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Occupy Wall Street Signs: Visual Reflections Of Hidden Soical Issues, Pamela K. Morris

Pamela K. Morris

From a social action theory perspective, Occupy Wall Street protesters’ signs are grounded examples of grass-roots forces attempting to generate cultural and political change. Using an advertising perspective and contextualizing messages in social and cultural terms, important issues raised by the protesters can be identified and analyzed. Results can enrich discourse of challenges. This paper is an exploratory investigation of 55 Occupy Wall Street signs using content analysis. It attempts to answer questions: How are the Occupy Wall Street protesters communicating their messages through signs; what are the issues; and how do the issues relate to advertising models?