LANGUAGE, GENDER SEMIOTICS AND CONSUMERISM IN BILLBOARD ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE IBADAN METROPOLIS

Abstract

Semiotics, a science of signs, largely influences audience’s socio-cultural perception of billboard advertisement in postcolonial contexts. Existing linguistic studies on gender have examined various perspectives on gender stereotyping in mass media advertising, without significantly exploring advertisers’ use of signs to exploit consumerist tendencies and the vulnerability of the audience. The study was, therefore, designed to examine billboard advertisements’ exploitation of gender, linguistic and cultural codes in the Ibadan metropolis, with a view to establishing how the audience’s values and preferences are influenced.

Roland Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image, complemented by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s Visual Social Semiotic Theory, was adopted as framework. The interpretive design was used. Ninety billboard advertisements, covering several strategic locations in the Ibadan metropolis, were purposively selected based on evidence of gender codes in them. The selection covered 47 food items, 26 service providers, seven household items and 10 beauty products. The difference in the number sampled under the categories was due to availability. Data were subjected to semiotic analysis.

The use of language demonstrated a heavy reliance on metaphor, exaggeration, repetition, ambiguity and weasel words. Masculinity and femininity were used to project outdoor and indoor activities, respectively, to underscore the continued relevance of stereotype. Cultural assumptions were harnessed to make the stereotypes appear normal. Femininity was more represented, even when products advertised were not gender-specific. The woman was also presented as a professional at handling particular duties such as cooking and caring for the children. Stereotypes were, however, discovered to also communicate positive values. For instance, femininity was, sometimes, intentionally represented as a better choice for advertising particular products. The consumerist tendencies exploited in the advertisements included corporeality, celebrity endorsement and glamour. The woman’s body was utilised as an advertising tool, as particular parts were emphasised to exploit the voyeuristic tendencies in the audience. Colours on the products were used to perform textual metafunctions of salience, framing and enhancer of information value. Youths were sometimes portrayed as agents of experimentation and innovation. The billboards were turned into a marketplace where previous opinions were tactically discarded, the general reasoning manipulated and new opinions quickly formed. The cultural codes of the Yoruba such as ‘aso-oke’, ‘agbada’, beads, talking drum, the Yoruba language and diacritical marks were exploited to endear products to culturally sensitive individuals. There was a heavy reliance on pathos to exploit the emotions and common assumptions of people.

Billboard advertisements in the Ibadan metropolis employed linguistic, gender and cultural codes to present products as fundamental to the audience’s survival.