System and Vision (2030) of Aramco's Initial Public Offering Advertisement: A Reading from Cultural Criticism Perspective

Abstract

This research extrapolates the advertisement of Aramco's Initial public offering (IPO), in the company's official Twitter account (@Saudi_Aramo), on 11.12.2019. Choosing this advertisement was prompted by the cultural aspects involved, which are closely linked to the The National Transformation Program of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, representedbyVision 2030.

The research is based on the premise that an advertisementis not a consumerist aesthetical text, but a cultural incident capable of building and changing cultural systems and exposing their shortcomings.It aims to reveal the systems behind aesthetics, their role in major issues in our society, and strategies used in the construction of cultural systems.

The first section discusses the terminology, to define the terms and concepts of: cultural criticism, systems, and Aramco's Initial public offering advertisement. The second section discusses the applied aspect, in terms of the cultural context, and the systematic function of the text.

The paper concludes that Aramco's advertisement has exceeded the aesthetical dimensions, to form a system that is characterized by dynamism, openness, and interaction with the environment.Thus, confirming that the advertisement discourse in Saudi Arabia represents a subsystem in a larger social system, and that it is autonomousover its input and output.