Semiotic Analysis of Four Advertising Discourses from the Viewpoint of Alignment (the study of opposing relations of the brands Coca Cola and Pepsi, McDonalds and Burger King)

Via semiotic method and based on alignment theory, this study aims to provide a structural analysis of commercial ads of the brands Coca Cola and Pepsi as well as McDonalds and Berger King, and investigate the formation of their identity. Based on such presupposition, the competitive advertising strategies between each pair of opposing and aligned brands are also evaluated as paradigmatic systems of binary oppositions. The method used in this paper is descriptive-analytic. The data was collected using the library and field methods. Sampling has been done through targeted and non-random sampling from a list of one hundred best global brands in 2010. The objective of this paper is to explore the factors influencing the identification of products and the relationship between form and meaning in them. Accordingly, the following questions can be raised: which factors can lead to the success of aligned brands in international trade and how opposing relations are built between aligned brands. Library studies of product semiotics along with field studies lead to the recognition of influential factors on the perception of addressee, classification of signs in the semantics of product and the table of aligned semiotics in the pair form for each class of under-studied brands.Via studying opposing relations between such brands the semantic implications of sign system used in their ads were found out. It was also found out that aligned advertising method can result in the pairing of rival brands while maintaining their unique identity. Such results can guide domestic companies which like to increase their share in the market and enter the arena of global competition by using aligned advertising method.