Artifacts of History in Modern Media and Advertising Discourse

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the problem of historical artifacts integration into the structure of modern media and advertising discourse. This work systematizes scientific research on the problem of advertisers’ appeal to images of the past, analyzes the semiotic codes of advertising related to the problem of historicity and their role in the construction of social reality images. The research outlines the concept of an artifact, which can refer to any creation (either physical or mental) used within the cultural and semantic field. The artifact of history in the structure of a polymodal advertising text is understood as a cognitive model represented by verbal, visual and acoustic means, connected with historical reality through images of personalities, events, and entire eras. This study is based on a large empirical foundation, encompassing over 250 Russian and foreign advertisements which were dispersed in the media from the 90s till the present day. Examining empirical materials allowed us to identify the most common ways of depicting historical artifacts in modern media and advertising discourse: through the images of historical figures, by presenting facts and events, and showcasing the functional-stylistic code of a particular historical era and the associated way of thinking. The basis of the complex research method was the structural and semiotic analysis and functional approach, which made it possible to identify ways of representing historical artifacts in the structure of the advertising text and to analyze the role of the functional and stylistic codes of the past in the organization of media and advertising discourse. The results of a sociolinguistic study showed that the use of artifacts of national history in the structure of an advertising text can arouse interest among potential consumers, positively affects the degree of memorability of an advertising message, and makes an advertising message more effective.