Transformation of the Aesthetic Language in Contemporary Commercial Advertising: From Representation of Reality to Experientialism (2010–2020)
Keywords:
Advertising aesthetics, empiricism, visual semiotics, multifaceted discourse, brandAbstract
This study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the transformation of the aesthetic language in contemporary commercial advertising during the decade from 2010 to 2020, a period in which advertising discourse shifted from representing reality to sensory and interactive experientialism. The main objective of the study was to identify the semiotic and linguistic patterns that explain this transformation in the structure of meaning and audience experience. The present research is qualitative and descriptive–analytical and was carried out using the multimodal discourse framework of Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen (1996). The research population consisted of 30 international commercial advertisements from leading brands such as Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, Airbnb, and Dove within the mentioned time frame. Data were analyzed based on the three metafunctions—representational, interactive, and compositional—to identify linguistic, visual, and narrative structures in the aesthetic transformation of advertising. The results showed that advertisements in the early 2010s were primarily focused on the representation of reality, visual authenticity, and social realism, whereas from the second half of the decade, the axis of meaning shifted from depicting reality to creating perceptual and emotional experience. In this process, representational signs were replaced by sensory-evocative signs, and the audience shifted from a passive viewer to an active participant in meaning-making. Digital advertising, relying on augmented reality technologies, emotional storytelling, and user-generated content, provided a multimodal experiential environment. The transformation of the aesthetic language in commercial advertising reflects a cultural transition from the logic of representation to the logic of experience, where beauty is constructed not in the image itself but in the perceptual and emotional interaction between the brand and the audience. Within this framework, contemporary advertising is considered less a reflection of reality and more a constructor of lived experience and brand identity.
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