C103 - The Semiotics of Advertising
Week 9, Asynchronous Bundle 3
Written assignment due Friday 10/24, 11:59 pm on Canvas

Introduction

• The purpose of this bundle is to give you some intuitive idea what semiotics is, without going into technical detail that would be improved by first reading chapter 1 in the Chandler textbook.
• Numbered questions in bold are to be answered as part of the written assignment. Please include the numbers in your submitted answers so we can be sure what you are responding to.

Why is semiotics interesting or useful?

• What is semiotics?
  • At the simplest level, it is the scientific study of signs
  • Now we have to ask, what is the sign?
    • The sign can be defined as any elemental signal of communication
      • may be linguistic (words written or spoken)
      • may be visual, either abstract of concrete
      • may be direct or indirect in its relation to its message
    • Any communication requires a minimum of two parties in order to take place
      • A speaker (or other source), who provides a message
      • A listener (or other recipient), who receives and interprets the message
    • Semiotics gives us some tools for analyzing the content and presentation of any text that communicates a message.
      • A text is any collection of signs that conveys a message.
  • It is a particularly good methodology, or framework, for analyzing advertisements, where there is a lot being communicated in a small package.
  • It combines interpretation of the intentions of the creator of the text with an appreciation of how the viewer perceives the text
  • It enables us to analyze the text in terms of its intrinsic features and juxtapose it to the social and cultural background against which it functions
  • We can consider either the sign in isolation, or in relation to codes which govern the organization of signs into systems of communication
  • We will spend much of the (rest of the) semester considering codes and the organization of signs, but let us start with the nature of the sign itself

• One critic observes: "semiotics tells us things we already know in a language we will never understand"[!!]
• So why bother with semiotics?
  • Argument 1 (Chandler): Semiotics is important because it can help us not to take "reality" for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation. It teaches us that reality is a system of signs.
  • Argument 2 (Chandler): It can help us to realize that information or meaning is not "contained" in the world or in books, computers or audio-visual media. Meaning is not "transmitted" to us - we actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware. Becoming aware of such codes is both inherently fascinating and intellectually empowering.
  • Argument 3 (Chandler): Living in a world of increasingly visual signs, we need to learn that even the most "realistic" signs are not what they appear to be. By making more explicit the codes by which signs are interpreted we may perform the valuable semiotic function of "denaturalizing" signs.
  • Argument 4 (Chandler): The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings which we inhabit.
  • Argument 5 (Fowler): Learning to think in semiotic terms is what (humanistic) education is all about! Meaning is everything: what you (I, we, they, everyone) mean, and the way you express what you mean. And there is real virtue in making your intuitions explicit. That's what semiotics is concerned with.
• How are we going to talk about semiotics?
  • There are two primary competing models of the sign (Saussure and Peirce)
    • We will discuss these in some detail on Monday 6/30.
    • We will start with the level of the individual sign, and move to groupings of signs, up to and even beyond the level of the text.

Q1 and background information starts here:

• But, without considering that degree of theory, it is easy to understand that a sign minimally has some form (a picture, a written or spoken word, or other things) and a meaning.
• Can the form and the meaning ever be the same?
  • Consider the notion of onomatopoeia (when the sound of a word suggests its meaning directly).
  • A word like pop is a good example of onomatopoeia, or sound symbolism in an English word
• Q1. What is the meaning of the word pop? Explain with an example if that helps you. What is it about the form of this word (its sound, pronunciation) that suggests this meaning?

Q2:

• Let us introduce the notion of a prototype. Here is a leading example: tree
  • A prototype is the way you instantly register a sign.
  • If I say "tree" to you, do you register a deciduous (leafy) tree, like a maple or elm, or a coniferous (needle-bearing) tree, like a pine or fir tree? 
  • I would suggest that it depends on what kinds of trees you are most used to. Nobody will have a banzai tree as their prototype
  • Or consider these two fish. Which one would you call prototypical?
  • One could make the same point about any common biological specimen. Most of the students who take this course think that the prototypical cat has short hair, but my wife breeds long-haired  Siberian cats and that is what I find to be normal and therefore prototypical (here are her first two breeding cats)
• Here is a film clip that plays with competing prototypes for a knife (from the 1986 film "Crocodile Dundee", which some of you have probably seen)
  • Example: "that's not a knife..."
• Q2. From this short clip, how do you understand the difference in the prototypical notion of a knife as the mugger and Crocodile Dundee (an outdoorsman from Australia) perceive it?

Q3:

• Sometimes the connection between the form of a sign and its meaning is obvious only if you already know what it is. Restroom door markings provide an example:

Guy Cook asks whether the "iconic" sign on the door of a public lavatory for men actually looks more like a man than like a woman. "For a sign to be truly iconic, it would have to be transparent to someone who had never seen it before - and it seems unlikely that this is as much the case as is sometimes supposed. We see the resemblance when we already know the meaning" (Cook 1992, 70). Thus, even a "realistic" picture is arbitrary as well as natural.

 

• Actually, in the spirit of Guy Cook's comments, what this iconic sign really reminds me of is the robot in the early 1950s sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. Here's a still from that film.
• But we don't normally have to react to this sign in a vacuum. Compare this sign:
• The full meaning, or flavor, of the male sign emerges only when they are compared.
• We are starting to get some restroom signs that build in transgendered individuals and non-binary genders
• Some are relatively straightforward and serious:
  • ADA recommendation
  • Or just the innovative component by itself
• Others are somewhat ironic or humorous
  • Example X
  • Example Y
  • New Zealand sign

• Another kind of example is traffic signs
  • Regulatory signs
  • Warning signs
  • Shapes of signs
• Q3. Consider the ordinary stop sign. Three components of this familiar object help signal the message "Stop". What are they, and how does each contribute to the overall message conveyed to the driver?
  • Just as a side note not reflected in Q3, but just for fun, I keep collecting alternative versions of stop signs and restroom signs. Here are few of my recent finds (I don't guarantee that any of these are authentic):
    • Posted as an "Amish stop sign"  
    • A stop sign in a Native American language in New York state  
    • A restroom sign in a Hawaiian-themed restaurant 

Q4:

• Here are a couple of interesting ads to consider in terms of how separate signs within the overall text contribute to the message:
  • Morningstar veggie burger
  • This ad attempts to capture the flavor of the late 60s psychedelic/hippy period in several ways:
    • The lettering of the ad (shape and color)
    • The expression "far out"
    • The near quotation from a great Jefferson Airplane song (listen to it on youtube here or from an mp3 here)
    • Compare a couple of Jefferson Airplane posters: #1, #2 for the overall look and feel of the lettering and layout of the ad.
  • Here's an ad for an early Internet method of sending photos from computer to computer: Zing
• Q4. What components (signs) in the Zing ad contribute to the overall effect of the message they want to convey?

Q5:

• Here is an arresting, even shocking ad (this is a photo of a real billboard)
  • Mothers against Drunk Driving

Q5. Pick any four things in this ad which can be regarded as single signs (items bearing their own distinctive element of meaning), and for each one, state how it contributes to the overall message of the ad.