Nescafe social
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.
“RECHARGE” NORM: Coffee recharges my battery whenever I’m running out of juice..
“RECHARGE” FORMS: Coffee product compared explicitly or implicitly to battery (battery image formed in coffee foam; package shows an energy-level indicator fully charged up; coffee product juxtaposed with device that needs charging — e.g., mobile). Functional language about regaining depleted energy. Mechanistic comparison of human beings with our devices. “Recharging on the go.” “Boost” “1.75 x more caffeine”