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Article: SEMIOTICS: In Search of More Perfect Persuasion
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 18, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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FIRST THERE WAS the Missile Gap. Then the Credibility Gap. Now
add to the national roster of menacing clefts the Meaning Gap: an
impending breakdown in the communal system of terms and images we use
to motivate and persuade.
As American society shakes off the mid-century sureties of family
structure, industrial might and social role and lurches toward a
fretful future, marketers of products from pork to politicians have
begun to fear they can no longer safely predict the effect a given
pitch will have on the audience.
"Look at the role of jeans," says Fred Danzig, editor of
Advertising Age magazine. Once an unambiguous symbol of adolescent
informality, jeans today "can carry all kinds of ...