Images of the Contagion: COVID-19 Advertising Study in Argentina

Abstract

The declaration of the obligatory quarantine in Argentina, which happened on March 19, 2020 due to the incipient circulation of COVID-19, practically inaugurated the course of official communications of a National Government assumed in its functions three months in advance. The advertisements linked to the increase in infections and deaths due to this disease showed a production style that was perhaps more visual than linguistic characteristics. Also, through technical images, then, the Government communicated the state of the situation in which Argentina was in each instance of advance and dangerousness of COVID-19. The objective of our work is to examine the advertisements spread during the first four months of the establishment of the quarantine, with the purpose of recognizing its technological structure and the world that is narrated through them. In other words, the analysis will not focus on the verbal discourses of the different state or epidemiological authorities, but on the audiovisual productions that affirm them. Our research is included in a wide field of analysis linked to contemporary visual culture, and therefore understands the use that the government has made of images in a pandemic context. We conclude that the visual band has gained at least equally, or even greater, important than the sound track —in this case, the oral speeches— of the advertisements.