Advertising and Semiotics - Essay Example

The criterion of true beauty is, that it increases on examination; of false, that it lessens. There is something, therefore, in true beauty that corresponds with the right reason and, it is not merely the creature of fancy.” Greville The first thing that catches your attention in the advert is how beautiful the model is. However, that’s just pictorial semiotics to you and me as it becomes the vehicle of signification compared to verbal language of just telling the reader to go out and buy a hair conditioner. It gets our exclusive attention through the picture, or more exactly, to the referent and its ideological implications in the real world. Even to the point of ignoring the objectivity of the picture’s entirety. But of course, we cannot discuss the advert without first re-learning the logic behind it which is semiotics. Semiotics, in an overview, is the study of the production of meanings from sign-systems, in both linguistic and non-linguistic manner (Hawkes, 1977). Distinctly, traditions of inquiry (human) form a more general science of signs. The scope of semiotics goes beyond spoken or written language to other kinds of communicative systems. Examples are semiotic uses in cinema (making movies), advertising (print ad and catchy commercials), gesture (hand manners), and cuisine (finished product that tickles the taste buds before it even touches your mouth and eat it). It is therefore a complex process of signifying and suggestive subtleties. The American philosopher C.S. Peirce (1839-1914) founded Semiotics and independently by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) who has prepared the principles and concepts and the distinction between signifier and signified and between langue and parole as described in the Georgetown archives. Forming the basis of structuralism and its thrust toward literature, de Saussure became furthermore influential by this discipline. Peirce however, used a different set of terms to describe sign functions, which for him were a “conceptual” progression continually “unfolding and unending” (what he termed “unlimited semiosis”, the chain of meaning-making by new signs interpreting a prior sign or set of signs). But for social scrutiny, both school of thoughts on semiotics isolated sign functions. This reveals a set-up of relationships through the intricate social use – because cultures are fashioned through language, and language mediates or is a way of knowing things, interpreting and representing the true value and is made available when signs and sign systems are then collectively used effectively in our daily communication. Prominence in terms of shared conventions and codes like the level of expression for the signifier (“the untouched impression of speech sounds or the visual impression of written characters and images”) and the signified (“the level of content or value, what is associated with the signifier in a language”) is the gist of de Saussure’s doctrine and concepts. The signs work as a whole unit of social meaning is a code, which allows the rule for combining sensory thought with a mental substance and the basic signifiers in a language into a system of meanings. Remembering that language is “public, social and communal, not private or personal” it is more dynamic that way for it is meant to be shared. Dialects, subcultures, cultural groups, social-class explicit communities are “mainstream” meaning; any person can partake in “multiple” communities and language is not a barrier. Language is then produced when communication and meaning are transferred through mediations – symbolic vehicle that “stand for” things, meanings and values and can mean anywhere from the receiver’s standpoint. Therefore, it is when mediating vehicles are called “signs” we should not forget that these signs and sign-systems never present a copy of “reality” – the array of things peripheral to language and our mediated way of knowing things – but an interpretation and representation. As observed in the attached advert, at first, our attention is caught by the physical beauty of the model but not yet of the word describing the product beside her. After a considerable time though, the product is noticed (through the slogan and other visual information) and we then become aware that we can be “just like” the beautiful model or at least have her lustrous and voluminous hair if we ever use the product in the advert. The most effective signifiers in the advert are the “come-hither-look”, half-peeking tattooed bosom, unbuttoned shirt and the unusual position of the hand as if starting to undress, and are all appealing to stimulate the sexual imagination of the buyer/ reader as the signified attempt on marketing strategy. On further observation, her sitting on a chair inside what seems like a small, cozy room with the lamp or tea light candle are also signifiers and it plays to the imagination that upon use of the conditioner, it is comfortable (her sitting on a chair)and easy (devoid of complexity) to use. Another is the play on the opposite qualities of “angel” and “devil” as stated out in the sentence, “style like an angel, play like a devil.” The opposite connotation of the two words in one sentence is highly catchy as how could you attain an angel-like styling while “playing” out like the devil? Opposites as the two words are, they bring together the idea of being playfully nice in a way and that makes it appealing. It’s a witty and catchy slogan that makes readers stop and think about the possibilities of being one. One is attracted to the dark side without blatantly being invited to turn into the dark side. Also, by using the play-icon to replace the letter “a” incorporates a modern feel and the internet age that appeals to the youth as well. Predictably, the target markets for this type of product are vain people and young newlyweds, young adult women of earning independence and young women who are not independent financially but have a say on their buying power. It aims to sway the purchasing power of women to buy this vanity product that will help preserve or maintain their youthful looks (hair). As many products are on the market for the same kind of selling point, this advert is making use of its only arsenal, sensual imagery. Every woman, regardless of race wants to achieve the sole attention of the man in her life and that could only happen if she maintains or achieves the good looks she has seen in this advert. Everyday language does not have power over any terms of relationship occupying the “expression” surface of the advert. There is an additional, very different way of presenting pictures such as this one, but the reality of such overtly sensual images, however tacit, is distorted by the fact that some text models are indeed very productive when applied to some pictures but fail to capitulate any result if transposed to other pictorial “texts”. To some extent, this advert overly emphasizes the sensual connotation and only inadvertently inserts the product tagline. The effects which they are intended to produce may vary as the actual effects cannot really be known and as publicity ads are expected to sell commodities, very much less but well-defined effect is the trajectory this ad is heading for (a poster for the dorm). The confusion shows between the perceptive sides of the pictorial sign as against showing pictures as conventional as linguistic signs. This advert then is a practical way of mapping out a verbal description and it uses all the “shock materials” to its advantage. But the question still remains if the ad’s shock value will translate into product returns. In a brief analogy, it therefore shows that “pictures or ads are as conventional as linguistic signs” as pointed by Umberto Eco. In conclusion, this advert is basically perceptual in nature and it invokes the testimony of the contemporary perceptual psychology, and of philosophical theories of perception. Semiotics has still a lot to learn from psychology and other sciences. Critically in reviewing the advert, the use of semiotic concepts, such as sign, feature, connotation, iconicity and so on, are only useful to the extent that their importance should be clearly spelled out and only then could the specificity of the picture could emerge. It is a depiction of the desired image and only demonstrates the limits of the picture advert. On the iconic level, the picture is supposed to hold recognizable perceptual things that will lead the buyers to go out and buy this product instead a much more restricted notion of iconicity is present and simple qualities see to convey abstract concepts. Works Cited Harvard Referencing retrieved on(August 2008) from http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/Semiotics_and_Communication.html http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/aesthetics/bldef_semiotics.htm http://www.answers.com/topic/ferdinand-de-saussure Eco, Umberto. La Struttura Assente. Milan. Bompiani 1968. Hawkes, Terrence. Structuralism and Semiotics. 1977 O’Toole, Michael. The Language of Displayed Art. London: Leicester University Press 1994. Read More