Semiotic Analysis of a Advertising Image

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For my semiotic analysis I chose to talk about a commercial for ‘Be delicious’ from Donna Karan New York to demonstrate how advertising generates its meanings, construct the image and behaviors ideology in order to attract customers.

‘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...

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.... Once she bite the apple she fall asleep until the prince come to save her from the eternal sleep with his kiss.

In these two interpretations, is highlighted the evil part of the apple but this fruits are interpreted in the norse mythology as a symbol of youth, a gift to the gods from the goddess Iduna. When the trickster god Lake allowed Iduna to be carried off to the realm of giants, the gods grew old and gray. They forced Lake to recapture Iduna from the giants. We can observe that the apple has many interpretations in different stories, fairy tales, myths or legends and are considered fruits with divine power. The mythological or ideological significance of a message pertains to systems of representation that often appear neutral and objectivated but which legitimate and sustain the power structure or a particular set of cultural values ( Curran, 1976: 9).

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