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 …show more content…
Red lipstick, a gold sceptre, a toppled gold and red throne, gold mirrors and gold interior wall and door trimmings. The iconic crooked crown on Katy’s head, an unworn red crown on the floor, diamond shaped perfume bottle, the symbolic linguistic verbal sign ‘Killer Queen’ and the syntagm ‘Own the Throne’ which signify richness, success and royalty. As explained by Mohan (1997), secondary layers of signified evoked emotions and hence, this advert suggests that wealth and royalty are virtuous. Furthermore, the connotation of the advert linked back to the sales pitch of the perfume that if you buy and wear the scent ‘Killer Queen’, you too could have a lavish and honourable lifestyle. This, in turn, underpins the ‘wealth is desirable’ ideology being depicted throughout this …show more content…
The signs employed within the ad and the connection between signifiers and the signified were subjective and based on cultural representations. The denotative and connotative meanings that a message represents along with ‘doctrine of sign’s’ known as iconic, indexical and symbolic dimensions engaged by the advertiser to send ideology and mythical messages within the Katy Perry ad, such as wealth, authority and beauty are desirable and this can be attained if you buy this perfume. On a border and more thought provoking ideological level, the ad could perhaps interpret the message of freedom, prosperity and justice that women have culturally fought for throughout history. The basis of the selling pitch of the advert is sex, beauty and wealth. A contradiction perhaps, is an alternate meaning with the syntagm “Own the Throne’ intentionally placed underneath her genital area with Katy’s legs crossed. This may signify a deeper meaning that she is truly the one that ‘owns’ her sexuality not the advertiser. It is crucial advertiser’s understand that accomplishment of linguistic and non-linguistic communication is a result of the integrated system of cultural norms that allows potential buyers, to organise their world and give collective representations. In order to permit the reader to receive and successfully decode the
Jean Kilbourne’s “Two Way a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” is a section of a book titled: “Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising” that was originally published in 1999. It is about the images of women that advertisements illustrate. The central claim or thesis of the document is that: “advertising helps to create a climate in which certain attitudes and values flourish and it plays a role in shaping people’s ideas” (paraphrase). The author wants people by all genders and young children to acknowledge a right attitude towards what is shown in the advertisements so that the standards of behavior will not be influenced. As a result, it enables the negative contribution from the advertisements to be limited or eliminated.
I have examined and analyzed the COVERGIRL™ NatureLuxe advertisement that uses common feminine stereotypes. In this advertisement, COVERGIRL™, which runs in Seventeen magazines, targets women through their choices of colors, fonts, and images used. Certain stereotypes are used; such as, those who are more feminine tend to prefer lighter, happier colors, such as pink. Also, the use of a celebrity, who many young women look to as an icon, assists in the advertisement of the COVERGIRL™ product. COVERGIRL™, more than likely, is able to successfully market their lip-gloss product in the United States by using common gender stereotypes to show femininity and how those, mainly women, should be presented in today’s society.
Have you ever wondered where the saying, ‘a picture says a thousand words’, come from? Well, I do not know who came up with this fantastic phrase, but nonetheless, I will be describing and analyzing two different magazine advertisements, trying to put in words what I think the advertisers wanted consumers to receive when those potential buyers viewed their ads. The two advertisements that I chose, Caress and Secret, try to encourage female consumers of all ages to purchase their hygiene products. Although both ads, Caress and Secret, appeal to the same gender with hygiene goods, they differ in design, text, and message. They attempt to please the female buyer with color, texture, and sexuality. This makes it prevalent, that the agents must grab the attention of possible buyers in order to sell their product. The advertisers must choose a variety of marketing strategies to the reach their targeted consumers.
I can imagine a story about young lovers meeting and falling in love while I saw the print ads photo. This perfume had a lot of love and emotions for a right date and chemistry which happens between her and the fragrance which is like her second skin, which follows her like a shadow and says a lot about her emotional state. The aesthetics and rhetorical appeal of the Lanvin ad are representing love with happiness because a man and woman look each other. This ad seems like Pathos because happiness is one word that can explain wedding a lot: happiness in emotion or feeling and happiness in celebration. The intended audience for this advertisement is women, and the mood in the ad is something we can relate with. So I think an advertisement in this style is very relevant in the moods of woman that they can feel attractive to buy all around the country and the world. Also, Lanvin advertisement contains attractive photos for the intended audience which is women. The image of the women in the ad is something we can relate with. It keeps the relationship with women closely to make them feel consider with no distinction. This ad illustrates Lanvin’s is a universal appeal to all women. While both ads represent wedding, the lovely couple’s photo is much more universal because many people are dating with their lovers and they dream about their
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.)
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...
Not surprisingly, the model is attractive, skinny and flawless, exactly what we tend to idolize. As a result, the ad is telling us that if we want to be as pretty or as immaculate as this person, we must wear this perfume which relates to using pathos. Also, there are very few colors in this picture...
The ineffective advertisement formulated by the Popchip brand used the music pop icon Katy Perry as a figurehead to degrade the female body image to promote air popped chips. Using a talented widely known artist to exhibit the sexual fascination of breasts to entice a male audience may had been the focus of this advertisement; however, there is a massive problem. The main issue surrounds how a woman is perceived by the general public and what makes a woman truly feminine. The discrepancy that advertisements promote are the unfair and impossible ways an average person may be in the real world. The expectations of an average woman are based upon the idea of perfection, sexuality, and favorable visual concepts of modern design.
In today’s media we have copious amounts of ads thrown at us, with a large segment of these ads actually depicting women as objects. There are some “. . . so called ‘cutting-edge’ advertising techniques that continue to thrive on old ideas including the objectification and dismemberment of w...
The color red, despite its limited use, adds boldness and contrast to the green make it stand out. advertisers chose a red lipstick from the many in the cosmetic line because it adds a contrast to the green “natural” theme. It also enhances the luxury theme going on with product’s ad. The color red means “desire” it is an attractive and bold color. Color plays into the pathos side of the advertisement. It has an effect on consumers emotions. The audience may jump to conclusions that the product is made with natural and high quality products. They would think this because color symbolism acts as an emotional appeal. Consumers immediately jump to the conclusion that Covergirl's Natureluxe products must be made of natural ingredients. Everything that the advertisers do is to make the products appear better that it actually is. Though nowhere is it stated in the ad that the makeup is made with high quality, all-natural ingredients, the color sends a false subliminal message that it is. Advertiser's heavily influence consumer’s perspectives so that they are more likely to buy the product. It ties in with the product, helps make it feel “natural”
‘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...
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.
Though at first glance, the woman is depicted as the inferior while she caters to the man, and is also quite devalued as a person as she is wearing revealing clothing, there appears to be an underlying competition between the man and woman in the advertisement, this is emphasized by the colors and symbols. The woman uses sex and alcohol to weaken the man, in attempt to gain some dominance in the man’s world. However, from the advertisment’s title, it is seen that the actions of the female are “antagonistic.” The woman is criticized for her techniques at achieving power yet the male is not criticized for objectifying women or using them to fulfill sexual fantasies. While an advertisement for Skyy Vodka, this ad presents the world of a successful, white male and warns him against the young seductress, desperate for power.
Nowadays, it is a consumption society which contains both homogeneity and diversity. As one of the biggest contributor of customer culture changes, advertising is an essential and inevitable element in our daily life which could be visible anywhere and experienced different stages. Early advertisements are generally seemed as “simple, crude and naïve”, while the contemporary advertisements are “persuasive, subtle and intelligent” (McFALL, 2004:3). The early advertise agency just bought some space in media and sold to customers. As the development of advertisement, art design and unique idea were added into advertising, and then it formed advertisement industry. Advertisement industry “adjusted its marketing practices to the novel situation created by consumer culture”. (McFALL, 2004:110) Advertisement is not only an assistor to the increase of consumption economy, but also a contributor to customer culture development. “The contemporary advertising agency did emerge as the result of historical circumstances”. (McFALL, 2004:111) The advertisement industries have more significant impact on marketing and customer which could be interacted with customer’s consumption attitude, value and belief. However, “culture can function like a nature” (Cronin, 2000:145). A slogan called “I shop therefore I am” which came from Barbara Kruger was famous in recent years. She argues that every purchasing behavior could be seemed as a reflection of customer’s aesthetic attitude, consumption taste and buying habit (I Shop, therefore I Am, 2000). In this article, a topic of the reflection and interaction between advertising and modern consumer culture would be analyzed, including the necessity, representation and semiotic meaning. This essay has three m...