Marketing Code-X

Living on the Edge

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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.

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LIVING ON THE EDGE” NORM: Get away from everything safe, easy, ordinary — take intense risks. Go out on a limb, literally.

Clockwise from top left: Trek website, REI website, GoPro social, Patagonia website

LIVING ON THE EDGE” FORMS: Cliffs and high places as metaphor for getting out of your comfort zone. Encouragements to be brave, take chances. “Be bold. Be edgy.” “Take boulder steps.”

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