ABSTRACT
This is, of course, the real ‘art’ of advertising: to translate between systems of meaning and to create ‘a vast meta-system where values from different areas of our lives are made interchangeable’ (Williamson 1978:25). That advertising has been successful in this respect can be seen, for example, in the way that we have come to regard as more or less ‘normal’ the link between cars and cosmetics, as in: Race bred for the fast lane (Rover); and Life in the fast lane (Turbo After Shave).
