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Media culture
Anti-drug social advertising in the modern media space: persuasiveness and cognitive basis *
Abstract. The emancipation of morals in Russia of post-perestroika period resulted in massive drugs abuse and narcotization which have no cognitive or religious impulse, but connected with hedonism. The problem of the relationship of drug abuse with deviant behavior has been dramatically worsened. In these circumstances, it is necessary to use anti-drug measures, and a social advertising has to play an important role. Cognitive approach to social advertising involves taking into consideration that the recipient of the advertisement perceives it through the prism of individual constructs. Persuasiveness in anti-drug advertising is based not only on logic but also on psychology, and axiology. The study is based on the general scientific principle of dialectics, investigating phenomena in their interconnection and interdependence. Suggestion about the empirical method of cognitive linguistics, which is to follow all the nuances of the language form and to find their ultimate explanation in the cognitive structures is very important. The hermeneutic approach with its accentuated emphasis on the explanation and interpretation, method of linguistic deduction and induction. Interpretative approach, based on the assumption that the values do not exist in isolation, an interpreter "finds out them" on the basis of features of speech and context of the speech.
Keywords: media discourse, media, social advertising, anti-drug advertising, persuasiveness, cognition, prevention of drug addiction.
Introduction
In modern world the importance of advertising communications is constantly increasing, and using various channels the advertising process permeates almost all the spheres. Suggestive influence of advertising on members of society is determined with the special discursive techniques and wide replicability of advertising as well. Advertising today plays a huge role in creating the habits and customs, determines the morality of a society, its ethical parameters, propagates and reinforces cultural and aesthetic clichés, and in some extent it replaced fiction for a large part of a society. Advertising has a number of important functions: it influences on motivational and behavioural sphere of the recipients, generates and broadcasts the value system of a society, affects person's perception of the world. The most important function of advertising
Prof. Dr. L.A. Brusenskaya,
Rostov State University of Economics 69, B. Sadovaya, Rostov -on-Don, 344002 brusenskaya_l@mail.ru
Prof. Dr. E.G. Kulikova,
Rostov State University of Economics 69, B. Sadovaya, Rostov -on-Don, 344002 kulikova_ella21 @mail.ru
Prof. Dr. E. Y. Zolochevskaya
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration,
84, Prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, 84119571, zolochevskaya@uriu. ranepa. ru
* The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 17-04-00109
is socialization, it means the introduction into the human consciousness knowledge and understanding about norms, stereotypes, values, standards of behaviour in the whole society and in some communities; this is kind of human adaptation to the existing social world. The problem, however, is that reaching the nearest pragmatic purposes, an adverting text may provoke socially dangerous behavior, including drug abuse (i.e. advertising, actively promoting mindless consumerism, and hedonism). For example, the advertising roller of energy drink "Adrenalin Rush" that is produced by the company "Pepsi Co Holdings»: "Vasya Ivanov has boundless energy. Now he is only fifteen, but he has already defended his doctoral thesis, won the World Chess Championship, speaks fifteen languages. <...> There is energy of "Adrenalin Rush" for real people. Drink energy, reach something more!". This advertising roller, clearly aimed at juveniles suggests that drinking an energy drink gives an advantage over peers who don't drink it, and succeed with their own work. This advertising roller misleads consumers, suggesting to him that it is possible to "achieve more" without making any effort, and just using "Adrenalin Rush». Besides, this drink is not recommended for people under the age of 18 (and it is indicated on the packaging). In addition, there can be seen several violations of the legislation on advertising. Every linguistic culture is characterized by certain preferences in the choice of models of cognitive experience representation in the form of certain ideas and conceptions. Such dominant systems of representation (according to M. Foucault - cultural and historical episteme or episteme of mentality) penetrate into all the spheres of life, and in modern conditions - they certainly are verbalized in advertising, which, in turn, has a clearly expressed modeling character. Modern Russian society is fairly characterized as open to various influences (including negative ones, provoking different deviations), but not protected from them due to the crisis of spiritual and moral sphere. Reformation of the post-Soviet space have undermined the foundations of Russian society, its social immune system, caused such forms of asocial and deviating behavior (drugs, gambling, xenophobia etc.) that do not have cultural roots in Russian society. One of the most important areas of social advertising is the prevention of drug addiction - physical and/or psychic dependence on drugs. This is most acute problem of modern world. The origins of this problem is in the past, when drugs were used sporadically, their use had ritual nature and accompanied with religious rites. But after XVI-XVII centuries, when opium got the status of product on the international market, consumption of drugs increased and the fight against drug addiction became (to some extent) the care of the state. Naturally, it is impossible to compare the modern scale of the disaster with the former one, and it depends on not only the number of drug addicts, but also the diversity of circumstances and phenomena caused by narcotization.
That is why anti-drug advertising should be explored, it is necessary to take into account characteristics of the cognitive mechanisms of its formation and perception, the specifics of its persuasiveness.
Materials and Methods
The methodological basis of this investigation is the unity of the general, psycholinguistic, linguistic and law methods. The whole range of facts observed in the discourse - lexical units and grammatical forms, which provides social advertising is the subject of the study. The analysis is conducted at different levels - at the macro level (i.e. in the context of modern ideas of globalization, discursive strategies) and micro level (psycholinguistic and linguistic and law analysis of the text, sentence, phrase and word). A comprehensive approach to the phenomenon of social advertising, dedicated to drug prevention demanded the use of the tools of the theory of speech activity, the theory of speech acts, support on ideas and methods of cognitive science.
Discussion
In modern linguistics there is often said about "overcoming centrism of literary language", communicative and cultural significance of substandard variants of the expression, about the functional extension of normativity, enhancing creativity and reducing "prohibition" as well as. It is clear that the range of variation becomes wider: various speech genres, number of which today is a few hundred, assume not only common, but also special genre standards. Social advertising is described in investigations of recent years [Ryumin, 2012] as a special speech genre. In the Federal Law "On advertising" (2006) there is the following definition of social advertising: it is the information spread in any way, in any form and using any means, addressed to an indefinite circle of persons and aimed at achieving charitable and other socially useful goals, as well as ensuring the interests of the state [Federal Law "On Advertising", 2008, p.5].
Social advertising as a speech genre has the following features. This is a secondary genre, including such primary speech genres as a request, call, question; it is monologic speech genre, including only the speech of the sender and not presupposing answers or continuation of the speech flow); it is an imperative speech genre, influencing the addressee aimed at changing its behavioural models.
As social advertising does not require prior texts and is not a response to a different speech genre, it should be attributed to the initial speech genres. Finally, it is a conventional speech genre, which is characterized by unambiguous interpretation of the information contained therein, and this is a rhetorical speech genre aimed at maximize the impact on the target audience [Ryumin, 2012]. Social advertising refering to the ethical categories has become especially popular because the society is faced with such problems, the solution of which depends on the behavior of the whole society. "The appeal to morality as the fundamental motive of social advertising is the axiological basis of social advertising" [Shapovalov, 2012, p. 8]. Ideas is the main object of promotion in social advertising.
Social advertising is often seen as a kind of counterweight to commercial PR and commercial advertising, as it focuses on the interests of the whole society, people trust social advertising more. No wonder commercial advertising is often "adjusted" to the social one. For example, the text "Understandeach other!" used in a series of billboards of social program "The City without Drugs", then appeared in commercial advertising (with the caption "Insurance company "Phoenix"). No advertising is impossible without creativity - creativity with a pragmatic focus. Any advertising is impossible without creativity - creativity with a pragmatic focus. naturally, that creative social advertising overflow the strict literary standard. Referring to the youth target audience, such advertising often includes slang units.
For example: Fuck drugs for the future! (the text is accompanied by a picture, of hands holding a hammer and nails). Target audience is the "trigger" of advertising forms of communication [Novikov, 2007, p. 9]. Explicating any image advertising includes information that it is easy to understand for target audience and that is a part of target audience's lifestyle. The violation of system norms of the literary language is truly regarded as a factor of creativity of the speech. But this position can't be correct relating to ethic-linguistic norms as the goal of ethics is the organization of harmonious and efficient cooperation, therefore ethical standards take such an important place in human life. Ethical standards include such concepts as sincerity, kindness, selflessness, compassion, honesty, caring, respect to people, etc. In communication, they are manifested as politeness, tolerance /tolerance, tact, correctness, sensitivity, tact, courtesy. They exclude aggressive, rude behavior, resulting in ineffective communication, interpersonal conflicts that destroys emotional and psychological sphere of communicants. The discrepancy to ethic-linguistic norm can be both explicit, direct, even rude, and implicit, when not all communicants feels the inappropriate (unethical) language unit. E.g.: the following text of anti-drug advertising: Today on wheels (this text is accompanied by two pictures: palms with tablets is in one picture,
cyclists are in another one). This advertising refers to slang designation of tableted drugs (wheels), and common meaning of the noun wheel.
Violation of the ethic-linguistic norm in advertising with language play based on a slang meaning of the word wheel is the reference to "narcotic" subculture. Although the language game in this example is aimed to promote a healthy lifestyle, objectively, it turns out that its authors demonstrate verbal solidarity with drug addicts using this slang, introduce it into the consciousness of those recipients who do not know it. Today researchers raise the issue of "narcotization of the Russian speech" [Redkina, 2010, pp. 6-13]. Narcotic jargon oppresses all the other jargons, wherebythe consumption of drugs is perceived as a part of everyday life. E.g. instead of 15 words with an element narco- in the 70-ies of XX-th century now there are more than 60 such words in common language narcothreat, narcoagression narcodealer, narcotraffick, narcotest, narcoflow, narco epidemic, etc. E.g.: the idea that new lexicon (English borrowings) from narcosphere veils the problem: "What pushers and dragdillers - these are huckster, cannibals, ogres. There is such words are introduced which "drops" problem, calms people," [Narcology, 2007, # 5, p. 24].
These words actively produce metaphors: The taste of victory is a drug; sex is a drug. The expression to sit on the needle is frequent just in expansive metaphorical meaning - on oil needle and gas needle.
A favorite journalistic trick is putting such words in strong (title) position. And in such a "context of situation" the jargon word wheel in the anti-drug advertising doesn't work on the main goal - the production of spiritual and moral immunity to drugs.
Violation of the ethical-linguistic norms, may be not so obvious, but it is felt in the following text nevertheless: Your place is here, and not with drugs (visual visual support of advertising: sport battles, pictures of rest in the bosom of nature, wedding ceremony, etc.), because, as it turned out, this text reminds the command to a dog. Violation of the ethic-linguistic norm is often associated with the fact that communicants do not take into consideration pragmatic co-meaning of words. Meanwhile, the lexical meaning of the word is multitier, any word that exists long enough in the language includes, besides the semantic content, the pragmatic component in the broadest sense of the term.
Pragmatic meaning is transmitted and extracted by means of signs information about the emotional, subjective-estimated attitude of the speakers to the objects denoted by the word, and to the words themselves. Thus, pragmatics are primarily connected with the connotative, evaluative component of lexical semantics, these non-verbal (not expressed explicitly) meanings (connotations) make the word "extensible for new revelations of thought." Many pragmatic functions are stable and dominate a large number of lexical units. The rhetorical task of advertising is persuasion, which, as is known, represents the most gentle and civilized way of influence. The search for an adequate methodological platform on which an honest conviction would be possible, does not stop. There are to opposite positions in relation to anti-drug advertising.
1. The most priority position (the first one) is only positive images can be used. This correlates with the fact that now there is restructuring into the direction of humanization of all anti-drug preventive system: the "punitive" prevention dominant before, based on measures of social control, public-administrative and criminal punishment is replaced by protective prevention, socio-pedagogical support and help. According to this approach it is not effective to demonize the addict, to scare people with druggy "horrors". A visual demonstration of consequence of narcotization creates a tension that a person sometimes does not allow into consciousness. Advertising must be "not against" but "for" - for a healthy lifestyle, for life without drugs: Life without drugs is the way to happiness; In happy life there is no drugs! Advertising should have positive messages and alternative to drug abuse. Proponents of this idea believe that in advertising there should be persuasively said, "not using drugs - well!"(instead to
prove that the "drug abuse is bad"). These two synonymous (in terms of linguistics) messages are fundamentally different. Textbooks for advertisers emphasizes that anti-drug advertising should not cause depressive feelings, on the contrary - its purpose is to give a positive charge, to create a positive image, which should be imitated, [Nikolaishvili, 2008]. According to experts on advertising, on positivity and the power of attraction advertising characters can be distributed in the following order: women, children, cute and cuddly animals, men [Tsenev, 2007, p. 200]. Of course, use itself of these images does not guarantee success (and does not eliminate the elementary stupidity). E.g.: online advertising, which often exploits the images of animals and birds. In general, in our opinion, all the promotion "Animals against drugs" is not clear and may be characterized as a sham.
2.In addition to the support of positive, experts in the field of advertising believe this question rather legitimate: "Must anti-drug advertising be?"That is always necessary in positive perspective, which will protect the recipient from heavy emotions? Is always positive perspective necessary, which will protect the recipient from heavy emotions? The second point of view on the essence of advertising message of anti-drug themes is reflected, for example, in the work of K. M. Xinkin [2011, p. 126-145], where he says "about children's illness of positivism in anti-drug advertising." It is necessary to cure this disease that is trying to find a simplistic, surface-schematic approaches. The positive must prevail on public channels, but on local ones, all the methods are necessary, even intimidating ones. There is an pattern: if the society realizes risks associated with drug abuse, the level of their consumption is lower. And in a situation when it is necessary to shout: Drugs are killing us! we say Drugs are stealing our best years! And we actually are losing the information war in this field. And in our country when it is necessary to holler Drugs are killing us, but instead ob this we mutter: Drugs are stealing our best years! Modern person being every day in the television and Internet space, "in the midst of suffering", accustomed to this background of life. Hence, social advertising, in order not to yield to the force of the impact and to attract attention, should be correlated with the parameters of the rest of media. Anti-drug messages should be targeted: on the main street there should be advertising blending with the cultural picture of the big city (Remember! Drugs are prohibited by law! The buyer of drugs is the same criminal as the seller!), in the yards, in the clinics, at schools there should be different types of advertising. And in all cases, the boring text with boring homilies will be at least useless, while the informative text, with bright visual row really will be able to form anti-drug views. The whole media space in general and social advertising in particular, should form anti-drug public opinion by all means.
Results
The aim of social advertising is to form the image of socially acceptable and socially unacceptable action. Social advertising is a rather late phenomenon, so it is investigated much less than some others. In combination with other instruments of influence social advertising can work to overcome degradation. The topics of social advertising demonstrate totality of social problems among which almost the first place takes drugs addiction. The degree of social responsibility is very high in social advertising, as advertising may have the opposite effect, especially among the youth (youth subculture is also rightly called counterculture).
The problem of counteraction to drugs, is related to the fact that addiction is perceived by the youth as "fashion slavery", and addiction is considered to be an attribute of modern society as a whole: "freaky" anecdotes are eplicated in all ways ; films, including hidden advertising of drugs; in stores of accessories jewelry narcosymbols are available (E.g. yellow smiles ecstasy and inscription in English "Cocain is my brand!"on the youth clothing). 15 years ago, the jargon of drug addicts in the Russian language numbered 600-700 lexical units and was an integral part of the criminal jargon. Now this is an important part of the common youth slang: not less than 1,500 units in Russian dictionaries of youth slang are the words associated with drug abuse. Drug
vocabulary is an integral part of the modern "glamorous" texts of Robski O., K. Sobchak, etc. A fashionable novel by M. Sveshnikova "Fuck you" is very significant in this respect, where one of the subplots is that the heroine imitates a heavy drug addiction only to suit the fashion, and prestige. Drug abuse is represented in modern media as ordinary phenomenon. It is clear that such publications does not contribute to the displacement of the drug from the consciousness of adolescents and a positive perception of drug laws. However, for example advertising popular in media space Say no to drugs (which because of its frequency is not more effective than ordinary inscription on cigarette packs Smoking kills) and its much more accurate and efficient option: Say No to drugs before you try! In this advertising authors break the stereotype, aggressively promoted by the media and "glamorous literature", that all the people try drugs, it is quite an everyday thing. E.g. description of lifestyle of main hero and the company that surrounds him in the novel by S. Minaev "Duhless" or jokes by "Comedy club" introducing into the consciousness ideas that drug abuse and narcotization is usual phenomenon and in some cases (like in the novel by S. Minaev and some other glamorous texts by other authors - O. Robski, N. Sveshnikova, K. Sobchak) working on the aestheticization of drug abuse.
According to the UN recommendations, the division of drugs on "strong" and weak" is artificial and therefore unacceptable: it deceives about the harmful effects of narcotization [Recommendations..., 2014]. So-called "soft drugs" is a "time bomb".
In this point of view, the anti-drug advertising, categorically negating the "light" drugs, is honest conviction.
Manipulative version of impossibility to "get off the needle", the idea that "former addicts do not happen" are used with the noble aim to warn young people.
However, the effect of such statements can be opposite - people stop to believe anti-drug advertising at all. P.P. Lobas [2011, p. 49] thinks that the process of unsuccessful manipulation is still poorly investigated, as well as the process of dismantling the manipulative schemes under influence of critics or the general growth of culture of the recipients of speech. According to A.N. Solodovnikova [2013], 71 % of social advertising use persuasion with arguments. The author writes that social advertising uses suggestion, different from persuasion: compression of meaning, statement without explicit arguments. Indeed, "tight financial conditions as one of the extralinguistic factors of advertising dictate maximum compression of the advertising text, high density of its contents, a part of which is either not verbalized or symbolized" [Stylistic Encyclopedic Dictionary..., 2006. p. 636]. E.g.: the advertisement text: Drugs? I Wait! in the context of the following images: 1. a doctor near a dropper; 2. a worker near the broken car; 3. policeman opens the door to a correctional institution; 4. A digger with a shovel, and there are grave crosses near them. This maximum compressive advertising does not represent arguments, but implicit sense in its meaning is quite clear. Interesting data are given in: [Filatov, Konovalov, 2010]. 73% of respondents answered Yes! the question Can social advertising promote the prevention of drug abuse? 63% of respondents believe that such advertising is not effective enough. 87% of respondents answered Yes! the question Must social advertising on prevention of drug addiction useful information? In this connection it was admitted that one of the differences of social advertising in comparison with the commercial is its appeal to the well-known phenomena. Thus along with the maximum compressive advertising is relevant and more detailed social advertising, containing important information. Persuasiveness of "shock" anti-drug advertising is not unambiguous. The problem, essentially, is that the advertising text frequently relies on the views of adults about the dangerous and scary things. As for teenagers anti-drug "horror stories" often turn out to be completely futile. Moreover, they can provoke the interest of young people (especially unstable ones) to the topic of drugs, provoke desire for new sensations.
Teenagers of 14-16 years old may have reaction to anti-drug advertising like this: drugs are so expensive and those who use them are imprisoned for such a long period how it well should be fine using them! It is necessary to try everything in life!
And for young "tasters" drugs appear to be a way to achieve all the benefits immediately. Therefore, the main motto for advertisers in this sphere should be a medical one "Do not harm!" Today some prohibitions in the anti-drug advertising are well determined: there should not be the names of specific drugs, mention of the method to manufacture or abuse them, there should be no "pictures" of drug abuse.
In our opinion it is powerful social advertising must counteract all this. Meanwhile promoting "horror", demonizing the image of the drug addict is much less effective than targeted education (including using social advertising!) of will power, faith in own capabilities. The main stages of persuasiveness of social advertising are: 1. the need to adopt a social norm; 2. the need to realise the problem and to reassess values; 3. the need to make a single action; 4. the need to form a pattern and to reject negative behavior.
Conclusions
Advertising to achieve its purposes maximally must be provided with scientific support. It is necessary to have scientific evaluation of efficiency of advertising, measurements, which could determine an objective picture of the commercial intervention before and after advertising.
If efficiency of commercial advertising can be estimated on the basis of specific market indicators (the sales level, the number of attracted customers, etc.), the efficiency of social advertising is associated with changes in social position relating to the social phenomenon that is difficult for formalized assessments. Efficiency of commercial advertising may be found out quickly enough, while the perlocutionary effect of social advertising is delayed. The social effect is never fast, because changing attitudes to the problem is a long term process. However, there can be defined three parameters by which it is possible to judge about the efficiency of anti-drug advertising: 1) awareness about this type of advertising; 2) a positive attitude to chosen linguistic and paralinguistic means of formation of the advertising message; 3) the results of questionnaires. The ideal result would be a sharp change for better. Of course, fixing in the minds of recipients to choose on their own anti-drug position should be the result of advertising. Efficiency of anti-drug advertising largely depends on the correct tasks (which it is generally difficult to do in social advertising because it refers to "eternal" problems). There should not be only advertising difficult to perceive - with a ambiguous message, unclear implication.
Modern TV and Internet space form disturbing perception of life. Power and impact of social advertising, especially directed against the most terrible disaster of today, must not give way to other influences. It is possible to correct advertising process not only with the help of regulating state bodies but above all with the help of ethical standards adopted by professional community on the basis of specific set of rules of the professional value system.
The realities of modern life are so that there is an urgent need to strengthen anti-drug activities anti-drug in general and anti-drug advertising in particular. And responsibility for every word, for every video is extremely high, because in fact it is the problem of life and death.
Acknowledgements
The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 17-04-00109
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