First Advertisement
This advertisement generally showing what type of man that women are after, whether the man comes in rich background, musician, different race or different appearance. It might not necessary to advertise the idea of woman likes who drinks alcohol. It is just a trend that people who drink alcohol will have something in social matter, they always go to club and meet people. This advertisement of Vodka clearly sends a message that all kind of men consume it. The advertisement might be intended to visualize the social trend that happened in the present time.
Almost every subject in this advertisement has cultural assumptions or codes. The human body parts of a male in the text have different meanings. The hand represents a romantic and perfect lover boy since he is holding red roses in his hand. Red roses remind us of love and passion towards our loved ones. The lower body part of a male which is wearing torso represents rich and cultured guy. We assume that only a rich guy would wear torso and an expensive pair of black shoes. The other hand with tattoos and guitar resembles a Hard-Rock Musician. The tattoo is a part of the culture of a Hard Rock Musician. The abdomen part resembles a 6 pack abs black man while the head looks like a nerd man. Men with thick black glasses always remind us of nerds. All these body parts carries out information that guys are various types outside in the world and no one is perfect. Besides that, the polystyrenes on the floor also carry out a meaning to the audiences. The polystyrene flakes show that all the body parts come from the box written ‘THE PERFECT MAN’ on it. The urban setting shows that the lady is a rich lady because her house looks neat and well organized. Since perfect men are not exist, she is trying to assemble all these body parts using a manual and create one for herself. Her bare feet show that how desperate and keen she is in creating a perfect guy for herself. Besides that the symbol of Mars Male on the carton reinforces the heterosexuality. The miniature pincher lying next to the carton shows how homely and loving the lady is.
There are few others alternate readings for this advertisement. Red roses not only represent to love and passion, it also has been represented in countless works of art, from classical paintings and poetry to modern day music and media. Other than that, the head with glasses also symbolize to a smart and well-educated guy. Apart from that, the head also represents he is having an eye sight problem. We also see a muscular body in the advertisement that represents a sportsman body and well-built body. On the other hand, a dog can be seen in the advertisement also that shows the lady in the picture could be a pet lover. We can also see a tattooed hand holding a guitar that represents a teenager’s hand that has interest in music. In the advertisement, we can also see a man’s leg upside down that represents that the man is in hurry and running somewhere. The place in the advertisement looks like in a very posh condominium as we can see from the view outside that it is a high building.
In Saussure's version of semiotics, the basic unit of meaning is referred as “Sign”. All the signs have two aspects which are the signifier and the signified. The signifier is any material or things that signify an expression, image and many other things. For a clear illustration of the signified meaning, words on a certain page, a facial expression and a picture are some of the examples. Meanwhile the signified is the concept that a signifier refers to. The basic, most elementary form of sign, are mostly denotation which means the literal meaning of a sign.
We can see many signifiers in this advertisement when we relate it to Saussure’s version of semiotics. All the elements used in the advertisement have a signified meaning. The first signifier that we can see are the parts of the human body such as face, hand, leg and body that belong to men which are all around the floor. The body parts are mixed in terms of the colour of the male. The face appears white, the arms again white, but peculiarly the chest and the abdomen are in a darker skin colour. This indirectly tells us that the chest and abdomen human part represents a black male. The box also had a statement that says “The Perfect Man”. As we all know, a perfect man is supposed to buy roses for his woman. He is supposed to be polite & work as a professional. He may have other interests such as playing the guitar and it for most women out there, the perfect man have to own a six pack abs. This description of a perfect man is related to the male body parts that are in the advertisement. Therefore this is why we can see a nerdy head, a hand holding roses, a though body part, a pair of formal attired man and also a hand that was covered with tattoo and holding a guitar.
Even the place setting used was an urban setting with a modern furniture and decor. The posture of the girl who is reading a blueprint of the package that has arrived is also a signifier in this advertisement. The place setting and the dressing of the female give a signified meaning of the time and the age-group that the advertisement addresses. Finally the last signifier would be the dog. The dog in the ad appears to be observing the woman who is assembling the man. It looks kind of scared as opposed to snooping around the body parts. It signifies the confusion that the dog is while seeing a human body in this form.
Second Advertisement
The advertisement is to create awareness about breasts cancer among women. The image of a woman is used in the advertisement because females are the common gender to get breasts cancer. This does not mean males do not get breasts cancer. It simply means females have the highest count. We can assume that it is a woman because of the body contour and skin texture. The person’s skin is smooth and shiny where else a gent’s skin is usually rough and muscular. The designer focused more on the person rather than the background since the person solely carries the message of the advertisement. The image of the woman is showed only above her chest so that people will not be misled about the pictures. It is now clearly shows that it is about breasts cancer. This designer has proved that revealing the image of breasts is not really necessary in an advertisement about breasts cancer. The lady is showing us her back but she is still showing us her face partially. Her partial face reaction shows that she is not very happy about what is happening to her body. But she is enduring perfectly whatever is happening.
The woman’s body is divided into puzzle pieces showing that her body cells are disintegrating because of the deadly cancerous cells. She has to endure the pain to put all the pieces together. We can also see there are some puzzles pieces are missing from her body. The missing puzzle pieces might mean the death of good cells in her breasts. The missing puzzles are directly behind the breasts. The designer conveys the message to the public clearly without using any vulgar or revealing pictures of the beautiful model. The best part is this advertisement does not carry any message through the usage of some texts. All the messages from this advertisement are carried by a simple image of a woman which is a strong and impactful medium in this case.
The woman’s body is divided into puzzle pieces showing that her body cells are disintegrating because of the deadly cancerous cells. She has to endure the pain to put all the pieces together. We can also see there are some puzzles pieces are missing from her body. The missing puzzle pieces might mean the death of good cells in her breasts. The missing puzzles are directly behind the breasts. The designer conveys the message to the public clearly without using any vulgar or revealing pictures of the beautiful model. The best part is this advertisement does not carry any message through the usage of some texts. All the messages from this advertisement are carried by a simple image of a woman which is a strong and impactful medium in this case.
Her whole body was in a light skin colour except for the three parts where the colour was dark. The reason for the missing parts was to show that when someone has a breast cancer, the way to remove it would be by surgery which will cause them to be having only one breast. This advertisement shows the puzzle pieces peeled out from the woman's body. Other than that, this advertisement also sharing that if the patients aware of their cancer at the beginning stage it can be cure easily. But if it reaches the advanced level, it can't be cured as the puzzles is easy to fix when only few pieces are missing but it will be very hard if all the pieces are missing. So the advertiser trying to say that all the women should be aware of their illness.
The advertisement shows her back, afraid, ashamed and not facing the world just because she is facing a decease called breast cancer. We can also see that the puzzle pieces that dropping one by one that indicates that breast cancer is a slow killer that should be cured in early stage or it will eventually brings death. The dark color in the puzzle pieces represents the cancer cells that kills every woman day by day and also represents the dark days and they are counting their death. The main idea of the advertisement creator is to say missing puzzles are sometimes easy to be found if the missing parts are little and it means that if breast cancer can be cured if woman know it in early stages trough medical check up and medications. last but not least this add send a clear and serious message and awareness to the Malaysian woman's and girls to take precaution and safety measures to stay safe and also prepare themselves mentally and physically to face and fight breast cancer and stay healthy.
According to Ferdinand de Saussure, a founder of modern semiotics, sign consists of two parts; the signifier and the signified. The signifiers in this advertisement are the image of the woman and the missing puzzles. Her partial face reaction that shows she is not very happy about what is happening to her body is the signified meaning for the image of woman in the advertisement. But she is enduring perfectly whatever is happening. On the other hand, the missing puzzles represent the disintegration of her body cells.
According to Charles Sander Pierce, there were different types of signs but the three most important are indexes, icons and symbols. Icons are the signifier that is not totally arbitrary but resembles the signified in some way while the symbols are the signifier that is totally arbitrary and conventional. In our case, puzzles are the icon and the image of the woman is the symbol. The puzzle pieces showing that a cancerous woman looses cells of her body easily just like a puzzle.
Denotation-literally
What can you see literally on the advertisement?
Vodka ad | Breast cancer ad |
· Man body parts all over the floor and some in the box · Each parts of body are looking different in terms of skin colour and style · Place setting: urban area · A woman trying to fix all the body parts together while looking through the manual | · Woman’s image taken from behind and her face is pointing at the side · Has a bright skin tone · The whole image made of puzzle · There are 3 missing puzzle on the image that is shown with darker skin tones. |
Connotation-figuratively
1) What each meaning supposed to mean? (Advertisement)
· The figure used
-They used woman to give awareness regarding breast cancer.
-The women represent each and every woman around the world
- Females are the common gender to get breasts cancer
- We can say the figure belongs to a woman because of the body contour and skin texture which is smooth and shiny
- The figure solely carries the message of the advertisement
- Partial face reaction shows that she is not very happy
- We can say the figure belongs to a woman because of the body contour and skin texture which is smooth and shiny
- The figure solely carries the message of the advertisement
- Partial face reaction shows that she is not very happy
- The woman is showed only above her chest
- The figure was taken from behind her. This might be because she is afraid, ashamed and not facing the world just because she is facing disease called breast cancer
- Simple image of a woman was used but it is a strong and impactful medium in this case.
- Privacy and censorship part areas for women such as breast should not be printed on an ad even if it was made to raise awareness
· Skin tone
-person’s skin texture is smooth and shiny
· Darker tone of puzzle pieces that are missing
- the missing puzzles have a darker skin tone.
-The puzzle pieces represent the cancer cells and it shows that her body cells are disintegrating
-Missing puzzle pieces might mean the death of good cells
-Missing puzzle pieces might mean the death of good cells
- Puzzles piece dropped out from the woman's body. The advertiser was trying to say that the breast cancer is a slow killer
- Puzzles are easy to be reassembled if the missing ones are only few but if all the puzzle pieces went missing, it will be hard to put it back together.
- Puzzles are easy to be reassembled if the missing ones are only few but if all the puzzle pieces went missing, it will be hard to put it back together.
-the missing puzzle also represents the dark days and tells us that they are counting their days for their death
Similarities between First Advertisement & Second Advertisement
The first and second advertisement have a very few commons. The first advertisement visually shows some body parts of a male are being fixed together by a woman and the second one is about puzzles too. Assembling and fixing all things together are the same concept of both these advertisements. Both the advertisements have deep meanings that the viewers can interpret it according to their understandings. They have open meaning for each subjects in the print ad. The both advertisements are also sending out a social message for man and woman.
SEMIOTIC STUDIES – MLS2113
TITANIUM
ASSIGNMENT 2
8th September 2011
THIVASSINI SUBRAMANIAM 1091101798
VITHIYAH SANTARA SHEERAN 1091101410
SHASHI KUMAR BALASUBRAMANIAM 1091102536
RUBAKUMARAN SUPRAMANIAM 1091102537
MOHAMAD AZFAR BIN MOHAMAD NASER 1081105380
IBRAHEM JAMAL SHAMS 1081107019
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