The journal Signos do Consumo specializes in studies on marketing and advertising, public relations, and market and consumption phenomena. Its mission is creating a forum for the exchange of knowledge in a network, through scientific articles and book reviews, for the national and international scientific community interested in disseminating the results of its researches, essays, and reflections concerning studies in the area of Communication. Article languages for publication: Portuguese, Spanish, and English. ISSN: 1984-5057
Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Comunicações e Artes
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License.
Signos do Consumo: novas conquistas, outros desafios
In an era in which the use of Artificial Intelligence to help with countless tasks is almost as natural as breathing, advertising is no exception. The search for advertising in an increasingly demanding and expanding e-commerce market cannot be answered in light of the traditional model. Therefore, and taking into account the applicability of Artificial Intelligence techniques in the most diverse domains, these tools are used in an attempt to facilitate the creation of advertising material and save time and resources. But is the application of these tools beneficial at all levels? Will there be data that allows us to draw accurate conclusions? It is increasingly difficult to discern where the barrier between reality and intelligence dissolves, making it urgent to gain greater awareness of this topic.
Dossiê - 1ª Conferência Ibero-Americana de Publicidade
Copyright (c) 2025 Rita Dinis Delgado https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The impact of Jaguar’s rebranding on consumer perception
This study primarily aims to deepen the understanding of Jaguar’s rebranding and to examine how the recent changes made to its brand identity have influenced consumer perception. To this end, the following research question was posed: What is consumers’ perception of Jaguar’s rebranding? To address this question, the authors began with a literature review on the topic under analysis and subsequently conducted an online survey, obtaining 255 valid responses. Based on the results, it was found that Jaguar’s rebranding did not have a significant impact on the perception of most respondents, particularly regarding visibility, reputation, and purchase intention. However, the study opens the discussion to broader debates about the impact of rebranding on brand perception and encourages reflection on the challenges that traditional brands face in their repositioning processes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fabiana Cabeça, Alexandre Duarte https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Sustainable place branding: how technology can support new forms of connection with nature
In an increasingly digital society, restoring contact with nature has become a major challenge. This study proposes green place branding as an innovative way to foster emotional bonds between people and the natural environments in their cities, combining immersive technologies with an inclusive and emotionally positive brand approach. Based on an exploratory study using interviews and surveys, the initial findings suggest that immersive tools can generate hybrid experiences that integrate both physical and digital dimensions. The analysis highlights the value of authentic, community-driven storytelling to promote emotional connections while avoiding alarmist narratives that tend to create distance. Clear, transparent, and participatory campaigns are also shown to be essential. Technology is likewise presented as a useful administrative resource for managing these spaces. However, potential risks such as social exclusion and loss of authenticity are noted. The study acknowledges several limitations and outlines future research directions in the field of green place branding.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Fernandez-Osso Fuentes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The objectification of women on digital contact platforms: a critical analysis of web portals accessible in Pontevedra
This study comparatively analyses seven digital portals intended for sexual contact in Pontevedra, Galicia, to identify common elements in their advertisements, structure, and functionalities. Using a qualitative methodology, the work focuses on four key dimensions: legal notices and access, general portal structure, detailed advertisement presentation, and noteworthy functionalities, including interaction and geolocation. The results show varied practices regarding adult access and different levels of interaction, highlighting the widespread use of WhatsApp for immediate communication and evaluation systems similar to commercial platforms. It is concluded that these platforms reflect and reinforce dynamics of contemporary digital consumption, emphasising the importance of geographical proximity and instantaneous interaction in digitally mediated relationships.
Copyright (c) 2025 Xabier Martínez Rolán, María Isabel Míguez González, Alexandre Duarte, Alberto Dafonte Gómez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The visibility of older women in advertising: an analysis of ageism in the luxury fashion sector
Ageism has become a serious problem in today's society and effective communication and advertising strategies are needed to improve its visibility and integration. Using a qualitative-quantitative methodological approach, the online communication of luxury retail brands Loewe and Saint Laurent was examined, focusing on their websites and Instagram. The results indicate that only 6.5% of the total analysed shows the presence of older women, with an upward trend in recent years. The main conclusions underscore that, despite the low percentage, a greater commitment to combating ageism is evident in the sector, with scarce representations where negative stereotypes are not evident.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jonatán Camacho-Escobar, Carlos Sáenz-Torralba, María Salinas-Vázquez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Communication for an inclusive and plural society: the need for authenticity in banking campaigns
This article analyzes the perception of authenticity in diversity and inclusion campaigns developed by banking institutions, based on a focus group conducted with seven participants representing diverse client and employee profiles within the financial sector. The study was conducted in Spain in June 2024. The study adopts a qualitative and interpretive approach, grounded in the principles of inclusive communication and corporate social responsibility. The findings reveal a gap between advertising discourse and internal practices, highlighting ethical and communicational challenges in building a genuinely plural organizational culture. The study concludes that authenticity is a decisive factor for fostering institutional trust and reputation in the contemporary financial sector.
Copyright (c) 2025 José-Antonio López-Martín, Javier García-López, Francisco Cabezuelo-Lorenzo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Stories that connect us: analysing rhetoric in Disney advertising campaigns
The study analyses Disney s Christmas advertising trilogy Stories that connect us (2020-2022), identifying communication and storytelling strategies that strengthen emotional bonds between the brand and the audience. The research is based on Veríssimo’s analytical framework (2021a; 2021b), considering the effects on ad processing, brand communication, and consumer decision-making. The campaigns highlight memories, traditions, and family ties, using a teddy bear Mickey as a symbol of temporal continuity. By combining branding and classical rhetoric, the narratives employ pathos and ethos to evoke emotion and credibility. The results indicate that the campaigns go beyond commercial promotion, contributing to the symbolic construction of audience identity, reinforcing loyalty, and projecting ideals of a better world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bruno Frutuoso Costa, Hadassa Guimarães Oliveira, Mariana Pinto Góis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Ventura inc.: when celebrity matters more than the party
This article examines the radical personalization of Portuguese politics through the case of André Ventura and the CHEGA party, arguing that the leader’s central role has turned the party into a personal brand. Using a multidisciplinary framework, the study integrates theories of political mediatization, celebrity culture, and radical right- -wing populist discourse. Through critical discourse analysis, midia coverage, and digital communication strategies, the article shows how Ventura built a charismatic persona grounded in direct communication, moral polarization, and rhetorical simplification. The case is contextualized within a comparative perspective, drawing parallels with figures like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Javier Milei. The findings suggest that extreme personalization weakens party institutionalization, replaces ideological debate with leader-centric loyalty, and threatens the principles of democratic representation. The study contributes to understanding how market logics, digital midia, and the erosion of traditional structures are reshaping contemporary politics.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Filipa Joaquim https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The signs of consumption: reinventing realities
Copyright (c) 2025 Clotilde Perez, Eneus Trindade https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
“Rare Health” platform: a turnaround in the consumption of information about rare diseases
This article aims to bring to the debate on advertising communication, the first results of empirical research into the “Rare Health Platform,” an interactive technology produced in open code, based on the Cívis Platform and structured on the Social Advertising methodology. It has the participation of researchers, teachers, students and organizations run by people linked to the universe of orphan pathologies. The digital environment aims to strengthen practices to combat media disinformation on the part of the health market, which profits from the lack of information about these diseases. The initiative allows ordinary people to register their institutions and projects, in an intuitive and free way, strengthening the exchange of experience by those with the same interest. As initial results, the platform has 46 registered organizations, the participation of more than 40 students and the effective contribution of representatives of social movements.
Copyright (c) 2025 Patrícia Gonçalves Saldanha, Josir Cardoso Gomes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Shitposting and brand expressivity: an analysis of Bis’ Instagram
The work analyzes the use of shitposts in the communication of the Bis brand on Instagram. In a quantitative analysis of the 2023 publications, the research verifies the recurrence in which Bis uses shitposting to connect with consumers. This is followed by a classification of the recurring themes in these posts, based on Woods (2023). It discusses how the elements of brand expressivity (Perez, 2017) are integrated into the posts, using humor and irony to reinforce the brand’s identity and promote interactions with the public.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pablo Moreno Fernandes, Cecilia Pawlow https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Mark Fisher's Post-Capitalist Desire against the shallow critique of “consumerism”
Copyright (c) 2025 Lucas Zanardo Milanez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The influence of advertising objects on identity construction: between brands and consumption rituals
This paper aims to understand the logical relationships between advertising objects and individuals, in order to make explicit the meanings established between them, seeking to explore their contributions to identity construction and expression. To this end, an anthroposemiotic approach is adopted, articulating Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic structure with studies from the anthropology of consumption, through interviews and visits to the homes of three influencers. It is concluded that advertising objects are powerful in creating and discussing identities through the different stages of the consumption rituals to which they are subjected, based on dimensions related to formal compositions, personal histories, and relationships with brands.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rafael Orlandini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
AI, human skills and the “feared” ethics
The book “Desmistificando a IA”, by Dora Kaufman, analyzes the impacts of artificial intelligence on society, disseminating information on the subject and deconstructing exaggerated fears. The author explores everything from the fundamentals of AI, such as neural networks and deep learning, to ethical and social challenges, such as algorithmic bias and transparency. In fact, Kaufman argues that AI does not have its own intelligence, but rather an advanced statistical ability to identify patterns and optimize processes. The work highlights the importance of an interdisciplinary approach, arguing that the critical understanding of technology must involve both professionals in the exact sciences and the humanities.
Anna Luísa Peixoto Bracarence de Magalhães
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Luísa Peixoto Bracarence de Magalhães https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Advertising efficiency in applied models from the perspective of connective advertising
The field of advertising has historically maintained strong connections with other domains, especially technology, from which it draws support for avant-garde actions. Currently, in its interplay with intelligent technologies, discussions have emerged around innovation and efficiency, driven by the transformation of the media ecosystem and the rise of digital advertising. In this context, this study analyzes how advertising efficiency relates to innovation in research focused on technological models applied to the sector. It draws from a broader investigation that seeks to understand how advertising connects with intelligent technologies from the perspective of applied experiments or models related to efficiency. The findings present perspectives for updating the concept of efficiency in the advertising field, in connection with digital and intelligent technologies and environments.
Copyright (c) 2025 Janderle Rabaiolli, Rodrigo Stéfani Correa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Artificial intelligence and maternal “resurrection”: the advertisement “Como Nossos Pais”
Volkswagen’s 70th-anniversary commemorative advertisement in Brazil “resurrected,” through artificial intelligence, the singer Elis Regina in a duet with her daughter Maria Rita. This achievement brought visibility to an imaginary of the mother-daughter relationship that endowed the campaign with cultural values related to motherhood. The research aimed to understand the meanings of motherhood (re)produced in the brand’s advertisement. To that end, theoretical frameworks addressing motherhood, consumer culture, and media technologies were used. As a methodological approach, the thematic content analysis was employed. The research revealed that the Volkswagen commercial (re)produced the following meanings of motherhood: an idealized and naturalized motherhood as a relationship of care, nurturing, affection, and positive experiences for mothers and children, associated with the use of Volkswagen motor vehicles. Some of these values represent understandings of motherhood aligned with the assumptions of patriarchal motherhood culture, yet they increasingly face resistance through expressions emerging in digital social media.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fernanda Aragão https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The consumption rituals in bookstagram and the bookcycle process: digital mediations and the platformization of reading
This article investigates literary consumption rituals within the digital ecosystem of Bookstagram, based on a qualitative and exploratory approach. It is grounded in studies on mediatization, platformization, and cultural consumption. Through systematic observation and content analysis, the study proposes the theoretical-methodological model “BookCiclo Process,” which describes the cycle of literary visibility on platforms mediated by content creators. Bookstagram is analyzed as a mediatized space where reading becomes shareable and performative content, involving experiences of discovery, reviewing, recommending, and interaction. The study reveals how algorithms shape the circulation of books, influencing strategies of visibility, engagement, and consumption. It concludes that bookstagram constitutes a strategic arena of cultural mediation and identity expression, where literary consumption is driven by digital logics, reaffirming the role of platforms in the reconfiguration of reading practices.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carla Anastácia Santos Fischer, Manuela do Corral Vieira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Branding China: Instagram as a tool for China’s promotion in Brazil
The article explores the strategies the Chinese Embassy in Brazil adopted on its Instagram profile to engage with the Brazilian audience. To this end, we rely on content analysis. It is argued that by leveraging social media resources, the Embassy seeks to “take control of the narrative” about China, aligning itself with an increasingly widespread logic of national promotion on a global scale. We highlight the relevance of the dialogue between advertising and international relations in understanding the dynamics of national image construction and projection in the 21st century.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aline Mendes, Mayara Araujo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Substance: a critique of consumer society and the tyranny of image in advertising
This article reflects on the film The Substance (2024) by Coralie Fargeat, which presents us with an engaging narrative that explores themes such as identity, morality, and the limits of science. In this article, we will explore the elements that show a work between the line of reality and imagination that is undone. Each scene is a piece of a puzzle that challenges our understanding. The objective is to look at the film based on the relationship between consumption and psychoanalysis in relation to desire. The methodology is qualitative, showing elements of this relationship. We justify the analysis because the film points out symptoms of contemporary culture such as an ever-expanding desire, analyzed by Lacanian psychoanalysis and its relationship with consumption in what concerns the promise of completeness.
Copyright (c) 2025 Roseli Gimenes, Jorgina Santos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Os signos do consumo no seio da vida social: das linguagens aos fatos, dos fatos às mudanças sociais
Copyright (c) 2024 Clotilde Perez, Eneus Trindade https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
erything is an #ad? The subtle and complex dimensionof everyday advertising
The rise of participatory culture and digital prosumerism has transformed the dynamics of marketing and communication in the 21st century. Social media has changed the ways people communicate, buy, and perceive themselves, leading a growing number of individuals to want to see and be seen. From this perspective, applications such as Instagram and TikTok are configured as “panoptic diaries” and attract millions of people around the world, acting as platforms of great social and economic relevance in Surveillance Capitalism. In it, amateurs use visibility strategies to share their daily lives on digital social networks and strengthen their influence within their audiences, a configuration that transforms “ordinary” into communicators and reach thousands of followers, as celebrities do, and may even become one of them. Such sociocultural transformations drive significant changes in “advertising” and in what is considered de facto advertising, making us question, for example, whether sharing fragments of our daily lives is covered by this concept. This qualitative research problematizes the overflow of an everyday, porous practice intertwined with the routine of subjects deeply involved in new marketing and communication logics, in what we can call Everyday Advertising or Routine Advertising.
Copyright (c) 2024 Klenny Ellen Alves, Izabela Domingues https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
A proposal to characterize persuasive strategies in gastronomic reviews by digital influencers on Instagram
This paper presents a proposal to characterize the persuasive strategies employed in food reviews made by digital influencers on Instagram. Using an ethnographic approach, enriched by theoretical discussions on the subject, five profiles of Brazilian digital influencers were analyzed: @sofiasporai, @reviewsporsp, @rolezandoembrasilia, @indo.comer and @belemdiicas. The persuasive strategies employed are a form of publicization based on experiential advertising. When construing the message, the reviews present two mobilizing logics—emotional and rational. Through testimonials and emotional appeals, these present five persuasive characteristics: persuasive expressions, gastronomic attributes, sensory stimuli, colloquiality and authenticity.
Copyright (c) 2024 Giovanna Parise, Laura Wottrich https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Belle Époque, Nostalgia, and Consumption in the Farm Rio–Sézane Collection
In this article, we seek to analyze the Farm Rio–Sézane campaign, created to promote the collaborative collection between the Rio-based brand and the French brand, built upon nostalgic elements associated with the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Paris, particularly grounded in the Belle Époque and the emergence of the modern city between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As interpretive frameworks, we draw on nostalgia and the temporalities mobilized by the campaign, analyzing photographs and video produced for the website and social media through elements such as color, texture, soundtrack, and framing. We conclude that the campaign promotes a symbolic rapprochement between Rio and Paris in order to align the Brazilian brand with European fashion. However, it does so through a nostalgic view of both cities’ past; through a contemporary appropriation of urban space that erases elements uncomfortable to bourgeois enjoyment; and through a colonial perspective in which Rio represents nature, while Paris represents the urban.
Copyright (c) 2025 Giovanna Azevedo Cabral, Karina Gomes Barbosa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Meaning, desire, and consumption: semiotic dynamics and strategies of value attribution
This article seeks to understand the complexity of the interrelations between the processes of signification and the formation of desire in consumer culture. Through an approach based on Peircean semiotics, it seeks to explain in depth the conceptual foundations of the transfer of symbolic value to consumer goods, highlighting the dynamics of attribution of these values, showing the relationship between the subject of desire and the interpretants generated in the process of semiosis, revealing the logical and formal structure of the strategies that arouse desire and guide the actions and decisions of the consumer. Finally, the role of semiotics is considered both in the manipulation of these meanings and in the understanding of the aspects of consumer culture that need to be improved.
Copyright (c) 2024 Profa. Dra. Isabel Jungk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Telenovela Vai na Fé, the Culture of Convergence, and Transmedia Expansion
Based on works by Svartman, Jenkins, Ford and Green this article proposes a reading and interpretation of the concepts of convergence and media expansion in the Brazilian telenovela Vai na Fé, focusing on the storyline of the character Wilma Campos (Renata Sorrah). Filled with metalinguistic elements, her plot gains strength through audience interaction, culminating in its dissemination across various screens. Our analysis confirmed the value of convergence and media expansion manifested in audiovisual production, reception, and circulation, validating the conceptual principles of Svartman, Jenkins, Ford, and Green that there is no passive spectator, and the transmedia potential of audiovisual content.
Copyright (c) 2024 Bruno Fracchia, Clotilde Perez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Substance: an immersion into Bauman's universe of Consumption and the construction of the self
In a society where consumption has become one of the central pillars for the construction of an identity and a sense of “I”, the film The Substance metaphorically exposes the decline of an individual’s sense of self-worth as he or she fails to meet the image-based social expectations, and how the consumer industry finds, in this scenario, a market to be explored. This paper aims to draw a parallel between the topics addressed by the film and the concepts related to consumption and contemporary identity self-construction presented by Bauman in his works.
Copyright (c) 2024 Matheus Weslley Gonçalves Oliveira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Signos do consumo e novas literacias: debatendo as condições interpretativas das realidades
Consuming to save the world: A case study on the discourse propagated by Apple (RED)
This study analyzes the discourse of cause-related marketing (CRM) used by Apple to promote its products and support social causes through (RED) products aimed at combating HIV/AIDS in Africa. It reflects on consumption practices using a psychoanalytic framework and its developments, such as Rifkin’s concept of cultural capitalism and Richey and Ponte’s ‘causumerism’ practice. The methodology involves a critical analysis of Apple and (RED)’s institutional materials, combined with a bibliographic review on branding. Findings indicate that although CRM promotes important causes, it also transforms social activism into a product, aligning with contemporary critiques of ethical consumption and the practices of comfort and authenticity.
Copyright (c) 2024 Thiago Costa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Transformaciones en las percepciones sobre publicidad:informe de una experiencia docente sobre las posiblesinfluencias de la educación superior
This study examines the shifts in advertising students’ perceptions over a semester in higher education. It investigates how the curriculum and its pedagogical methodologies may have influenced students understanding of advertising. The analysis categorizes students’ perceptions into four perspectives: market-oriented, persuasive, promotional, and social. The findings suggest that the defining characteristics of higher education in advertising in Brazil are reflected in students’ evolving views, indicating a significant link between education and their changing perspectives on the subject.
Copyright (c) 2024 Dôuglas Aparecido Ferreira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0