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The effect of advertising on consumer behavior
Semiotic analysis in advertising
Semiotics and textual analysis
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The communication of meaning in advertising is largely attributed to the semiotic representation of mutually agreed signs in a given text (Schirato and Yell 2001:23). Accordingly, the production of these messages relies heavily on these signs and the ways in which they are used to produce a dominant or preferred meaning to the reader (Hall 2001:174). As such, the application of semiotic theory can be immensely useful in understanding just how meaning is constructed within an advertisement; as will be discussed hereafter. In the attached advertisement of women’s fashion brand St John, featuring actress Angelina, the constructs of semiotics can be applied to analyse the significance of certain signs, ideologies, myths, and the influence of celebrity, and to comprehend how these elements combine to produce a particular discourse.
In having a clear sense of cultural literacy, St John is able to convey distinct meanings that attempt to target a specific audience. By drawing on a shared discourse of popular culture, the reader recognises signs of beauty, sophistication and power brought about by the presence of Jolie, and in doing so, the audience repositions their aspirations in accordance with the dominant reading of the advertisement. The text reinforces St John’s preferred ideological message of superiority and high fashion, creating an unconscious and seemingly natural desire within the reader to consume. Advertisements are one of the most important cultural factors moulding and reflecting our life today (Williamson 1978:5); and so, St John attempt to manipulate the active reading in a way that adds an enormous cultural appeal to its brand.
In interpreting the meaning of any advertisement, one must acknowledge the assumptions D...
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... and accurate reflections of the realities that consumers live in (Rojek: 2001:33).
Summarily, it can be seen how the functions of semiotic theory can exhibit the ways in which meaning is constructed within a text. As seen within the St John advertisement, the interplay between the signifier and the signified produces meaning and interpretations based on the cultural ideals of contemporary society. Within the advertisement, St John conveys its brand to be one of female empowerment, elegance and sexuality, imparting on its audience an intrinsic need to conform to and adopt these characteristics (Kim 1996:24). Importantly, St John’s use of the celebrity recognition of Angelina Jolie plays an imperative part in decoding the brand’s intentions. Together, these principles exercise and promote the ideologies and myths that St John seeks to establish within the reader.
Cover Girl cosmetics have been the top-seller since 1961 and are still going strong. It is hard, with all the advanced lines of make-up for one product to go as far as Cover girl has, so how does Cover Girl cosmetics do it? A lot of Cover Girl’s strong, on going successes are due to changing the look of the product, exceptional promotions which the public can’t look over, giving a cosmetic appeal to both older and younger aged women and most importantly by using near perfect women and teens to model their products. Although it’s wonderful that Cover Girl has been and still is so successful, it has put a dentation in today’s society in what women’s appearance should and shouldn’t be. Women and young adolescence are confused of what their appearance should be. Cover Girl has many famous models; one inparticular is the famous country singer Faith Hill. Faith is tall, skinny, and flawless. When women see models like her doing the advertising for Cover Girl, they automatically feel that they should look the same. Later in this paper I will go into semiotics which derives from the Greek word semeion meaning sign, it basically describes how people interpret different signs, such as models, and how these signs might effect one’s life and self-esteem. Proctor & Gamble are the owners and starters of Cover Girl cosmetics. To keep up the success of Cover Girl they must keep on top of the advertising game to stay above the competitors. To do this they do many promotions, some include using famous singers, changing displays, giving away samples and one of the most important advertisement of all is the models Cover Girls incorporates in their ads. Cover Girls did one promotion with Target stores to promote their product. They used the famous group 98 Degrees to make a sweepstakes called, “Fall in Love with 98 Degrees Sweepstakes.” The grand prizewinner of this sweepstakes is an appearance in the new 98 Degrees music video. This advertising doesn’t just take place in the Target stores; it also takes place in Teen magazine, stickers on the new 98 Degrees CDs, a national radio campaign, and the national Teen People magazine. Because it’s teens that mainly listen to the music that 98 Degrees produces, it’s the teens that this particular promotion is focused on. I s...
After watching the movie, Miss Representation, I have decided to use Dove’s new Real Beauty Campaign. I believe this company accurately counteracts the emotions and anxieties facing our female population in this generation by confronting them. I believe they antagonize what every other company chooses to exploit in order for their consumers to buy their products. Using the vocabulary provided in our textbook, I will define pathos and ethos along with their sub terms to analyze the advertisement. With so many advertisements and companies influencing women of our society to conform to a mold, Dove is sending a different message. After describing the ad, I will then use the rhetorical tools I have chosen to analyze and explain them.
The method used by Susan Douglas in her essay “Narcissism as Liberation” to describe the way a particular event to practice might have a deeper meaning seems to differ somewhat with that used by Clifford Greetz in “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight”. In the former, the author concentrates on the method which would be best described as “direct approach”. In her explanations of the themes behind different advertising practices and their implied meanings she makes it sound as though the ones responsible for the advertisements infuse these subliminal messages on purpose into the context. She describes the play on women’s feelings to cow them into thinking that they are never the ideal and should always be working to perfect their bodies (using the advertiser’s products) is an intentional subliminal message that is infused into every commercial advertisement is done because that method seems to be effective. She stresses that the media and corporations have shaped...
This essay is a perfect example of the importance of a thorough introduction to provide the reader with a concise synopsis of what the paper intends to covers. Had Gladwell excelled in both areas he neglected, this would be an extremely interesting, thought-provoking look into the world of advertising. Works Cited Gladwell, M. (1997). The New Yorker. Listening to Khakis.
Nike's ads, like many other businesses, require interpretation. Some of their commercials go on at the conscious level, some unconsciously. I have a constructive point of view in that I view meaning as interplay between text and the reader. Texts are full of indeterminacy, which require the reader's active interpretation. Thus, readers of advertisements bring with them a surface knowledge of the language as well as a set of preconceived ideas about how to relate the ads to themselves.
It will not be exaggerated if we conclude that we are 'soaked in this cultural rain of marketing communications' through TV, press, cinema, Internet, etc. (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). But if thirty years ago the marketing communication tools were used mainly as a product-centered tactical means, now the promotional mix, and in particular the advertising is focused on signs and semiotics. Some argue that the marketers' efforts eventually are "turning the economy into symbol so that it means something to the consumer" (Williamson, cited in Anonymous, Marketing Communications, 2006: 569). One critical consequence is that many of the contemporary advertisements "are selling us ourselves" (ibid.)
Wallerstein, K (1998) Thinness and Other Refusals in Contemporary Fashion Advertisements in Fashion Theory, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp.129–150. London: Berg. Williamson, J. (1978). Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. London: Marion Boyars.
In which way the seller’s chief goal is to sway their possible spectators and attempt and change their opinions, ideals and interests in the drive of resounding them that the produce they are posing has a touch that customer wants that will also be in their advantage, therefore generating false desires in the user’s mind. Dove is vexing their viewers to purchase products they wouldn’t usually buy by “creating desires that previously did not exist. ”(Dyer, 1982:6). In its place of following the outdated mantra of beauty- advertising campaigns that endorse an unachievable standard of attraction as the norm, Dove’s campaign has taken a concern that touches the lives of loads of young and old women: self-observation in the face of ads that don’t mirror the realism of women’s looks. Dove is saying that it’s all right to be ordinary, and that you’re not less than for not being what certain advertisers reflect to be flawless.
Domestic violence advertisements regularly appear in today’s media. The topic is a live issue in the world, causing various messages to be produced. Advertisements can evoke multiple responses: Emotional, thought provoking, or ethical reactions. Advertisers use rhetorical appeals to capture its audiences’ attention. Three rhetorical appeals commonly used are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. In a photo shopped CoverGirl ad, an argument is presented concerning CoverGirl’s continuation to be the beauty sponsor of the NFL. The only change in the new ad is the model’s makeup design. Now the model looks to have been hit. This is directed towards the NFL’s controversy about Ray Rice and other football players having committed domestic violence. Each of the
‘Semiology provides the analyst with a conceptual toolkit for approaching sign systems systematically in order to discover how they produce meaning’ (Bawer et. all, 2000: 227). Advertising is one of the typically elements used for a convincing presentation product or service to the buyer or user. Advertising provides the link between products or service and people. To be efficient, it must correspond to products and to be relevant for people, expressing and sustaining competitive advantages. My image appears in Glamour, a specialized publication for women, which cultural context is gender, thus providing a greater degree of authority and the intention is to promote the reputation and sales of the perfume. The image is a collection of signs, these signs may include paradigmatic and systematic elements such as the name of the perfume, the fonts used, the colors or the women which appears with an green apple in her hand. ‘The goal of semiotics in the study of advertising is, ultimately, to unmask the arrays of hidden meanings in the underlying level, which form what can be called signification systems’ (Beasley et.all, 2002: 20). It is obvious that in the interpretation of an image controversies can arise and the meaning could be different from person to person due to the cultural level or ways of image analysis, because the reader approaches an image from a personal ideological perspective. Here we can say that the link between signified and signifier is essential. Signifier, is the particular te...
Advertising in American culture has taken on the very interesting character of representing our culture as a whole. Take this Calvin Klein ad for example. It shows the sexualization of not only the Calvin Klein clothing, but the female gender overall. It displays the socially constructed body, or the ideal body for women and girls in America. Using celebrities in the upper class to sell clothing, this advertisement makes owning a product an indication of your class in the American class system. In addition to this, feminism, and how that impacts potential consumer’s perception of the product, is also implicated. Advertisements are powerful things that can convey specific messages without using words or printed text, and can be conveyed in the split-second that it takes to see the image. In this way, the public underestimates how much they are influenced by what they see on television, in magazines, or online.
Counter-hegemony, cultural appropriation and generalisation can be seen in advertising, by wording and visual representations. The following example harnesses the power of sexual or pornographic elements to sell milk. There, however, is a subtle underlining of religious iconography and reference that has been manipulated as a sexual innuendos, as a means to sell their goods.
Advertising draws both from non-linguistic elements and linguistic cues designed to communicate a desired message to a targeted audience. Communication transpires through decoding and encoding levels of messages from the sender to the receiver via a particular medium. The overall connotative meaning of the message perceived, potentially impacts from one’s cultural perspective. This essay examines the advertisement of the Katy Perry perfume ‘Killer Queen’ in terms of a semiotic analysis. The advert itself is a conglomeration of symbolic signs, indexical signs, connotations, denotations, paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations combined. The implementation of Ferdinand de Saussure view on signs and his approach of signifier and signified assisted
In the world of advertising, there are various appeals that can be used to describe one’s advertisement. For example, Snickers commercials are known for incorporating some kind of celebrity such as Betty White or Robin Williams. When considering Reese’s, a large majority of their commercials do not even have a single human-being present in them. When having celebrities in the commercial, it can aid in grabbing the attention of the audience in order to persuade them to make a purchase of that particular product. Another tactic that Snickers uses is the need for affiliation. The need for affiliation plays into the relationships of one’s life, whether it be a friendship, courtship, or just feeling as though you are a part of a larger group in general (Fowles 78). The Snicker’s commercials usually convey someone that is not at their normal standard and in order to fit back into their r...
Curry and Clarke’s article believe in a strategy called “visual literacy” which develops women and men’s roles in advertisements (1983: 365). Advertisements are considered a part of mass media and communications, which influence an audience and impact society as a whole. Audiences quickly begin to rely on messages sent through advertisements and can create ideologies of women and men. These messages not only are extremely persuasive, but they additionally are effective in product consumption in the media (Curry and Clarke 1983: