Semiotic/Multimodal Analysis of "Dumb ways to die"

It's been some months since I posted something (luckily it's been a very busy year so far), so this time I thought I should upload something I've been working on this semester. I've taken the elective subject called "Introduction to Semiotics and Multimodal Analysis" and I liked it very very much. As I can get a little crazy with things I find very interesting, I began to think about different types of modes and their combinations I could analyse. In class we didn't really come much further than to Ads (images + written text) so I thought it would be nice to try and apply what I've learned up to there on something we haven't dealt with, something quite out of the common choices to advertise something. In this case a video (moving images + spoken/sung text) called "Dumb ways to die" that's been going viral the last few months.

So basically, what I've done is I've chosen something quite funny I found on the internet some weeks before beginning the analysis. I guess there is much more to the ad than what I could analyse, but I've tried to focus on what keeps being a mystery for me: how these apparently dumb commercials have any kind of effect on the viewers. What it is that makes people listen to it and even play it over and over, post it on their Facebook walls and so on, until it finally becomes some sort of "viral" video.

Before giving the whole analysis here, I thought it would be great to give you some information about what Semiotics is, and more importantly (for this special case), what Multimodality is.

1) Semiotics, also called semiotic studies and including (in the Saussurean tradition) semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. However, as different from linguistics, semiotics studies also non-linguistic sign systems [like images, sounds, clothing, gestures...]. Semiotics is often divided into three branches:

• Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their meaning
• Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
• Pragmatics: Relation between signs and the effects they have on the people who use them

Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions; for example, Umberto Eco proposes that every cultural phenomenon can be studied as communication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics)

It was Julia Kristeva who established a comparison between the findings in the field of semiotics with the functioning of language: semiotics is “articulated like a language”. Language seems to be necessary to be able to interpret, decode “all other systems, linguistics and non-linguistic” (Benveniste), such as -among others- semiotics. And, according to Claude Lévi-Strauss, 'language is the semiotic system par excellence; it cannot but signify, and exists only through signification' – i.e. it can only exist if there is a system (language) that can decode it and interpret what it is made/used for and so on. From the 70s onward, different means or modes of sign-production have been taken into account and considered as important devices or influences on the message conveyed through the text. How these codes or systems can be manipulated in a social context, or through a certain media/genre. It had become more and more important to research the usefulness, aims, effectiveness, ideology and so on, involved in the process of using signs for communication.
(this is a summary of what I read in Chandler's Introduction to Semiotics http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html)
 
2) According to Kress, a mode is something made and used by society to create meaning. We do use the word 'mode' in order to not have to use the word 'language', as in 'body language', because it is a too general and misleading concept. These modes are cultural resources –regular resources, because we have used them in a long period of time for similar circumstances, and furthermore, they are material (they may have a sound, image, etc.). So as to know if something is a mode, as for example color in a website, we have to ask ourselves whether it contributes to convey meaning or not. The next step would be to find out which role each mode on the site has. Do they have the same importance? What do they contribute to? That is, we have to find out which characteristics of a mode have the potential to make up for the 'deficiencies' of another mode. By finding all this out, we can steadily understand how the whole website functions.
(This is from the Kress' video "What is a mode?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ2gz_OQHhI)

3) Why should we study semiotics and multimodality? From a personal point of view, because if we analyze the use of combinations of modes through a certain period of time it is fascinating how meaning was conveyed e.g. 50 years ago in comparison to nowadays. What was important, decisive for a certain target group, according to a certain aim has changed decisively. To see how it must have worked very well back then, and how, nowadays, it looks/sounds funny to us. Or strange, or revealing (in terms of the way people must have thought back then). To sum up: it gives away much information about human thought, preferences, different cultures and tastes. I should add that it is important to remember that we, (an individual or society) create the meaning, and change it over time into conventions and, thus, codes change.
(this is a summary of what I read in Chandler's Introduction to Semiotics http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html)

Having understood more or less the most important ideas about Multimodality, you will now be able to follow the analysis of the video from the Metro Melbourne, Australia, called "Dumb ways to die":

Before beginning to analyze the clip in more detail, I may clarify first its structure: it is a combination of a quite catchy song --due to its simple lyrics, short lines, the rhymes and frequent repetition of the chorus-- and the visuals. Hence, the lyrics (non-written language), the melody, and the voice of the female singer may be considered as several ‘submodes’ functioning as one –auditory- mode. Then, we have the visual mode, which consists of the short written message at the very end (image 1) and the animated cartoons.

Having shortly mentioned the different modes, we may consider the union between the visual and auditory modes: the whole composition consists of five parts. In each, four different situations are depicted. As we are dealing with a non-static mode, I consider each situation/action framed: it separates it from the next situation and indicates discontinuity. Only in the last part, in which we find the main aim of the ad, there are five different situations depicted. Again, all besides the last one rhyme AABB/chorus x2. The last part rhymes AABCD. There is, however, an E line which is used, as well as the choruses, to break the usual rhythm, to make it salient, and to link it directly to the last chorus. On a linguistic level, it may also be used to, firstly, create again a humorous environment despite having described three serious situations, and secondly, to make the audience notice a difference between the last and the previous parts. Whereas all the previous were exaggerated and silly ways to die, these three last ones are real problems and because of it, "quite possibly the dumbest ways to die". Accordingly, the main idea behind this ad was to show many silly situations in which one can die, which serve as an introducer to the real message: the three most 'silly' ways we can die around trains and rails, i.e. to "stand on the edge of a train station platform", to "drive around the boom gates at a level crossing", and to "run across the tracks between the platforms". And then, we get the only written linguistic part, the warning "Be safe around trains. A message from Metro", which I consider to be "framed", separated from the singing of the last part, but still a constituent of the last part because of the relevance and closure it gives to the ad[1]:

If the ad contains such a serious message, why were cartoons chosen over human characters? The protagonists are quite cute 'humanized' figures which, one after the other, depict a short situation or action. Namely, "take your helmet off in outer space". This sequence begins with a colored figure taking its helmet off in outer space and it ends with its head exploding (image 2). Note that I am using the -ing progressive because the sequences neither begin nor end. Each sequence begins and ends with an unfinished action, as if it was intended to depict only the process that is described in the lyrics. By using these characters carrying out actions the normal audience predicts to end tragically, the animators used humor as the main driving force. We can notice it both in the lyrics, in which increasingly dumb ways to die are enumerated, but also in the visual part, the animation. For example, the only remains of the exploded head are the figure's eyes, which end up twirling around in space. Eventually, before the next part, all dead figures sing happily together the chorus. Here our protagonist holds his eyes up high and swings them along with the rhythm of the song:

This is again a quite fun characteristic which the animators arranged similarly with all the figures, something that can only be depicted in this manner by using cartoons. Thus, we can state that the use of cartoons in this clip is useful 1) to exaggerate facial expressions, body gestures, etc.:

2) to soften all these tiny potential real-life situations as well as rather improbable situations (outer space, bears...) which could have been depicted in a much more disgusting way,

and 3) to even enable a clear illustration of potentially ‘real-life threatening’ situations:

If the producers of this ad had decided to use human characters, the whole ad would have been too morbid. By adding these exaggerated and unrealistic features, a different, even 'de-horrorizing' mood has been created. All the different modes and their features, e.g. a sweet, nice, female singing voice, ironic lyrics, simple rhyme, cute unfortunate characters, overdone situations, and finally –despite their misfortune– a quite joyful mood (in image 2: all dead characters singing together with a smile –ironically– the chorus "dumb ways to die" and looking at the audience, to empathize with them) contribute together to make the song and clip stick in the audience's minds and make them giggle and laugh.

In order to get a more accurate image of the target audience and an explanation for all these mentioned choices, we would need real statistics of accidents related to trains and rails. But we could attempt to conclude that exactly these visual and auditory modes were composed because the target audience needs this combination to get engaged, to pay attention to the ad and to listen to the message: a rather young audience (approx. 12 up to 40-year-olds). The combination of satirical, humoristic features to raise awareness of a quite sad and serious topic in this manner must be received exactly as such in order to work well. There may be a certain older audience who could find it even offensive or absolutely nonsensical.

 

Fact is, it is a very peculiar ad with a serious message. And very probably it has gone viral on the internet because of the choices mentioned, which could indicate that it has been successful. 

Well...this is how I saw and still see it. I hope you enjoyed this post...despite its length :) Please feel free to comment -agree or disagree, and even enlighten me :)