Advertising urban murals: an analysis from social semiotics

Abstract

Murals have come to stand out as the main artistic production in cities, observing their development and growing appreciation. Such a projection has aroused the interest of brands in its profitability as an alternative to advertising photography, associated with its great visibility and communication potential. The murals changed the signs of the urban fabric, promoting new and different forms of interaction with the physical expression of the urban context. Urban art murals as well as advertising murals are analyzed through social semiotics, using meta-functions – ideational, interpersonal and intertextual – both verbally and visually. It is possible to see that all the murals are polysemic, rich in possible interpretations. Murals associated with brands are more consistently conditioned by the mandatory presence of elements associated with the brand, not translating into less symbolic charge. A greater need for deciphering and metaphorical interpretation is associated with non-commercial urban art murals, however, it is not even possible to distinguish on an aesthetic level what is an artistic mural from a commercial one.