Postmodernity of Adidas Advertisement Image in the Context of the Olympic Games

Abstract

        The research on “Postmodernity of Adidas Advertisement Image in the Context of the Olympic Games” aims to understand the construction of meaning in Adidas print advertisements. Based on concepts of postmodernity, intertextuality and semiology. This research analyze Adidas’s advertising images which published in  2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and 2012 Summer Olympics, formally the Games of the XXX Olympiad, presented thirty-one pictures in total. The results of research show that postmodernity appear in Adidas’s advertising images include (1) Intertextuality; the interconnection between texts, contains four concepts are (1.1) Trace Back, a connection from Advertising image to a pre-text which is Olympic Game and official sponsorship of Adidas brand. (1.2) Allusion, a usage of various signs for connecting meaning of Olympic Game and the host country of Olympic Game. (1.3) Polysemy, the use of signs that can be flexible in interpretation based on knowledge and experience of audiences. A sign can have more than one meaning. (1.4) Heteroglossia, the use of signs within advertising images, as long as the original meaning is still present. (2) Implosion of meaning which are the implosion between athlete and hero, and the implosion between reality and imagination. (3) Hyperreal; the use of computer graphic, to make abstract meaning more concrete and obvious (for example, citizen support in Olympic). (4) Collage which are situation matching between sport competitions and Adidas’s brand concept “Impossible is Nothing”. (5) Deconstruction; the finding of other meaning in advertising images, are overridden and show the background of main model that successful athletes have failed before.