Weed and rebellion: A semiotic study of a Patagonia advertisement published in Surf Session magazine in January 2015

In the popular imagination, modern surfing has been associated with the environment since its emergence in the “weed”-infused counterculture of the 1960’s and1970’s (Booth 1994). However, in the 1980’s, the sportivization of surfing (Booth 1995) reflected a desire to shed this unseemly image. While some brands have explicitly drawn on this association, others have tapped into the air du temps (“spirit of the times”) (Sirinelli 2023) to attract new consumers by associating themselves with environmental concerns. Patagonia has thus sought to expand into surfing by drawing on the sport’s countercultural past and its particularly close relationship with nature. Drawing on an advertisement published in the January 2015 issue of Surf Session magazine, we will examine the extent to which Patagonia uses stereotypes to attract new customers while renewing—or even transforming—its own image. How does the plant become a selling point for both the brand and surfing? Through a content analysis of the images and text in the advertisement entitled “We have the best weed around—and we pass it on,” we will uncover its “hidden meanings” (Bardin 1977) and their implications for the brand, surfing, and their evolution over time.