One Hundred Ways to Resist Corporate Branding: Figurative Subversion in Visual and Multimodal Communication

Abstract

Recent studies in metaphor and multimodality have begun exploring how people resist figurative meanings to challenge messages they find disagreeable or harmful. While most research has focused on metaphor and verbal communication, rapidly evolving technologies, including image editing software and generative AI, are radically expanding the possibilities for manipulating visual material. This article proposes a new framework for exploring how visual and verbal resources are used to creatively subvert figurative meanings in multimodal texts. We develop a model of “figurative subversion” inductively via a systematic analysis of a sample of 100 subverted logos designed by activists for Greenpeace’s 2010 “Behind the Logo” competition. Our typology comprises four core figurative subversion strategies: figurative extension, figurative layering, figurative replacement, and verbal reframing. These strategies can be implemented using various tropes, including but not limited to metaphor, and visual semiotic features such as color, shape, and layout. They can be employed individually or in combination to achieve the desired rhetorical effect.