Klimenkova A. Methodology for Empirical Identification of Commercial Advertising Cultural Codes.

The thesis is devoted to development and validation of the methodology for empirical identification of cultural codes in commercial advertising. Cultural code is considered as an ideal formation, which attributes symbolic meanings to objects and phenomena, creates the basis for forming notions about the value of these objects and phenomena for the individual. The phenomena and objects of reality are interesting for the individual only as much as they have meaning and significance for his or her life-activity. These meanings are created by the culture, are transmitted through the system of cultural codes. The culture forms subjective, symbolic reality, on the basis of which value orientations are formed as a derivative of subjective reality. Cultural codes create the system of subjective coordinates in which the life-activity of the individual develops. The cultural needs based on the symbolic meaning of the objects and phenomena of reality are formed in the system of these coordinates. The role of myths in forming cultural codes was investigated. The myths, ensuring figurative fixation and semantic construction of the world, are the intensional basis of cultural codes. Myth, assigning certain "names" to the objects of the outer world, that is, encoding them, is able to form the notions about significance of these objects for the members of social community, and therefore is able to form value attitudes towards them. Cultural codes are formed on the basis of system of precedential phenomena, which are often represented by myths and mythologems prevailing in certain cultures. Owing to its "mythological basis" an important characteristic of cultural code is thereby created - the idea of "natural self-evidence" of notions about properties of the object which have been formed by cultural code. The results of implemented analysis (by using the method of concept mapping) allowed to reveal such main types of cultural codes which are represented in print visual commercial advertising in Ukraine: "beauty and sexuality", "family happiness and moral feelings", "wealth and luxurious life", "healthy life-style", "comfort". The research methodology is based on the use of semantic differential, which allows to explore the connotative meanings associated with cultural codes. The semantic differential scale includes relevant scales that are focused on identifying the most common cultural codes in commercial advertising, determined in the previous stages of the study.