The Comic as a Creative Modus in Polycode Commercial Advertising

Section: Advertising and Public Relations

The operation of the aesthetic category of the comic is considered in the article as a way to improve the effectiveness of commercial advertising. The comic is regarded as a macro phenomenon and as one of the creative modi. The mechanism of the comic impact consists in an intellectual game, localized in one of the key components of advertising communication (in the brand or company name, in the title or in the end of the text) and realized in verbal or visual form, in naming units or narratives. The creation of game opposition and its unexpected resolution causes laughter and aesthetic enjoyment, which is normally followed by the development of a positive attitude towards the advertised product. The article describes numerous techniques of comic advertising actualized in terms of polycode means of text organization: verbal, visual, narrative and those related to objects, characters and genre.

Aleksandrov N. N. (2011) Estetika. Kurs lektsiy [Aesthetics. Course of lectures]. Moscow: Akademii Trinitarizma Publ. (In Russian)

Amiri L. P. (2013) Tekstovye delikty, ili «shokovye» sposoby vozdeystviya na potrebitelya v kreolizovannykh reklamnykh tekstakh [Text Delicts, or Shock Methods of Consumer Impact in Creolized Advertising Texts]. Mediasсope 2. (In Russian). Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/node/1304

Anisimova E. E. (2003) Lingvistika teksta i mezhkul‘turnaja kommunikacija (na materiale kreolizovannyh tekstov [Text Linguistics and Intercultural Communication (a case study of creolized texts)]. Moscow: Akademija Publ. (In Russian)

Bakhtin M. M. (1990) Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaya kul‘tura srednevekov‘ya i Renessansa [Works of Francois Rabelais and Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance]. Moscow: Khudozh. Literatura Publ. (In Russian)

Belch G. E., Belch M. A. (1984) An Investigation of the Effects of Repetition on Cognitive and Affective Reactions to Humorous and Serious Television Commercials. Advances in Consumer Research 11. 

Borev Yu. B. (1957) O komicheskom [About the Comic]. Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russian)

Bychkov V. V. (2012) Estetika [Aesthetics]. Moscow: KNORUS Publ. (In Russian)

Chernjavskaja V. E. (2009) Lingvistika teksta: Polikodovost‘, intertekstual‘nost‘, interdiskursivnost‘ [Text Linguistics: Polycode, Intertextual and Interdiscoursive Nature]. Moscow: Librokom Publ. (In Russian)

D‘jakova E. Ju. (2011) Polikodovyj tekst v britanskom reklamnom diskurse sfery obrazovanija: dis. ... kand. filol. nauk. [A Polycode Text in British Advertising Discourse in the Sphere of Education: PhD philol. sci. diss.] Voronezh. (In Russian)

Duncan C., Nelson J. E. (1986) Effects of Humor in a Radio Advertising Experiment. Journal of Advertising 14 (2).

Dzemidok B. (1974) O komicheskom [About the Comic]. Moscow: Progress Publ. (In Russian)

Dzikevich S. A. (2004) Estetika reklamy [Aesthetics of Advertising]. Moscow: Gardariki Publ. (In Russian)

Gelb B. D., Pickett M. C. (1983) Attitude Toward The Ad: Links to Humor and to Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising 12 (2).

Kara-Murza E. S. (2010) Transformatsii prototipicheskogo stsenariya reklamy kak priem yazykovoy igry [Transformations of the Prototypical Scenario of Advertising as a Wordplay Device]. In Igra kak priem tekstoporozhdeniya [Play as a text-creating technique]. Krasnoyarsk Sibirskiy federal‘nyy un-t. Pp. 180–191. (In Russian)

Kara-Murza E. S. (2016) Professional‘nyy reklamnyy stil‘ [Professional Advertising Style]. In Stilistika i literaturnoe redaktirovanie. Vol. 2. Moscow: Yurayt Publ. Pp. 124–200. (In Russian)

Koleva I. P. (2013) Mikhail Zoshchenko: iskusstvo parodii. Traditsii otechestvennoy yumoristiki XIX veka v tvorchestve M.M. Zoshchenko [Mikhail Zoschenko: the Art of Parody. Traditions of 19^th Century Russian Humour in M.M. Zoschenko’s Works]. Moscow: Veche Publ. (In Russian)

Kolosova T. Yu., Sukhareva T. V. (2010) Ispol‘zovanie yazykovykh priemov komicheskogo kak sposob povysheniya effektivnosti reklamnogo slogana na angliyskom yazyke [The Use of Linguistic Comic Devices as a Way to Improve the Effectiveness of an Advertising Slogan in English]. Vestnik ChelGU 4. (In Russian)

Kostina A. V. (2003) Estetika reklamy [The Aesthetics of Advertising]. Moscow: Vershina Publ. (In Russian)

Lorents K. (1998) Oborotnaya storona zerkala [The Reverse Side of the Mirror]. Moscow: Respublika Publ. (In Russian)

Makienko I. I. (2001) Yumor v reklame [Humour in Advertising]. Marketing v Rossii i za rubezhom 5: 15–23. (In Russian)

Minsky M. (1979) Freymy dlya predstavleniya znaniy. [Frames for Knowledge Representation]. Moscow. (In Russian)

Morozova A. V. (2016) Reklama kak ob’ekt prakticheskoj jestetiki [Advertising as an Object of Practical Aesthetics]. Mediaskop 4. (In Russian). Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/node/2186 

Morozova I. (2002) Reklamnyy stalker. Teoriya i praktika strukturnogo analiza reklamnogo prostranstva [An Advertising Stalker. Theory and Practice of a Structural analysis of the Advertising Space]. Moscow: Gella-Print Publ. (In Russian)

Musijchuk M. V. (2011) Kognitivnye mehanizmy struktury komicheskogo: filosofsko-metodologicheskie aspekty: dis. ... dokt. filos. nauk. [Cognitive Mechanisms of the Structure of the Comic: Philosophical and Methodological Aspects: Dr. philos. sci. diss.] Omsk. (In Russian)

Pirogova Yu. K. (2008) Fenomen «kreativnykh media» na global‘nom rynke reklamnykh kommunikatsiy: opyt semioticheskogo analiza. III Vserossiyskiy sotsiologicheskiy kongress [The Phenomenon of “Creative Media” in the Global Market of Advertising Communications: the Experience of Semiotic Analysis. The 3d All-Russian Sociological Congress]. Moscow: IS RAN Publ.(In Russian). Available at: http://www.isras.ru/abstract_bank/1211982276.pdf

Propp V. Ya. (1976) Problemy komizma i smekha [Problems of the Comic and Laughter]. Moscow. (In Russian)

Richter J. P. (1990) Vorschule der sthetik [Preschool of aesthetics]. Hamburg: Meiner. (In German)

Sonin A. G. (2005) Jeksperimental‘noe issledovanie polikodovyh tekstov: osnovnye napravlenija [Experimental Research of Polycode Texts: Major Trends]. Voprosy jazykoznanija 6: 115–123. (In Russian)

Speck P. (1991) The Humorous Message Taxonomy: A Framework for the Study of Humorous Ads. In Current Issues and Research and Advertising. The University of Michigan.