Rodliyatuz Zahro’, Zulfa Laila Fitri, Hafizhan Arhab Juswil

The Commodification of Religious Arguments in Digital Marketing: A Semiotic Study by Roland Barthes on the TikTok Account @Jilbrave

Introduction

The commodification of religious arguments in digital marketing: a semiotic study by roland barthes on the tiktok account @jilbrave . Explore how @Jilbrave on TikTok commodifies religious arguments in digital marketing using Roland Barthes' semiotics. Discover the branding of Muslimah fashion with Quranic texts in Indonesia's Muslim market.

Abstract

Social media has had a widespread influence on the industrial world, with some players successfully shifting from an exploitative orientation to religious-themed production. With the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia has become a potential market for capitalists to exploit the Muslim segment. The commodification of religion is rampant on digital platforms, one example being the branding of products by incorporating religious values. This study examines the phenomenon of product packaging using Quranic verses and hadiths on the @Jilbrave account on the TikTok platform. Specifically, this issue will be analyzed using Roland Barthes' semiotic theory. The results of this study show that the commodification patterns employed by the @Jilbrave account not only focus on religious attributes but also involve branding products with religious texts presented in their raw form. The account produces new meanings by interpreting the texts in question. The @Jilbrave posts are highly popular among netizens, so the meanings produced have significant appeal, suggesting that Muslimah fashion has run out of promotional models and is now leveraging religious texts as marketing capital.

Review

This paper tackles a highly relevant and timely topic concerning the intersection of religion, digital marketing, and commercial exploitation within the Indonesian market. By focusing on the TikTok account @Jilbrave, the study proposes to critically examine the commodification of religious arguments, specifically Quranic verses and hadiths, in product branding. The chosen theoretical lens of Roland Barthes' semiotics is well-suited for deconstructing the signs and meanings embedded in such marketing practices, promising a nuanced understanding of how sacred texts are recontextualized for commercial gain in a country with the world's largest Muslim population. The abstract clearly outlines the study's objective and initial findings. It highlights that @Jilbrave's commodification patterns extend beyond merely religious attributes, directly incorporating and interpreting raw religious texts for branding purposes. The research suggests that these posts, which are highly popular among netizens, succeed in producing "new meanings" from the religious texts, thereby leveraging them as marketing capital. This indicates a strong analytical output from the application of Barthes' theory, identifying a distinct strategy within Muslimah fashion marketing. While the abstract provides a compelling overview, a full paper would benefit from deeper elaboration in several areas. Specifically, the discussion of "new meanings by interpreting the texts" could be significantly enhanced by explicitly detailing *how* Barthes' specific semiotic concepts (e.g., denotation, connotation, myth) are applied to unravel these meanings, thus strengthening the theoretical contribution. Furthermore, the concluding assertion that "Muslimah fashion has run out of promotional models" appears to be a broad generalization derived from a single case study; this claim would require more robust evidence or careful contextualization. Expanding on the broader implications of such commodification, particularly its ethical dimensions and potential impact on religious understanding or consumer perception, would significantly enrich the study's overall contribution.

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