Verbal and visual signifiers of advertising shares offers in Nigeria’s 2005 bank recapitalisation

Appeal to Family Sentiments

A test of responsibility of the family head (presumably the father figure) is his thoughtfulness to leave a legacy for his family members, especially his wife and children. Consequently, the advertisers consciously invoke this family sentiment to influence the thoughts and attitudes of prospective subscribers, as seen in Figure 1.

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Figure 1.

Appeal to family sensibilities.

There is a cohesive blend of verbal elements and the pictorial image in Figure 1 to appeal to the prospective subscribers. In terms of Barthes’ conception of ‘anchorage’, the anchoring verbal text ‘for you and your children’ serves as a semiotic/discursive means of limiting the possible meaning of the family photo image, thereby identifying the advertisers’ target audience in multimodal modes. To serve as a visual ‘pivot’ or cohesive link from the image to the following anchoring verbal text (‘for you and your children’) is the verbal signifier ‘Truly yours’, strategically placed below the photo frame, couched in colour red and cursive writing for an eye-catching effect. By using the verbal signifier ‘Truly yours’, the advertisers are trying to establish and consolidate a bond with the prospective subscribers such that the latter would appreciate them as ‘partners in progress. The narrowing down of the social distance by the advertisers, to the extent that they project themselves as ‘friends of the family’ with an offer that would change the family’s fortune if keyed into, is a striking rhetorical weapon. And to create the picture of a desired future that the ‘friends of the family’ would like to see their prospective subscribers in after they might have taken the wise decision of investing in the bank shares, the photo frame with a happy family where the spouse and the children are all beaming with smiles is strategically placed at the top of the advert. This is a dream family that the prospective subscribers would like to emulate and would therefore not hesitate to invest in the bank offer that could take them to that state.

However, taking a second look at the verbal anchorage ‘for you and your children’, one could feel that the female figure (the wife) is excluded from the list of beneficiaries of the investment plan that may be taken by the head of the family, eventhough she is given prominence in the photo image. This hunch is in tandem with the position of Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006):

Given that societies are not homogeneous, but composed of groups with varying and often contradictory, interests, the messages produced by individuals will reflect the differences, incongruities, and clashes which characterise social life. It is likely […] that the different modes through which texts are constructed show these social differences, so that in a multimodal text, using images and writing the writing may carry one set of meanings and the images carry another. (p. 20)

For, ordinarily, the anchor verbal text should have read ‘for you, your wife and children’, giving a balanced composition of the family. But if the argument often put up in marriage parlance that 1 + 1 = 1 (instead of 1 + 1 = 2, implying that in the husband you find the wife and vice versa) is considered in this context, then the advertisers may be justified to have couched the rhetorical appeal as ‘for you and your children’, creating the impression that the ‘you’ here is not the singular form but the plural ‘you’ which includes the wife. If, however, one considers the patriarchal order of African society, one may still argue that in order not to give room for any suspicion about excluding the female figure (the wife) from the investment plan, it would be more appropriate to inject the signifier ‘your wife’ into the anchor verbal text.

In what appears to be redressing the perceived gender insensitivity in the advertisement, another advertisement interestingly foregrounds the female figure and completely effaces the male figure (Figure 2).

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Figure 2.

The female figure and investment responsibility.

Although there is verbal text in Figure 2 that serves as the anchor, we will first dwell on the pictorial image so that we do not lose track of the argument we are putting up as regards gender representations in the discourse. As opposed to the family portrait we considered earlier, the male (husband) figure as the head of the family is not represented in the present advertisement at all. There is only one adult figure, which is a woman and presumably the one to take the investment decision for the supposed two children captured with her in the photo image. It is interesting too that the children in this present family, unlike the former portrait which has a boy and a girl, are females (a young girl and a lady). One is curious to know why the male figure is completely effaced, particularly with respect to fatherhood, because biologically all the children could be of the same (female) sex. Could the woman be a widow or a divorcee on whose shoulder the responsibility now falls to take decisions for the family?

With reference to the anchor verbal text ‘All we see is YOU’, the graphological device of capitalising ‘YOU’ tends to narrow down the discourse to what we can metaphorically refer to as the ‘bull’s eye’ in the advertisement copy, which is the entire family composed in the photo image. Again, the advertisers cut the friendly image that the prospective subscribers would find most irresistible. A kind of world is invented such that it is only the advertising bank ‘we’ and the prospective subscribers ‘you’ inhabit, shutting out completely all other possible parties and interests. This message of in-group solidarity is reinforced with the grammatical subject ‘all’, the cognitive verb ‘see’ and the equative verb ‘is’ conjoining ‘all’ and ‘you’. The narrowing down of the advertisers’ interest to the target (family) audience is also conveyed through a visual appeal, as the capital ‘O’ in ‘YOU’ is semiotically configured in the image of a hand lens through which the action of the verb of perception, ‘see’, could be acted out. There is also a map of the world in the background, which combines with the magnifier to convey the affective message ‘out of the whole world, all we care about is you’. Caring for the family in this sense is about providing an investment offer which would ensure a future the family could aspire to without any anxiety.

Beyond the rhetorical appeals to the larger family unit and individuals within it who are either adults (couples) or their young children, there is also a cultural appeal to the baby figure in the family lineage. The advert in Figure 3 is striking in this regard.

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Figure 3.

The (male) child in family life.

The subtle persuasive verbal text ‘Even if you have to do it for him’ in the advertisement copy serves as the anchor and emotively invites the reader to consider leaving a legacy for the innocent baby, who is unaware of the happenings around him now and would ordinarily have desired that something be put in place in terms of investment to secure his future. In a manner that projects the advertising bank again as ‘a friend of the family’ that not only thinks about the family but also thinks for it, the advertisement seeks to maintain the bond between the two entities. The cohesiveness of the verb ‘do’ with the preposition ‘for’ and the pronominal element ‘him’ together with the charming image of the baby boy is rhetorically striking.

From the image of the child invoked in this advert, some sensibilities of the child in family life and continuity in African cultural heritage are being invoked. Among the Yoruba in Southwest Nigeria, the child is considered a lifeline to the extent that the impression is given that anyone who is childless lives for nothing. The impression is also created that whatever one can do today to secure the child’s future should not be taken with levity. For it is popularly said that when fire goes out, ashes take its place, and when a banana or plantain stem bows out at harvest, it is the sucker that ensures continuity. This cultural belief, if shared largely by prospective subscribers, could motivate them to take action to favour the baby boy by investing in Prudent Bank shares.

As rhetorically compelling as this advertisement is, one wonders why there has not been an attempt on the part of the advertisers to achieve gender balancing by placing a baby girl and a baby boy side-by-side in the advert copy, and then the anchor text would read ‘Even if you have to do it for them’. Alternatively, which, of course, would be to the delight of feminist advocates, the only image in the advert could have been that of a baby girl and the anchor verbal text, accordingly, would read ‘Even if you have to do it for her’. In that way, the impression held, particularly in many African societies, that the girl child is inconsequential to family lineage and eventual continuity could have been frontally downplayed. This is because in many cultures in Africa, the girl child is often denied the right to education and could be married off as an under-age, whereas the male counterpart would enjoy all rights and privileges in the hope that he would be the one to hold the fort when he comes of age. As if to create the impression that the media world too in Nigeria seems to stamp negative stereotypes of the female figure, there is another (un)popular mobile network service provider (MTN) Nigeria telecoms advert ‘Mama na boy’, meaning ‘Mama, it’s a boy’, used to announce the birth of a baby in a city to a grandmother in the village via MTN service provider. The said advert generated a lot of furore with notable feminist advocates condemning it outright as a testimonial of the social practice in a good number of families in Africa, where the birth of a female child is not received with as much joy and excitement as that of a male child.

We have to note, however, that it is not always that the male figure is given positive attractions in the Nigerian cultural milieu. It is men that are presumed to be largely involved in criminal activities, whereas it is taken for granted that women are too meek to engage in such. Figure 4, for instance, captures a gluttonous habit and it is interesting that it is a male figure that is focused in it.

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Figure 4.

Save for a rainy day.

Biologically, good food is considered a necessity for healthy living. Among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria, there is a saying that what a bird feeds on is what sustains it in flight, implying that one is what one eats. The Yoruba people, however, equally caution that one should not literally eat with the 10 fingers, suggesting that one should save for a rainy day. So, the pictorial image in Figure 4, in which the man takes off his shirt and is left with an inner vest all because of food, is rhetorically compelling when it is read against the backdrop of the anchoring verbal text ‘Don’t eat your future, secure it’. The man’s total concentration while devouring the food composed of assorted meat and other accompaniments leaves another onlooker behind him amazed, his mouth left agape at beholding the man’s sheer greed. The figure of the man is a signifier for the gluttonous family head who cares for himself alone and probably believes that before his child grows up to benefit from what he will leave behind, he will have satisfied himself. This untoward attitude is what this advert sets out to condemn when one considers the reprimanding anchoring text: ‘Don’t eat your future, secure it.’

To ensure that both parents have a sense of responsibility, one would wish that the mother figure too be called to order. It is believed that some wives in the Nigerian environment could engage in unguided acquisition of personal belongings at the expense of good care for the family. A more balanced picture would have been given if the present researchers had been able to find another advertisement where the female figure is reprimanded for stockpiling jewellery, shoes, bags and expensive lace materials. We must, however, admit that some women do invest heavily in their family upkeep, especially in the education of their children to the extent of selling off their belongings, when the supposed breadwinner abdicates his responsibilities possibly in the face of harsh economic realities of having to cope with financing the many children of rival wives in a polygamous setting.

Enhancing brand credibility

Enhancing brand credibility is a potent rhetorical tool in the present discourse, as the respective banking institutions use rhetorical strategies geared towards building credible sustainable brands which could influence the prospective subscribers’ decision to invest in the shares offered as seen in the figure below (Figure 5).

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Figure 5.

Bank integrity as investment conditionality.

The anchoring verbal text in this advertisement, ‘We can stand the closest scrutiny’, is an assertive which emphasises the credibility stake of Capital Bank International offering shares for sale. The use of the first person plural pronominal ‘we’ as an exclusive person deictic element rhetorically separates the brand from the competitors. While the brand could be trusted and consequently patronised by the prospective subscribers, the other competitors are implicitly considered to be on the other side of the divide. Further use of the modal auxiliary ‘can’ reinforces the perceived ability of the bank to undergo and pass any moral or integrity test that would make the prospective subscribers feel secure to invest their money in its shares. Finally, the use of the superlative adjective ‘closest’ to qualify the noun head ‘scrutiny’ suggests that ‘no matter how closely you examine OUR prospectus, it will be satisfactory’.

To complement the anchoring text, there is an accompanying photo image of a man holding a hand lens in his right hand to study the contents of a sheet of paper in the left hand. On very close observation of the advert copy, one would see the man’s glasses dropped on the desk by his left wrist, suggesting that if the eyes would ordinarily do a close scrutiny, the glasses, a closer scrutiny, and the magnifying lens, even the closest scrutiny, the bank’s credentials will still prove satisfactory to the prospective investors. That the man also drops the knot of his tie from the lower neck region to the chest region and the topmost button of the shirt loosened in the process are semiotic pointers to the fact that the ‘scrutiny’ is indeed ‘the closest’.

If the business of convincing others is all about making claims without backing them up with evidence, then such an endeavour may be considered dubious. To attempt to convince the reader, a back-up text is provided; thus,

Capital Bank International is a fundamentally ethical bank. Ever since we started operations over 20 years ago, we have faithfully practiced our profession according to traditional banking principles. Which is why we can proudly and truthfully claim to be bankers of the highest integrity.

The adverbial elements ‘faithfully’ and ‘truthfully’ are choice verbal signifiers that have been stylistically used to capture the desired ethical attributes that prospective partners in any venture would naturally crave to guide their dealings with any individual or corporation. Besides, the adverbial clause of time ‘ever since we started operations over 20 years ago’ and the adverbial phrase of manner ‘according to traditional banking principles’ are both verbal signifiers of proven integrity over time, which prospective subscribers could hold on to as convincing evidence to invest in the bank.

Need for Urgency

The temporal deictic element ‘now’ is semiotically used to motivate prospective subscribers to act fast in a bid to invest in the shares of the banks being advertised. The semiotic element ‘now’ is a constant verbal signifier readily used in popular discourses of subtle persuasion (or manipulation) where the impression is given that until the addressee is given a nudge, they may remain inert. In the Holy Bible (n.d.), for example, ‘now’ as a verbal signifier is used in Thessalonians 5:14 ‘Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient to all men’ to give a sense of immediacy or urgency where the audience cannot afford to take chances. In this light, one could regard ‘now’ as a prompting adverbial.

In the present discourse, the signifier ‘now’ is used to put the prospective subscribers on their toes in a bid to reawaken their investment drive. Interestingly, however, unlike some other discourse situations where the verbal signifier serves as a monomodal semiotic resource, it is complemented with some visual appeals as shown in Figure 6.

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Figure 6.

Grab the investment offer before it is too late.

With the use of the anchor text ‘some things are better done now’, the prospective subscriber is given a nudge to include investing in the shares of Trade Bank Plc among the prime, urgent things to be done ‘now’. But while the advertisers use the ‘open’ determiner ‘some’ to specify the range of things that ‘are better done now’, there is a drastic narrowing of the directive to investing in the bank’s shares. A sense of urgency is then fired in the audience with the repetition of the temporal deictic element ‘now’ in ‘invest now as TRADE BANK PLC offers for subscription …’ with a time-line ‘2 days to go’ graphologically rendered in red to produce eye-catching effect. To further make the addressees act swiftly, a visual appeal of a wrist strapped with a watch is placed to the top left-hand corner of the page such that there is a meaning correlation between the red alert ‘2 days to go’ and a wrist-watch showing time as it ticks away.

The temporal verbal signifier ‘now’ in the previous advert occurs in sentence medial and final positions, but in the advertisement shown in Figure 7, it is used sentence initially for more prominence in the persuasive imperative ‘NOW INVEST’, which is also capitalised for graphological effect.

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Figure 7.

Delay is dangerous.

Considering the possible semantic fluidity of linguistic expressions depending on users’ goals, the verbal signifier ‘now’ is semantically codified further for specificity of reference in the exclamatory utterance: ‘Seize this opportunity and invest today!’ Thus, while ‘now’ could have a possible semantic range of reference from ‘this year’ to ‘this month’ and from ‘this month’ to ‘this week’, the advertiser narrows down the range of reference to ‘today’ although, of course, today may not always refer to a particular day in the strict sense of usage. Also, the fact that the whole of the utterance ‘Seize this opportunity and invest today!’ is written in gold as opposed to any other colour is a visual rhetoric, suggesting that the opportunity being offered by Citizens Bank is a golden one, which prospective subscribers must not miss.

In another advert, the verbal signifier ‘today’ is narrowed down to a particular day of the week, as prospective subscribers are being persuaded to jump on the bandwagon of those who have rushed to invest in the shares of ACB on a particular day (Figure 8).

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Figure 8.

Join the wise investors.

The signifier that could immediately arouse the interest of readers of this advert is the anchoring verbal text ‘They’ve all gone to buy International Bank Plc (ACB) shares’, which is placed towards the top right-hand corner of the advert copy. In order to provide a semiotic complementarity for this anchorage, there is a visual complement showing an office space with desks and chairs vacated by the workers to underline the importance and urgency of the task. The reader of the advert is then motivated to follow suit with the use of the persuasive utterance ‘Join the wise investors’.