1. FACULTY OF CREATIVE, CULTURAL & ACADEMIC STUDIES
vocational
BTEC National Diploma in Media
Advertising pt 2 – week 33
Analyse own advertising content
Unit 5.4 – Be able to develop responses to media products. Use semiotic
approaches to analyse own and other products
Semiotics - We live in a world of signs and communication is only possible by
means of signs or sign systems, whether they are letter on a page, sounds or
visual codes such as traffic lights. We understand these visual images
because we have learnt to decode them. This comes from a shared
understanding of what the codes for each sign mean. E.g. we know a red
traffic light means stop but an alien may associate red with something else.
It must be appreciated that as part of a system of shared understanding
media producers encode meaning within their products. At times they do this
purposefully like when a pair of men’s sunglasses is advertised alongside
images of fighter jets to connote, via association and a shared
understanding, of all the other things fighter planes mean, a strong, fast, sleek
and generally cool man wearing these cool glasses. At other times, producers
encode without being aware as they are so used to certain images having
connotations of certain things that they do not even stop to think about it.
When this happens we could argue that the media texts produced in some
way help to further the dominant ideologies within our society. An example
of this could be when making an advert for household goods such as sofas
and chairs the women used are shown to be cleaning the children’s toys off
the sofa or presenting men with a drink or simply acting in a way that could be
deemed passive, soft and traditionally feminine. Feminists would then argue
that the advert is simply keeping old fashioned and man made gender roles in
place via its representation of women…
What is important for us may not be whether we agree with all the deeper
arguments but that via the study of signs and codes we are able to find them
when we decode a media product and to encode our products knowledgably.
What must also be remembered is that the deeper meanings or connotations
will vary from person to person or culture to culture depending on previous
taught ideas. This leads to the possibility of the audience making a
negotiated reading where they may decode some bits correctly and some
bits incorrectly. Of course they could also make an aberrant reading where

2. they get it totally wrong; like the alien mentioned earlier making an aberrant
reading of the red traffic light as go instead of stop!
This shared understanding all works within the context of genre. It is easy for
advertisers of perfume to put images of sexy people as the audience have
come associate the two otherwise unconnected items. If a code has been
used that does not fit the genre expectations then this may cause something
other than the preferred reading.
The ideal outcome of any media producer is for the audience to make a
preferred reading where they get exactly what you are trying to say. By
understanding semiotics and how things are codes make up meaning within
systems of signs you can ensure you encode your products correctly.
TASKS
1. Using a screenshot or example from your own advertising product you
must analyse the images for meaning by taking apart all the various
components and applying some simple semiotic analysis. You should
consider the denotation, connotation, negotiated and preferred
meaning and how they all go together to make a system of meaning
that your audience will understand. It is vital that you put this all into the
context of your genre and discuss any issues of representation.
2. Using other examples of similar media products to your own perform a
semiotic analysis on them. You should be picking out the codes and
conventions of your genre and discussing the symbolism (connotation)
of each product. You should compare and contrast your own product
against another and therefore provide some form of own product
evaluation. Issues of representation should be clear alongside some
reasoning behind the choices made in the other products. A good
grade would also include evidence of research into semiotics naming
and discussing theorists such as Roland Bathes.