The Communication of Meaning in Advertising Essay

Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion house that manufactures and designs haute couture. Such luxurious and high fashions are visibly seen through their advertisements such as their “Armani Code” fragrance. In the Giorgio Armani ad, audiences can see the similarity in the different fragrance ads for men and women such as the same models but in different positions. However, one could see the difference in choice of audiences by closely analyzing the visual and rhetorical appeals. Both the Giorgio Armani advertisements, “Armani Code” for men and “Armani Code” for women look very similar in retrospect due to the intimate and sexual appeal they exude. However, by analyzing visual and rhetorical appeals, one could clearly see the distinct difference in choice of audiences despite selling the same product which is the fragrance. The fragrance for women aims to sell their product to adult females in the middle and upper class. The fragrance for men however, directs their ad towards adult males in the middle and upper

Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, depicts the way the females are shown in advertisements. She discusses how advertisement sell concepts of normalcy and what it means to be a “male” and a “female.” One of her main arguments focuses on how women aspire to achieve the physical perfection that is portrayed in advertisements but this perfection is actually artificially created through Photoshop and other editing tools. Women in advertisements are often objectified as weak, skinny, and beautiful while men are often portrayed as bigger and stronger. Advertisements utilize the setting, the position of the people in the advertisements, and the products to appeal to the unconscious aspect

     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

The space I chose to observe and write about for this essay is ULTA Beauty in the Greenwood Mall. In this analysis, I will be focusing on the impact of advertisements and products within class, gender, and beauty through the study of semiotics, connotation, and denotation. ULTA sells haircare products, skin care products, perfumes and cologne, high end makeup brands, and drug store makeup brands as well.

Today’s world is dominated by the great influence of advertising media, which often depicts the objectification of women. The film Killing Us Softly 3, discusses how influential the negative portrayal and misrepresentation of women is throughout advertising media. The Versace advertisement I have chosen to analyze displays a slim, scantily clothed woman of color guarded by a shirtless, muscular man. Based on concepts from the film and the course’s text, it is clear that this advertisement sets a particular feminine beauty standard and, nonetheless, illustrates women as solely being sexual objects of men, having little to no power. This fashion ad influences the way women view their physical appearance, along with their position and function in society.

In Chapter Seven of Practices of Looking, we start to explore in the ideas of advertising, consumer cultures and desire. Everyday, we are faced with advertisements through newspapers, magazines, TV, movies, billboards, public transportation such as buses and taxis, clothing, the internet, etc. Logos, such as signs, or anything that resemble a brand, are everywhere, they are on clothing, household items, electronics, cars, etc. Consumers are always showing off their brands and advertisements and we are used to seeing those brands and advertisements in an everyday setting. In modern media, advertisers are pressured to always change the ways they show off and get the attention to consumers, old and new. Advertisers also used present figures who were glamorous. Advertisements set up a certain relationship between the product and its meaning to sell the products and the hidden meaning we link to each of the products. Advertisements use the language of conversion. Advertisers try to create a customer relationship to the brand to try to form them as familiar, necessary, and also likeable.

woman is how she looks. In the academic film Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image

Today’s quick-moving world of technology has media texts such as advertisements to make sure that people understand with just a glance. Having adverts on magazines, social media and billboards allow them to use tools such as semiology, genre and narrative because it makes their messages clear instantly. These signs allow us to carry meaning through advertisements, connotations and the signification process. These tools let brands, mainly celebrities, and the option to produce and create a myth of the product such as “Be daring. Be an inspiration” to sell it to the world. We are in a time where advertisers use ‘simplicity’ in their adverts; there are no more paragraphs. It is mainly down to the person and the few words shown in that advert.

Every woman wants diamonds because they are beautiful, rare, and are a symbol of success. There is something about diamonds that make every woman want one. Diamonds make a woman feel bold, sophisticated, and powerful. Something magazine recently published a diamond ad for A Diamond Is Forever.Com. A Diamond Is Forever . Com is a website that does not sell diamonds, but displays all the new styles of diamonds and how to purchase or create the perfect diamond for a customer. In this ad they are advertising a new style of diamond ring called the right hand ring. The advertisement is of a young, beautiful woman staring directly at you with a seductive look. On her right had she is wearing a

This essay will be addressing ideologies of consumer fetishism and pseudo-individuality through examining the commodity signs found in the mass marketing and advertising of designer cosmetics, particularly Chanel.

In his essay The Rhetoric of The Image, Roland Barthes explores the relationship between image and meaning. He centres his discussion around the advertisement as advertising is a medium in which there is an intended message being sent to the viewer. Barthes puts forward that if an image contains signs, in advertising the signs are ‘full’, as these signs are formed with the viewer in mind so that the intended message is not missed.

The man is fully clothed in a suit, which represents power and formality. It is extremely suggestive as it looks like he came to this position without the woman’s knowledge or consent since her sunglasses are pushed up for her to see. He is in a dominating position where she has to look up at him and the man’s face isn’t shown in the ad, which shows that he is confident. The ad is suggesting that if you have Sky Vodka, you can look glamourous and wealthy as well. The men are always given more power and a higher status than the women (Appendix A). The second image reveals how femininity is portrayed. In the ad for Dolce and Gabbana’s Monico Lipstick, notice the lightness of the woman’s hand touching her face, the touching of one’s face, especially the finger-to-mouth pose is reminiscent of a child. She is also dressed seductively with a come-hither look on her face that is bold and suggestive (Appendix A).

The theory of semiotics, as proposed by Roland Barthes, has been used to analyze advertisements and the effectiveness of advertisements on viewers. In the articles that I researched that used semiotics to analyze particular advertisements, I found four common and related themes. First, the articles mentioned that the viewer determines the meaning of the advertisement or the viewer interprets the advertisement. Second, this meaning that the viewer assigns to the advertisement is largely determined by context, both social and cultural. Third, advertisers use culture and predominant cultural beliefs in their advertisements in efforts to reach their audience more effectively. Finally, these advertisements actually end up supporting the

The term ‘Semiotics’ refers to the study of signs and symbols, the relationship between written or spoken signs and of the meanings that are created. The essay will first of all try to give some definition a review of the main terminology used in the study of Semiotics and will then apply these to a series of texts, relating to advertising for Coca Cola.

The Purpose of Advertising The purpose of advertising is to familiarise the public with a certain brand or product. Companies spend millions of pounds a year on advertising so that when the public are searching for a product or service a certain brand is recognised and, as a result, their product or service is chosen. Companies need to ensure that their money is spent wisely. They do this by completing extensive market and physcological research.