Semiotics

In the world that we live in today, we are bombarded with hundreds of media advertisements, every day. At a glance all of these advertisements look inviting and professional but all, mostly have a deeper meaning if you study the piece closely. Semiotics is the study of signs; signs are organized into codes, or coding systems, such as words in a language, visual marks and even clothing. “The sign is a (two-faced) slice of sonority, visuality, etc. The signification can be conceived as a process; it is the act, which binds the signifier, and the signified, an act whose product is the sign.” (Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology) The symbolic image consists of three messages, a linguistic message, the words in the advertisement, a coded iconic message, the visual connotations taken from an arrangement in a photograph and a non-coded iconic message, the literal denotation, recognising identifiable objects. (people.ucalgary.ca/~rseiler/barthes.htm) All signs have multiple ways of being read and give us myths, ways of explaining the world. These are ways of giving us closure and are usually false. When analyzing these advertisements, identifying the order of the signs is important. The signifier is the image, the signified is the concept that the signifier is sending us and is a myth that the advertisement portrays.
When it comes to magazine adverts the particular adverts are chosen specifically for the type of people who read that magazine. This is easy because magazines are very specific in what the content is about. They are
                                                    1

aimed at needs, hobbies and personal interests, which allows their readers to be targeted by products that would most likely interest them. Magazines are mostly aimed at men or women, which narrows down the list of consumers again. For example, ‘Vogue’ is aimed at glamorous, fashionable women who probably do well in life. Where as a men’s magazine such as ‘Nuts’ is aimed at young,...