Nowoczesne Systemy Zarządzania (Mar 2023)

On the rhetorical aspects of the rainbow: from identity construction to marketing strategy

  • Kamila Miłkowska-Samul

DOI
https://doi.org/10.37055/nsz/174988
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1
pp. 61 – 76

Abstract

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the use of the rainbow motif on the elements of material reality that surrounds us, such as clothes, accessories, furniture, decorations, but most of all in case of marketing communication of companies and brands. This analysis is based on the belief that things are important factors shaping social reality, which stems from Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory. Material products that transmit the rainbow motif sometimes acquire rhetorical value when the rainbow as a symbol becomes a means of persuasion. These situations, especially the use of the rainbow as a symbol of LGBTQ+ communities to shape the brand image, known as rainbow capitalism and rainbow washing, will be examined in this paper with the help of rhetorical concepts, especially from the point of view of visual rhetoric. This is because persuasion in this case does not take place through the verbal code, but the visual one. Rhetorical means such as the concept of identification and two elements from the triad of persuasive devices: ethos and pathos, will be used to explain these phenomena. The distinction between persuasion and manipulation will also prove useful in the analysis of the phenomenon discussed.

Keywords