Marketing Code-X

Go Forth

Image for Go Forth

Fjallraven ad

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.

Jackson Hole tourism ad

GO FORTH” NORM: Not a test but a quest — to discover, e.g., your purpose in this world, the meaning of life.

Airbnb social, The Girl Outdoors website, Levi’s ad, Atlas Obscura website

GO FORTH” FORMS: A solo adventurer, not just taking it all in but gazing soulfully and romantically into the distance. Soulful tonality: “The life-changing call you’ve been waiting for,” “Go forth,” “From A to Be.”

From a 2017 study of the EVOLVE (defined as: freedom to reinvent yourself and to create your own purpose) territory within the Adventure space in US brand communications.

Tags: Adventure, CODE-X