Iranian advertisements: A postcolonial semiotic reading

Abstract

This paper is a postcolonial reading of a number of Iranian brands and logos to discover the influence of Western hegemony on the design of Iranian advertisements. The advertising's pivotal role in supporting the brands has made producers employ creative strategies. Benefiting from the tenets of semiotics, we aim to uncover the hidden meanings within different advertisements, brand names, and logos as the paragons of the products' identity and image. The brands and logos discussed in this study belong to different companies and categories (food, cosmetics, airline, clothing, and bank). The measures of their Westernization level is analyzed according to Homi K. Bhabha's definition of mimicry which signifies imitating some famous Western brands (iconic mimicry), using English language (linguistic mimicry), utilizing Western-looking models or celebrities, and displaying female bodies (visual mimicry), and resistance. The results show the effect of Western supremacy, the negotiations of Iranian and Western culture, and cases of resistance in Iranian advertisements.

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