Cruz Mendonça the Materialization of the Interdiscursivity

The materialization of theinterdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising

Adriano Charles Cruz∗

Sergio Mendonça†

ÍndiceInitial Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Advertising: a node in the discursive network . . . . . . . . 22 The competition between hermanos: from the soccer to the

discursive area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Final Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Abstract

This article discusses the presence of otherness in advertising dis-course. We articulate a parallel between the advertising and the dis-cursive conception of Discourse Analysis of the French line. From aliterature review, we question the concept of creativity present in theprofessional discourse. The paper is composed mostly by statementsof Skol (Bear Company), chosen for its importance in the marketing.Our analysis showed the complex marks of interdiscursivity and alteri-ty present in the materiality of these ads.

∗Professor of Communication at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte(UFRN). E-mail: [email protected].†Advertiser, masters in communication at UFPE and professor at Faculdade

Metropolitana da Grande Recife and at the school of Marketing (FMGR/FAMA).

[email protected]

2 Adriano Charles Cruz & Sergio Mendonça

Initial ConsiderationsThe frontiers of a book are never clear-cut [...] it is caughtup in a system of references to other books, other texts,other sentences: it is a node within a network.

Michel Foucault

ADVERTISING has become an attractive practice in recent years: in-vestments, survey of public opinion strategies of persuasion and

the rise of aesthetic quality were some of the factors responsible for itssuccess. If, for some decades, few Brazilians were in front of the TVset in the "break time"today, often, advertising staff dialogue betweenpeople, providing topics to be discussed. Who hasn’t discussed an ad-vertisement with friends?

Understanding the mechanisms engendered in the advertising lan-guage, we can discover its attractive force. It is known that there isno transparency of language, as Plato advocated, because besides thedesired unambiguous representation of our ideas, words have culture,ideologies and historical conditions in which the subjects are inserted.More than that: words are woven into our network, necessarily interac-ting with the words of others. The philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1988)was one of the most important authors to alert to the dialogical characterof language.

But what goes through the language? How advertising interrelatedwith other discourses? That is what we intend to show in this paper. Forthis, we will build on the Discourse Analysis of the French line (AD),developed from studies of the philosopher Michel Pêcheux and the lin-guist Jean Dubois. The point is to understand the "game of voices"inthe advertising texts and how this practice uses this device in order topersuade your target audience and make them interested in the productrelease.

1 Advertising: a node in the discursive networkIn the Brazilian academic literature, the Discourse Analysis works withtheoretical and methodological categories that defend a conception ofthe human language, taking into account the historical aspects involved.

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The materialization of the interdiscursivity in the Skol’s advertising 3

So, thanks to the influence of Bakhtin, this theory takes into account, asa rule, the interaction between discourses. Thus, all texts are producedin a particular discursive formation (DF) and are steeped in the ideo-logical formations. There are no neutral texts or texts that are devoidof ideological and unconscious action. We adopted the concept of dis-cursive formation spoken by Foucault (2004), and reappropriated byMichel Pêcheux, that describes a DF as a:

[...] Something that determines what can and should be said(articulated in the form of a harangue, a sermon, a pam-phlet, an exhibition, a program etc.)... (Pêcheux, 1997, p.160)

Advertising is rich in references. In fact, the reader will certainlyagree that there is no "academic” speech, we are all in our talks resu-ming other speeches that are not ours. This also occurs with "our"ideas,our views and our opinions, but often we are unaware of this phe-nomenon simply forget that "we are not the source of our discourse”(Pêcheux, 1997), not realizing the action of "others."Our world is a huge"patchwork quilt"in which different discourses are weaving all the time,hiding, and reappearing in competition, according to the socio-historicalconditions.

Figure 1: The Boticário’s Ad

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The advertisement above has shown the clear heterogeneous rela-tionship of marketing: "There once was a girl as white as snow, whichcaused much jealousy not to have met seven dwarfs, but several of 1.80m dark–haired men."The text makes clear reference to the fairy tale,whose elements are the costumes, the facial features of the model andfigure of the apple. This parody is built by the intersection of discoursesof sexuality / seduction, fiction and advertising.

These other "voices"are much more than intertextuality (explicitfragments of other texts), but they are present constituting our say andour own lives, since we are social and historical subjects.

In life we do so, judging ourselves from the point of viewof others, trying to understand and take into account whatis transcendent to our own consciousness, so we take intoaccount the value placed on our appearance due to the im-pression that it can have on others [...] (Bakhtin, 1992, p.35–36).

The resumption of other discourses is called interdiscourse. Theyare different discourses that have been said and have been forgotten,belonging to a socio–historical memory or memory discourse. In gene-ral, we could say that would be the relationship between the discursiveformations.

In the previous advertisement, we have discourses talking about thewomen in society, the discourse of seduction and subservience to men.We are led to understand that the beautiful white woman is supposedto win several "dark"of 1.80 m. What is a social standard of beauty,sexuality and norms of masculinity that is limited in the materiality ofthe text, though forgotten and silenced.

Advertising is a persuasive communication technique that uses itsown methods at the production, broadcasting and reception of your mes-sages. But the French AD "is aimed at understanding how a symbolicobject makes sense, how is it invested of significance for others.” (Or-lando, 2007, p.26).

If we draw a parallel between the work of the analyst of the speechand the advertiser, we realize that the conception of language arisesin two distinct points, since the former is a social practice in whichthe positioning aims to persuasion, so like any discourse, it aims to

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convince the receiver of the message of a certain truth (your own truth),which is based on its position of a discourse constructed objectively andconsciously.

Contrary to this, the Discourse Analysis (DA) refutes any attempt atrevival of the Cartesian subject – conscious and master of his actions.For it, the discourse springs from historical facts and unconscious inan overlapping FD whose enunciation is given from a system of cons-traints. If you look at a manual copywriting, we will identify a se-ries of actions to be performed by these professionals, as well as manyother prohibitions: words, phrases, images that should not be said orexplored. Thus, the origin of an utterance has to do with the said andthe unsaid. The bans have much value for AD as it was authorized tosay. The system of restrictions is part of the history that every speech hebuilds for himself, "attributing certain affiliations and rejecting others”(MAINGUENAEAU, 2005 p. 81).

Figure 2: Skol’s Ad

Despite the differences that can be noted, emerges within the ad-vertising practice a concern for others, which will coincide with the as-sumptions defended here. In the case of the Skol beer Aid, it relates to

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the slogan "Skol, the beer that goes down round."This text is not explicitin the ad, but it relates to the product discourse.

The creation of an advertisement is perhaps more a work of analysisand application of proper techniques than an exercise in creativity forspecific purposes. Create, in advertising, is a task that requires priorknowledge of the intricacies and creative object to be worked on, allwithin the goals set for the campaign and quite far from abstract andmetaphysical concepts that characterize, for example, certain artisticcreations. The process of creating advertising is marked, therefore, forpractical and objective statements whose effects should translate mar-keting results.

The ad not only gathers information and transform theminto technical reports or reports, but, it uses a form of masscommunication that has the power to mobilize people: [...]if the information aims to raise awareness, persuasion aimsto influence. (Gomes, 2003).

The following ad illustrates how it should be the process to createan advertiser and how we will handle advertising in this case: as a tech-nique. The need for this is to put aside any argument about freedom tothe creative process of an ad and try to bring the final product a workof art characterized by subjectivity. Ads dialogue with other social ut-terances, networked discursive complex, sometimes reveal themselvesclearly as in the parodies, series, and citations, such as the resumptionof the previous announcement: "If the guy who invented bureaucracydrank Skol, it would not be like this... it would be like this.”

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Similarly, in a discursive conception there is not a guy as a absolutecreator, as advocated Michel Pecheux (1997), when the person believedto be the origin of his own speech, is under the influence of ideologicalillusion.

According to Maingueneau (2005), there is the primacy of interdis-course about the speech, the formation of a speech given is made fromhistorical utterances present in a given discursive formation, and suchutterances are structured from historical speeches that orbit the FD, be-ing evoked – positively or negatively – by and from a particular statedposition. The discourse of the Other constitutes the speech of A. Everystatement has a "right"(A) and "reverse"(Other) inseparable (Maingue-neau, 2005).

The advertisement search references, it doesn’t creates anything butrecovers, through its technical, statements that are part of the lexiconof everyday life, profile, history, context – the discursive formation –the set of people you want to achieve, so texts that can be recognizedby such a public. The process of creating advertising is guided by thepursuit of a statement located at the tip of the iceberg of speech lies inthe ocean of the prohibitions. It is to emerge from within a system of

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semantic restrictions set out a possible and appropriate. In other words,is to build a text within the parameters accepted peacefully by adverti-sing piece in question, considering the context and not just what can besaid but also what should never be mentioned.


The ad above feature humorous silenced sayings on the issues ofaesthetic beauty and patterns of sexual normality. Why a beautifulblonde is on the cover of the magazine? Why the man is fat? If we usethe social imaginary, it will answer these questions in light of the historyof Brazil. The announcement is aimed at heterosexual men who like thebeauty of European and white patterns, the woman are constructed asthe seductive imagery and available for sex. On the other hand, alsoridicules homosexuality carnivalized and constructed so stereotypical.Thus, we found no originality in the strict sense of the word, in a procla-mation. Advertising will get in the speeches of your target audience, theother of the advertisement, the source of its enunciation (the author isdiscursive order, no textual or grammar, so the lack of originality).

Speaking in terms of the discourse analysis, the advertising textis marked clearly by interdiscourse and made from it (as well as anyspeech). The particularity of the text search advertising is to make this agreat weapon in intertextual efforts of persuasion. Allocate the productadvertised external referents and activate a circuit discursive relations of

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the target audience, culminating in the closure of the message and theproduction of a specific and immediate sense. Even often (almost 100%of them), without being aware of these discursive relations, the writerpays off the techniques of advertising in the search for interdiscursivity.

In advertising, only in very specific texts we will found their pre-sence, always as a rhetorical device in an attempt to convey credibilityto the product. Famous quotations, sayings, pun, etc... Clearly revealthe discourse of the Other constitutes a heterogeneous ad displayed,which can easily be identified and analyzed in terms of linguistic andgrammatical. However, not all enunciative marks are explicit in the text,and discourse of the Other can only be apprehended by the discourse, bymeans of a throwback to the discursive space than advertised and thensailed emerge. Heterogeneity is constitutive or interdiscourse, whichstrongly marks the advertising ads.

The Other of the advertising (and any speech), which is not shown,is in constant dialogue with the statement itself. Your application is notin the form of an autonomous entity endowed with and located, evendiscursively, in the statement, but diluted in the historicity of the textand the finite possibilities that escaped the constraints of a given systemof discursive formation. The appearance of this Other in the discourseis closely linked to the conditions of production of the text itself, thehistorical and social conditioning that allowed its manifestation, and noother statement in its place, in the words of Foucault (2004).

2 The competition between hermanos: from thesoccer to the discursive area

Figure 5: A capture from a Skol’s video

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The year of 2006 was marked by the World Cup. In Brazil, as is wellknown, the subject football dominates from the everyday conversationsto the news media, even those specializing in other areas. The "nationalpassion"does not go unnoticed by any media outlet, whether print, ra-dio, television, etc. – All open space to talk about football, World Cupand the Brazilian national team. The possibility of this scenario is thehigh involvement of Brazilian society with the sport and the event al-lowed to take astronomical dimensions in the life of the population andto cause estrangement any different behavior. These are the conditionsof production of ads whose football is the dominant theme, which are byno means exceptions during the event. But if advertising appropriatespublic affairs for the construction of his pieces, nothing more naturalthan the World Cup live in the advertising texts during the period. So,talk about football in the ads is nothing more than to bring out a speechpresent in the minds of the vast majority of Brazilians.

Skol, one of the largest advertisers in the Brazilian advertising, did atelevision campaign that said: "If the guy who invented the Skol had in-vented the fault, he would not be like this. This would be like this...” Theimages show a football match between Brazil and Argentina, clearlyidentifiable by their uniform of traditional selections. And anchoredin common sense, rivalry and beatings mark the opening scenes of thefilm. The fault, move almost always unfair to the player slides acrossthe grass with their feet towards the ball and, often, the opponent’s legsis presented as something pernicious that will be converted into some-thing good for their own football (Brazil, in this case). In the ad, theauthor of the cart is always the Argentinean player.

The discursive formation of the Brazilian fans in these conditionsof production tends to be confused with the actual FD of Braziliannational identity; the advertising has different discourses to constructtheir discursive synthesis. In an announcement that should sell beer,we find football, nationalism, rivalry between Brazil and Argentina andthe "Brazilian way"other than in the closing speeches show piece of aregular dialogue and allow the intelligibility of the advertising message.The rivalry between Brazilians and Argentines, accentuated in football,is posited as central to the discursive connections that the ad aims tomake it work. It should be said that, historically, the Brazilian adverti-sing, and possibly the world, often make the direct association of certain

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distinctive habits, like watching football matches to drink beer. In thislogic, the fan is a natural Brazilian beer consumers and target audienceof the campaign – the beer belongs to the FD fan as much as the sportitself.

The identification of these speeches in the Skol’s ad is not the wayit is shown, enunciative marks visible in the text. Discursively are di-luted in the statement, although the hyperbolic nature of advertising –his escape ethical – to make them identifiable without great difficulty.When we put that one or a few others are present in this statement, wedo not affirm the existence of a dual antagonistic discourse with whichit competes – it is perhaps because the production of the meaning of themessage, which has more to do with an ideological position of the in-terpretant . Other constituents are the utterance, and from which it takesshape, without this having to deny or affirm any position.

The presence of an Argentine advertising in Brazilian World Cupseason does not necessarily imply that the nationality of the neighbo-ring country is the speech inside out, because the same goes for the"knack"genuine Brazilian product. Speeches are crafted in the shape oftheir simulations to design the appropriate statement. If we consider thepublic announcement of the TV as a fan of Brazil, the characterizationof the Argentine player is shown the advertisement before the imagethat Brazilians do it than what they are actually (at least as defined).

From this similarity, it has more to do with an ideological position,the discourse of the Other is embodied in this piece of advertising Skol.If we investigate the historical background that built the rivalry betweenBrazil and Argentina, even outside of football, the results will comeaway from the discursive space of advertising, but that can be redeemedby it to build this specific statement. The other, that characterizes theinterdiscursivity, will be an integral part of speech can and trainer of theadvertising space and time specific.

The video ad is a simulation of a soccer match, with the stadium,fans, reporters, advertising boards, etc.., Good audio is part of thematch, which happens very peculiar. At first, the carts are played vio-lent, condemned by the narrator, who appears in close to the Brazilianfans, who utters the phrase that transforms and gives tone to the ad: "Ifthe guy who invented the Skol had invented the cart, it does not would.This would ...". These words become comic scenes in the stands for

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their authors, with the narrator humorously endorsing each entry withthe failure of Argentine players.

– "... And it comes Betinho González dribbling! Oops, alreadygoing, hermano?"

This phrase is spoken by the narrator after González, an Argentineplayer, has making a falut and a Brazilian player, without success, toclash violently with the advertising boards on the side of the field. Wenote here an intertextual enunciative marks visible: the word hermano,the Spanish language. It introduces the Other from an everyday ex-pression and ironic chain in Brazil, which considers the Argentine "ourbrothers."The rivalry, in explicit images is enhanced by linguistic ele-ments in the play.

Returning to the Brazilian fans, they emerge as the magician thatchange the characteristics of the game and give a twist in the narrativeof the ad. He appears in the stands of the stadium, well characterized,shirt selection, Skol beer can in hand and surrounded by fans with horn,yellow wig, etc.. He is the embodiment of what is (or should be) in theBrazilian game day in Brazil’s World Cup. His words not only changesthe face of the ad, but also introduces the other characterized by the"Brazilian way"to solve (or subvert) things. Suddenly, the cart is nolonger a threat to become a laughingstock with the Argentines, but onceinvoking the discourse of rivalry for the construction of the ad. It wasthe Brazilian outbreak in his poetry, which solved the problem concer-ning the cart through the ad, Skol beer.

The announcement does not lead us to believe at any time plausi-ble solutions, the fun of the rival seems to be the only chance to seea fair game without kicking. Curb violence by punishing is not some-thing that becomes known that ad – something too reasonable for theBrazilian logic, especially in football. The humorous and humiliatingpunishment for the act of the opponent, provided by the same creatorof Skol beer, is the Brazilian way of solving the "problem"of the cartshown at the beginning of the film. Argentine falling into the tunnelfrom the locker room, crashing into the advertising boards at the edgeof the field and running over their shopping carts with sports reportershas their punishment, "more just"the laughter of Brazilians – field play-ers and spectators of the ad.

This practice permissive here as a discourse, is the basis of Brazi-

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lian society, it does not solve the problem itself does not extinguish thesource, but subverts it, becomes its ally, brings gains in creativity, raisesthe problem as solution. In this piece it is clearly advertising. At the endof the film, to corroborate, packshot appears, with the signature of theadvertiser and suddenly becomes a figure of a player taking a stand onthe Argentinean can of beer, which deftly jumps and avoids the shock.The outcome is the same player sliding to the bottom line until theycollide with the beam, with the narration: – "Oops! Ball in the crash."Itis needless to say it was a ball, not the football that struck the crossbar.The advertised product, the beer itself, embodies the "Brazilian way",the one that is present in the ad review.

As mentioned above, for the construction of the message, the Otherof the ad dialogue and communicate with the statement, the statementcan constitute part of the advertising within the conditions of discur-sive production and convergent. Others do not close on itself to liveafter the speech. The interdiscursivity shows up as a linked system ofdistinct discourses in the formation and announcement of the closingstatement is the Brazilian stand, invented by "the same guy who in-vented the Skol."

The closing announcement is with the slogan "With Skol, Brazil isround."It is the result of a breakdown of the slogan of the brand itself,which is extensive knowledge of the population: "Skol, a beer that goesdown round."Redondo", in slang, means something that has no pro-blems, it is resolved and fits perfectly to what is proposed.

This slogan can have some interpretations, which are discursivelyexplained from the very piece of advertising: a) With Skol, footballin Brazil is round: if the problem was football violence against oppo-nents of Brazilian football, it was resolved from own. With Skol, theselection is able to win another Cup b) With a knack (Skol), Brazil isround: nothing more than a little way in the service of the Brazilian.The confidence of some unconventional intervention in favor of Brazil,c) with Skol, Brazil and Argentina is round, no: the Brazilian nationalpride come into conflict and Argentina. The guy who invented the Skolknows that "being Brazilian"is also "not like Argentina."So Argentinain the ad, not another country.

At the end of the movie, of course, the viewer will not have theseseparate interpretations, either a notice or other. The three, and others

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that might have escaped the author, are monolithically presented at theclosing of the notice; there is no way to dissociate them instantly. Thisclosing is the copywriter who seeks, even if he does not think discur-sively constructing your ad or use the categories dear to Discourse Ana-lysis as a tool of observation for the construction of parts.

Final ConsiderationsTo admit the primacy of the Interdiscourse is about to admit the pre-sence of the Other in our statements, showing the presence of a guywho "works"in the production of a sense for the statement win its ownmeaning and is not a mere repetition of previous speeches. We will notgo into a discussion of authorship and originality of speech – whetherit exists or not, or even how to give – that will put only copywritingtechnique (again like any other speech) clings to how the statement isbuilt to what it is rescued by the words.

However, again, we invoke the character of the decision of buildingthe advertising text as a defense of our position: the new meaning mustbe produced to coincide with the goals of the marketing campaign, sothe value of intertextuality – the Other – is characterized more by theway how to put what was his own use. The exchange of the meaningof words, which makes closing the ad and its subsequent effect, oc-curs because the condition of the historical sense, within a discursiveformation, Thus the place of manipulation worked for the advertisingcopywriter.

BibliographyAUTHIER–REVUEZ, Jaqueline. Entre a transparência a e a opaci-

dade. Porto Alegre, Edipucs, 2004.

BAKHTIN, Mikail. (Voloshinov). Marxismo e filosofia da linguagem.São Paulo, Hucitec, 1992.

FOUCAULT, Michel. A arqueologia do saber. Rio de Janeiro: ForenseUniversitária. 7ed, 2004.

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GOMES, Neusa Demartine. Publicidade: comunicação persuasiva.Porto Alegre: Sulina, 2003.

GREGOLIN, Maria do Rosário. Foucault e Pêcheux na análise do dis-curso: diálogos e duelos. São Paulo: Claraluz, 2004.

ORLANDI, Eni P. Análise de discurso: princípios e procedimentos. 7.ed. Campinas: Pontes, 2007.

MAINGUENEAU, Dominique. Gênese do discurso. Curitiba: Criar,2005.

PÊCHEUX, Michel. Semântica e discurso. Uma crítica à afirmaçãodo óbvio. Tradução de Eni Orlandi [et. al]. Campinas: Unicamp,1997.

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Cruz Mendonça the Materialization of the Interdiscursivity