of references to other books, other texts,
other sentences: it is a node within a network.
Michel Foucault
has become an attractive practice in recent years: investments, survey of public opinion strategies of persuasion and
the rise of aesthetic quality were some of the factors responsible for its
success. If, for some decades, few Brazilians were in front of the TV
set in the "break time"today, often, advertising staff dialogue between
people, providing topics to be discussed. Who hasn’t discussed an advertisement with friends?
Understanding the mechanisms engendered in the advertising language, we can discover its attractive force. It is known that there is
no transparency of language, as Plato advocated, because besides the
desired unambiguous representation of our ideas, words have culture,
ideologies and historical conditions in which the subjects are inserted.
More than that: words are woven into our network, necessarily interacting with the words of others. The philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1988)
was one of the most important authors to alert to the dialogical character
of language.
But what goes through the language? How advertising interrelated
with other discourses? That is what we intend to show in this paper. For
this, we will build on the Discourse Analysis of the French line (AD),
developed from studies of the philosopher Michel Pêcheux and the linguist Jean Dubois. The point is to understand the "game of voices"in
the advertising texts and how this practice uses this device in order to
persuade your target audience and make them interested in the product
release.
A
1
DVERTISING
Advertising: a node in the discursive network
In the Brazilian academic literature, the Discourse Analysis works with
theoretical and methodological categories that defend a conception of
the human language, taking into account the historical aspects involved.
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The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 3
So, thanks to the influence of Bakhtin, this theory takes into account, as
a rule, the interaction between discourses. Thus, all texts are produced
in a particular discursive formation (DF) and are steeped in the ideological formations. There are no neutral texts or texts that are devoid
of ideological and unconscious action. We adopted the concept of discursive formation spoken by Foucault (2004), and reappropriated by
Michel Pêcheux, that describes a DF as a:
[...] Something that determines what can and should be said
(articulated in the form of a harangue, a sermon, a pamphlet, an exhibition, a program etc.)... (Pêcheux, 1997, p.
160)
Advertising is rich in references. In fact, the reader will certainly
agree that there is no "academic” speech, we are all in our talks resuming other speeches that are not ours. This also occurs with "our"ideas,
our views and our opinions, but often we are unaware of this phenomenon simply forget that "we are not the source of our discourse”
(Pêcheux, 1997), not realizing the action of "others."Our world is a huge
"patchwork quilt"in which different discourses are weaving all the time,
hiding, and reappearing in competition, according to the socio-historical
conditions.
Figure 1: The Boticário’s Ad
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
The advertisement above has shown the clear heterogeneous relationship of marketing: "There once was a girl as white as snow, which
caused much jealousy not to have met seven dwarfs, but several of 1.80
m dark–haired men."The text makes clear reference to the fairy tale,
whose elements are the costumes, the facial features of the model and
figure of the apple. This parody is built by the intersection of discourses
of sexuality / seduction, fiction and advertising.
These other "voices"are much more than intertextuality (explicit
fragments of other texts), but they are present constituting our say and
our own lives, since we are social and historical subjects.
In life we do so, judging ourselves from the point of view
of others, trying to understand and take into account what
is transcendent to our own consciousness, so we take into
account the value placed on our appearance due to the impression that it can have on others [...] (Bakhtin, 1992, p.
35–36).
The resumption of other discourses is called interdiscourse. They
are different discourses that have been said and have been forgotten,
belonging to a socio–historical memory or memory discourse. In general, we could say that would be the relationship between the discursive
formations.
In the previous advertisement, we have discourses talking about the
women in society, the discourse of seduction and subservience to men.
We are led to understand that the beautiful white woman is supposed
to win several "dark"of 1.80 m. What is a social standard of beauty,
sexuality and norms of masculinity that is limited in the materiality of
the text, though forgotten and silenced.
Advertising is a persuasive communication technique that uses its
own methods at the production, broadcasting and reception of your messages. But the French AD "is aimed at understanding how a symbolic
object makes sense, how is it invested of significance for others.” (Orlando, 2007, p.26).
If we draw a parallel between the work of the analyst of the speech
and the advertiser, we realize that the conception of language arises
in two distinct points, since the former is a social practice in which
the positioning aims to persuasion, so like any discourse, it aims to
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The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 5
convince the receiver of the message of a certain truth (your own truth),
which is based on its position of a discourse constructed objectively and
consciously.
Contrary to this, the Discourse Analysis (DA) refutes any attempt at
revival of the Cartesian subject – conscious and master of his actions.
For it, the discourse springs from historical facts and unconscious in
an overlapping FD whose enunciation is given from a system of constraints. If you look at a manual copywriting, we will identify a series of actions to be performed by these professionals, as well as many
other prohibitions: words, phrases, images that should not be said or
explored. Thus, the origin of an utterance has to do with the said and
the unsaid. The bans have much value for AD as it was authorized to
say. The system of restrictions is part of the history that every speech he
builds for himself, "attributing certain affiliations and rejecting others”
(MAINGUENAEAU, 2005 p. 81).
Figure 2: Skol’s Ad
Despite the differences that can be noted, emerges within the advertising practice a concern for others, which will coincide with the assumptions defended here. In the case of the Skol beer Aid, it relates to
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
the slogan "Skol, the beer that goes down round."This text is not explicit
in the ad, but it relates to the product discourse.
The creation of an advertisement is perhaps more a work of analysis
and application of proper techniques than an exercise in creativity for
specific purposes. Create, in advertising, is a task that requires prior
knowledge of the intricacies and creative object to be worked on, all
within the goals set for the campaign and quite far from abstract and
metaphysical concepts that characterize, for example, certain artistic
creations. The process of creating advertising is marked, therefore, for
practical and objective statements whose effects should translate marketing results.
The ad not only gathers information and transform them
into technical reports or reports, but, it uses a form of mass
communication that has the power to mobilize people: [...]
if the information aims to raise awareness, persuasion aims
to influence. (Gomes, 2003).
The following ad illustrates how it should be the process to create
an advertiser and how we will handle advertising in this case: as a technique. The need for this is to put aside any argument about freedom to
the creative process of an ad and try to bring the final product a work
of art characterized by subjectivity. Ads dialogue with other social utterances, networked discursive complex, sometimes reveal themselves
clearly as in the parodies, series, and citations, such as the resumption
of the previous announcement: "If the guy who invented bureaucracy
drank Skol, it would not be like this... it would be like this.”
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The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 7
Figure 3: Skol’s Ad
Similarly, in a discursive conception there is not a guy as a absolute
creator, as advocated Michel Pecheux (1997), when the person believed
to be the origin of his own speech, is under the influence of ideological
illusion.
According to Maingueneau (2005), there is the primacy of interdiscourse about the speech, the formation of a speech given is made from
historical utterances present in a given discursive formation, and such
utterances are structured from historical speeches that orbit the FD, being evoked – positively or negatively – by and from a particular stated
position. The discourse of the Other constitutes the speech of A. Every
statement has a "right"(A) and "reverse"(Other) inseparable (Maingueneau, 2005).
The advertisement search references, it doesn’t creates anything but
recovers, through its technical, statements that are part of the lexicon
of everyday life, profile, history, context – the discursive formation –
the set of people you want to achieve, so texts that can be recognized
by such a public. The process of creating advertising is guided by the
pursuit of a statement located at the tip of the iceberg of speech lies in
the ocean of the prohibitions. It is to emerge from within a system of
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
semantic restrictions set out a possible and appropriate. In other words,
is to build a text within the parameters accepted peacefully by advertising piece in question, considering the context and not just what can be
said but also what should never be mentioned.
Figure 4: Skol’s Ad
The ad above feature humorous silenced sayings on the issues of
aesthetic beauty and patterns of sexual normality. Why a beautiful
blonde is on the cover of the magazine? Why the man is fat? If we use
the social imaginary, it will answer these questions in light of the history
of Brazil. The announcement is aimed at heterosexual men who like the
beauty of European and white patterns, the woman are constructed as
the seductive imagery and available for sex. On the other hand, also
ridicules homosexuality carnivalized and constructed so stereotypical.
Thus, we found no originality in the strict sense of the word, in a proclamation. Advertising will get in the speeches of your target audience, the
other of the advertisement, the source of its enunciation (the author is
discursive order, no textual or grammar, so the lack of originality).
Speaking in terms of the discourse analysis, the advertising text
is marked clearly by interdiscourse and made from it (as well as any
speech). The particularity of the text search advertising is to make this a
great weapon in intertextual efforts of persuasion. Allocate the product
advertised external referents and activate a circuit discursive relations of
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The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 9
the target audience, culminating in the closure of the message and the
production of a specific and immediate sense. Even often (almost 100%
of them), without being aware of these discursive relations, the writer
pays off the techniques of advertising in the search for interdiscursivity.
In advertising, only in very specific texts we will found their presence, always as a rhetorical device in an attempt to convey credibility
to the product. Famous quotations, sayings, pun, etc... Clearly reveal
the discourse of the Other constitutes a heterogeneous ad displayed,
which can easily be identified and analyzed in terms of linguistic and
grammatical. However, not all enunciative marks are explicit in the text,
and discourse of the Other can only be apprehended by the discourse, by
means of a throwback to the discursive space than advertised and then
sailed emerge. Heterogeneity is constitutive or interdiscourse, which
strongly marks the advertising ads.
The Other of the advertising (and any speech), which is not shown,
is in constant dialogue with the statement itself. Your application is not
in the form of an autonomous entity endowed with and located, even
discursively, in the statement, but diluted in the historicity of the text
and the finite possibilities that escaped the constraints of a given system
of discursive formation. The appearance of this Other in the discourse
is closely linked to the conditions of production of the text itself, the
historical and social conditioning that allowed its manifestation, and no
other statement in its place, in the words of Foucault (2004).
2
The competition between hermanos: from the
soccer to the discursive area
Figure 5: A capture from a Skol’s video
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
The year of 2006 was marked by the World Cup. In Brazil, as is well
known, the subject football dominates from the everyday conversations
to the news media, even those specializing in other areas. The "national
passion"does not go unnoticed by any media outlet, whether print, radio, television, etc. – All open space to talk about football, World Cup
and the Brazilian national team. The possibility of this scenario is the
high involvement of Brazilian society with the sport and the event allowed to take astronomical dimensions in the life of the population and
to cause estrangement any different behavior. These are the conditions
of production of ads whose football is the dominant theme, which are by
no means exceptions during the event. But if advertising appropriates
public affairs for the construction of his pieces, nothing more natural
than the World Cup live in the advertising texts during the period. So,
talk about football in the ads is nothing more than to bring out a speech
present in the minds of the vast majority of Brazilians.
Skol, one of the largest advertisers in the Brazilian advertising, did a
television campaign that said: "If the guy who invented the Skol had invented the fault, he would not be like this. This would be like this...” The
images show a football match between Brazil and Argentina, clearly
identifiable by their uniform of traditional selections. And anchored
in common sense, rivalry and beatings mark the opening scenes of the
film. The fault, move almost always unfair to the player slides across
the grass with their feet towards the ball and, often, the opponent’s legs
is presented as something pernicious that will be converted into something good for their own football (Brazil, in this case). In the ad, the
author of the cart is always the Argentinean player.
The discursive formation of the Brazilian fans in these conditions
of production tends to be confused with the actual FD of Brazilian
national identity; the advertising has different discourses to construct
their discursive synthesis. In an announcement that should sell beer,
we find football, nationalism, rivalry between Brazil and Argentina and
the "Brazilian way"other than in the closing speeches show piece of a
regular dialogue and allow the intelligibility of the advertising message.
The rivalry between Brazilians and Argentines, accentuated in football,
is posited as central to the discursive connections that the ad aims to
make it work. It should be said that, historically, the Brazilian advertising, and possibly the world, often make the direct association of certain
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The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 11
distinctive habits, like watching football matches to drink beer. In this
logic, the fan is a natural Brazilian beer consumers and target audience
of the campaign – the beer belongs to the FD fan as much as the sport
itself.
The identification of these speeches in the Skol’s ad is not the way
it is shown, enunciative marks visible in the text. Discursively are diluted in the statement, although the hyperbolic nature of advertising –
his escape ethical – to make them identifiable without great difficulty.
When we put that one or a few others are present in this statement, we
do not affirm the existence of a dual antagonistic discourse with which
it competes – it is perhaps because the production of the meaning of the
message, which has more to do with an ideological position of the interpretant . Other constituents are the utterance, and from which it takes
shape, without this having to deny or affirm any position.
The presence of an Argentine advertising in Brazilian World Cup
season does not necessarily imply that the nationality of the neighboring country is the speech inside out, because the same goes for the
"knack"genuine Brazilian product. Speeches are crafted in the shape of
their simulations to design the appropriate statement. If we consider the
public announcement of the TV as a fan of Brazil, the characterization
of the Argentine player is shown the advertisement before the image
that Brazilians do it than what they are actually (at least as defined).
From this similarity, it has more to do with an ideological position,
the discourse of the Other is embodied in this piece of advertising Skol.
If we investigate the historical background that built the rivalry between
Brazil and Argentina, even outside of football, the results will come
away from the discursive space of advertising, but that can be redeemed
by it to build this specific statement. The other, that characterizes the
interdiscursivity, will be an integral part of speech can and trainer of the
advertising space and time specific.
The video ad is a simulation of a soccer match, with the stadium,
fans, reporters, advertising boards, etc.., Good audio is part of the
match, which happens very peculiar. At first, the carts are played violent, condemned by the narrator, who appears in close to the Brazilian
fans, who utters the phrase that transforms and gives tone to the ad: "If
the guy who invented the Skol had invented the cart, it does not would.
This would ...". These words become comic scenes in the stands for
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
their authors, with the narrator humorously endorsing each entry with
the failure of Argentine players.
– "... And it comes Betinho González dribbling! Oops, already
going, hermano?"
This phrase is spoken by the narrator after González, an Argentine
player, has making a falut and a Brazilian player, without success, to
clash violently with the advertising boards on the side of the field. We
note here an intertextual enunciative marks visible: the word hermano,
the Spanish language. It introduces the Other from an everyday expression and ironic chain in Brazil, which considers the Argentine "our
brothers."The rivalry, in explicit images is enhanced by linguistic elements in the play.
Returning to the Brazilian fans, they emerge as the magician that
change the characteristics of the game and give a twist in the narrative
of the ad. He appears in the stands of the stadium, well characterized,
shirt selection, Skol beer can in hand and surrounded by fans with horn,
yellow wig, etc.. He is the embodiment of what is (or should be) in the
Brazilian game day in Brazil’s World Cup. His words not only changes
the face of the ad, but also introduces the other characterized by the
"Brazilian way"to solve (or subvert) things. Suddenly, the cart is no
longer a threat to become a laughingstock with the Argentines, but once
invoking the discourse of rivalry for the construction of the ad. It was
the Brazilian outbreak in his poetry, which solved the problem concerning the cart through the ad, Skol beer.
The announcement does not lead us to believe at any time plausible solutions, the fun of the rival seems to be the only chance to see
a fair game without kicking. Curb violence by punishing is not something that becomes known that ad – something too reasonable for the
Brazilian logic, especially in football. The humorous and humiliating
punishment for the act of the opponent, provided by the same creator
of Skol beer, is the Brazilian way of solving the "problem"of the cart
shown at the beginning of the film. Argentine falling into the tunnel
from the locker room, crashing into the advertising boards at the edge
of the field and running over their shopping carts with sports reporters
has their punishment, "more just"the laughter of Brazilians – field players and spectators of the ad.
This practice permissive here as a discourse, is the basis of Braziwww.bocc.ubi.pt
The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 13
lian society, it does not solve the problem itself does not extinguish the
source, but subverts it, becomes its ally, brings gains in creativity, raises
the problem as solution. In this piece it is clearly advertising. At the end
of the film, to corroborate, packshot appears, with the signature of the
advertiser and suddenly becomes a figure of a player taking a stand on
the Argentinean can of beer, which deftly jumps and avoids the shock.
The outcome is the same player sliding to the bottom line until they
collide with the beam, with the narration: – "Oops! Ball in the crash."It
is needless to say it was a ball, not the football that struck the crossbar.
The advertised product, the beer itself, embodies the "Brazilian way",
the one that is present in the ad review.
As mentioned above, for the construction of the message, the Other
of the ad dialogue and communicate with the statement, the statement
can constitute part of the advertising within the conditions of discursive production and convergent. Others do not close on itself to live
after the speech. The interdiscursivity shows up as a linked system of
distinct discourses in the formation and announcement of the closing
statement is the Brazilian stand, invented by "the same guy who invented the Skol."
The closing announcement is with the slogan "With Skol, Brazil is
round."It is the result of a breakdown of the slogan of the brand itself,
which is extensive knowledge of the population: "Skol, a beer that goes
down round."Redondo", in slang, means something that has no problems, it is resolved and fits perfectly to what is proposed.
This slogan can have some interpretations, which are discursively
explained from the very piece of advertising: a) With Skol, football
in Brazil is round: if the problem was football violence against opponents of Brazilian football, it was resolved from own. With Skol, the
selection is able to win another Cup b) With a knack (Skol), Brazil is
round: nothing more than a little way in the service of the Brazilian.
The confidence of some unconventional intervention in favor of Brazil,
c) with Skol, Brazil and Argentina is round, no: the Brazilian national
pride come into conflict and Argentina. The guy who invented the Skol
knows that "being Brazilian"is also "not like Argentina."So Argentina
in the ad, not another country.
At the end of the movie, of course, the viewer will not have these
separate interpretations, either a notice or other. The three, and others
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Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça
that might have escaped the author, are monolithically presented at the
closing of the notice; there is no way to dissociate them instantly. This
closing is the copywriter who seeks, even if he does not think discursively constructing your ad or use the categories dear to Discourse Analysis as a tool of observation for the construction of parts.
Final Considerations
To admit the primacy of the Interdiscourse is about to admit the presence of the Other in our statements, showing the presence of a guy
who "works"in the production of a sense for the statement win its own
meaning and is not a mere repetition of previous speeches. We will not
go into a discussion of authorship and originality of speech – whether
it exists or not, or even how to give – that will put only copywriting
technique (again like any other speech) clings to how the statement is
built to what it is rescued by the words.
However, again, we invoke the character of the decision of building
the advertising text as a defense of our position: the new meaning must
be produced to coincide with the goals of the marketing campaign, so
the value of intertextuality – the Other – is characterized more by the
way how to put what was his own use. The exchange of the meaning
of words, which makes closing the ad and its subsequent effect, occurs because the condition of the historical sense, within a discursive
formation, Thus the place of manipulation worked for the advertising
copywriter.
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