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Social networking sites are channels that allow companies to appeal to their target audience through personalized advertising which has become an increasingly common way for companies to reach their target customers. Personalization is possible through the use of customer data which allows designing an advertisement based on individual consumers' preferences benefiting the consumers with more personally appealing advertisements. However, the collection of the data has led to consumers’ experiencing costs from the personalization involving concerns for the safety of personal information. Because of the tension between benefits and costs of personalization, consumers' behavior has become paradoxical. The consumers’ behaviour does not always correspond to their concerns by which the consumers trade off their privacy to receive benefits from the personalization in return. With that said, this study aims to explore how the personalization privacy paradox appears in the consumers’ response to personalized advertisements on social networking sites by assessing their perception of the benefits and costs of personalized advertisements. Semi-structured interviews of eight participants lead to the main findings of this research identifying four factors that have an impact on consumers’ interaction with the advertisement; (1) simplified purchase decisions, (2) personal interest, (3) personal gain, and (4) trustworthiness. In addition, the research revealed additional findings indicating that consumers' concern for data collection could be changing from privacy risks regarding themselves to concerns about the consequence of data collection on a societal level. Furthermore, the findings show an indication for an emerging dilemma of personalized advertising for companies to overcome. Finally, this research provides implications for both academia as well as practitioners.

While the problem of automatic brand detection has already been studied for in-the-wild image inputs, its resolution in the context of online display advertising remains unexplored. Following the existing works that have successfully applied logo detection techniques to photographs of the real world, this thesis builds upon modern object detection models to perform brand-agnostic logo detection in images of online advertisements. Inference with the resulting convolutional neural network allows the development of image-based brand recognition pipelines that scale to a large number of identifiable brands. Furthermore, to train and evaluate such a network, a logo detection dataset composed of captures of online advertisements is created. Each sample image is annotated with bounding boxes and brand labels. Finally, with the aim of introducing a different approach to the problem, we also design and analyze the performance of a brand detection algorithm based on the extraction and filtering of domain names from the HTML code underlying online advertisements. / Trots att automatisk identifiering av varumärken är ett problem som redan studerats för bilder av verkliga miljöer, återstår det att undersöka lösningar till problemet inom onlineannonsering. Med inspiration från tidigare arbeten som framgångsrikt tillämpat logotypigenkänningsmetoder på fotografier av verkliga miljöer, bygger detta examensarbete på moderna objektigenkänningsmodeller för att utföra logotypigenkänning på bilder av onlineannonser på ett agnostiskt sätt med avseende på varumärke. Inferens med det resulterande neurala faltningsnätverket tillåter utveckling av bildbaserade varumärkesigenkänningspipelines som kan hantera ett stort antal igenkännliga värumärken. För att nätverket ska kunna tränas och senare evalueras, skapas dessutom en datamängd för logotypigenkänning som består av skärmdumpar av online-annonser. Varje bild i datamängden annoteras med boxar runt logotyperna som den innehåller samt etiketter som beskriver vilka varumärken dessa logotyper motsvarar. Slutligen presenteras en ny synvinkel på problemet där vi designar och utvärderar en algoritm för varumärkesigenkänning i onlineannonserna som baseras på att få fram och filtrera domännamn ur den bakomliggande HTML-koden.

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Abstract  This essay is interested in the changes that have taken place in the view of competence among the civil servant. As a state employee, you are indeed employed on behalf of the authority, but by extension you are also appointed on behalf of the citizens. As the work is a socially useful mission, special requirements are placed on the work being done with special regard to democratic values such as legal certainty, the equal value of people and providing citizens with efficient and good service, a so-called special public ethos.  Due to the sweeping social changes that society has undergone in the last twenty years, including increased globalization and digitization, different and increased demands are placed on working life today than before. These changed conditions have meant that the requirements for what an employee is expected to be able to do are more complex in today's working life, and the concept of competence has become an accepted term to describe the special requirements that are set in today's working life. Competence as a concept can be briefly described as that you as a person must be able to act appropriately based on a given situation, which places demands on something more than formal qualifications such as requirements for education and previous experience. By quantitatively analyzing the content of job advertisements for administrators at the Tax Agency, I have investigated changes in which qualifications and competences are in demand at two different times. I have then done a comparative analysis where I have identified similarities and differences based on three different themes, formal competence, informal competence and the civil servant role. The result shows that the requirements for competences linked to above all efficiency have increased, while descriptions of competences based on a common societal mission have decreased. The conclusion is that modern requirements for the competence of government officials have followed the general social development and have crowded out traditional public values based on democratic values such as legal certainty and equality, a so-called public ethos. / Sammanfattning   Den här uppsatsen intresserar sig för vilka förändringar som har skett i synen på kompetens hos den statliga tjänstemannen. Som statsanställd är man visserligen anställd på uppdrag av myndigheten men i en förlängning är man också tillsatt på uppdrag av medborgarna. Eftersom arbetet utgörs av ett samhällsnyttigt uppdrag ställs särskilda krav på att arbetet sker med särskild hänsyn till demokratiska värden såsom, rättssäkerhet, människors lika värde och att ge medborgarna effektiv och god service, ett så kallat offentligt etos.  Med anledning av de genomgripande samhällsförändringar som samhället genomgått de senaste tjugo åren med bland annat ökad globalisering och digitalisering så ställs det andra och nya krav i arbetslivet idag än tidigare. Dessa ändrade förutsättningar har inneburit att kraven på vad anställda förväntas kunna är mer komplexa i dagens arbetsliv och begreppet kompetens har blivit ett vedertaget begrepp för att beskriva dessa särskilda krav. Kompetens som begrepp kan kort beskrivas som att en person ska kunna agera ändamålsenligt utifrån en given situation vilket ställer krav på något mer än formella kvalifikationer såsom utbildning och tidigare erfarenhet.  Genom att kvantitativt analysera innehållet i platsannonser för handläggare på Skatteverket undersöks i denna uppsats förändringar i vilka kvalifikationer och kompetenser som efterfrågas vid två olika tidpunkter. En jämförande analys har genomförts för att identifiera likheter och skillnader utifrån tre olika teman: formell kompetens, informell kompetens och statstjänstemannarollen.   Resultatet visar att kraven på kompetenser kopplat till framför allt effektivitet har ökat samtidigt som beskrivningar på kompetenser utifrån ett gemensamt samhällsuppdrag har minskat. Slutsatsen är att moderna krav på kompetens hos statliga tjänstemän har följt den allmänna samhällsutvecklingen och har trängt undan traditionella offentliga värden såsom demokrati, rättssäkerhet och jämlikhet, ett så kallat offentligt etos.

Oil is central to our lives and is the source of many of the conveniences that we take for granted. It can bring wealth and prosperity to individuals and to nations, but is also a source of political conflict and the consequences of its impact on the environment are only now beginning to be fully recognised. The oil companies have been leaders in the development of marketing and branding and this thesis traces the history of the oil industry and analyses the different forms of print advertisements that its major companies have produced over a period of some hundred years, from the industry’s infancy until 2012. It takes a cultural semiotic perspective to investigate and reveal the ways in which the companies have adapted their advertising messages to the prevailing socio-political conditions to reflect current attitudes and to guide both public opinion and national policy. The analyses demonstrate how the companies have responded to different crises and to increasing globalisation and how they have engineered a shift from product to presence and from oil to energy to communicate a more environment-friendly image. A close reading of the advertisements produced by the companies shows how they have cast themselves in the mythical role of the indefatigable hero whose mission is the common good. Moreover, it uncovers the different heroic personalities that they have acquired and adopted over time to differentiate their products and services. / Olja är en central faktor i våra liv och en källa till många av de bekvämligheter som vi tar för givna. Den kan bringa nationer och individer rikedom och välstånd men den kan också ge upphov till politiska konflikter – och dess miljökonsekvenser börjar först nu bli helt klarlagda. Oljebolagen har varit ledande inom marknadsföring och branding. Denna avhandling följer oljeindustrins historia och analyserar de tryckta annonser som de stora oljebolagen har producerat under en period av drygt hundra år, från oljeindustrins barndom till och med 2012. Utifrån ett kultursemiotiskt perspektiv undersöks och klarläggs hur bolagen har anpassat sina reklambudskap till rådande sociopolitiska förhållanden och på så sätt sökt både spegla gängse attityder och styra opinionsbildning och politik. Analyserna visar hur bolagen, som svar på olika kriser och en ökande globalisering, har förändrat sina budskap. Dels har ett fokus på produkten ersatts av ett fokus på närvaro, dels har olja ersatts av energi, allt för att kommunicera en mer miljövänlig image. En närläsning av bolagens annonser visar hur de konstant har framställt sig själva som den oförtröttlige hjälten vars mål är det allmänna bästa samt vilka olika hjälteskepnader de har iklätt sig över tid. / <p>Images removed due to copyright.</p><p>For a complete copy contact ep@ep.liu.se or pamela.vang@liu.se</p>

This study demonstrates how discourse is used to construct popular myths. This study analyzes magazine advertisements used by businesses in overcoming the rhetorical problem posed by a public opinion that blamed them for environmental problems. This study shows how businesses used advertisements to construct a popular myth that businesses were doing their part in overcoming the environmental crisis.

Esta pesquisa investiga construções-se em anúncios publicitários de revistas paulistanas dos anos de 1890 a 1920. A passagem do século XIX para o XX é um momento de transformações na cidade de São Paulo, na publicidade e no Português Brasileiro (PB). Estudos têm mostrado que, desde esse período, a gramática do PB não produz a construção-se passiva, mas a ativa, sem concordância entre verbo e argumento interno. Neste trabalho, descrevemos e analisamos as sentenças com se não como unidades isoladas, mas em relação aos demais elementos do anúncio (verbais e não verbais) e ao contexto sócio-histórico e cultural de produção do corpus. A leitura do anúncio como um todo revelou que a concordância nas construções-se se deu entre o verbo e um tópico, coindexado a um sujeito nulo e referindo-se a um elemento realçado tipograficamente na publicidade. Esse tipo de exame possibilitou a identificação de estruturas tanto ativas quanto passivas; em ambos os casos, o se tinha a função de apontar que o agente semântico era humano e indeterminado. Os anúncios ainda mostraram que a oscilação entre a Pessoalidade (significando distinção e hierarquia) e a Impessoalidade, uma característica estrutural da sociedade paulistana de então, atingia também o domínio linguístico, e isso se tornou visível pelo emprego dos diferentes tipos de construção-se. / This research investigates constructions with the pronoun se in advertisements published in magazines from 1890 to 1920. At the turn of the 20th century, many changes took place in the city of São Paulo, in advertising and in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Studies have shown that, from that moment on, instead of producing the socalled passive-se, BP has been using the active construction with se, in which the verb does not agree with the internal argument. In the present analysis, the linguistic phenomenon is not taken as an isolated part of the advertisements, but is observed in relation to the other verbal and non-verbal elements of the text and also the social, historical and cultural context. Reading the advertisements as a whole showed that the verb agreed with a topic, co-indexed with a null subject, which referred to a typographically salient element in the page. Through this type of examination, we could identify both active and passive structures; at the same time, the pronoun se denoted that the semantic agent was human and indefinite. The different kinds of constructions with se also revealed that a social structural feature of São Paulo, viz. the alternation between hierarchical and impersonal relationships, could reach the linguistic domain. Keywords:

Esta dissertação busca analisar processos de produção de sentidos sobre bebidas alcoólicas, utilizando os princípios da Semântica Histórica da Enunciação e da Análise de Discurso. Os usos da língua e os sentidos relacionados às bebidas alcoólicas são socialmente relevantes porque a produção e o consumo de bebidas alcoólicas constituem um setor significativo da economia, além de seus aspectos culturais, ou seja, o consumo tradicional de bebidas alcoólicas em certas ocasiões sociais, a polêmica sobre saúde e álcool e o simbolismo de algumas bebidas como bebidas nacionais. Para realizar nosso objetivo, selecionamos e analisamos um corpus de comerciais brasileiros e britânicos de bebidas alcoólicas para TV. Notando que os comerciais constituem sentidos evidentemente positivos para as bebidas, também incluímos um corpus de textos jurídicos brasileiros e britânicos, cujos sentidos tendem a apresentar as bebidas alcoólicas como perigosas. Para a Semântica Histórica da Enunciação, o sentido é constituído numa interação social que é historicamente determinada. Assim, os conceitos de designação (o sentido de um nome como relação histórico-lingüística) e enunciação (o acontecimento constituído pelo uso da língua), são importantes para esta análise. Apoiamo-nos, também, no diálogo estabelecido entre a Semântica Histórica com a Análise de Discurso, que busca (entre outras conexões) explicar a constituição do sujeito como um posicionamento do sujeito no interdiscurso ou memória discursiva. Este é um estudo contrastivo. Há uma comparação do funcionamento semânticodiscursivo de comerciais de TV que são produzidos e assistidos em duas sociedades diferentes. Portanto, os efeitos de sentido são muito diversos em alguns casos e semelhantes em outros. No caso dos textos jurídicos sobre álcool, também há algumas diferenças. No contraste entre os comerciais brasileiros e britânicos, observamos variações claras no modo de constituição de algumas posições de sujeito. Por exemplo, as posições de sujeito para homem e mulher. A posição de sujeito do consumidor de bebida alcoólica também está presente nos comerciais. Ambos os corpora tendem a sugerir um consumo intenso, mas o fazem de modos distintos. Os comerciais brasileiros apresentam o ato de beber principalmente como parte de celebrações coletivas. Os britânicos enfatizam mais um beber individual e utilizam efeitos especiais com mais freqüência. Analisamos outros aspectos dos comerciais com a inclusão dos códigos de auto-regulamentação publicitária na análise. O discurso jurídico funciona como uma espécie de contraponto ao discurso publicitário sobre a bebida alcoólica. O conflito das leis com os comerciais é sugerido, pois as leis brasileiras e britânicas punem certos casos de consumo e venda de bebidas alcoólicas, embora as infrações a essas leis no Reino Unido pareçam ter conseqüências ligeiramente diferentes no Brasil. A produção de sentidos nos corpora que analisamos é variável. A constituição de sentidos depende (entre outras razões) das relações interdiscursivas que se estabelecem. Destarte, os papéis e relações entre os discursos que analisamos podem ser interpretados de outras formas. / This dissertation aims at analysing the production of meaning about alcoholic drinks relying on the principles of Historical Semantics of the Utterance as well as those of Discourse Analysis. Language uses and meanings related to alcoholic drinks are socially relevant, as the production and consumption of alcoholic drinks are part of a significant sector of the economy, besides other aspects, i. e., the traditionally established consumption of alcohol on certain social occasions, the controversy over health and alcohol and the symbolic positioning of some alcoholic beverages as national drinks. To fulfill our purpose we selected and analysed a corpus of Brazilian and British alcoholic drink TV ads. Upon realization that the ads attached overwhelmingly positive meanings to the drinks, we also included a corpus of Brazilian and British legal texts whose meanings about alcoholic drinks tend to present them as dangerous. For Historical Semantics of the Utterance, meaning is constituted out of social interaction which is historically determined. Thus, the concepts of designation (meaning of a name as a linguistic, historical relation) and utterance production (the \"happening\" constituted by the use of language) are important for this analysis. This historical semantics establishes a dialog with Discourse Analysis as it (among other connections) seeks to account for the constitution of the subject as the occupation of a position in the interdiscourse or discursive memory. This study is contrastive in nature. It compares the semantic and discursive functioning of TV ads that are produced and viewed in two different societies. Therefore the meaning effects are sometimes similar and sometimes greatly different. In the case of legal texts about alcohol there are also some differences. In the contrast between Brazilian and British TV ads, we could observe clear variation in the way some subject positions are constituted, for instance, the subject positions for man and woman. The subject position of alcohol consumer is also at stake in the ads. Both TV ad corpora tend to suggestively stimulate intense consumption, but they do so in different ways. The Brazilian ads present the act of drinking, mainly as part of collective celebrations, whereas the British ads place more emphasis on individual drinking and use visual effects more frequently. Some other features of the ads are heeded as the Brazilian and British advertising self-regulated codes are included in the analysis. The laws function as a kind of counter-discourse to the advertising discourse about alcohol. The conflict of the laws with the ads is suggested as Brazilian and British laws punish certain instances of alcohol consumption and sale, although the consequences of breaching these laws in the UK seem slightly different in Brazil. The meaning production about alcoholic drinks in the corpora that we analysed are variable as meaning in general depends on the interdiscursive relations which are established, so that the roles and relations between the discourses that we analysed can be interpreted in other ways.