A sociosemiotic study of metaphorical ambiguity in sustainability advertising discourse

This paper examines the ambiguity of novel metaphors in advertising messages and the ways it can enhance audience engagement, analysing 25 metaphors from WRAP food waste reduction campaigns. Drawing on van Leeuwen’s concept of “integrated design” and social semiotic approaches to multimodal analysis, this study investigates how metaphorical ambiguity is used to facilitate behavioral change through abductive reasoning. The analysis reveals that strategic ambiguity functions not as a communicative barrier, but rather as a semiotic resource that invites active meaning-making within specific sociocultural contexts. The findings demonstrate that effective behavioral change campaigns benefit from metaphors that transcend conventional associations through calculated semantic tension. This research contributes to the existing literature on advertising metaphors and practical campaign design in sustainability advertising discourse by showcasing how strategic ambiguity can enhance campaign effectiveness through the integration of multimodal semiotic resources.