I think we worry too much about what is said - what Watzlawick and co call the "digital content" of our communication with each other - and less about what our saying does - Watz's analogue communication.
Say you walk in after a long day at work. You cat or dog comes to greet you. Ah, you think, he/she (delete as inappropriate) is saying hello, is pleased to see me, has missed me....
But in fact the creature is not saying anything. Not sending any 'bits and bites' of information.
Your pet is doing what pets do - behave. Behaving in such a way as to get you to respond accordingly (mostly as mother/herdleader).
We persist in thinking of human to human communication as largely built on data files being transmitted from one brain to another (I blame all those computing science boys who raided the psychology faculties in the 50s, 60s and 70s). We certainly think about advertising that way - why else would we worry about messaging and recall and persuasion-based thinking otherwise? Advertising is behaviour like anything else.
Yet we persist, and that's wrong. Your cat/dog/goldfish tell you as much every day, if only you'd pay attention long enough...