Semiotics - Breaking down Adverts 

In order to understand an advert we need to look at it and break down what the meaning behind everything in the advert means. This is where we have the study of Semiology,  where we look at signs, symbols and their combined meaning. 

So what are the  features in semiotics ?

I'll use three different examples of  adverts, and break down every step of semiology. 

Well First of all we have the signifier, this is the first and simplest part to semiology. This is when you look at what things are literally in the advert. The Denotation is the basic or literal meaning of the signs. Signs can defined to be the smallest unit of meaning, anything that can communicate a message. Signs may vary depending on the situation, context, what it is combined with etc. We have Iconic signs where the signifier is an icon or picture telling you what it means, Symbolic signs is conventional and may differ depending on your culture and upbringing and Indexical signs is a signifier that is most likely caused by something else.  Signs can have Paradigmatic Relations, where signs get there meanings from being associated with another particular sign. They may also have Syntagmatic relations where the signs get their meanings from their sequential order.  With the signs we can then come up with the connotation which is the meaning behind the signs. After we have both the Denotation and the connotation the Myth is then brought together and a short story is behind the combination of signs. 

This signifiers in this  billboard advert  is a calendar with pictures of girls looking out each window represented as days on the calendar. Beside the calendar is Axe Deodorant can with writing above it.The Denotation would be what these signs literally mean, so the calendar is  something that keeps track of the dates and inside each day is a picture of girls looking out the window. Beside the calendar is the can of Axe, which is a deodorant and the writing above is the brand name.

The calendar has a girl in each window for each day, the format of the windows suggest that they are dorm rooms, appealing more to the younger crowd, as the females are pretty young. The picture for every day of the month of March suggest the fact that you can get a new girl every day by using this deodorant. They are clearly appealing to a younger crowd by using university halls and young girls, they want young men to see what using this deodorant can do.The clear white background could represent the clear fresh odor that Axe brings when you use it. The fact that all of the females are gazing out the window suggest that this is a sign that all the females are engaging with something.These are the connotation meanings in the picture.

From the connotation and the denotation we can discover what the possible Myth behind the Advert may be. The fact that the product is situated in the right hand lower corner, is for a reason. When we read, automatically, we read from left top to right bottom. In this advert they wanted us to see all of the days of the month noticing all of the ladies gazing at something. This leads us to see that there is something that every girl is fascinated about, then at the end we see the Axe deodorant in the bottom right corner answering that question.We learn that clearly by using this product it draws all attention to the man using it, and all women look at them as if they are an non resistible aphrodisiac, especially with their heads all out the window looking as if they are taking in the fresh air, again this tells us that the smell is refreshing and irresistible. The location for this billboard is in a perfect place, the idea is that it looks like university accommodation halls, the fact that this billboard is on a building with multiple square windows makes it look realistic. The fact that young girls are used in this billboard is sending a message to the young men out there, telling them that they need to use this everyday in order to be a breath of fresh air in the morning to women around them. The writing above the deodorant says 'Axe Schedule', so its telling their target audience that this is a product that should be used daily, again with the calendar beside it, its very clear and easy to understand that. Ultimately the brand is aimed to boost a mans Ego,and this advert shows how it an do that, a guy who uses this deodorant will automatically draw girls to him.

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In this printed campaign the signifier is a big crowd of Pelicans gathered around a single fish. The fish is laying in the center with a fair circle of space around it. The colors are dull and brown, suggesting that the weather is bad. The bottom left corner it has writing. Those are the signs we have to feed off from the advert . Now the literal meaning of those signs is telling us that all the birds are somehow fascinated / drawn to this fish, all of there eyes are staring at it, almost as if they are all getting closer and closer to the fish. The writing in the bottom says ' Sale, Harvey Nichols, starts 1st June', with these short simple words it tells us the basics of what the advert could mean;

A Sale in Harvey Nichols that starts the first of June. 

This printed ad tells us that firstly by the writing in the corner it is a sale in Harvey Nichols. All of the Pelicans eyes are focused on the fish in the middle, indicating high interest in the fish. The fish represent the products that Harvey Nichols sell and the fact that they have low supply but high demand on their products. The Pelicans represent the shoppers, they are telling their target audience how high in demand their sale will be. The natural instinct of shoppers are to go after something that they want regardless of who else is shopping for it, hence why there are a flock of birds, they usually have the same instincts. The entire concept is also metaphoric,placing a piece of Salmon in front of a flock of birds is like reducing prices on expensive goods to shoppers. The entire concept is fun and original, comparing a flock of hungry birds to a bunch of discount shoppers is creative. It is also very simple, and funnily enough it will get viewers looking at the advert wondering what it is advertising.  

This commercial is by Honda, in the video the signifiers are the hands, and the different objects that are formed in the hands. That is the motor bikes, cars, plane, the glass cup, and the writing at the end. The Denotation is presumably a mans hands, who starts off with a screw and then fiddle around frequently making little toy car, bikes and a plane. Towards the end the hands pour water from a car to a cup and then he tilts it towards to screen (us) whilst we hear a drinking noise, with the cup empty after suggesting the man had drank it. At the end it says ' Honda, the power of dreams', so you know that the advert is by Honda.

The deeper meaning behind the signs ultimately tell a story, they managed to compress their 65 year history into a couple of minutes. These hands are representing the creative and rapid ways that Honda create cars, every few seconds the pair of hands develop a new type of car or bike, starting off with a screw and ending with a plane represents how much time and work goes into all of their products. It starts off by asking a question ,it suggest that Honda work with a curious mind and are always experimenting with their product development, this commercial shows you a brainstorm of what they have done . They not only wanted to show the latest car, but they wanted to show their main products,in that short time, the first bike shown in the advert is the Type A bike, Honda's first ever. 

The white background is white for a reason, it represents clarity, with the hands working with a white background it shows that Honda start from scratch and develop their own products based on their own individuality. The screw represents the start of a product, usually before someone makes something, a screw is a thing that they start off with, they are showing their development process in the most extreme case. Along with creating new cars the hand occasionally done gestures that had the fingers moving like 'spirit fingers', as if a magic trick had just been performed. Using magical gestures they are implying on how amazing the production of product is. The sound effects in the commercial also give the audience a basic idea on what the type of product is, the bike at the start has a 'revving' engine suggesting that it is fast and appropriate for racing and suitable for 'racers' or 'bikers'. After the bike then appears a yellow car, with 'celebration' sound effects in the background and yellow and white confetti it gives off the idea that someone has won something. Honda at this point are attempting to make their audience feel like Honda motors are special, almost like a treat. 

This commercial then goes on the tell a story, after they have shown the yellow car they pull out three different types in a row. The change of music throughout the advert gives you the idea of the target audience, Honda are trying to appeal to more than one type of person in this advert. After the 'biker' sound effects, it goes to old 'sing a long' music , suggesting that the bike on the screen at that time is suitable for those slightly older. The small effects of the confetti being hoovered away gives us the actual impression that somebody is working on something, usually when someone is working on something they create a lot of mess and are having to constantly keep tidying up. From the three variations of cars, to a race car with more 'racer' sound effects the music changes to  classical, representing the fact that they have cars that can appeal to the upper class. 

The car pouring water into a cup represents the hard work that is put into the design and creation of their products, the man drinking it shows the cycle of determination and development that they have going on. He takes a big gulp and a light breath and then continues to demonstrate more creativity. The hands go from a racer bike for younger men to a family peoples carrier, with the music in the background making a 'ta-dah' noise, again suggesting how amazing Honda's products are - just like magic. A robot also being pulled out from the back of the car also suggest that Honda are as smart and programmed as robots. Ultimately the advert says that they are known for starting with something small and making it extremely fascinating into different things. They show the range of different products that they make, I even didn't know that they made planes and lawn mowers, but this advert informed me of this. By ending with the plane, representing that's the latest thing that the have started to product with the end quote of 'the power of dreams', is telling us that Honda have come so far and now they produce planes.   

I hope I have given you a better insight or technique into how to read and understand adverts using semiology! 

The Top Advertising Agency for Me...

'Judge a man on his questions, not his answers' Forbes 

According to the Forbes website the top 10 advertising companies voted by CMO's  are Wieden + Kennedy, Grey,  Droga5,  BBDO, Ogilvy,  The Martin Agency, Leo Burnett,CP+B, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and  Publicis. 

As WK ( Weiden and Kennedy) were at the top of the list I decided to look into their agency and see why they are so successful. When I went on their website the first thing that appealed to me was the simplicity of the webpage. I had visited some other websites lower down in the top 10 list (Goodby Silverstein & Partners) and compared the two sites, I found that the WK site looked less crowded and straight forward. As soon as you get to the webpage its easy and straight forward to find what you're looking for , whereas with Goodby Silverstein & Partners The home page was very crowded and full and my first reaction is to find another option, too much was going on. That is for me personally, it may be in the top 10 because they have so much to show right on their homepage they have so much for you to look at. 

WK ad agency seem to  be successful because they simply have so many clients, this means that they must be reliable and have a good reputation for so many clients to join and stay with them. Popular companies that are WK's clients are Facebook, Coca cola, Sony, Converse, Delta, Heineken, Booking.com, Smirnoff, Tiffany and Co, Nandoes, Clinique, Ben and Jerry's, Disneyland, Tesco,  Disney XD and Nike. As they do ad's for popular companies this means that they are obviously doing something correct.  Not only are they based in one area or country but they are world wide, serving companies in New York, Tokyo,  Shanghai, Delhi, Amsterdam, London, Portland and Sao Paulo. This means that this is a growing popular advertising company globally. 

Another good thing about the first impressions of this ad agency ( from viewing the webpage) it is easy to locate countries and brands as well as recent ads they have done for their clients. The website is set out clearly and they have a page showing the people behind the scene so they all are recognized and have significant messages and styles in their pictures showing individuality but creativeness. 

Below I have displayed an example of a page from the WK Website,the fact that they have blogs to keep their audience still interested and give all the different countries that they work with a type of personality makes them very individual. 

The Tesco Family Christmas 2013 advert is one that stands out to me, this is because this advert takes you through a story, a family's short story. They manage to captivate family time moments and show different clips from over time and simply at the end just having 'Tesco, every little helps' at the end lets you know what the whole message of the advert was straight away. The fact that this advert takes you through different steps of an entire family life including new born babies and them growing into young infants, shows that the family is growing. At first when you watch the advert you have no idea what the advert is talking about in regards to brand,you know that it has something to do with spending time with families during special holidays, automatically dinner is involved in every event. The entire message is when your cooking food for a family occasion do your shopping at Tesco. Putting a mini story first keeps your attention and makes you question where it is going and then when you see the simple brand name and quote at the end the first thing that comes to my mind is 'Tesco did it again'. They always seem to have quite good adverts, and the worst part about it is that no one recognizes the actual ad agency who done all that work for them, they see it as Tesco's work. 

Below is another completely different client that WK do ad's for but if you watch it, it still has a story line. WK seem to always do story lines in their adverts, and I could imagine this is to give customers a clear understanding of the product and how exactly it should be interpreted. Although Heineken is only a beer, WK have taken it away from only being a beer coming across as something with power and dominance. This advert is with one man and he goes to several countries and every time attention is drawn to him and people have a tendency to stare and follow him almost as if he is the walking bottle of beer. At every destination the product is clear to the audience and allows the advert to completely talk for itself. In the advert the main character is seen to have so much power, getting the most beautiful ladies at every place and causing jealously from the main men in the club. Even in the last destination when other men in the club were trying to catch up the fact that so many obstacles came in the way to prevent them from touching him showed that he was the superior one with the help of Heineken.This advert overall suggest that with Heineken you are the 'man', targeting their audience - men. By representing travelling to completely different countries in the world like Vietnam,Nigeria and New York it is telling us that no matter where you go Heineken is known to be 'the beer of power'. 

WK have thousands of adverts that I could write about but I only selected a few just as a sample of how good their work is. If they continue to keep their core and individuality they will remain at the top of the advertising market. 

How I feel about Advertising

ADVERTS - I LOVE THEM !!

Adverts have a huge tasks to sell a big or small thing with only a few seconds to a minute. The  choice of colors,WORDS, Font, Pictures, Music, Graphics, and many  more affect the success of the advertisement.

Below is an example of a Bad advert poster, Its something you would walk past, no alarming colors, and too much writing in different places and the information isn't clear, you have to stop and read it to find out what its talking about- No one likes to do that!

Below is an example of a good advert, it is clear what the product does and the colors are alarming. It says the name of the product and by the fun dance gestures of the people in the picture you know its to do with listening to music. Very Simple , not too much going on a very self explanatory advert.

Adverts are also everywhere, you cant escape from them, so unlike many others I've chosen to love them.

They appear on YouTube videos, on your preferred social media page,when your doing online shopping,on the Tube, On the bus, on television, on the radio,even at the start of films in the cinema. Adverts are everywhere, and although the majority of society try their very best to avoid them e.g. pressing 'skip advert' on you tube or upgrading to Premium accounts; most of us wouldn't know about most things we use, see and buy.

If a product is that good then it sells itself, e.g Groupon & Wowcher to get cheaper deals on a wide number of things. They do not need to convince anyone to use their website, it sells itself.
Beneath is a Wowcher advert, very little effort colors and sound, but due to the good deals that the website genuinely offers it sells.

 However when the product isn't that great, the people in charge of putting the advertisement together have to create other distractions to sell the product. For example Nandos is a simple nice fast food restaurant, nothing necessarily makes it different from any other fast food restaurant but they have a memorable logo and always seem to have 'funny quotes' as their adverts.

Adverts give products a theme, for example the McDonald's ' I'm lovin it theme' is way more catchy then McDonald's alone,and now whenever anyone hears that tune they subliminally think about McDonalds and If they are hungry they may suddenly have an urge to eat it. Im Loving it - McDonald's

 This advert below, is another excellent musical example, because they have taken the famous 'YMCA' song and made it the theme song for that company. Car insurance is seen as a boring long thing to do, to have an advert that is fun, with a catchy song and fun looking cartoon characters will encourage viewers to go online and actually try their website.

Another way that adverts work very well is by using 'famous faces' , this hardly ever fails, because celebrities are people that are loved by the majority, fans watch everything they are in, whether their face just appears or they speak or even sing , people will still want to see it.

Capital FM Advert - This advert uses celebrities showing them claim how much they love the radio station, celebrities are trend setters, so if it is shown that celebrities love a particular thing, the general public will follow. Also if someone likes Rihanna for example they would assume that her music will be played on that radio station.

In this Pepsi advert, it uses a combination of a few techniques, it has a story line and uses celebrities with a popular song. Many people may watch this just to see Pink, Britney or Beyonce sing, but by the end of the advert when we see the Pepsi Cans we notice its a Pepsi advert and they have managed to keep our attention to see the product at the end. People will talk about the advert and ask their friends if they have also seen the advert, maybe only for the purpose of the singers but its still a Pepsi advert. They are well known for entertaining whilst they advertise, and this works as they have become more and more successful.

Above is a Dolmio advert, this advert basically sets the scene,and tells people the exact uses for this product. The whole family environment, in the kitchen is showing that we should use their products for home cooking, to make it much easier. They also have options and show the options in the advert, by letting the cartoon characters have an Italian accent, it automatically tells us that it is an Italian based product.

Above is a more sensitive advert appealing for donations to help those less fortunate than us. The music to me is a major factor in the advert,as it puts you in a 'sympathetic mood'. With the images and narrator talking it adds to the effectiveness of the entire advert, you are able to see and hear what your money would be used for. It is very informative and gives clear information on what we can do to help. With the subtle blackouts demonstrating 'dead end' and then talking, again influences our emotions and how we feel towards the information being given to us.  

Above is a 'Whats your price' advert, it personally caught my attention because it states interesting facts at the start I didn't know, so automatically I want to know what this advert is about, then I end up getting caught and watching the whole thing.

As we can see from the above examples, adverts give awareness, sell products, gives information on things we may not know about. They use so much techniques in order to get their message across, by humor, sensitivity, common interest etc.

I hope this blog has helped some of you to appreciate adverts a bit more than you did before you read it :)