The book cover as a tool for building a social and cultural identity

• Authors: PAVELKA Jiří
• Year of publication: 2015
• Type: Workshop
• MU Faculty or unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Description: LOCATION: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Instytut Kulturoznawstwa, Poznań, ul. Szamarzewskiego 89 A. TOPIC/THEME: I will analyze and interpret the sign texts whose communication medium is a book cover. I try to demonstrate – on the examples of twelve book covers of the book by the American author George Ritzer The McDonaldization of Society, which is probably the most translated title of sociological literature at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd millennia – that the book covers represent not only an innovative form of semiotic and cultural transfer, but also an innovative marketing and advertising tool of communication and an efficient tool for building a social and cultural identity of the audience that it is addressed to. MATERIALS FOR DISCUSSION: The book covers constructing a negative image of McDonald’s corporation consumers’ audience The illustration on the book cover of the Polish edition of 1997 is – compared with the Russian illustration – not only structurally simple, but mainly easygoing and idyllic as far as attitudes are concerned. It is based on a collage fine-art technique as a semantic structural mechanism. It shows a realistic photographic portrait of a man from the shoulders above who has a hamburger instead of a head. The author of the illustration created a new iconic word of “burgerman” through which he constructed a negative image of a group identity of McDonald’s corporation consumers. This new type of a social animal has been generated by McDonald’s corporation into the form that suits its marketing strategies. The “burgerman” neither perceives, nor reflects the world with the eyes of his own, but according to McDonald’s corporate goals, interests and manuals. And it is likely that the burgerman also his behavior and his group identity based on rituals and values of the corporation.