Demystifying Ideology: A Socio-Semiotic Analysis of Billboard Advertisements

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate the hidden ideologies in the billboard advertisements in the landscape of Lahore. The following questions have been designed: How do the billboard advertisements represent different ideologies in the landscape of Lahore? What types of ideology are implied in the billboard advertisements in the landscape of Lahore? The nature of the research is descriptive and qualitative. The sampling of the study is based on four billboards displayed in the main boulevard of Pakistan International Airline Society Lahore. The socio semiotic theoretical framework of Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996-2006) has been used. Those metafunctions such as representational, interactive and compositional have been investigated in this study. The study revealed that certain ideologies have been implied in the advertisements by the advertisers in order to achieve their aim which is to make their products popular, hence, the fulfilment of economic interests.