Explanation of optical illusion image

• One interpretation of this image is that it depicts a grizzled older man with long hair and a beard. (Think of him as my role model! -- George Fowler)
  • Two dark blotches set beside each other just above the center of the image are his eyes, deep in shadow, the relatively open space above them is his forehead, his lips are two parallel light areas an inch or so below his eyes, with the beard hanging down at the bottom. Does that help? If you have trouble, show it to a friend or roommate.
• The alternative is two lovers kissing in an arbor.
  • The dark area to the left, which was an eye in the first interpretation, is the hair of one lover, while the other is something like a cap or hood on the head of the second. Their faces are touching, presumably at the mouth for a kiss. The figure on the left has her (?) right arm extending to the left shoulder the figure on the right. The figure on the right has a rather vacant looking face, with only the left eye visible as a short black mark to the left of the cap/hood.

Why is advertising interesting to study?

• Well, because there's a lot going on in ads because
  • they are short texts
  • the makers are intensely interested in achieving successful communication
  • and there's lots of money in advertising, so the makers tend to be well motivated
  • there has evolved a kind of pride among ad makers in producing aesthetically compelling ads
• Let's consider some interesting ads, for various reasons
  • ATP tennis circuit
  • Nike freestyle basketball
  • Make 7-up yours
  • Nike chainsaw
  • Columbian anti-cocaine ad
  • Cat herders
• Sometimes an ad is not intrinsically interesting, but becomes interesting because of its social or political context
  • Here's an extraordinary advertisement featuring the World Trade Center
  • Here's a totally banal ad referencing 9/11

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
      • Does a sign communicate in the forest if there is nobody watching it? (like the proverbial tree falling in the forest)
    • Consider the phallic symbol
    • 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