Table of Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Advertisement 3
3 Two Pioneers of Semiology 4
3.1 Ferdinand de Saussure, (1857 – 1913) 4
3.2 Roland Barthes, (1915 – 1980) 6
3.2.1 Barthes’ academic career can be divided into three phases: 6
3.3 Semiotics in Advertisement 8
3.3.1 A Guide to a Semiological Analysis of Advertisement 10
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Heinz Ketchup 9
THE SEMIOLOGY ANALYSIS IN ADVERTISING
1 Introduction
Semiology known as semiotics was originally posited by Linguist Ferdinand de Sausssure. Linguist Ferdinand de Sausssure defined semiology as the science of signs (Sibhan Chappman, Christopher Routledge 2009).
Semiology or semiotics is relevant to all natures of human endeavor which comprises of theatre, dance, painting, politics, religion, history and cinema. Signs are used on daily basis to communicate to people in the community. Different gestures are made used of life on daily basis which are meant to transmit messages to people in our environment, for instance, waving of hands implies bye-bye. Also, text messages are also used as systems of signs such as lexical graphic which add more to their effects during the regular clashes between the systems.
Hadumod, (1996) asserted semiology relates to the word semiosis which connotes the term semiotics to assign the production and interpretation of a sign. In addition, Barthes, (1968) declared that semiology aims to take in any system of signs no matter what their substance and restrictions; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects etc. these signs comprise of a system of significance.
Saussure, (1915) postulated semiology as a general science of signs of which linguistics would form only one part while Barthes, (1968) proclaimed that semiology is a mere subset of linguistics.
Semiotics became an important field that studies the life of signs within a society during the growth of linguistics. Barthes analyzed the signs within two main semiotic concepts which are signified and signifier from the Saussurean perspective.
Signified + Signifier = Sign
(Material) (Meaning)
De Saussure’s emphasis on the sign and its components has influenced Roland Barthes as a principal background of structuralism. According to Barthes, identified the semiotic sign with the system of language related sign to language with the aim of connotation; for instance, the sign of fashion which is connected to the verbal language system.
In the study carried out by De Saussure (1915), defined linguistic sign as not a thing and name other than an impression and a sound image and both of the components are well joined together.
De Saussure known as the founder of semiology was the first person to detail the tripartite relationship.
i. The signifier: it has a physical existence which bears the connotation. This is the sign as we perceive it: the marks on the paper or the sounds in the air.
ii. The signified: is a mind impression which bears the connotation. It is mostly found among all member of the same culture who shares the same language.
iii. The sign is the connection of the two: we speak of it as a signifying construct.
Semiology can be classified into different kind of studies such as meaning-making, the study of sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, signification and meaningful communication.
Semiotics can be divided into three branches:
i. Semantics: relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their signified meaning.
ii. Syntactics: relations among or between signs in formal structures. It also deals with the systems that preside over how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
iii. Pragmatics: relations between signs and sign using agents or interpreters. It deals with all the psychological, biological and sociological phenomena that occur in the following of signs.
2 Advertisement
Nowadays, images are found everywhere in a way it has never existed in the history of advertisement. Every period has expressed images in its own style since the inception. Ever since the inception of images, it has the ability to sell anything such as politicians or the political party, company products and so on, in a simple approach and comprehensive with words displayed. Today, improvement has taken place in the display of images.
Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by images and sounds that communicate in one way or another.
Advertisement is generally thought of as a new concept of our present world in the minds of our people, which is not true but they are actually dated back a couple of thousand years in time. The Egyptians were recognized as the first people to use advertisements, which made outdoor posters and trading messages. Afterward, other continents followed the Egyptians in various forms of ancient advertisement such as Asia, Arabia and ancient Greece. It took a long time before other countries discovered the prospect in advertisement.
Advertisement is a form of communication that touches the mind of people to take action. In advertisement, the set of people that advertisers use as a target is called consumers. Advertisement can take various forms; the choice of result of an advertising operation is regularly to persuade a viewer or buyer to either do something or to buy a product or brand. This would make an organization or an operation to be successful and it would also lead to its growth (Diana Alexandra Daia, 2013).
According to Boorstin (1963), opined that images are now in an interesting form than the way it was and has become the original. For instance, the shadow becomes the substance. He further explained that advertisement encourage exaggerations due to the dramatic and colorful in nature than the reality. Reality cannot be compared to the image.
Dyer, (1982) posited that advertisement shows us with images and that makes them look real. The modern day technological developments have added more effects to the meaning of the image and culture.
3 Two Pioneers of Semiology
In the world of semiology today, there are two pioneers that are being celebrated and each of them postulated different principles of semiology which are as follows:
3.1 Ferdinand de Saussure, (1857 – 1913)
Born in Geneva, Switzerland to a family commemorated for its excellent achievements in the study of natural sciences. He was known as the first person to discover linguistic studies early in life. He developed the theory of semiology and its application to language.
In the year 1875, he got an admission into the University of Geneva to study physics and chemistry, in a Greek and Latin language. This knowledge convinced him that his career lay in the study of language. In 1876, he entered the University of Leipzig to study Indo-European language. In the year 1878, he published a monograph on the primitive system of Vowels in Indo-European Languages, during that time; he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) for his thesis on the genitive case in Sanskrit. After the completion of his thesis, he moved to Paris, where he taught Sanskrit, as well as Old High German. For over 10 years, he focused on a particular as opposed to general linguistics.
In 1891, he returned to Geneva, to lecture Sanskrit and historical linguistics at the University. The University provided the method for shaping semiology while he was asked to lecture a course in general linguistics. He died in the month of February, 1913. After his death, his students took the course as an innovation which made them pull their notes together and published a book called Course in General Linguistics in the year 1916. In this book, Saussure focuses on the linguistic sign, making a number of crucial points about the relationship between the signifier (Sr) and the signified (Sd). The key ideas contained in the book were summarized as follows:
i. Language known as a self-contained system comprised of elements that perform varieties of functions; based on the relations the various elements have with one another. Syntax and grammar are known as organizing principles of language. There is no problem recognizing the grammatical sense of this sentence: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously (Saussure, 1916).
ii. Language can also be thought of as a complete system of signs which we can study at any given point;
iii. A signifier (Sr), the sound-image or its graphical equivalent, and its signified (Sd), the concept or the meaning, make up the sign;
iv. For example, we can say that, to an English speaking person, the three black marks c-a-t serve as the signifier which evokes the "cat";
v. The relationship that exists between Signifier (Sr) and Signified (Sd) appears to be arbitrary. Different languages make use of different words for similar purposes. There exist no physical relationship between a given signifier and a signified;
vi. Language is a system of formal relations as described in the terms. This simply implies that the key to understanding the structure of the system lies in difference. One sound differs from another sound; for instance “p sounds similarly like b”; one word is quite different from another word; for instance “pat sounding similarly like bat”; and one grammatical forms differs from another, for instance “as has run from will run”; no linguistic unit such as word or sound has significance in and of itself. Each unit acquires meaning in conjunction with other units. One can distinguish formal language from the actual use of language which is known as parole;
vii. Expression used is based on collective behavior or principle. One can say that a sign is motivated when we perceive a link between Signifier (Sr) and Signified (Sd), for example, instance of onomatopoeia like “bow-wow” and “tick-tock”.
3.2 Roland Barthes, (1915 – 1980)
Roland Barthes, a cultural theorist and analyst was born in Cherbourg, a port-city northwest of Paris; his parents were Louis Barthes, a naval officer and Henriette Binger. He lost his father in the year 1916, during combat in the North Sea. In the year 1924, Barthes and his mother relocated to Paris, where he attended (1924-1930) the Lycee Montaigne. Unfortunately, he spent long periods of his youth in sanatoriums, undergoing treatment for a disease known as Tuberculosis. During the time of his recovery from the illness (1935-1939) he studied French and the classics at the University of Paris. He was given exemption from military service during the World War II. During the time he was relieved, he taught at different schools, such as Lycees Voltaire and Carnot. He also taught at Universities like Rumania (1948-1949) and Egypt (1949-1950). He joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted his time to sociology and lexicology.
3.2.1 Barthes’ academic career can be divided into three phases:
3.2.1.1 First phase: He focused on demystify the stereotypes of bourgeois culture (as he put it). For instance, in writing degree Zero, Barthes examined the link between writing and biography; he studied the modern practice of writing and historical conditions of literary language.
During the years 1954 to 1956, Barthes wrote series of articles for a magazine company known as Les Lettres nouvelles, in which he revealed a “Mythology of the Month” which implies how the denotations in the signs of popular culture betray connotations which are “myths” generated by the larger sign system that makes a society. A book titled Mythologies contained studies of everyday signs appropriately enough offers his meditations on many topics, such as striptease, New Citroen, steak and chips etc. In each article written by Barthes, he takes a seemingly unnoticed phenomenon from everyday life and deconstructs it which means shows that the “obvious” connotations which it carries have been carefully constructed.
3.2.1.2 Second phase: the semiotics phase from 1956, Barthes took over Saussure’s ideas of the sign, along with the idea of language as a sign system, producing work which can be known as appendix to Mythologies. In the year 1962, he became Directeur d’Etudes in the VIth section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, where he devoted his time to the “sociology of signs, symbols and representations”.
In the year 1964, Barthes produced works such as Elements of Semiology and the Fashion System in the year 1967, adjusting Saussure’s model to the study of cultural phenomena other than language.
3.2.1.3 Third phase: He began with a journal of S/Z (1970), marking a shift from Saussurean semiology to an assumption of “the text”, which he explained as a field of the signifier and of the symbolic. S/Z is a reading of Balzac’s novel Sarrasine, plotting the migration of five “codes”, understood as open groupings of signifieds and as points of crossing with other texts. The peculiarity between what can be written, readable or rewritten today, which mean actively produced by the reader, and what can no longer be written but only read which implies passively consumed, provides a new basis for evaluation.
In 1973, Barthes further on the idea in the Pleasure of the Text through the body as text and language as an object of desire. During this period, he wrote books as fragments, suggesting his retreat from what might be called the communication of power, as caught in the subject or object relationship and the habits of rhetoric. He made a distinction between the language of science known as ideological, which is concerned with stable meanings and identified with the sign and the language of writing, which aims as displacement and dispersion known as aesthetic. He became a professor of literary semiology at the College de France. The last book written by Barthes in the year 1980 was titled “Camera Lucinda”, reflects on different meanings of the photograph.
Barthes extended these ideas to messages like image relations and word of all sorts. He died on 26 March, 1980 by a vehicle accident, knocked down by a driver reported to be drunk.
3.3 Semiotics in Advertisement
Semiotics can be regarded as a theoretical approach to advertisement, which aims at creation of relevant principals; it can simply be known as the study of signs. Semiotics entails the study of anything, which represents something else in terms of respect or capacity. Signs are in different form of images, sounds, words and objects.
Every approach used, be it television, magazine or radio advertisement is constrained by various medium it uses. For instance, the medium of language, while trying to represent certain experiences, words fail and there is no other method smell and touch can be represented. Various Medias provide different frameworks for representing experience, within a particular medium certain senses become dominant and the medium does not serve as a means of communication, but as a semiotic system. The press uses a visual channel, the language has been written and it is supported by photographs, graphic design and printing. In contrast to this, radio uses an oral channel and relies on spoken language, sound and broadcasting, while television combines sound, image and broadcasting.
Thus print can be seen as less personal than radio or television, radio allows individuality and personality through the sound of someone’s voice. Television takes the process further by occupying the viewer visually.
Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, acts or objects, but these have no genuine meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning. Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign and anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as signifying something, referring to or standing for something.
For every successful advertisement, the existence of semiotics is very significant. Semiotics among other factors contributes a viable role in touching the minds of the intended viewers or customers such as men, women, adults or teens. The position of a particular image, text, colors and other signs is a major part celebrated in the success of advertisement. The use of semiotics are in different levels with the kind of product being advertised, however between related brands, the overall theme of the advertisement seems to be the same thing with few exceptions. For instance, several automobile advertisements place much attention on a feeling of excitement and comfort from driving a particular kind of vehicle. This is done by means of the images that make the automobile especially the versatility and durability than all other automobile.
Semiotic analyses of advertisements make known cultural norms and values connected with a particular group of people or community. In order for people to decode signs, they must do it within their own sign system depending on their culture, norms, language and historical context. Semiotics draws attention to the manner which human being takes themselves in the creation of meaning in messages, suggesting that we are not simply an onlooker in the advertising process, but a partaker in creation of codes that brings together the designer and reader (Stacer, 2013). Advertisers rely much on these signs in order to communicate a point quickly and effectively to viewers or buyers.
Figure 1 Heinz Ketchup
The above print advertisement for Heinz Ketchup, the signifiers comprises of a classic bottle of Heinz Ketchup horizontally sliced with a tomato on top, vivid red backdrop and a white text stated “No one grows ketchup like Heinz”.
The advert reveals the combination of text and picture which implies an insight into the values of the targeted viewers and buyers. Ketchup entails sugar preservatives; on the other hand the ketchup bottle, sliced like a ripe tomato signifies freshness. The marketers that initiated the concept of the advert aimed at redefining the ingredients made use of in the production of ketchup by transforming the bottle into a healthy fruit.
The text which reads “No one grows ketchup like Heinz” simply implies ketchup is made in a factory and by any means not grown or harvested in a farm. The marketers also transform a sweetened condiment into a wholesome, raw ingredient with the aim of assigning a “healthy” connotation to ketchup. Advertisers also aim at redefining ketchup in an attempt to promote a healthier way of life by not attaching only the nutritional aspect to ketchup.
Advertisement on a global recognized brand has the ability to be interpreted in various dimensions. A comprehensive analysis of a worldwide accepted product depends on the morals and norms of a particular ethnicity which gives every marketer an opportunity to appeal to consumers using a kind of shorthand that benefits their bottom line except by tapping into the vein of popular culture.
3.3.1 A Guide to a Semiological Analysis of Advertisement
The following guide identifies the key activities that can be undertaken when a semilogical review of a text, such as a TV program, an advertisement, a movie, a painting etc.
Firstly, make provision of a succinct summary of the message to every reader. The idea is to provide a concise picture of the advertisement which will create a message on the mind of the reader.
Secondly, identify the key signifiers and signifieds. Questions that are asked:
i. What are the important signifiers and what do they signify;
ii. What is the system of signs that gives the text meaning;
iii. What ideological and sociological matters are involved?
Thirdly, identify the paradigms that have been exploited. Questions that are asked:
i. What is the central opposition in the text;
ii. What paired opposites fit under the various categories;
iii. Do these oppositions have any psychological or social significance?
Fourthly, identify the syntagms that come across. Question that is asked:
i. What statements or messages (directly and implied) can you identify?
This question can be answered by considering the following:
i. The linguistic message: This message is made up of all the words, denotations and connotations.
ii. The non-coded iconographic (literal) message: This message is made up of the denotations in the photograph.
iii. The coded iconographic (symbolic) message: This message is made up of the visual connotations we detect in the arrangement of photographed elements.
Finally, identify the opinion used in the message or text. Considering the objective of analysis is to determine the expression or the grammar binding together all the elements.