Intertextuality in Advertisements for
Silk Cut Cigarettes

Catherine R Langan

The notion of intertextuality was first formally introduced by Julia Kristeva. Kristeva argued against the concept of a text as a isolated entity which operates in a self-contained manner and states that "any text is the absorption and transformation of another" (cited in Keep and McLaughlin, [WWW]). Roland Barthes explores this idea of intertextuality in a literary context, where he concludes that all texts are "a new tissue of past citations. Bits of code, formulae, rhythmic models, fragments of social language etc., pass into the text and are redistributed within it" (ibid.). This semiotically orientated exploration of literature can be adapted to any medium. Therefore, no text (literary, or otherwise) operates in isolation. Its formation and interpretation is influenced by the creator's audiences' prior knowledge of: other texts; cultural conventions; and the associations that they individually produce. Intertextuality is usually defined as "where a text alludes to another text' (Danesi, 1994: 276); however, since interpretation is an active and individualistic process texts may also contain covert allusions which the creator of the text may not even have knowledge of, yet alone have intended. Through a semiotic frame this essay aims to explore the workings of intertextuality in various Silk Cut campaigns, focusing mainly on the 'cut silk' advertisements present in the early 1990s. By examining these advertisements this essay will illustrate the uses and effects that advertisers can produce via intertextuality, which aid them to sell their products.

Adverts are becoming increasingly more complex and sophisticated. Due to the large scale production of goods there is an increased need to create a market for products that people do not really need. Williams and Dyer (Dyer, 1982: 7-8) explain that it is this large scale production that is the factor originally behind the types of advertisements present today. It is because there are so many similar products and so many competing brands that "advertisers can not rely on rational argument to sell their goods in sufficient quantity" (ibid.). Cigarette companies also face added complications due to the ever increasing restrictions on the media they can use, the laws governing the portrayal of their products; anti-smoking campaigns, and the social climate in which smoking has an ever increasing social stigma attached to it.

As stated in the advertising Code of Practice advertisements for tobacco products, in Britain, are no longer allowed to be associated with glamour, sport, success in business, masculinity or femininity, and advertisers are not allowed to target individual groups of people. However, through the use of intertextuality these associations and targets can be produced.

Benson and Hedges, and later Gallagher who took over Benson and Hedges, have always associated their product Silk Cut with luxuriousness and high quality. In examples 1 and 2 (which are examples of early advertisements for Silk Cut) a syntagmatic relationship occurs between the cigarettes, the coffee and the brandy. Coffee and Brandy have connotations of strength, richness and quality. They are also liquids which have substance with a smoothness which makes them easily consumed. Through the juxtaposition of these beverages with the cigarettes the same qualities should be subconsciously attached to the cigarettes in the mind of the viewer. These initial advertisements, though they are more concerned with intratextuality than intertextuality are important as they assert the qualities in the audience’s minds which the later texts allude to.

In the late 80s and early 90s Silk Cut produced a series of surreal advertisements. The first of these was a sheet of purple silk with an oval slit cut diagonally in the middle of it, This advertisement and the following ones in the campaign show the power of intertextuality. In none of the advertisements are cigarettes or any tobacco products present, nor is the cigarette packet or the brand name. None of the advertisements have any text within themselves to anchor the meaning. However the government health warning does also function in a paratextual manner which links the adverts to a tobacco product. This also gives an added problem for advertisers as this text works antagonistically to the advertisement and so they are directly competing to dominate the audience's attention away from the health warning.

Within a semiotic analysis from a Peircian stance, at the first level of interpretation, the representamen, the picture is simply a piece of silk with a hole in it. The qualisigns here are the purple and the silk. The colour is a deep purple. The richness of this colour is associated with royalty and splendour, and hence evokes the concepts of quality, strength and importance, and that this product is on a higher plane than other brands. Silk is also associated with glamour and riches. It also has aesthetic and sensual appeal and could be seen to fetishize the product. At Peirce's second level of representation the cloth is a substitute standing for the absent product. Example 6 inverses the normal code for the advertisement as here it is the silk which does the cutting act. Example 7 moves a step further away as there is no visible cut in the silk, or the other signifiers. The relationship here is identified by recognising the pun that the plant with silken leaves is a cutting.

The repetition of this metaphor for the brand Silk Cut has produced an important effect. The signifier, the purple colour, has become just as important as the brand name. It now works to anchor the picture, as it does in examples 6 and 7 where the silken sheet is absent (i.e., through recognition of the colour the viewers are steered towards the correct interpretation of the advertisements). It is mainly the colour which has become the symbolic tool with which the viewer can approach and 'correctly' discover the preferred reading of the adverts. This becomes important in later advertisements where the silken object and the cut are even less apparent. One example of this is an advert featured in 1992 which depicted a grey rhinoceros against a white background, with a purple (but not immediately obvious silk) hat on its head. The hat has a hole in the top which the horn comes out of. Since neither the 'Cut' (hole), nor the 'silk' is obvious (as in example 7) it is the importance of the qualisign, the colour, which evokes the knowledge needed to be able to understand what is being represented.

This campaign could be seen as an extended series of visual word plays on the brand name. Brand loyalty is especially important for the cigarette industry, as they can not target individual groups of people in their advertisements and certainly can not use their adverts to encourage non-smokers to smoke, as rule 2.1 in the advertising Code of Practice states "advertisements should not seek to persuade people to start smoking" (p.84). The rules mean that it is difficult to 'sell' the product by showing its qualities, or by portraying how it is better than the other brands. Hence cigarette advertisements try even more than other adverts to 'sell' the name, and to link concepts to it.

Robert Goldman discusses the advertising method of "produc[ing] advertisements which are unpredictable and whose meanings are opaque; if not impenetrable." According to Goldman these "arrest the attention of the viewers" (Goldman, 1992: 171). He hypothesises that this method may be effective because "if viewers spend more time pondering the meaning of an advert, if they make more of an investment in interpreting it, then perhaps they will be more likely to recall the product name" (ibid.). If Goldman's hypothesis is correct then this Silk Cut campaign should have been successful, as these adverts are certainly unpredictable and opaque until one has established the correct code. This opaqueness linked with the constant repetition of the content, and the repetition of the solution to the puzzle being the brand name in each advert throughout the series, should ensure success since "sheer repetition is also a powerful advertising instrument of persuasion" (Dyer, 1982: 92).

At around the same time as the latter adverts shown here appeared copies of example 8. This advertisement features the many different types of the Silk Cut brand, stood on a surface of rippling purple silk and against a backdrop of the same symbolic silk. This advert not only advertises the products, but also works as an aid to anchor the meaning of the other advertisements present at the time for those in the audience who do not share the correct interpretative codes. Once again the qualisign that makes this possible is the purple silk that is present in all the adverts in the series. The text 'Low Tar Sewn Up' is polysemic. A surface reading could interpret it to be stating that it is presenting all its products, or that their brand has managed to capture (sew up) the method needed to produce a low tar cigarette that one assumes is just as good as a non-low tar cigarette. However, in places light is coming through the silk, alluding to the notion that there were cuts there that have been sewn up. Therefore the 'sewn up' could refer to the fact that after seeing this advertisement one can solve the puzzle presented in the other currently running adverts, as the audience can now be certain, through the allusions example 8 makes to the previous adverts, that they were for Silk Cut cigarettes. The visual word play of the cuts in the silk is also subtly seen juxtaposed against the cigarette boxes, as if it was a puzzle at the top of a page where the answer is revealed below. Interestingly it is also the only Silk Cut advertisement where the brand name features in the tar band of the government health warning. This again anchors the product and acts as a reinforcement of the brand name.

Example 8 is probably the most important advert in the series due to its anchoring function. Its straightforward format should also function to appeal to a wider audience sector than the previous adverts. Goldman establishes four audience types through his study on reading Reebok advertisements. His groupings range from the traditional viewer at one end of the audience spectrum to the modernist viewer at the other end. If these types are assumed to exist for all advertisement audiences than one can apply the model to Silk Cut advertisements and see how they would be accepted by the different groups. According to Goldman the modernist viewer is someone who wants to thoroughly understand the meaning of a text. These viewers gain pleasure from 'solving' the puzzle-type structures present within the adverts. It is this audience type to which Silk Cut advertisements are most likely to appeal. Goldman hypothesis that the more time one spends thinking about a certain advert, the more likely they will be to recall the product name is highly likely in this campaign, since the modernist viewer will be gaining pleasure from puzzling out the actual brand name itself. The second type of viewer is defined as the viewer who wants to know "Where does [this idea] come from?" (Goldman, 1992: 214). For both the above categories example 8 will clarify the viewers' own interpretations, which hopefully for Gallaher will verify their thoughts. This will make them feel good about themselves, as it is as if the advertisement is saying, "You're clever! You recognised that the adverts were for Silk Cut", which would produce a feeling of positive association with the product in the audience members. In the Reebok study a third audience grouping were those who enjoy the adverts for their "weird or fantastic nature of the imagery" (ibid.). This type of viewer may enjoy some of the advertisements for Silk Cut, such as the one with the knife (example 6) which is 'of a weird and fantastical nature.' However, since they do not look deeply into the structure of the advertisements' images they may not necessarily know what the product is that is being advertised, unlike the previously mentioned audience sectors. The traditional viewer is defined as someone who "refuses to play the interpretative game" (Goldman, 1992: 213). Therefore this type of viewer would reject the surrealist adverts in this campaign. However example 8 provides the answer with little work needed on behalf of the viewer. Therefore this advert may he accepted by the traditionalist viewer and may make them more open to future adverts, as they have been presented with the codes which should reduce the amount of effort needed on their behalf to decode the more surrealistic ones.

Apart from using intertextuality to establish the brand name there are other textual allusions that can be extracted from these print advertisements. However, these other allusions are usually more individualistic interpretations, or are sub-conscious associations that one can not even be sure if the producers were even aware of. For example Judith Williamson discussed how the first adverts (examples 1 and 2) correlate the creaminess of the coffee with the texture of the cigarettes. She goes on to suggest that

This statement alone shows how individuals can make connections between unrelated products and transfer the qualities, as without Silk Cut having to use the exact colour and typography of Cadbury's chocolate Williamson has made this intertextual connection, and therefore it is likely that there are other viewers who have consciously, or sub-consciously made the same connection.

In David Lodge's novel, Nice Work, the heroine performs a semiotic analysis on the original 'cut silk' advertisement (see Chandler, [WWW]). One point she makes is to define the metaphors behind the name "Silk Cut'. She states that the cut is to do with how the tobacco leaf is cut and that the silk is to suggest its smoothness. The definition shows the separation of the cutting action to the natural product (represented by the silk). Therefore by evoking real world knowledge the name, and the use of the silk in the adverts alludes to the naturalness of the product, as silk is a natural and not a man made fibre.

If the advertisements shown here are examined, in all cases it is a man made object that is seen, or is assumed to have done the cutting. Thus reinforcing the idea of efficient, maybe even scientific methods of making something which is essentially natural, as the sterility of these man made objects; the razor, iron, knife, secateurs etc., carry those types of connotations. Apart from in the adverts where the silk dominates the whole page, the background and other objects are all more colourless colours which suggest sterility. This makes the silk and its associations more appealing. This can especially be seen in example 7, where the cutting is bright and has life in comparison to the greyish white background. Whereas in real life the cutting would be fading and the pots and tools would be more likely to be rich, dominating terracotta colours. Therefore in all cases the silk is fore grounded by the mere fact that its strength of colour dominates the rest of the page. This also has the effect that the paradigmatic relations between the colours on the page allude to the Silk Cut packets, whose spatial relations are of a white rectangle with a small area of purple in the middle of it.

In Western culture naturalness would most often be considered as a concept in, what Jacobson would term, the 'unmarked' form of a paired paradigm (see Chandler, [WWW]). However Silk has feminine associations and may be considered in a negative framework, as 'inferior' or 'weak'. Silk Cut are low tar or 'weak' cigarettes. The notion of their weakness is reinforced by what is signified by the feminine associations of the silk. However, in all these adverts a type of rebellion, or a culturally 'unmarked' image is employed to connote more positive, masculine attributes on to the brand. In example 3 the silk significantly forms a male face with very angular features denoting masculinity and therefore highlighting masculine attributes such as strength, dependability, independence etc. This may sub-consciously convey the idea that one can be reliant on Silk Cut cigarettes. However, the cut would work antagonistically as it highlights a weakness or, since it is a hole in the silk it could denote masculine strength behind the feminine exterior, and hence that although Silk Cut are weaker they are still good enough to he on a par with more masculine associated cigarettes.

In example 4 one could see the iron, which is associated with the female, in an act of defiance with its spikes that have the potential to harm. Therefore it is not passive and weak, but again has this hidden strength. Once again in example 7 there is the natural, feminine associated cutting in rebellion against the man made world. It is the bright object, not faded like the rest of the signifiers in the picture, but living, refusing to die. The most defiance is seen in example 6 where the silken thread has cut the knife, juxtaposing the qualities of the silk (natural) against those of the man made, and hence the feminine weakness dominating over the masculine strength of the metal.

In Lodge's novel it is suggested that the advertisements in this Silk Cut campaign appeal to the "sensual and sadistic impulses, the desire to mutilate as well as penetrate the female body" (ibid.). These ideas link to those discussed in the previous paragraph. Lodge's suggested interpretation can be sustained in analyses of further surreal advertisements in this campaign and not just in the original 'cut silk' advert that Robyn analyses as a symbolic vagina, or as a knife slash of a feminine entity, which she interpreted as mutilation of the female. The tissue in Example 3 could be seen to resemble a cigarette burn, hence at the same time as representing a mutilation it could be seen to be alluding to the actual product. The curves of the silk could again be seen here to represent the female body, so here one could be attracted by a mutilation, or penetration of either the male or the female. In example 4 the iron is about to suppress the curves of the silk (representing the female) whilst its phallic spikes will penetrate as well as mutilate. After this advertisement the silk no longer has its voluptuous curves and more sensual qualities, but one still associates these features with the silk, as the previous adverts have asserted that the silk is of a high quality, plush and is a very sensual material.

In the comic example of advertisement 5 the phallic symbol occurs as the tin man's nose, which has forced its way through the silk leaving a vaginal shaped hole in the handkerchief. In example 7, if one takes nature as feminine, the cutting can be seen to represent the mutilation of the female, and the forced end of a natural reproduction system, which could be seen as a kind of rape/mutilation of nature. The background images in the picture are forks and spades which penetrate into the earth. In contrast example 6 could be read as the female fighting back, as it is a chef's knife that has been penetrated. However, this advert still sustains a reading with Freudian undertones of the desire to over power and penetrate.

Through identification of these sexual images Silk Cut has managed to allude to sensual and sexual desire, thus demonstrating one way in which advertiser can attempt to covertly allude to qualities, or suggest reasons for buying their product which, because of the strict laws in the case of cigarette advertisements, they are not able to do overtly.

Many of these latter interpretations of the Silk Cut advertisements will not be recognised and would he rejected by many viewers. This is because one can not make one hundred percent of the people interpret the same text in a specific way. As Keep and McLaughlin reminds us "the readers own previous readings, experiences and position within the cultural formation also form crucial intertexts" (Keep and McLaughlin [WWW]). In other words interpretation, although it can be influenced/guided by the advertisement designers, essentially depends on the viewers' past experiences and the links and associations already formed by the links between the conceptual schemata present in their minds.

With these Silk Cut advertisements it can be seen how, through the use of intertextuality, a narrowcast code can be produced which can sustain many varied sub-readings whilst still promoting a particular brand of a particular product. The Silk Cut advertisements are especially good examples for demonstrating how a concept can be illustrated in a way which is further and further removed from its original source, by constructing associations which link one advert to the next and so retain the theme and the message, keeping it present in the forefront of the interpretations in the viewers' minds. These advertisements show how the advertisers can encourage viewers "to engage [...] in their [the adverts’] structure of meaning ... to encourage [viewers] to participate by decoding their linguistic and visual signs and to enjoy this decoding activity" (Bignell, 1997: 33). This acts to produce the feeling, in the viewers, that they are in control of the decoding process and that they have a free range of interpretations (which to a certain extent they do have). Whilst it actually steers the viewer to make the associations with the product that the company desires, by the use of a powerfully loaded arbitrary symbol. Which in the case of Silk Cut is the purple silk.

Even the use of intertextuality establishes associations, as the continuum of allusions involving word plays and puns is seen as intellectual and sophisticated and hence transfers its air of intellectual sophistication to the product. This functions to subconsciously attract people who wish to view themselves or who already view themselves in this light to the product.

In conclusion, Silk Cut advertisements use intertextuality for two main functions in this campaign. Intertextuality is employed to subtly suggest appealing characteristics about their brand of cigarette. They also use it to aid interpretation of their advertisements, so they can produce adverts for which the product is instantaneously recognisable, but which encourage the viewers to think about the product and hence increase their associations with the product. It does this by inviting them to concentrate on how the content resembles, what they already know from the purple colour that it does resemble, and hence increases the chance that the brand name will be remembered by the viewer.

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Bibliography

April 1998