No one grows ketchup like heinz advertisement analysis

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Semiotics (Lecture 2) Social Semiotics

Analyzing Advertising and Images

Gillian Rose

MCM253-Visual Culture

Revisiting Social Semiotics

Social semiotics is an approach to communication that seeks to understand how people communicate by a variety of means in particular social settings.

Social semiotics is also useful in looking into and analyzing the signs according to social concepts, social behaviors, and social actions.

A useful example of the use of social semiotics is advertising.

Semiotics and advertising

Gillian Dyer’s “Advertising as Communication” (1982) points out that the photographs or images of many advertisements depend on signs of humans which symbolize particular qualities to their audience.

Semiotics and advertising

A great example of effective use of semiotics is found in the use of metaphor.

These commonly understood concepts tend to resonate easily with your target audiences. For example, “a glass half full” is perceived as a sign of optimism and positiveness.

Metaphors in Advertising

Metaphors are frequently used in advertising as a way to enhance the perceived value of a product or to make it seem more personal.

They can also help to create a particular brand image. An advertising metaphor often combines a verbal phrase with a visual image to dramatize the effect.

Metaphors in Advertising

Types of Metaphors

Metaphors augment signifiers to make the signified more interesting to the viewer.

There are two types of metaphors

Pure metaphor.

Fused metaphor

This is a kind of metaphor that represents a completely different thing from your product; it is used to stand in for the product or feelings we get from it. You can use it when your product is intangible, complicated or simply ”boring“ to look at.

Types of Metaphors: Pure metaphor

Example of pure metaphors

With a fused metaphor, you take the product, or something associated with it, and combine it with something else. I other words, you don’t simply replace the product with something that can symbolize its characteristics, but „fuse“ it with something.

Types of Metaphors: Fused metaphor

Examples of Metaphors: Fused metaphor

Examples of Metaphors: Fused metaphor

The image shows an ad that stands against genetically engineered foods. It shows a carrot in a form of a scorpion.

How to analyze advertisements?

When you analyze advertising with complex messages, you have to answer the

following questions:

What does the advertisement denote?

How do the various message elements function in terms of semiotic meaning:

What are the iconic signs the advertisement/image includes?

What are the symbolic signs the advertisement/image includes?

What are the indexical signs the advertisement/image includes?

What are the type of metaphors the advertisement/image includes?

What are the connotations that that signs will lead you to think of?

What are the Social, Textual, Interpretative codes?

What is implied or visually absent from the image that the viewer is invited to fill it in?

Sings of Humans in Advertisement and images

Gillian Dyer has a useful checklist for exploring what signs of humans might symbolize:

Representations of Bodies

- Age - Gender

- Race - Hair

Body - Size

Looks

Representations of Manners

- Expression - Eye contact

Representations of Activity

- Touch - Body movement - Positional communication

Sings of Humans in Advertisement and images

Positional communication:

- What is the spatial arrangement of the figures?

- Who is positioned as superior and who inferior?

Props: Props and settings

Props: props are items included in a scene to make the the scene realistic. For example, if the scene occurs in a person’s home, the stage will be set with all of the items included in a particular room.

Settings: Settings range from the apparently `normal' to the supposedly `exotic’.

Example of Semiotic analysis of Heinz

Example of Semiotic analysis of Heinz Ketchup

Denotation: A bottle of Heinz ketchup horizontally sliced with a tomato on top, and white text reading “No one grows ketchup like Heinz.”

Connotation: The signified meaning here is that: Heinz Ketchup is fresh and healthy. The advertisement attempts to shift customers’ attention away from the fact that some of the ketchup ingredients might not be healthy.