Signs as Commodities - Essay Example

? Signs as Commodities Studying the science of signs or semiotics is a prerequisite to understand contemporary society. As Sean Hall (2007, pp.7) stated “signs are always produced and consumed in the context of a specific society. Indeed, for Chandler (2007, pp. 13)h uman beings are homo significans, which means meaning-makers. Semiotics, which was originated in Ferdinand de Saussure's and Charles Sanders Peirce's works in the early 19th century, offer a structural model based on signs. According to Sausure , the linguistic sign was a dyadic entity, composed of the signifier and the signified (Cobley and Jansz , 2000, pp. 10). While the signifier referred to the material aspect and sound image of the sign, the signified denoted the mental concept (pp. 10-12). However, for Peirce, the sign consisted of three elements not just two. According to Peirce, the sign “has a relation to an Object, which relation entails an interpretant” (pp.21). Although Peirce linked the sign to the external world, Saussure and Peirce's accounts were rather structural and linguistic. However, their successors like Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard and Julia Kristeva placed the systems of signs into their contexts, made the necessary correlations between the signs and contemporary culture and incorporated the semiotics into the cultural studies. Roland Barthes scrutinized the role of signs in creating modern myths in his seminal work, Mythologies (1957). Jean Baudrillard, examined the system of signs with respect to the consumer culture. The aim of this brief is to explore how signs describe the commodity fetishism and consumer culture of the contemporary society. Roland Barthes regarded myth as semiological system. He analyzed the picture of young black guy in Paris-Match as an example of mythical system (see the appendix, Figure 1). Barthes noted that although the signifier is a man giving the French salute, the signified is Frenchness itself: What he saw in this picture is “that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors.” (pp. 115). Barthes' analysis highlights the mythical and also the ideological system that sings are produced. Indeed, for Barthes, myths are the ideological systems.For Barthes, myth reflects the dominant values of the ruling classes. He (1977, pp. 165) defined myth as the socially determined reflection, “however, in accordance with a famous image used by Marx, is inverted: myth consists in overturning culture into nature or, at least, the social, the cultural, the deological, the historical into the 'natural'”. . Advertising is the medium of the contemporary society's myths. As Baudrillard (1996, pp. 10) stated in The System of Objects “Advertising… is pure connotation’ and connotation is the domain of myth. Advertising adds mystical qualities to the objects and produces signs as commodities to be consumed. In fact, Baudrillard (1996, pp. 218) noted that “to become an object of consumption, an object must first become a sign and this conversion of objects to the signs “implies the simultaneous transformation of the human relationship into a relationship of consumption”. Baudrillard's views echo the Marxist notion of commodity fetishism, in which human relations took the form of relationship between things. Indeed, advertising is often full with the fetish objects. Baudrillard (pp. 203) stresses that the notion of idealized consumption is base on the substitution of human relationships by “personalized” relationships to objects and the personality of the subject and the so-called “personality” of the object merge in the buying process. Here, Baudrillard (pp. 219) find the logic of commodity as analyzed by Karl Marx: “just as needs, feelings, culture, knowledge —in short, all the properly human faculties—are integrated as commodities into the order of production, and take on material form as productive forces so they can be sold, so likewise all desires, projects and demands, all passions and all relationships, are now abstracted (or materialized) as signs and as objects to be bought and consumed”. For Baudrillard, what people consumed is not the object but the sign itself, thus he concludes that we consume “through” the objects. Let's look at the specific examples in order to understand what Baudrillard meant by the consumption of the commodity as a sign and how sign took the form of commodity. The adverts of fragrance are good examples of the metaphorical substitution between women and fragrances. In those advertisements while the women are objectified, the object (a bottle of perfume) is personified through this metaphorical relationship. David Crow (2003, pp. 44) notes that the metaphoric substitution, which replaced one word or image for another so that the characteristics of one object to another is transferred, is very common in advertisements. The Figure 2 illustrates the metaphorical substitution between the bottle of YSL fragrance and the feminine qualities of Karen Elson. In the advert, Karen Elson is the sign of Belle D'Opium and she signifies the very desirability of a woman. The basic message that she communicates: “if you wear that fragrance you will be as sexy as me”. In fact, it also conveys the message that being desirable to men is desirable quality for women. However, the message is not limited to the desirability and sexual appeal, which basically is the message of all other perfumes as well. The ad also promises a specific feminine personality, a feminine mystique by evoking the oriental images. The image of Elson personifies a dangerous, dark, mysterious and addictive female. The smoky atmosphere of the image, Karen Elson's accessories and make-up, her tulle dress convey these messages clearly. The fact that the ad was banned for simulating drug use further contributed to the image of mysterious, addictive woman. The ad appeals to the feminine fantasies by telling that they will not be just desirable to men, but addictive as well; thus,it implies a vague possibility of a relationship with another human being. With the ad, while the object (the bottle of perfume) gains specific personality and fetishistic character, Karen Elson is objectified. Through that objectified relationship, what the female consumer consumes is not the fragrance, but the image (or myth) of a woman, who is extremely desirable, feminine, mysterious and addictive. The advert of Armani Code illustrated in the figure 3 and figure 4, goes even further in its promises. In the famous designers' battle of fragrance, it raises the stakes. Besides the promise of being a desirable woman with a specific and alluring personality, which is assured by the very existence of beautiful Megan Fox; it directly communicates the existence of a human relationship. It does not just hint a possibility of a relationship as it was the case with YSL's Belle d'Opium, but it also displays a relationship between a man and woman as its showcase. The ad in figure 3 shows a beautifully dressed man and woman. The photograph has a urban setting with the city lights behind, and the clothes of the couple reveal their status and wealth. The man seems to be sniffing the neck of the woman. While the couple signifies the closeness and passion, the setting signifies that it is not an ordinary affair; but a high-class one within the context of urban and modern high-society. What mediated the human closeness in the picture is a commodity: the “coded” fragrance by a prominent designer. The image illustrated in the figure 4, is even more aggressive with regard to its promises. It appeals to almost all human desires: sex, companionship, money and beauty. The desire for a human relationship is combined with the material acquisitions like the swimming pool and the house. A little bottle of fragrance seems to be offering satisfaction for all human desires and needs. What is sold is not the perfume; but a grandiose fantasy of love, sex, rich and luxurious life all together. The consumer, through the bottle of fragrance, consumes the fantasy of fantasy life at a relatively cheap price. While the human relationship is objectified in the ad, the object's life becomes rich with the significations. What Baudrillard (1996, pp. 221) said for Perec's novel Les Choses is also valid for these ads (he argued that the objects-signs referred to the relationship or lack of it in the novel): “Thus the relationship is not sucked into the absolute positivity of objects but articulated with those objects as with so many solid points in a chain of signifiers—except that here the signifying configuration of objects is usually impoverished, schematic and closed, and deals only with the idea of relationship, not with a relationship that can be lived”. Indeed, Armani Code advert sells the idea of a fantasy relationship. It seems that as the competition between the designers heightened, their advertisement campaigns got even more ambitious and aggressive. Meanwhile, as the human relations increasingly deteriorated in and people's satisfaction decreased, the significations of the objects seemed to be enriched and enhanced each and every day. As above examples illustrated, the signs in the ads promise more than they can deliver and it further increases peoples' dissatisfaction. This creates a vicious cycle, as people get more dissatisfied, they consume even more. As Baudrillard (1996, pp. 224) concluded “consumption is irrepressible, in the last reckoning, because it is founded upon a lack”. And while the lack of human relations leads to personalized relationships with the objects, the sign-objects signify the ideas of relationships even more directly. Baudrillard (1981, pp 93) calls this the fetishization of the commodity in which product emptied of its concrete substance of labor and filled by the labor of signification, thus fetishism is attached to the sign-objects. Appendix Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 REFERENCES: Barthes, R. Mythologies (1957) (Re-Issue 2009) Vintage Classics Barthes, R. Image, Music, Text (1977) (Re-issue 1993) Fontana Press Baudrillard, J. The System of Objects (1996) Verso Baudrillard J. For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. (1981) Telos Press Chandler, D Semiotics: the Basics (2007) Routledge Cobley, P & Jansz, L Introducing Semiotics (2004 new edition) Icon Books Crow, D Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics (2007) AVA Publishing Hall, S This Means This, This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics (2007) Laurence King Read More