The advertisement is rich in sensory elements, the uniqueness of which creates a dramatic course of world history. Some of them are drastic elements: the duality of the world, the indifference of people, not seeing the threat.
Understanding the Sensory Level: A Comprehensive Definition
The first (the duality of the world) is the fragile boundary between what is and what can be. On the one hand, the world is moving forward (technology improves, living conditions improve), on the other hand, this development requires sacrifice. The victim in this advertisement is not only the polluted nature, but also all those who use its goods (animals and people). The second element (indifference) also comes into play here, which represents people's ability to adapt and reconcile (removing a piece of plastic from a fish, eating contaminated food, throwing a bag that hit your face). This indifference translates into the third element of not seeing the threat. Getting used to the established norm and not even trying to think about the damage they cause, people move forward (riding a scooter) without even stopping and looking at the garbage dump the environment has turned into (a pile of plastic bags aside). All of this can be broken down into additional sensory elements that reinforce the aforementioned drastic elements: auditory, tactile, taste, smell, sound, colors.
Audibility unfolds through a place of action that evokes ambiguous feelings. A cafe is a place of gathering, community, creating feelings of togetherness and the desire to belong to the community. It looks inviting and welcoming to all who want it (it has no walls, you can see representatives of different cultures), safe (a roof over your head simulating a sense of security from strong sunlight or wind). Another place - the seashore - a place of rest, peace, and games, which is chosen by those who are thirsty for attractions (playing with sand, digging in the sand, swimming), those who are looking for romance (watching the sunset or sunrise), those who want to spend time with their family (strengthening the common bond), and those who want to think (looking into the distance, sitting in silence). Here there is not only a strong visual sensation of sea waves but also the rudiments of a bigger wind (sea waves, ruffling hair). All this creates a deceptive harmony of peace and compassion, inviting you to join in and experience these unique feelings. However, the positive side of audibility is quickly aggravated by the sight of foreign objects (pieces of plastic, plastic that has become food, plastic garbage lying on the side). This impression is intensified by the touch of the bag to the face. This intrusion of a foreign body into private space is unpleasant and repulsive, inviting you to get rid of it (throw it away).
In the presence of auditory elements, there must also be touch, taste, and smell caused by them. The atmosphere of the cafe creates a lot of tactile details, as it involves more than one chain of events. First of all, sitting on a plastic chair gives the impression of discomfort (hard, unstable, you cannot lean on it), cold (due to the white color that reflects light). A book lying on the table leaves an impression of resistance to turning the pages on the fingertips and enhances the smell of a fresh book. Touching a plastic bottle feels like a foreign body and an unpleasant object in the hands (due to the way it is held - the fingers are widely separated from each other, the hands are raised and held awkwardly). There are also other tactile elements in the cafe: holding the cutlery (recognition of the movement arises and identification is encouraged), the sound of the plates (although not clearly visible, but imagined from the contact of the cutlery with the plate), eating (touching, chewing, swallowing food), bitterness, nausea, and congestion in the throat (due to the food turning into plastic and chewing and swallowing it, the smell also appears here, the pleasant smell is replaced by stench). A bag hitting your face on the road causes the effect of dirt and moisture. On the beach, you can also feel the tactile opposition. On the one hand, due to the depicted sand, you can feel its crunch and depth under your feet, the wind that tousles your hair and refreshes you from the heat, and the freezing, but pleasant humidity after immersing your feet in water. However, throwing plastic right next to the water (it creates the impression that if you put your foot in the sand near the water, you will step on it) and the depiction of a body buried in the sand up to the head, surrounded by bottles, delay these pleasant feelings and cause anxiety. The negativity is reinforced by the purchased drink, whose attractive pink color quickly turns into a repulsive source of refreshment due to the abundance of plastic pieces in it.
Sounds are also important in the interaction of elements. MKNK Feat. The opening sound of Jsn's song "Just a Dream" is slow, engaging, relaxing, and pleasant. An impression of relaxation is created, as such music evokes holiday associations. These associations are strengthened by the food prepared and the cozy atmosphere around. The transition of the music to the second background (muting, sharpening the sound) creates a slowing-down effect, which occurs during the first contact with plastic (attention is drawn, the problem is exacerbated - the presence of plastic in the food we eat). The lyrics of the song heard during the meal are shocking and tell that something is really wrong: "Strange things are happening".
The Intriguing Dynamics of Figurative Objects
When analyzing figurative objects, it is important to distinguish the system of signifier, signified, and signifier. The signifier in this advertisement is not a single figure, as there is no clear group of signifiers in the advertisement. Therefore, we would like to separate it into three categories that complement each other:
● The first group consists of the customers (the organizations that ordered the advertisement or contributed to its order): "World Environment Day 2022", "UN Environment Programme", "Sweden Sverige", "Clean Seas: Turn the Tide on Plastic", "Sea Circular: Solving Plastic Pollution at Source".
● The second group is publicists (This group includes advertising creators and distributors): "MeshMinds" and "Studio Birthplace."
● The third group is call-to-action (movements that try to elicit audience reaction): “#BeatPlasticPollution” and “#onlyOneEarth”
Although the signifier should be clear and coherent, these three groups are closely related to each other and are equally important, since the system of signification depends on them.
As for the first category (customers), it should be mentioned that they are the initiators of the problem solution. The second category (distributors) are disseminators of the solution to the problem.
The third group (inviting to action) indicates the guidelines of the movement and invites to maintain contact with them.
The meaning is much more specific and its essence is more defined. It can be divided into the following two groups: pollution reduction (it is encouraged not to pollute nature through a visual disturbance during which the consequences of pollution are visible), awareness raising (indifference and its change is seen through the prism of man - his contact with nature, food and himself).
The following system of signification arises from the above-mentioned signifier and signified: the environmental protection movement, which encourages people to help preserve cleanliness, to stop poisoning themselves and others.
That this is an important and recurring system of signification can be seen both in the types of visual figures and in the figures themselves.
The performers in this commercial are nature and man. Nature and man are in mutual struggle: man pollutes and wastes nature, and nature, unable to save itself, returns to man what he gave to nature. Here there is an unbroken chain: Nature to man, man to nature, nature to man. This circuit resembles the circle of life: spring (rebirth), summer (maturity), Christmas (death).
That time is important can be seen from its different intersections: past, present and future. The text refers to three important concepts of time:
● Past: "On 2 March 2022, 175 nations backed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly to End Plastic Pollution and commit to develop a legally binding agreement by 2024". This indicates what has already been done.
● Present: "Say no to single-use plastic" and "It's time we enhance shared responsibility to end plastic pollution because we have #OnlyOneEarth". "Say no to single-use plastic". It tells you what can be done now.
● Present and future: "Together, we can #BeatPlasticPollution". Although this quote does not clearly define the difference between the present and the future, it emphasizes "we can" and is a reference to continuity, which conditions the continuity of the present time and possible future prospects.
This is where the gestural subtheme figures come from: threat, fear, poisoning
This feeling consists of two different worlds depicted in the advertisement: one through the pink bottle, which immediately alludes to another well-known saying ("looking through rose-colored glasses") and creates a mythical, dark, repulsive world, which is clearly felt from the elements in the advertisement. In this way, the rose-colored glasses (in this case, the bottle) become a mirror of the real world, showing the real deceit of the world and the dangers lurking in it. The other world is mundane (simple) where the threat is invisible. Therefore, rose-colored glasses represent binoculars through which real problems can be seen, and without them - clear rejection, ignorance, reconciliation. Like eating with your eyes closed, for example.
Therefore, it is possible to single out two essential figures that are revealed in the advertisement. The first would be nature. Mass consumption is shown as harmful not only to nature, but also to humans, because we take everything from nature. At this point we return again to the previously mentioned circle of life. Another figure - sea, wind, sky. The sea plays an essential role, since most of the displayed dishes come from it (plastic is visible in the food, etc.), the wind represents the direction of travel - it is like a medium between two worlds: it reveals pleasure and warns of danger (a bag hitting the face). The changing appearance of the sky - bright and inviting (when nature and food are clean), dark and repulsive (when food, nature, sea are polluted). All this is closely related to spatiality, as it depends on the interaction of visible figures with the environment and the effect on it.
The Unique Nature of Spatial Structures
Spatial oppositions that emerge in advertising are the basis for the further dynamics of space. The most important oppositions are:
● Clean vs dirty (tidy, care vs mess and neglect)
● peace vs fear (harmony, relaxation vs chaos and tension)
● close vs. distant (personal vs. alien)
● life vs death (nurturing life vs accepting death)
Because of these spatial oppositions, the following spatial constructs can be distinguished: The action takes place in two different spaces, which are opposed to each other and their mutual opposition creates dramatic tension. One of them is clean (perfect), because you can see the ideal order, joy, people relaxing and enjoying the moment. The other space is dirty (imperfect), in which ideals opposite to clean space prevail: dirt, contamination, garbage, ideal chaos, sadness, tension, disgust. As a result, a minus space emerges, which evokes a sense of temporality, of an impending end.
The durativeness of time (past, present, future) reinforces the sense of space and creates messages of double meaning, dividing time into two parallel universes: One of them warns of threats and suffers from consequences (polluted, poisonous, unbearable), and the other is the opposite, encouraging to enjoy, save, and care. Although it is partly an element of space, it is especially revealed when talking about time because the most important thing is not the boundaries between the past, present, and future, but the boundaries between changing beliefs, attitudes, and the desire to act, which equates time with space, and together they become inseparable elements of the event. Also, the imitation of ticking time at the end only serves to confirm this interweaving: the divide between past, present, and future is a fragile thing, which is affected by our choice of how we want to see the world. Therefore, the linearity of space consists of two different sides of the coin, since the boundary between linearity and non-linearity is fragile and sometimes merges into one - a common one:
In the linear space, horizontality and verticality are identified: although the space is represented horizontally, the visible objects hang in complete verticality (garbage, standing people, a hand emerging from the garbage). This representation of space shows the boundary between what is and what could be. Horizontality reveals what is important (people do not obscure the horizon and you can admire the waves of the sea, palm trees, landscape in it), verticality shows indifference and consequences (standing people show uncertain smiles, hands rising from bottles reveal transience and struggle, and garbage - obvious consequences).
Nonlinear space is much larger. It consists of two essential elements: area and volume. Space: the clearly visible horizon reveals the seriousness of the problem, as the space of the action seems to have no beginning and no end (the sea is not only a source of food, but also a way of travel). However, the sea as a source of food is dark, restless, which immediately creates ambiguous feelings: on the one hand, it is a source of food, on the other hand, it is a tool of karma that gives back what was thrown into it. As a result, the breadth of spatiality is both open (undefined) and closed (the mindset of the problem limits the possible freedom of choice). Volume: shows the seriousness and complexity of the problem: on the one hand, it is light and pleasant, on the other - burdened, suffocating and repulsive.
The discontinuity of the space also highlights its heterotopy. The challenges posed are visible and the problems faced are highlighted - a very clear multiplicity and more than one meaning can be discerned. This is where the relationship between time and space comes from, which talks about the destruction (changes) and rearrangement (consequences) of harmony (purity). Although this transformation in advertising is negative, its opposite can also be seen. Cleanliness is a possible parallel space where nature is cared for and its pleasures are enjoyed. Inevitable change is variability for both good and bad (cleanliness or pollution, life or death). Consequences are the end result of a change (catastrophe, loss, regret).
Therefore, it can be concluded that the space is multi-meaningful and multi-meaningful, taking into account the uniqueness and complexity of the surrounding environment.
Sources
MeshMinds. (2022). Plastik. A short film to end plastic pollution in South-East Asia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5OBWbZDZIc
MeshMinds. https://www.meshminds.com/
MKNK Feat. Jsn. (2022). Just a dream. https://soundcloud.com/mknkproductions/mknk-feat-jsn-just-a-dream
Olesen, J. Color meanings – The Power and Symbolism of Colors. https://www.color-meanings.com/
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