The Instant President and the Extemporaneous Disruption of Today’s

Indonesia: A Socio-semiotic Reading of Digital Advertisement:

Shopee - Sepedanya Mana?

Andreas Akun

, Retnowati

English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta Indonesia

Keywords: Digital Advertisement, Social Semiotics, Indonesian President.

Abstract: Indonesia is inevitably entering the era of digital disruption with its transforming impacts on economy,

politics and culture. The digital technology advances too fast just to show a yawning gap of readiness

between the disruptor aggressive invasion and the incumbent dawdling coping with it. This article provides

textual analysis of the online shopping advertisement video through socio-semiotic approach. It also

analyses the multimodal significations of the ad and meaning making of it from university students’

perspective. The result of the study shows that the ad signifies the contesting ideologies of modern and

instant life culture and its non-urgent traditional culture.

1 INTRODUCTION

In his book, Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and

Nature Questions (1990), the Russian American

science fiction author Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

stated, “The saddest aspect of life right now is that

science gathers knowledge faster than society

gathers wisdom” (Moore, R., Lopes, 1999). This is

undeniably true especially for today’s digital

disruption era. Now, almost everything is

digitalized, thus it is easy, instant and superficial.

The advancement in digital technology has led to the

use of internet in many ways, such as for

entertainment, information, business, social network,

education, politic, and many more. In education, for

instance, UNESCO, as stated by Pais and Costa,

“recently posited Global Citizenship Education

(GCE)” (Smith, 1998). where education and its

involved people as the source of wisdom are now

globally required to belong to a global citizenship,

and at the same time, challenged to redefine their

national identity in this global belongingness.

Internet technology has made it easy for virtual and

global membership, but not the fostering of national

wisdom.

Regarding people’s activeness in the internet and

global community communication, the number of

Indonesian people’s use of internet may reflect this

global ecosystem membership. According to

Kompas online newspaper (Asimov, I., & Shulman,

1990) there are 143.26 million people (54.68% of

262 million Indonesian total population) who

actively use internet in 2017. According to Detikinet

online newspaper (Pais, A., & Costa, 2017), the top

5 and mostly visited Indonesian e-commerce

companies in 2017 are respectively Lazada,

Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Shopee, and Blibli. In the

business, they have utilized the three biggest social

media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In 2018,

Aseanup business website (Setiawan, 2017) has

similarly listed Top 10 successful e-commerce

websites in Indonesia: Lazada, Tokopedia,

Bukalapak, Blibli, Shopee, JD.id, Elevenia,

Bhinneka, Zalora, and Qoo10. With Lazada’s

monthly traffic estimate (March 2018) of

118,500,000 visitors (Tokopedia: 111,000,000,

Bukalapak: 100,000,000, Blibli: 45,900,000 and

Shopee: 39,100,000), it is clear that the new culture

of online shopping has progressively dominated

Indonesian society, simultaneously disrupting its

stability.

According to Valenduc and Vendramin

“disruption” is buzzword intensively used today to

signify “the new digital technologies, the increasing

digitalization of the economy and its estimated

impacts on work and employment” (Detikinet,

2017). There is no way of rejecting these digital

technologies and consequently, for instance, most

Akun, A. and Retnowati, .

The Instant President and the Extemporaneous Disruption of Today’s Indonesia: A Socio-semiotic Reading of Digital Advertisement: Shopee - Sepedanya Mana?.

DOI: 10.5220/0010006400002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 273-278

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

273

people have been absorbed by communication

technologies in their so called digital social life. In

education for instance Selwyn has explored

university students’ negative engagements with

digital technology, emphasizing how digital

technology has annoyed and even diminished

students’ scholarship and study. He suggested that

we should cautiously consider the digital downsides

behind the helpfulness of digital innovation due to

“unsatisfactory realities of students’ encounters with

digital technology” (Aseanup, 2018). Celik and

Odaci have studied the relationship between

problematic use of internet and interpersonal

cognitive distortions and life satisfaction in

university students, concluding that “males exhibit

more problematic internet use than females, which

subjects with a pessimistic perception of events have

a higher level of problematic internet use than those

with an optimistic perception and that subjects who

always feel lonely exhibit greater problematic

internet use than those who never or only sometimes

experience feelings of loneliness (Valenduc, G., &

Vendramin, 2017). Generally, Marron stated that

digital technology has disrupted human beings in

such a way, forcing them to be prepared and stay

balanced. “Nothing but Disruption” and “To say that

we are in an age of disruption is an understatement”

(Selwyn, 2016). Optimistically, OECD Council (The

Organization for Economic Co-operation and

Development) had a ministerial meeting in Paris, 7-8

June 2017, to convince the world with the topic of

“Going Digital: Making the Transformation Work

for Growth and Well-Being” by proposing strategies

in coping with the digital disruption.

Sinofsky stressed the point that disruption is

inevitable because “Disruption is a critical element

of the evolution of technology — from the positive

and negative aspects of disruption a typical pattern

emerges, as new technologies come to market and

subsequently take hold” (Celik, C. B., & Odaci,

2013). He proposed four stages of disruption:

Disruption of incumbent, rapid and linear evolution,

appealing convergence, and complete re-

imagination. In the first stage, a moment of

disruption begins to take place against the incumbent

(a [non] digital technology currently in use or

holding position), e.g. the disruption of conventional

“ojek” (Indonesian ride-hailing provider by

motorcycle) by online ojek transport services in

2010, pioneered by Go-Jek with its mobile

application, followed by Grab bike and others. In the

second stage, “once an innovative product or

technology begins rapid adoption, the focus becomes

‘filling out’ the product”. Go-Jek, for example, got

its popularity only in 2015, 5 years after its

launching on 13 October 2010 when people warmly

adopted this new culture of riding and commuting.

In the third stage, Appealing Convergence, the

disruptive technology proceeds to undergo

redefinition as the market indirectly demands the

replacement of the incumbent technology with a new

one. As for Go-Jek case, following the controversy

and partial refusal from the conventional ojek, the

market gets absorbed in the new technology,

especially through big promotional discounts, and

calls for replacement of the old conventional ojek

technology. Finally, in the fourth stage, Complete

Re-imagination, Sinofsky metaphorically labels the

stage as “Things are just wildly better”, the previous

technology seems irrelevant, with huge difference in

cost, performance, reliability, service and features

and some refer to this as “the innovator’s curse”.

2 SOCIO SEMIOTICS AND

DIGITAL ADVERTISEMENT

The goal of this study is to elaborate a digital

advertisement on online shopping entitled Shopee:

Sepedanya Mana? (Shopee: Where’s the bike?)

using socio-semiotics. The study attempts to address

the conflicting ideological significations produced

by the ad and its possible meanings resulted from a

textual analysis and from university students’

perspective. Socio-semiotics is a critical sign study

of everyday life from social perspective. According

to Gottdiener and Lagopoulos, socio-semiotics is a

“materialistic analysis of ideology in everyday

life…the analysis of connotative signification

connected with ideological systems” (Marron,

2016). It is a hybrid discipline derived from various

human sciences, such as (psycho/socio-) linguistics,

semiology, cultural semiotics, sociology, cultural

anthropology, social psychology, Marxism, and

pragmatism (Marron, 2016). Colby and Randviir

highlighted further that the methods of socio-

semiotics accommodate “the methods of all

disciplines that allow the study of the different levels

of sign production and exchange as presented by

Saussure…These levels include psychological,

physiological, and physical processes” (Marron,

2016). These various contributing disciplines allow

the rich studies of sign even from a simple

representation of life through digital business

advertisement as studied here. Danesi emphasized

that “ambiguity is a fundamental characteristic of

advertising textuality…(that’s) why advertising is so

semiotically powerful. Advertising textuality can be

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defined simply as the construction of advertisements

and commercials on the basis of the specific

signification systems built intentionally into

products” (Sinofsky, 2014). The hybrid nature of

socio-semiotics also relates to its multimodality,

where media texts are always thought of as

multimodal with different semiotic channels

considered as modes to be analyzed. Jewitt

mentioned three interconnected theoretical

assumptions on multimodality: “first, multimodality

assumes that representation and communication

always draw on multiplicity of modes, all of which

contribute to meaning…second, multimodality

assumes that resources are socially shaped over time

to become meaning making resources that articulate

the (social, individual/affective) meanings demanded

by the requirements of different

communities…third, people orchestrate meaning

through their selection and configuration of modes,

foregrounding the significance of the interaction

between modes” (Colby, P., & Randviir, 2009).

What is text? Gunther Kress defined text as follows,

“Text, in MMDA (Multimodal Discourse Analysis),

is a multimodal semiotic entity in two, three or four

dimensions: as when students in a science classroom

make a 3D model of a plant cell, or when they

perform a play scripted by them in a literature

classroom” (Danesi, 2002). An advertisement is

absolutely a text in this sense and it can to some

extent be a agent of disruption.

Kress highlighted that “Mode is a socially

shaped and culturally given semiotic resource for

making meaning. Image, writing, layout, music,

gesture, speech, moving image, soundtrack and 3D

objects are examples of modes in representation and

communication” (Jewitt, 2012). The modes are

perceived through our (five) senses. In socio-

semiotics, meaning is socially and culturally

constructed, and defined by the chosen modes of

expression. Sign (a fusion of form and meaning, of

signified and signifier) is motivated in socio-

semiotics because it is created, not just utilized, by

the sign-creator in making meaning through resource

selections in line with the creator’s interest. Kress

then stated that “In the process of representation

sign-makers remake concepts and ‘knowledge’ in a

constant new shaping of the cultural resources for

dealing with the social world” (Gee, J. P., &

Handford, 2011). So, remaking and reshaping of

meaning will never stop because cultural resources

keep changing, just as the process of gathering

knowledge and wisdom. Barthes proposed the third

level of signification as myth or ideology to

naturalize the dominant beliefs, values, cultures and

attitudes, making them totally seem natural or

normal (Gee, J. P., & Handford, 2011).

Indonesian people have unquestionably belonged

to the virtual global digitalized community. The

question is how local and national wisdoms are

fostered/weakened by this global ecosystem

citizenship? This article will socio-semiotically read

“the sign”.

3 DISCUSSION

Shopee: Sepedanya mana? advertisement shows an

incident during the president’s routine of giving

away a bike as a popular prize to an elementary

school student correctly answering the quiz in his

visit. But the promised prize is suddenly reported as

missing. A brief state of panic is shown throughout

the nation through a live broadcast of the event, but

soon ends as the president takes out his gadget,

opens the Shopee application and instantly orders

the bike online, and the bike is finally ready there.

All are relieved and happy at the end because they

also get their expected stuff just as fast as the

president.

3.1 The Instant President

Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is the 7

individual elected

as Indonesian president since 20 October 2014, after

serving as Surakarta/Solo mayor (28 July 2005 – 1

October 2012) and DKI Jakarta governor (15

October 2012 – 16 October 2014). His down-to-

earth, pragmatic and informal leadership style with

blusukan (directly and quickly visit and interact with

people all over the country) has disrupted the

previous formal and protocolar leadership,

especially through his choice of modest and plain

attire, exceptional hobbies, such as riding chopper

and listening to rock music, and his habit of giving

quizzes in his visits to many parts of the country

with a bike as the prize. This makes it possible for

the ad makers to safely and democratically use

Jokowi’s image in their advertisements. Moreover,

the real Jokowi has several times become the real

endorsement of a certain product due to his unique

lifestyle, e.g. his bomber jacket.

The ad takes just this image of Jokowi and starts

with the quiz to an elementary school student

wearing his Boy Scout uniform: “Sebutkan ibukota

Sumatera Utara” (name the capital of North

Sumatera). The student answered “Medan”, which is

eagerly commented “betul” (correct) by the

president. This take represents a ritual consciously

The Instant President and the Extemporaneous Disruption of Today’s Indonesia: A Socio-semiotic Reading of Digital Advertisement:

Shopee - Sepedanya Mana?

275

done by Mr. President to seemingly foster closeness

and casualness to people from all walks of life, at the

same time enforcing the citizen’s sense of

nationalism. The common questions in the quiz

reflect this ideological intention, e.g. mentioning of

the names of Indonesian ethnic groups, islands,

provinces, ministers, or reciting of the Pancasila

(Five Principles of Indonesian National Ideology) or

just mentioning of the names of fishes and the

President’s own complete name. Most of the time,

the quiz is light, humorous and fun. The ad however

twists the plot by presenting the missing prize, but

soon overcome by Mr President using his online

shopping application, which instantly and

hyperbolically delivers the bike to the winning boy,

plus other people’s needs from different professions

and social positions. At this point, the instantness in

the President’s action, the resulting solution and the

cheery responses from the society suggest that

everyone is ready to face the digital disruption by

accommodating the online shopping or e-commerce

culture, especially when taking into consideration

that the president is the representation of the nation.

The real President Jokowi himself shows his full

support toward innovation in online commerce.

Many times, he even gives an example of how he

usually orders gado-gado (mixed food or

hodgepodge of cooked vegetables) or sate (satay)

using Go-Food application from his office and it is

ready 30 minutes later, indicating that he is already

into it and it is impossible to reject the digital

economy. In this context, the president belongs to

the instant generation (Gen-Y) where digital

technology is an everyday culture.

On the other hand, the ad also depicts the

traditional way of life in the remote areas where

farming or fishing is the dominant culture. People

are pictured as joyful to have the new way of

shopping, charmed by its instant nature. By only

touching his gadget the President can instantly buy

the bike, his phenomenal bomber jacket as well, and

others can do the same. People seem to forget that

earning the money is much more difficult and slower

today than spending it. There is no depiction of

industrious or prosperous district, but modest

canteen, un-crowded street vendor stall, un-full

fishermen’s basket, yet their consuming culture is

made so easy. The omission has signaled the hard

time in the village, while the temptation to spend the

earning is so big. This is also signified through their

being absorbed in the “entertaining” news (of the

missing bike) through digital technology than doing

their traditional work. The street vendor, fisherman,

and stall, for example, signify the modest and

struggling life of urban and rural people, in

contradiction with the main idea of digital commerce

glorification.

3.2 The Contesting Ideologies:

Disruptive Digital Commerce

versus Eco-friendly Slow Bike

Semiotically, further what do the quiz, bike, and the

crying boy signify? On the surface, the quiz signifies

the President’s communication way to the people to

encourage their sense of nationalism as proven by

his asking of simple questions around the names of

Indonesian ethnic groups, islands, provinces, capital

cities, ministers, etc. On a deeper semiotic level, the

quiz signifies (that there is still) the question of

Indonesian nationalism itself after more than 70

years of independence because the questions are

supposed to be taken for granted (if there were no

question about the people’s nationalism). This is

proven by the fact that in many cases the president

patiently helps or guides the quiz takers in

answering the questions; sometimes he even asks

them to slowly repeat the answers just to convince

the public and relieve himself that they can answer

the quiz, that there is no problem in their sense of

nationalism. In the ad, this is aurally signaled by the

slow and low tone of the president and his patient

and informal accent. His cheery tone of response on

the correct answer also psychologically strengthens

this relief. But again, the very idea of the quiz itself

reflects the cheerless fact that Indonesian

nationalism is still being questioned even by the

president, and thus needs to be reinforced again.

Further question, how can this sense of nationalism

be fostered in this global economy where people for

instance can cheerfully buy imported products in just

a click of their gadget? This is a challenge that will

be described by the following two signs: the bike

and the crying boy.

The next important sign is the bike.

Traditionally, even Albert Einstein, using the

famous simile, philosophically stated that “Life is

like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you

must keep moving”. Some significations may be

drawn from this idea, such as biking is a metaphor of

balanced life that requires moving (physically, thus

healthier), simple and un-digital technology, nature-

friendly, therefore it is cheaper, natural and classless

(most can afford it). It is slower as well because it is

man-driven vehicle, and biking is always slowly

going forward, not backward, possibly signifying the

movement of a developing country. Biking,

according to Walsh, also signifies freedom of

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movement and awareness of speed limitation (Kress,

2010). Wisdom is what the bike is all about when it

is taken as a symbolic token of appreciation. Bicycle

is absolutely not a random quiz prize. It inevitably

brings along the significations above. It is in itself

selected and symbolic. In reality, this bike prize is

unproblematically given to anyone, not only children

in villages, but also adults from the cities. The

popularity of the quiz and the bike prize has ever

since its first use triggered the request from the

public in any president’s public appearance and

speech of this particular prize.

We also asked 40 university students in our

English Department of Binus University Jakarta,

about the popularity of biking, their opinion on the

bike prize, and why Jokowi image is chosen. Only

47.5% students have a bike of their own and more

than the half others don’t, but 77.5% claim to like

riding a bike. Regarding the biking culture, most of

them (95%) agree that they still need to develop a

biking culture mostly for the reasons of health and

environmentally friendly culture. Then regarding the

bike signification, the result is quite diverse. 27.5%

agree that it signifies common people’s vehicle

(cheap, eco-friendly, classless). 17.5% state that it is

an appreciation/award. 15% agree that bike is a

symbol of simplicity and usefulness. 12.5% say that

it is really the people’s need for transportation. 10%

think that it is kids’ culture because children love

riding a bike. Another 10% agree that biking

signifies modesty, independence and freedom. The

rest 7.5% philosophically state that it is a platform or

transportation toward a goal. Finally, regarding why

Jokowi image is taken into the ad, 35% say that it is

due to his fame and powerful figure as the first

gentleman of the country and 27,5% due to his

wisdom, role model leader, or his direct

contact/closeness to people. Then 22.5% state that it

is due to Jokowi’s popular habit of giving the quiz,

and other 10% agree that it due to his

controversial/eye-catching/unique attraction. The

rest 5% state that it is merely chosen based on reality

about the president’s routine activities.

However, regarding the ad setting, when the quiz

and bike are given in the context of endorsing online

shopping, there is indeed a problem. Why? Because

two contesting ideologies are at work. The quiz

signifies the president’s closeness to his people, with

nationalism concerns at hand. Then, the bike

symbolizes the dominant people’s modest needs,

mostly people with modest living in rural areas,

signed by slowness and natural living way. On the

other hand, Jokowi’s image signifies fastness,

instant welcome and readiness for the online

shopping disruption. Further, the online shopping

has offered the tempting (hedonistic) consumerism

culture, signified by the instant buying of not

necessarily important and affordable stuffs such as a

new and more expensive TV set in the village stall,

new clothes, bags, toys, tools, and on, as if they were

as free as gifts.

The question of nationalism and the disruption of

digital commerce are also contesting because

nationalism is slow in the process while digital

commerce is disrupting so fast. The bike is a good

metaphor of nationalism and Shopee is the right

metaphor of digital shopping, potentially creating

shopaholic culture. The slow reinforcement of

nationalism is also challenged by the impatient and

instant generation as signified by the crying boy.

The winning boy is depicted as crying as he is

impatient for his bike prize. This sign seems to be

trivial, but significant against the nationalism

ideology and readiness for digital economy

revolution promoted by the president character

because the instant generation may go against the

nationalism ideology. The impatient crying boy

signifies the spoiled, whining, and unready

generation. Even when the boy has won the prize he

is still tearfully impatient, signifying further of

instant gain. The quiz and its joining itself signifies

an instant way of gaining. The whole idea of gaining

it fast is there by the help of digital technology but

building the anticipating patience of not getting it

right away is totally missing. There is no depiction

of our famously known wisdom as “sabar subur”

(you’ll be prosperous if you’re patient), but

impatience of getting an instant result and sniveling

of not. Actually, the empty look of the president as

he takes out his gadget in solving the situation

(missing bike) signifies the ambiguous attitude

toward this disruptive new way of digitalized living,

remembering the fact that there are still so many

people are concerned with the negative impacts of it.

Even many people are totally illiterate of digital

technology but forced to face the huge impacts of it.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The fact that we are all entering the digitalized world

ecosystem is universally undeniable. Online

shopping is only one channel of many digital

cultures where people are engaged in digital

ecosystem in modern virtual communities. This

online culture has significantly disrupted the way

Indonesian people shop and live. The Shopee ad as

the representation of this new culture dynamism

The Instant President and the Extemporaneous Disruption of Today’s Indonesia: A Socio-semiotic Reading of Digital Advertisement:

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reflects the two opposing ideologies, where the

modern fast and instant hedonistic consumerism is

contesting against the traditional and slow

enforcement of nationalism ideology.

The socio-semiotic reading of the ad has shown

the extemporaneity and un-readiness of today’s

Indonesia in facing the global and digitalized

community demands beyond the splendorous life

easiness offered by the disruptive digital

technologies. The president as a sign with his instant

“work-work-work” slogan and “blusukan” culture

has to some extent signified the readiness of

Indonesia for the digital disruption, while the

symbolic bike, the rural traditional way of living,

and the crying boy all have signified the slow and

mental un-readiness of the country to face the

unstoppable disruption of digital technology,

especially its e-commerce consumerism ideology

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors wish to acknowledge encouragement from

RTTO (Research and Technology Transfer Office)

of Bina Nusantara University, Faculty of

Humanities, and English Department. Special thanks

go to IC2L2C Conference under ICSSLAH

Conference and Binus Big Join Conference for

assisting and providing the medium for knowledge

and research result sharing.

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