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).
Nowadays, commercial is becoming a major part of mass media. It does not only try to inform people about the availability and attractiveness of industrial good productions but also contribute to build an awareness of resources and alternatives for customer in daily life. There are thousands of commercials, so to attract customer, advertisers use various kinds on their commercial to make people aware of the firm's products, services or brands. Though they use various kinds on the commercial, the main goal of advertising tries to convince customer to buy their products, or do what they want. An excellent commercial will create a deep impression on their customers, or who want to become their customers by using three classical appeals: pathos, ethos and logos.
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.)
This standard of beauty is not representative of the female population that this advertisement is aimed at. In addition, every single item of significance is the colour pink. Pink is often associated as being feminine and girly, which is why it seems to be washed over this entire advertisement. Overall, through stereotyping women, the sign system intends to evoke emotion appeal from females. It proposes the belief that following societal expectations of beauty and gender stereotypes will make them more alluring, akin to wearing the perfume. The sign system also evokes the emotional appeal to males and indicates that their ideal partner should be similar to the model, who is a white girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thin body. In conclusion, after analysing the denotative aspects, many components in the advertisement work together to highlight the core product which is the Oh, Lola! Perfume. Looking at the connotative aspects, the sign system within the advertisement intentionally stereotypes and objectifies
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...
The video describes how our society may not even care about the product being advertised, but we still read the billboard or watch the commercial. Also mentioned was the use of colors in a commercial, the marketing effects in politics, and even market research obtained by studying different cults. Frontline takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar “persuasion industries” of advertising and how this rhetoric affects everyone. So whether this is in the form of a television commercial or a billboard, pathos, logos, and ethos can be found in all advertisements.
In everyday life we are bombarded with advertisements, projects, and commercials from companies trying to sell their products. Many of these ads use rhetorical devices to “convey meaning [,] or persuade” their audiences (Purdue OWL) . Projects, such as the Dove Self-Esteem Project uses native advertising in their commercials, which refers to a brand or product being simultaneously and indirectly promoted. In this essay, I will analyze the rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, as well as the fallacies corresponding to each device, that the Dove Company uses in their self-esteem project .
The Molson Beer advertisement was shown in the Playboy Magazine and FHM during the years 2002 and 2003. Advertising is a form of mass media content that is aimed at persuading audiences or readers, viewers or listeners to take “positive” action on products, services and ideas that are being advertised. The fundamental idea is to steer consumer behavior in a particular way with regards to a product, service or concept (Curtis, 2013, 1). Alcohol or to be more specific, beer advertisements are aimed at persuading the reader into thinking that consuming alcohol beverages would transform their life and yield to having high profile social life. Making use of semiotic analysis, the science study of signs and sign systems (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler,2012,131),
“Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned.” ~J.B. Priestley sums up the reality of our media today. We are constantly being influenced and affected by advertisements and how we react to them. Advertisements have a great effect on us and how we operate. Advertisements attempt to control what we should wear, how we should look, what we should eat, what we should do, how we should think, and how we should smell. This magazine advertisement is very convincing of what type of perfume we should wear. “Moschino Couture!” uses an attractive woman, simplistic layout and sample perfume to sell us the product we all yearn for.
We live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. Every day we are bombarded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. These ideas and images are embedded in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audience openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product. This is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. There is an old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' and what better way to tell someone about a product than with all one thousand words, that all fit on one page. Take for example this ad for Hennessy cognac found in Cosmopolitan, which is a high, priced French liquor. This ad is claiming in more ways than one that Hennessy is an upscale cognac and is 'appropriately complex' as well as high-class liquor. There are numerous subliminal connotations contingent to this statement.
In our society the media has the ability to get us consumers to buy products that we don't need but through advertising they allow us to feel that we must have it, in order for them to make money. They achieve this through advertisements that can be found in magazines, music videos, commercials, billboards, television/ radio and on the internet. A type of advertising that this essay will focus on are commercials. Through some commercials the cultural industry plays with our emotions to convince us we need their product. These commercials can touch people emotionally by making them tear up, laugh, feel sad etc, or can make you feel that a certain product will make you feel a certain way, or help you better your life. This essay will examine the critical theories perspectives mainly focusing on Theodor Adorno by looking at the cultural industry, and analyzing Dove, Proactiv, Ford and Apple commercials that play with our emotions.
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Hershey’s and Quaker are two well established brands in the snack food world. The weight of their names carry a specific ethos; a persona that will influence the consumer to buy their product, as it is a name that the customer trusts. Two advertisements are analyzed, both found in a February 2007 edition of People magazine: Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate and Quaker True Delight print advertisements. The main connection between these two prints is rather apparent: they are both snack foods, and they contain dark chocolate. However, both prints, as they are introducing a new product line, paint a new image of their merchandise: this snack food is healthy, ergo this creation should be chosen over all other products. Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate utilizes a cause-and-effect strategy by outlining that consuming their dark chocolate will improve cardiovascular health, backed by the logic and ethos of a study performed by a well-known university. Quaker’s True Delights, however, emphasizes the fact that their product tastes fantastic and is low in calories, in addition to using their ethos of their brand. Ultimately, both products utilize their established persona to draw
This film dealt with advertising and the techniques used today as a way to sell products and services while raising the question as to whether there are more brands in need of a real purpose. Furthermore, it worked to explain some the difficulties found within advertising such as reaching the consumer as well as the evolution of marketing.
Victoria’s secret is an enormous empire consisting of different kinds of merchandiser sold in the s store from, lingerie and beauty products and dorm products. Through the years its popularity has increased among young teens and adult women in a significant level and along with this their marketing methods. The commercial being analyzed for this paper is the 2013summer ad.
An analysis of the signs and symbols used in Patek Philippe Geneve's "Begin your own tradition" advert.