This is a thoughtful, detailed, in‐depth book. At times, one could almost feel James Twitchell looking on as the author discusses the connection between advertising and society. Why It Sells is not a quick read. Danesi intended the book for a general audience. However, the reader has to be interested in utilizing and in understanding semiotics and the interpretation and dissection of ads. Semiotics is, basically, “understanding how we encode and decode meaning from the representations we make” (p. 16). The author also recommended that this book might be a text for Advertising Popular Culture and other college courses that deal with pop culture. It was not intended as a critical book but at times it bordered on it.
Danesi begins at the beginning; the derivation of the word advertising; from the medieval Latin verb “to direct one's attention.” He proceeds to make a distinction between the meaning of propaganda and public relations. The types of ads discussed are consumer, trade and political‐social.
It might be easiest to provide a glimpse of all that Denesi writes about by giving something of a synopsis of each chapter or providing some salient points from each chapter. In the first chapter “What is advertising?”, he gives a detailed history. In 3,000 BC in Babylonia or Iraq, shopkeepers hung signs regarding their wares or skills. These, according to Denesi, were the first trademarks. He moves through the first posters in Pompeii for a tavern in another town, through Egypt and early America to the history of the first advertising agencies in America. Then, through the 1950's to the present, he defines modern‐day advertising as “persuasion through synergy” (p. 12). Examples include celebrity endorsements and ads social trends, and the question raised is whether the synergy between advertising and society is the cause for many fads.
Chapter 2, “General techniques and Strategies,” goes through basic appeals, and the assumption that “most people do not immediately tend to buy a product that is advertised. Indeed, they generally object to doing so”, (p. 29). This is where it might get a little academic for some. There are a number of interpretations of ads regarding sexual innuendo and intent. It has been my experience that most writers and designers work from and interpret from a creative brief based on feeling and thought. The dissection of most of the ads here are from the standpoint of deep intended messages. The interpretations are fascinating, but some would maintain the thought process was more post rationalization that intention.
There is much detail provided in this chapter concerning different techniques of positioning and the creation of brand images. Denesi also jumps from different media and media usage to history to movable type to interactivity and “mythologization”. Again, I found all this fascinating, but it does not make for a quick read on a plane if that is what you are looking for. And it is not a method for creating ads.
Chapter 3 is entitled “Brand names,” providing an interesting history of the evolution of some well known brand names. Danesi discusses fiction, metaphor, descriptors, and suggestive naming, giving many examples of each. He even touches on using numbers and numerology in names, (pp. 74‐75).
Chapter 4 moves into “Logos” and deals with visual symbols. Danesi quotes Neumeir (2006, p. 1), “What really matters here is that a logo or any other kind of trademark is not the brand itself. It is merely the symbol for it”,(p. 79). He goes on to clarify that they are visual symbols that stand for the brand, and he uses McDonald's Golden Arches as an example of all that McDonald” represents to people. He goes into great detail regarding different types and styles of logos and how they serve as cultural symbols. This relates back to the study of semiotics.
Chapter 5 is “Language‐based techniques,” basically an in depth dissection and explanation of metaphor and symbolism. The main point concerns the significance of the relation between advertising and culture. This area, too, becomes rather academic and speculative, although again quite interesting. But it is not for the academic faint of heart. An interesting connection is formed between modern usage of vernacular used in advertising that has become a part of the collective consciousness and how even Shakespeare used slang.
“Art” is the title of Chapter 6. Most of us would agree, as the author points out, art is hard to define, but he draws a distinction between art and advertising art. “There is a fundamental difference between art that attempts to ‘say something’ about life and advertising art. Not to belabor the point, advertising is the art of the trivial, dressed up in aesthetic costume. And its aim is transparent. That is why ads become meaningless and replaced by new ones with new simulated forms of visual representation.” (p. 122)
Chapter 7 is entitled “The meaning of ads,” and the author delves into how ads represent products. “A fundamental semiotic ‘law of marketing’ can, in fact, be posited as follows: The salability of a product or service correlates with the effectiveness of advertising to link it conceptually to some desire or need (erotic, social, and so on) or to some culturally and psychologically relevant theme or narrative through appropriate representation” (p. 135). And there is a list by percentage of ads linked to various emotions, based on tests Danesi conducted; “fear 40%, sex 25%, popularity 26% and other 6%, (pp. 137‐38). He dissects a cologne ad on page 140. Some of the discussion about how the bottle was held was verging on a Vance Packard interpretation. But he admits that if there are codes built into ads this cannot be proven.
I think one main thing missing from this chapter and the whole book, is something Account Planner Mark Earls mentions often in his blog and book about the herd. What we say to each other is far more important that what we as an advertiser say to people/consumers. Denisi alludes to that on page 184 when he is talking about selective perception theory but he sees it simply in terms of opinion leaders who then pass their interpretations on to the group.
Chapter 8 deals with “Marketing” on a broad level. “to say that marketing is, today one of the most important industries for maintaining an expanding capitalist economic systems would be an understatement”.
In Chapter 9, “Advertising and society”, he discusses pre and post testing of ads and he deals with the good the bad and the ugly of consumerism in relation to the environment and health. But he also mentions that the entire process can simply be fun. To sum up, on page 189, “there is nothing more effective, in my view, than personal choice. This is one of the reasons I wrote this book in the first place.” Danesi ends by quoting Camilia Paglia re how hypocritical it is of anticapitalist intellectuals to “enjoy the pleasures and conveniences of capitalism while sneering at it.” (p. 194)
Decide for yourself if Danesi is pro advertising or not. In any case there is much useful and interesting information for the practitioner or the curious. Take the time to read Why It Sells.
