The document provides an overview of how to analyze print ads through various theoretical lenses such as semiotic analysis, psychoanalytic theory, sociological analysis, historical analysis, myth/ritual analysis, Marxist analysis, and feminist interpretation. It then analyzes a Fidji perfume ad using these different approaches, noting design elements, symbolic meanings, targeted audiences, and how the ad could be seen as reflecting social issues and power structures according to different critical perspectives. The analysis considers signs, symbols, targeted consumers, and implicit messages regarding gender, sexuality, and social class.

1. Analyzing Print Ads
Fidji (chapter 8, Berger)

2. What is there to analyze in an
Ad?
Design (balance, asymmetry)
Copy/Design relationship
White space
Photographic angles (significance, look up, down or
equal to subjects)
Lighting, shadows (mood)
Colors (which and significance of)

3. Imaginary Ad with a Man,
Woman and Text
Facial expressions, hair color and style, fashion, props,
gender, age, race, signs of occupation, relationship
between figures
What is the ‗action‘? What is the narrative or moment
within a broader narrative?
Signs, symbols, basic themes, context
How is language used? (arguments, associations,
analogies, typeface)
Product or service
Values and beliefs (patriotism, motherly love, success,
power, taste)

4. Analyzing the Fidji Ad
Semiotic Analysis: how do sign, symbols and codes
generate meaning?
Psychoanalytic Theory: appeals to unconscious
elements (psyche, anxiety, sexuality,
id/ego/superego)
Sociological Analysis: class, gender, race, status and
role (how does product reflect about social concerns)
Historical Analysis: part of campaign? Relates to
historical events? (political?)
Myth/Ritual Analysis: does ad relate to ancient
myths?

5. Semiotic Interpretation:
Ferdinand de Saussure
Saussure‘s signs are made of signifiers
(sounds or images) and signifieds (concepts
or ideas)
Expressions, body language, clothes, voices-
-nearly everything we do—function as
signifiers of something (moods, feelings,
beliefs, religion etc)
Relationship between signifiers and signified
is arbitrary (based on convention and must be
learned, not natural or universal)

6. Semiotic Interpretation: C.S.
Pierce
Signs that signify by resemblance, or
icons (photographs)
Signs that signify by cause and effect,
or indexes (smoke rising)
Signs that signify by conventions, or
symbols (flag, star of David)

7. Semiotic analysis of Fidji Ad
Formal, good deal of white space, which is
typical in ads for upscale, expensive products
We see only the bottom half of the woman‘s
face, which allows women to put themselves
into the picture
Lips are partly open suggesting sexual
passion or excitement
Woman appears Polynesian

8. Semiotic analysis of Fidji Ad
Extreme lighting, strong darks and lights, emphasizes long
neck
Dark, long hair connected with sexual passion
Name of perfume works with other elements to suggest
the tropics
The use of French (snob appeal)
―Concepts are purely differential and defined not by their
positive content but negatively with the other terms in the
system… being what the others are not.‖ -Saussure

9. Paired oppositions in Fidji Ad
Fidji vs Civilized world (Fidji perfume vs other perfumes)
Polynesian woman vs White woman
Paradise vs Hell
Escape vs Imprisonment
Dark hair vs Light hair
Free sexuality vs Repressed sexuality
Magic vs Rationality

10. Psychoanalytic Analysis
Snakes are phallic symbols in Freudian psychology
(snake is wound around woman‘s neck), an iconic
representation
Snakes and women are part of the Adam & Eve story,
mythological significance (snake tempted Eve and
she convinced Adam to eat from the Tree of
Knowledge)
Anxiety related to snakes and deep seated fears in
women of being penetrated by men‘s genitals, may
be argued that perfume can be seen as venom with
magical qualities (most important making women
irresistible to men)

11. Psychoanalytic Analysis
The snake forms an ―S‖, the thin black cording on
bottle forms an ―E,‖ and the woman‘s fingers form an
―X‖; thus the word sex is hidden in the ad (this theory
would hold that subliminally we would be affected by
this and feel more inclined toward sexual activity)
The orchid is a sexual symbol, flowers being the
sexual apparatus of plants, we use flowers to make
exciting scents
Freud‘s structural hypothesis of the psyche (being in
the tropics and away from civilization, which works to
curtail the id impulses). –page 146, Berger
Id/Ego/Superego applied to advertising

12. Sociological Analysis of Fidji
Ad
Based on the woman in the ad, we can conclude the
target audience is young, sophisticated women who feel
frustrated by the constraints of their everyday lives in
contemporary urban society and who want, in fantasy, to
escape
Escaping involves nature and romantic love, Polynesian
woman as more passionate, less inhibited than white
women
Buying Fidji means being an elite, if not economically, in
terms of lifestyle or taste culture (wearing a refined
perfume may define one‘s socioeconomic class)
Fidji attracts a sexual partner and consolidates the belief
that the wearer is sophisticated and desirable, confers

13. Marxist Analysis of Fidji Ad
This ad reflects graphically the exploitation of people
in the Third World by people in the First World, and
by bourgeois capitalist societies that encourage
capitalist corporations like Guy Laroche, maker of
Fidji perfume
According to Marxism, capitalism has survived by
exporting its problems, thus the ad if for capitalist
imperialism, not perfume
The ad is an example of bourgeois consumer culture
excesses, including sexuality, which can be used
against us to make wasteful purchases in the name
of glamour

14. Marxist Analysis of Fidji Ad
Industry has political mission to distract us from civic
culture to focus on private expenditures
We revel in our personal luxuries and take refuge in gated
communities while society spirals into chaos
We attempt to assuage our alienation by creating
consumer cultures, which creates greater profits for those
who own the channels of production and distribution
Marxist approach, however, is doctrinaire, and has
imploded as Soviet societies are now feverishly
consuming, lacks resonance even if correct

15. The Myth Model and the
Fidji Ad
The Myth (Medusa)
An historical event related to the myth
A text or work from elite culture based on the myth
A text or work for popular culture based on the myth
Some aspects of everyday life based on the myth
-see page 150, Berger

16. Feminist Interpretation
of the Fidji Ad
We live in a phallocentric society dominated by males
Males are blind to their power and the role of the
phallus in society, assuming that power structures are
natural and logical
The Fidji ad is a perfect representation: a woman with
a snake (phallic symbol) draped around her neck.
The woman is accessible to the male gaze (a look by
men that reduces women to sexual objects). She is
holding the perfume that will make her irresistible
thus participating in her own subjugation. A return to
paradise in in effect a return to being dominated by
men.