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11УДК 069.5:070:659.1
PUBLICITY AND ADVERTISING TOPICS APPLIED TO MEDIEVAL OBJECTS: EXAMPLES FROM GIRONA
Lea Friis Alsinger
PhD student of Spanish studies and History of Art Departments
Universities of Perpignan and Girona
UPVD, 52 avenue Paul Alduy, 66100 Perpignan, France
UDG, Plaça Sant Doménec, 3, 17004 Girona, Spain. l.f.alsingerMigmail.com
A collection of medieval objects bearing inscriptions, exhibited in several museums of the city of Girona, is under analysis. A prevailing of Bible quotes is observed, linked with repetition of types of pictures, but we can also find on objects references of persons, like sponsors and craftspeople. The theme of Communication is not far from the one of advertising when it comes to promote an idea of action. The question is to show here how we can recognize publicity strategies in these objects, seeing how as etymology of the word publicity as some famous current theories or models of advertising may apply to our medieval framework through examples of museums objects.
Key words: medieval, objects, publicity, advertising, inscriptions, museums, Girona.
Medieval epigraphy is not just about monumental inscriptions, but also about objects ones, on all small furniture. My corpus study also includes items which are generally let down because of the shortness of their inscriptions. It represents some fifty objects exposed in museums of the city of Girona, from the Vth century to the XVth century. This set of epigraphic objects is strongly determined by historical circumstances of the Middle Ages, as much as the ones of their survival and their historical display conditions in the Museums where they are exhibited. Nevertheless, despite their heterogeneous aspect, the overall image they show is consistent and connects them with their time, some political circumstances, and some religious literary tradition, all with publicity topics of this time.
Indeed, picture as text had promotional roles, as for certain public figures as for religion in general, and the cults of many saints in particular, at this age when everyone cannot read and write, and where we may identify a very important role of culture of pictures, as nowadays in a different way. That is why we purpose here to demonstrate how the concept of publicity
©Friis Alsinger L., 2014
and some advertising theories or models can be applied to our medieval framework.
Etymologically, the word « publicity » appears in 1791, as "condition of being public," from the French word « publicité » (1690s), from Medieval Latin « publicitatem » (nominative « publicitas »), from Latin « publicus ». The sense of «a making (something) known, an exposure to the public» is from 1826, shading by c.1900 into "advertising, business of promotion" [CNRTL 2014].
Now, what's the definition of Publicity? It is: «the business of attracting the attention of the public to something/somebody; the things that are done to attract attention» according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary online [Hornby et al. 2014 : para. 2], so the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people, goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment. We can also identify publicity processes in the context of museums today, but we just focus on the medieval framework where we can say it highlights more aspects of people (with seals of countesses of the XIth century, in the Girona Cathedral Treasury, for example) and "organizations" as way of life through religious items. The spiritual aspect seem to be inexistent in the definition, but between other points, through the important set of Christian crosses, we can say one of the aims is also to promote the divine figure of Christ.
Advertising, now, according to Oxford dictionaries again [Stevenson (edit.) 2014], is: «the activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services». It includes a commercial outlook. Sure it must have existed some kind of advertising as we conceive it now, especially orally we can imagine such with some persons like minstrels.
However, some advertising theories or models seem to be applicable in our medieval publicity context of objects in a more open definition.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica [Abdullah et al. 2013] explains the word «advertising» with a broader definition: «the techniques and practices used to bring products, services, opinions, or causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised. Most advertising involves promoting a good that is for sale, but similar methods are used to encourage people to drive safely, to support various charities, or to vote for political candidates, among many other examples. In many countries advertising is the most important source of income for the media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, or television stations) through which it is conducted»
In relation to these concepts we propose to see the object such as a media (or medium according to the latin etymology); the display close context
of the object, as a church for example, also forms part of the medium. The subtle difference between publicity and advertising, therefore, is based on the incitement to action in addition to knowledge.
It seems impossible to summarize all current theories, but we notice global common features through a few recent ones.
Objectives of advertising messages and target audience, that is to say people whom the advertising message is addressed to, with segmentation, are important notions of publicity that we find too in our context of medieval objects.
Target of coins (like the ones exhibited in the Archaeological museum or the Girona City History museum, from the VIIth to the XIIth century) is more open than target of religious objects.
Nevertheless, even in this last frame we can observe different kinds and grades of targets, with the whole Christian community, the regional one, the Girona's one, and the ones of the guilds.
Target of seals of public figures (from the XIth to the XIIIth century) exposed in the Girona Cathedral Treasury and in the museum of Jewish History) are also different. Moreover, in our framework, we have got the case of two seals of countesses of the XIth century which have different targets and objectives in two publicity processes regarding each temporal context. At their time, they used as seals according to their basic function. Afterwards and until now, their function had changed, as they were incorporated in another object, a religious one, exhibited in the Cathedral Treasury which is a museum now. So they are used now to enhance an aspect of prestige of the object by their luxurious materials and to remember historical figures known for their piety and their regional or political importance.
Linked to this notion of segmentation of targets, we must highlight the notions of membership or reference groups which can be enhanced in the "publicity strategy" of objects. It is remarkable through some inscriptions of objects by refering to more or less regional figures, of craftspeople, sponsors, or other famous people, but not only this way; some types of painting, like altarpieces, or other works of art, like coins, are clearly regional types. We can mention here the names of two famous families and bishops of Girona on the monumental silver Altarpiece of the Cathedral (XIVth century); or some names of regional saints in other objects, as the reliquary of Four saints martyrs (XIVth-XVth centuries); or the type of Girona painting through among others examples, Lamentation over the body of Christ of the XVth century, also exposed in the Treasury.
This recognition promotes a sense of belonging to some group(s) (many aspects of efficiency of Publicity processes correspond to human universals
topics like this one) and through this feeling it promotes the object and its advertising character(s).
Moreover, Robert Heath, since its article of 2001, propounded four arguments:
1. Brand-building occurs through emotional connections, not persuasion.
2. Most advertising assumes its purpose is persuasion, and therefore assumes it has to attract a high level of attention to deliver its persuasive message.
3. The best advertising actually works through emotional processing, not persuasion, and emotional content is processed most efficiently at low levels of attention, not high.
4. Therefore, brand-building is best achieved through emotional advertising that generates positive feelings and gets associated with a brand through simple repetition, not rational persuasion. High attention to the advertising itself does not support this process, and may actually inhibit it [Heath 2001].
We are here out of his context, and he is seen as an iconoclast in the advertising research world because he is pursuing the heretical view that attention to advertising may actually be bad in some circumstances (e.g., TV ads) and for some purposes (e.g., brand-building), but we recognize in there the basic features of advertising strategies applicable to our medieval background.
Indeed, repetition and affective or emotional attraction are very marked aspects in our objects. We also find behaviorism aspects through repetition strategy.
The purpose is not to offend believers, but in religious objects we find many repetitions: of abbreviations or biblical quotes or symbolic pictures; such as the symbol of the cross, the acronym INRI, words of Ave Maria prayer, and some easily recognizable types of paints (scenes from the life of Christ in particular, or with Virgin Mary). It could be compared in some way with logo and brands topics.
Now let us consider advertising models.
The basic and historical AIDA model, commonly attributed to the American advertising and sales pioneer, E. St. Elmo Lewis, about 1898 [Gicquel and Bariety 2011], can be applied too in our framework. It is an acronym for:
• A - attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.
• I - interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).
• D -desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
• A - action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.
In our case study, the process to attract the attention is not with regard to a customer but a consumer of semiological signals, a public user too, but not in a pure business perspective; it could be directed to an audience of religious believers in a medieval world where citizenship was connected to religiosity ; or it could be linked with diplomacy.
In this process we can notice the same features linked with biological or psychological aspects: in the choice and the symbolism of colors, materials luxury, aesthetic, or mere dimensions of objects.
Interest can be Salvation in the case of liturgical items; for coins the interest is financial utility, for boxes there is also a notion of utility.
Desire has not a such immediate application; but a countess seal on view could inspire someone else to buy a similar one; a prestigious altarpiece could tempt another guild to order one too; and generally, beauty of some liturgical items exposed in churches could incite people to be more pious, or more generous. Actually, in reverse way, an aim of ordering a future public object could be also a personal interest of publicity through sponsoring (when sponsor(s) name(s) appears in inscriptions, and via the mouth-to-ear) so the desire effect might also be the result of pressing a jealousy lever like in commercial competition.
Action, so, can be; for all objects of our study, to sponsor and order other similar o even more prestigious objects; or simply to encourage people to admire either religious or political, historical or contemporaneous figures (to promote piety or agreement and granting).
Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results abbreviated DAGMAR also known as ACCA advertising formula, is a descendant of AIDA model like many others models. Developed for the measurement of advertising effectiveness it maps the states of mind passed through by a consumer. It was proposed by Russel H. Colley in 1961 [Dutka and Colley 1995]. These steps are:
1. Awareness
2. Comprehension
3. Conviction
4. Action
It differs a little from the previous model, we mention it because of the comprehension step, specifically in relation to liturgical items, because of the importance of biblical scenes in paintings and sculptures or silversmith works. Thereby, it is a publicity process not only through seducing but also
explaining and helping to remind. That alludes to the idea of persuasion mentioned above, recovering arguments of Robert Heath.
In the staging process of current advertisement we can encounter a notion of spectacle, with shows, within many forms, now even virtually, sights through kinds of seasons; this helps to strengthen the brand image. In parallel maybe can we perceive in a somewhat similar way some spectacular events of holidays, in the Middle Ages, like processions of objects as holy Crosses and statues, linked to guilds, on schedule.
All these tools remind the notions evoked by the French advertising theorist Georges Péninou including those of «mise en vue» and «mise en mémoire», or setting and storing, or literally something like «holding to sight» and «holding to memory» which are essential basic actions of advertising [Péninou 2001].
To conclude, Communication features as plastic signals, cultural perception and mental representations topics, were as functional as nowadays, in our medieval context. Words and strategies have evolved, but it might already be effective because cognitive aspects of humans and European cultural codes didn't change a lot through centuries for some aspects of reception of objects. Farther, some of publicity and advertising themes seem to be relevant, because the objects of this study always had aspects of public exhibition and might have been ordered with objectives or incidentally call to actions. Besides, (although faith is to differentiate from staging it) even religious items seem to correspond to lines of advertising models and theories.
Bibliography
Abdullah, Mansur G.; Anderson, Michael C. [et al.] // Encyclopedia Britannica Online, "advertising", 2013. URL: http://www.britannica.com/ EBchecked/topic/6801 /advertising (consulted 14.10.2014).
CNRTL (Centre National de Ressources textuelles et lexicales): « publicité » (lexicographie) // URL:
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ПРЕДМЕТЫ ЭПОХИ СРЕДНЕВЕКОВЬЯ КАК ИСТОЧНИКИ ПУБЛИЧНОСТИ И РЕКЛАМЫ: НА ПРИМЕРЕ ЭКСПОНАТОВ МУЗЕЕВ Г.ЖИРОНЫ
Леа Фриис Алсингер
аспирант кафедры испанистики и истории искусств
Университет г. Перпиньяна, Университет г.Жироны
UPVD, 52 avenue Paul Alduy, 66100 Perpignan, France
UDG, Plaça Sant Doménec, 3, 17004 Girona, Spain. l.f.alsinger@gmail.com
Анализируются экспонаты нескольких музеев Жироны, предметы эпохи Средних Веков, содержащие надписи. Большинство надписей -это цитаты из Библии, соединенные между собой иллюстрациями одного типа. Однако также встречаются ссылки на конкретных людей: ремесленников и попечителей. Как известно, коммуникация, побуждающая к действию и реклама - очень близкие понятия. Наша цель -показать стратегии рекламы и публичности, использованные при создании надписей на предметах, учитывая каким образом как этимология слова «публичность», так и известные современные теории и моделей рекламы могут применяться в нашем исследовании музейных экспонатов эпохи Средних веков.
Ключевые слова: средневековый, предмет, публичность, реклама, описание, музей, Жирона.
