Marketing Code-X

All-Weather

Image for All-Weather

Goodyear ad

The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.

The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.

North Face ad

ALL-WEATHER” NORM: Bad weather is welcomed! It’s an opportunity to demonstrate how unstoppable you are.

Columbia ad

All-WEATHER” FORMS: Adventurers standing firm, moving ahead, despite rain and snow, wind and fog. Unstoppable. Fierce statements defying the elements’ influence. “Seek no shelter.” “#TESTEDTOUGH.”

From a 2017 study of the TEST YOURSELF (defined as: achieving freedom from any physical constraints holding you back) territory within the Adventure space in US brand communications.

Tags: Adventure, CODE-X, Test Yourself