The myth of the natural in advertising

<jats:p>This article surveys how advertising language narrates nature, beginning with a review of the principal studies that have discussed the relationship between nature and advertising, often neglected by cultural studies. Applying an existing Floch model and the heuristic tools of narrative semiotics, four prototypes of nature are established and illustrated according to representations and associated values. How we relate to nature is mediated by how it is treated in the media. There is no essential and immutable signifier of nature, but as many uses and forms as there are narratives around it. The more the return to nature is discussed, the further we move from the natural world. This is one of the principal paradoxes constituting the cultural universe of late capitalism that burdens the individual with responsibility for recovering nature on an individual scale. This new way of relating to nature has a privileged screen for viewing and analysis in promotional culture.</jats:p>