Hur säkrar Volvo en hållbar framtid? : En visuell retorisk analys av Volvos miljöbudskap i deras reklamfilmer

Sammanfattning: Increased environmental awareness and a desire to make environmentally friendly choices among consumers have meant that companies today feel an intense pressure to become environmentally friendly and to produce sustainable products. Especially when it comes to car companies that contribute a large part to greenhouse gas emissions. (Seroka-Stolka, et al. 2015). Volvo is an international company and a well-known brand in the automotive industry. Therefore, this study intends to analyze how Volvo communicates regarding the environment and sustainability. The three selected commercials that have been analyzed are Volvo Moment – Sustainability (2019), For their future (2020), and The ultimate safety test (2021). The research questions in the study is, how are environmental messages conveyed in Volvo's commercials and how does Volvo communicate their responsibility regarding the environment and sustainability. The study is carried out based on theories about message strategies (Mårtenson, 2009, p, 404-424) and the seven sins of greenwashing (TerreChocie, 2009), and the analysis is carried out with a visual rhetorical analysis to analyze visual communication. To study which associations different signs bring and to interpret Volvo’s visual communication and their underlying message, the semiotic concepts of denotation (manifest level) and connotation (latent level) is used. The result shows that Volvo's commercials mostly use a transforming message strategy using different visual elements such as scene environments, sound, and color. An exception, however, is the commercial Volvo Moment – Sustainability (2019), which use both transformational and informative message strategies. The result also showed that Volvo's communication shows signs of greenwashing as most of the environmental claims were vague and unclear without any explanations, which can be linked to the concepts "the sin of no proof" and "the sin of vagueness".