A Semiotic Analysis of Visuals - Essay Example

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS 2006 INTRODUCTION This paper examines the production of meaning from visual messages in advertising, a visually thorough area of communication. In order to explore the production of meanings from visuals, this paper looks at one particular advertisement the commercial created for Esprit. The paper examines the meanings of the image in the commercial and analyzes the item in terms of a semiotics analysis of the visual text. Turning over from side to side the pages of magazine people are showered with advertisements geared for selling things such as make-up, clothes, shades, and so on. What you see is a cultural pattern, gorgeous woman after gorgeous woman, representative of some product selling that product, but more essentially selling that product's image. Upon coming across this ad I observed something different, something that was being said that was a little out of line from the other ad in the magazine. Granted the ad is still selling an image, but what this business, Esprit, is selling is something that is clearly trying to be different from the rest. At first glimpse the ad's connotations did not fit into the code we have for femininity, a code exploited by other advertisements. This paper establishes that a semiotic analysis of visuals can be tested against viewer responses to recognize patterns of meaning construction. Generally, more viewers notice iconic message elements than symbolic or indexical elements. Nevertheless, the elements with symbolic meaning, fewer though they may be, may generate greater impact than message elements with high iconic meaning. GENERAL DISCUSSION Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped in sign systems (Thwaites, Davis, & Mules, 2002). It embraces the study of how meaning is made and understood. Semioticians also sometimes observe how organisms make predictions about and adapt to the semiotic niche in the world (Thwaites, Davis, & Mules, 2002). Semiotics theorises at a general level about signs, while the study of the communication of information in living organisms is covered in bio semiotics or zoosemiosis. Semioticians speak of the pleasure of the text. In semiotics, the activity of decoding or interpreting texts, mainly aesthetic texts, is viewed as essentially rewarding. In the case of resounding ads, the experience of pleasure attained through effectively decoding the meaning should produce liking for the ad. Berlyne's (1971) work on the psychology of aesthetics gives additional support for the satisfying impact of stimulus ambiguity and incongruity (Redfern 1982). Both of these stimulus properties are among the collative variables found to motivate arousal. Berlyne (1971) recapitulate evidence that arousal may be connected to pleasure in two ways, which he terms arousal boost and arousal jag: reasonable increases in arousal may be pleasurable in themselves, or an increase in arousal which is then improved may yield pleasure. An assumption that brings about this application of Berlyne's work is that significance generates only a moderate degree of arousal. Extreme arousal, in Berlyne's view, ceases to be satisfying due to the non-monotonic relationship between arousal and pleasure. Semioticians categorize signs and sign systems in relation to the way they are transmitted (Chandler, 2001). This procedure of carrying meaning depends on the exercise of codes that may be the individual sounds or letters that humans apply to form words, the body movements they make to demonstrate attitude or emotion, or even something as general as the clothes they wear (Chandler, 2001). To coin a word to refer to a thing, the community must concur on a plain meaning within the language. But that word can convey that meaning only within the language's grammatical structures and codes. Codes also correspond to the values of the culture, and are able to add new shades of connotation to every feature of life (Chandler, 2001). The primary thing I observed looking at this advertisement is how my eyes were drawn to hers. In the picture there is indicated a girl, slick black hair, red shirt, and few words: I AM ESPRIT and in small type along the upper right edge, She believes that words haven't lost their meaning. The model has freckles, short hair, green eyes, and seems to be leaning forward. Viewers see her head, shoulders and that is it, no body, breasts, or long legs. Part of what is so essential to this ad is what is not indicated, and how what is there is used. The girl has exceptional symmetry, not only in her facial features complimented by her slicked hair, but also in her position on the page. This symmetry is matched by her forward stance, producing a closer closeness with her face rather than her body for the viewer. The advertisement uses colour contrasts between red shirt and black hair to centre the eyes on her rather pale face, and more particularly her green eyes. What is critical to this advertisement is that concentration is attracted to the correct places. In this case her hair is black for contrast but more significantly it is short and slicked, and doesn't consume the reader's eye. On the underneath side the red shirt serves some purposes: 1. it contradicts the black hair on the top of the head, 2. it gains adequate attention to provide as a great backdrop for the words I AM ESPRIT, but 3. the red is blurred or dulled to let viewer know where the focus is. The focus is brought directly to her eyes, but why There are, obviously, reasons why the creators of this advertisement want people to be caught up in the eyes of this model, to sell an image, and similarly there are numerous ways they go about selling this image. The advertisers have produced a confrontation with her eyes. Viewer can observe that the model does not possess the male gaze, rather she appears to twist this gaze into a stare, or as I said a confrontation. The model's forward posture is component of what lets viewer know this is not a look or flirtation with the camera. Model's eyes indicate a strength or unwillingness to be passive. The other part relies on that about the model which is dissimilar from other advertisements and the paradigmatic relations of the words to the pictures. What is different regarding this advertisement is literally simple to see. The model has no make-up on, has short boyish hair, and freckles. The model is what advertisers may call normal, not a normal model but nearer to the girl next door meaning of normal. She is not sexualized; she is shown from shoulders up, no legs, and no breasts. The advertisement forces eye contact with the model and viewer's recognition of her plainness in order to transcend its message. The message is created upon a system of relationships that are less common to magazine readers and consequently eye catching. She does not fit instantly into the code for femininity. Her abnormality lies in her obvious normality to the onlooker. So what is the advertiser attempting to do In order to comprehend this question people must look at the paradigmatic relationships between the words and the picture. First the advertisement states that this woman is Esprit; I AM ESPRIT. The words get the meaning from the picture, the image, the stare, and the confrontation. Throughout the vehicle of this image of a normal, empowered, individual, who stands out from the fashion norm, Esprit desires to make a schema in which the product corresponds to the stare. The consumer is supposed to pair liberation, power, and the distinctiveness of this model with the product. It is an oxymoron that Esprit fashion in some way is anti-fashion or anti all that is connected with fashion. The other words indicated in this advertisement are She believes that words haven't lost their meaning. This declaration supports the ideology that image controls modern culture, and supports the idea that this woman is different, independent or not confined to the norm. That She believes... further supports the superficiality of other advertisements by downplaying Esprit's identification of the significance of image. Esprit is attempting to counter the prior set cultural code of the femininity maintained by the fashion industry. This advertisement merely wouldn't work the same if the model were half-naked with her fingers in her mouth occupied in a male gaze. That is not the image, or shall I say counter-image, they want. Ironically the words in this advertisement do undeniably get their significance from the images of the picture. It is true the words haven't lost their meaning; but it's just a matter of how they desire people to put the meaning to those words. CONCLUSION This study reveals that a semiotic analysis of visuals can be tested against viewer responses to recognize patterns of meaning construction. It also found that visuals having different types of semiotic meanings obtain different levels of reaction from viewers. Generally, more viewers note iconic message elements than symbolic or indexical elements. In terms of sheer frequency of mention, there were more iconic message elements on the list than symbolic, at least in terms of this particular commercial and it should be kept in mind that this advertisement has commonly been illustrated as being an extremely symbolic commercial. Nevertheless, those elements with symbolic connotation can produce great impact. In other words, some of the elements with high levels of symbolic meaning were referred to more often than other elements that were higher in iconic meanings, maybe attesting to the power of ambiguity to produce interest. Among the merits of the notion of character is that it expands the horizon of consumer advertising theory throughout incorporating semiotic ideas. Under the dominant alternative to semiotics the information processing perspective (MacInnis and Jaworski 1989) the tools and resources available for conceptualizing formal structure appears to be limited. Those aspects of an advertisement that do not directly convey brand relevant information using rational arguments tend to be lumped together as marginal cues, a catchall type in need of more refined theoretical differentiation. By contrast, a key asset of semiotics is the concepts and analytic tools it gives for distinguishing and understanding formal aspects of texts such as magazine advertisements. It is argued in this paper that form matters; that is, changes in ad form can have quantifiable impact on consumer response, and the nature of this response can be somewhat anticipated by analyzing the form itself. This paper fits with recent efforts in consumer research to expand paradigms beyond a firmly positivist approach. An adverse consequence of the great effort to create the legitimacy of interpretivist perspectives has been an increased polarization in the discipline. The results confirm to the value of a critical pluralism that seeks to mix the best of positivism and interpretivism. While the interpretivist tradition afforded viewer rich resources for the conceptualization, text analysis, and phenomenological investigation of advertising resonance, the positivist tradition gave important tools for establishing its occurrence and effects. Both are essential to advance advertising theory and the understanding of substantive phenomena. REFERENCE Berlyne, Daniel E. (1971), Aesthetics and Psychobiology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Chandler, D. (2001). Semiotics: The basics. New York: Routledge. Hunt, Shelby D. (1991), Positivism and Paradigm Dominance in Consumer Research: Toward Critical Pluralism and Rapprochement. Journal of Consumer Research, 18(June), 32-44. MacInnis, Deborah J. and Bernard J. Jaworski (1989), Information Processing from Advertisements: Toward an Integrative Framework. Journal of Marketing, 53 (October), 1-23. Redfern, Walter (1982), Guano of the Mind: Puns in Advertising. Language and Communication, 2(3), 269-276. Thwaites, T., Davis, L., & Mules, W. (2002). Introducing cultural and media studies: A semiotic approach. New York: Palgrave. Read More