This paper examines the strategies of re-enchantment in contemporary advertising, understood — drawing on Pascal Bruckner’s perspective — as an attempt to reconcile the quantifiable with the marvelous. This approach offers a way to reorient the perception of reality in response to the “disenchantment of the world” described by Max Weber and Marcel Gauchet. The concept of re–enchantment proves particularly useful for analyzing how advertising language captures, represents, and sometimes anticipates the demands for change emerging from its socio-cultural context. Unlike enchantment, re-enchantment presupposes a passage through disenchantment — interpreted within brand communication, as a loss of consumer trust in brands and their promises. This loss leads to the collapse of the sacred aura surrounding advertised products, replaced by a pragmatic and realistic approach that inevitably shapes consumption choices and practices. Through re–enchantment strategies, advertising does not merely confront consumers with crises (environmental, social, humanitarian), but stages the idea of a different, actionable future — one that can be shaped and improved. Advertising thus operates within a framework that generates new forms of fascination and allure, increasingly intertwined with ethical considerations. These go beyond mere aesthetic or emotional engagement, retrieving the value of the marvelous in a more conscious and critical form. Building on these premises, this paper develops along two trajectories that trace the evolution of advertising discourse in its effort to overcome disenchantment. The first part explores the shift from enchantment to disenchantment, highlighting the public’s growing disaffection with brands in the context of post–growth society. The second part focuses on the transition from disenchantment to re–enchantment, analyzing how advertising seeks to rebuild trust by promoting an imaginary grounded in ethical, utopian, and existential values.
Keywords: Semiotics; Advertising; Brand communication; Enchantment meaning; Ethical values