Advertising Narratives

This study begins with tracing the development of narratology. With the development from classical narratology to postclassical narratology, we think the connotation of the narrative has been greatly expanded. The narrative is considered as the basic way of gaining significance, and the research objects of narrative have been extended to almost all the fields of humanities and society. Under the level of cultural studies, this thesis combines the advertising text with narrative studies, aiming to solve the generation of advertising narrative meaning.This study firstly analyzes the structure in the advertising text. We divide the complex advertising text into nine categories according to the reference field, information focus and additional value which the advertising communication chooses. Using the semantic analysis of structuralism, we analyze these narrative models on binary oppositions of semantics, thus proposing that the deep structure of advertising narrative is the binary oppositions of the human and the material. Then, we study the construction of advertising narrative discourse, including following five aspects:the research of narrator and advertising narrative purpose, building of advertising narrative situation and advertising narrative discourse, as well as the advertising narrative and self-identity. Among them, the research of advertising narrator isn’t completely in line with the narrative mode in which real authors are excluded, but including the real author—advertisers and advertiser. We consider that the most important feature of advertising narrator is the hidden nature and the main body of the advertising discourse is a comprehensive role, rather than a concrete person. On the research of advertising narrative purposes, this study suggests that the consumption originally has the binary properties of the material and symbol. The advertising narrative is committed to constructing symbol consumption in the dual properties of the consumption, and establishing a close relationship between the human and material is the sole purpose of advertising narrative. To achieve this goal, advertising narrative builds the narrative situations. This thesis focuses on the narrative focalization strategy, includes three aspects such as narrator focus, character focus and mixed focus according to the way of focus. In the next, this thesis studies the advertising narrative strategy, considering that advertisements narrative uses the scenes with "peak experience" feature to appeal, in which some special, rare moments are normalized. This thesis defines this strategy as " scene enlarge", and does some researches on its performance as well as the meaning and consequences in the advertisements. We find that enlarged scene can arouse recipients’ strong emotional response, which is essential for the advertising effect. Meanwhile, the enlarged scene will form "the stereotype" in recipients, which was taught of the meaning of simple and modular. Afterwards this thesis jumps out from the closed advertising text, thinking that the advertising narrative significance can only be reached after recipients accept. Recipients’receptions rely on self-narrative with the help of advertising narrative. Here we take the brand narrative as example, analyzing the role of the brand narrative in the recipients’ self-narrative construction, such as confirming self-role, increasing the realism of the role play, allowing recipients to enjoy the joy and integration of performance and etc.Chapter three makes a deep and detailed research on the generation of advertising narrative significance from the perspective of the advertising rhetoric. As a complementary study for advertising narrative discourse construction, after analyzing the development of rhetorical connotation at first, we believe that rhetoric changes from the verbal skills into a cognitive discourse. Then we study advertising rhetorical strategies from the skills. That is, we determine the unknown from the known, and there are three strategies:let the recipients apperceive, establish consensus and determine authority effect. Later we study the role played by rhetoric in advertising cognition, and in particular point out that the core of the advertising rhetoric is obscurity and intensify.Chapter four extends the role of media in advertising narrative from the idea that media belongs to the important area of advertisement text. Firstly we analyze the process of media evolution and center of gravity’s change of advertising narrative because of changes in the media from the perspective that media affects human perception or the relationship between media and human. We think that advertising narrative focus on the rational rhetoric in the print era, sensory viewing in the electronic age, and recipients experience under the new media times. Also, we analyze the role played by media in the advertising narrative from three perspectives.The last chapter firstly traces the connotation of the prototype theory, then study the performance of the prototype in the advertising, judge the value of a prototype in advertising acceptation from the recipients’point of view——sensory contact, rational knowledge and value judgments at last.