Energy and Its Double: A Case-study in Critical Multimodal Analysis

This article is a multimodal analysis of a printed advert campaign focus¬ing on corporate identity. The paper’s main goal is to analyse how the interplay between visual and verbal modes of communication constructs complex layers of meaning in Total’s 2005 advertising campaign and how different affordances of verbal and visual communication are co-deployed in such a way as to enhance the adverts’ main claims. In particular, the paper investigates how these affordances multiply the layers of meaning, creating a polysemous message that can be interpreted in different ways by different groups of stakeholders. The main tenet of this study is that visual and verbal work together to contribute to the adverts’ claims and their construction of corporate identity. While foregrounding different aspects of semiotic resources and tapping into different but complementary cultural stereotypes, visual and verbal components create a synergic and integrated means to communicate ideological consensus and ‘narcotize’ potentially adverse aspects relating to the company’s practices. The framework of analysis is Critical Discourse Studies and Critical Multimodal Analysis.