1. This document outlines the aims and topics covered in the course LZ411 - Critical Media Theory, which includes examining the language of advertising, conducting semiotic analyses of ads, and analyzing myth and ideology in advertising. 2. It discusses how advertising creates meaning and structures through persuasion, using devices like juxtaposition, narrative, metaphor and connecting products to cultural signifiers. Intertextuality, where ads reference other texts, is also analyzed. 3. Specific advertising examples are semiotically analyzed to show how meanings are transferred from signifiers like brands to products through communicative strategies and connecting objects to people. The role of myth and gender in advertising is also examined.

1. LZ411 – Critical Media Theory
LZ411 – Critical Media
Theory
Analysing advertising
Aims today …
1.Examining the ‘language of advertising’
2.Doing semiotic analyses of advertising
3.Myth and ideology in advertising
"Advertising isn't a science. It's persuasion. And persuasion is an art."
Bill Bernbach – creator of the ‘lemon’ ad. for VW
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2. Advertising in daily life
• What adverts can you remember from the last
24 hours?
• Which adverts are most memorable for you
(ever)? Why?
• What have you bought because you saw/heard
about it in an advert?
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3. An advert …
Buy this car.
£15,000
All the small print . All the small print . All the small print . All the small print . All the small print .All the small print . All the small print . All the
small print . All the small print . All the small print . All the small print . All the small print . All the small print .All the small print . All the small
print . All the small print .
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4. The functions of advertising
“[It] has a function, which is to sell things to us.
But it has another function, which I believe in
many ways replaces that traditionally fulfilled by
art and religion. It creates structures of
meaning.
(Williamson 1978: 11-12)
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5. Yves Saint Laurent (2000) – Opium advert [Steven Meisel/Tom Ford]
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6. Structures of meaning
• Ad. agencies sell products to audiences/readers
through creating meaning. Advertising creates
“symbolic ‘exchange values’… Translating the
language of objects to that of people”.
(Williamson 2002:12)
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7. Advertiser: Volkswagen Group. Brand name: Audi
Product: Audi A6 V6 2.4 Agency: Verba Released: July 1999
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8. Semiotic analysis
Start: Sign – Audi A6
Signifier – word Audi A6
Signified – powerful, luxury, ‘high
class’ car. For a particular type of car
driver.
Brand aim: increase consumer base
to include those put off by the
‘luxury’ label because of six cylinders
(i.e. most cars are 4)
Need to: change signified of signifier
‘Audi A6’ to ‘not
luxury’/’everydayness’ etc.
Result: Sign – Audi
Signifier – word audi
Signified – having six cylinders in a
car is not luxury it’s
normal/everyday etc. It’s for anyone
Communicative strategy: Associate
signifier with everyday object. How?
Through one attribute.
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9. Devices of connecting
objects/services and people
• (Some) Devices
• Connection through juxtaposition
• Connection through storying (narrative)
• Use of figurative language (e.g. metaphor and metonym)
• Intertextuality
• ‘Voice of the advert’ in terms of a human
attribute/character (e.g. humour, irony, playfulness, clever)
• In short – connecting one sign system (already
known from our histories, culture, society) to
another (the product or service to be sold)
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12. Intertextuality
• Another way of communicating is by reference to
other texts. The meanings in one text are often based
on the meanings in another. Think how ads ‘borrow’
from film and TV, and vice versa.
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13. An example
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14. Narrative
• Action (plot) Building and maintaining our
interest in a narrative by showing an action.
We keep watching/reading to see the result or
outcome of the action.
• Enigma code – Building and maintaining our
interest in a narrative by posing questions,
puzzles. We keep watching/reading to find the
solution to the puzzle.
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15. TV advertisement examples
• Audi – TDI Quattro
• Chloe perfume
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16. Metaphor and metonymy
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18. 2007 Advertising Agency: Zoo Advertising,
Shanghai, China
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19. ‘Myth’ in advertising
• Signs have connotations which trigger ‘mythic
meanings’ (Barthes 1972)
• Advertising works by juxtapositioning the
product and some other signifier with a mythic
meaning. Transferring of that meaning to the
product is done by the reader.
• Myth and gender – Audi and Chloe
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20. Analysis of Myth
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21. Reading and Seminar
• Finish reading Penn (2000) in module reader
• Seminar – discussing the way ads work.
Discussing advertising, myth and ideology.
Analysing more examples of advertising
• Blog – carry out your own analysis on one of
the ads we discuss in the seminar.
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