Exercise: implicit and explicit

I've sourced a number of advertisements below that I believe use either implicit or explicit advertising methods to sell their products.

The ad below for deodorant, is selling the idea of a woman's sexual availability to any man that uses the product. The ad uses a visual metaphor for sex but the connotations are very easy to read. I would say there is an explicit visual message being used to promote the brand. 

In this ad the company is promoting a salad dish. The visual joke is that the consumer, a woman who is concerned about her weight, has become so thin from eating the salad product that the company's ubiquitous paper crown just slips down her head to her ankles. This is an implicit message, promoting the value of the product in achieving weight loss. Although maybe not intended, I can detect a second message here too. We all know sex sells. The crown around the woman's ankles could also be a visual metaphor for getting lucky - because eating the product will make you more likely to be thin and sexually attractive?  

This ad for sexual health is about explicit in advertising terms as they get. There is no subtle message here, the message is clear. Carry a condom because you never know where you will need to use it.

This climate change ad uses an implicit advertising message. The implication being that not acting on climate change and rising sea levels will result in human adaptation to fish-headed men. The viewer has to understand the visual metaphor to be able to understand the message. No-one seriously believes that we will evolve into half fish, half human. The message is projecting a possible scenario in our distant future to remind us to act now before it is too late.

In many ads the consumer is aware that the message being sold is unlikely. The deodorant ad above for example. I'm sure many young men realise that using the product is not going to allow them free access to sex with women covering themselves in cream. What happens is they enjoy the message. They want to see themselves like the man in the ad who is going to get lucky. They align themselves with the ad's message and product. A fantasy is being sold and the viewer consumer knows it but buys into the product all the same. Advertising can be very complex and subtle at times and often plays subliminal tricks on the mind.

Exercise: what are they selling?

In this skincare ad for moisturiser, the idea of preserving youthful skin is being sold to a mainly female audience. The split image uses the notion of scientific rigour to portray before and after images that 'prove' the ads claims. Text is used to point out four areas of visible skin improvement.

From the list of eight hidden needs of psycho seduction, I've found three that are implicit in this advertisement: 

immortality 

reassurance of worth

emotional security

In this ad for Ducati motorbikes thrills, speed and freedom, are being sold mainly to men. The idea of breaking the law is denoted in the image as the police helicopter is the only machine fast enough to catch the speeding biker. The ad has connotations of rebelliousness.

From the list of eight hidden needs of psycho seduction, I've found three that are implicit in this advertisement:

    

reassurance of worth

ego gratification

sense of power

This beer ad uses tradition and a shooting party to portray its brand as belonging to an elite club. The image connotes class status and wealth. The couple having a picnic in the foreground appear to be separate from the main party but still part of the traditional activities taking place.

From the list of eight hidden needs of psycho seduction, I've found three that are implicit in this advertisement: 

sense of roots

reassurance of worth

ego gratification

This Means This, This Means That: a user's guide to semiotics - Sean Hall

This book is on the course reading list. It's a quick 'how to understand signs' book with some examples. The book tries to make the reader think about the structure that is all around us in our everyday lives; one that we don't think about and take for granted because we are too used to it. Simple examples are used to illustrate this; a traffic light for instance uses the colour scheme red, amber, green. We all know what it means. We also expect the colours to be stacked top to bottom in a certain order. There is no reason why they should be a particular colour or order but we accept that they are.

Everywhere we look signs are all around us. A sign is made up of two parts:

Signifier + Signified = Sign

To break that down:

The signifier = the form taken by the sign.

The signified = the concept the sign represents.

So, seeing smoke on the road ahead is a signifier for fire:

smoke: signifier + fire: signified = sign


At a very basic level Semiotics makes a lot of sense. When it is applied to photography too it becomes a useful tool for analysis. I do think there is a danger of the concept being built into ever more complex webs of signs that end up diluting its impact. Can we really decode the entire world around us by using semiotic signs? We use the code of language to express complex thoughts and ideas so maybe the concept is not so far fetched. The issue may be with interpreting semiotic signs. Who gets to say what sign means what? This must be subjective and prone to misinterpreation. It seems that the concept does have critics:

"Sometimes semioticians present their analyses as if they were purely objective 'scientific' accounts rather than subjective interpretations. Yet few semioticians seem to feel much need to provide empirical evidence for particular interpretations, and much semiotic analysis is loosely impressionistic and highly unsystematic (or alternatively, generates elaborate taxonomies with little evident practical application)." Chandler (2014).

The text in bold is a suspicion that I had myself. At the beginning of this book are a couple of very elaborate diagrams breaking down signs into many sub categories. I am dubious about the practical application of such taxonomies.

I need to read more deeply to be able to understand Semiotics in greater depth. Maybe I will change my mind at that time. For now, this book is good for dipping into as and when I need to remind myself about the usefulness of signs when decoding photographs.











references:

Chandler, D. 2014 [online] Accessed 19th June 2015. [Available from] http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem11.html

Research Point: Contemporary Awareness 4

Anderson and Low

This duo's images of naked athletes for the Danish athletic team are based around the elemental concept of earth, water, wind and fire. The athletes are obviously physically fit and the photographers have used this to their advantage in these compositions. Their bodies are shown going through different contorting positions as they dive or twist, somersault and stretch. The images that show pairs or groups are the most successful as they interact with each other in an almost dance-like way.

The images are simple with hardly any other detail except sky or water to detract from the bodies as their movement is captured and frozen. The images denote group collaboration and healthy living; endurance and determination are two other attributes that spring to mind when viewing these images.

The photographers have taken the concept of athletes in motion with their ad for Flora. This time the images are shot outside but leave plenty of space for sky so that text and strap lines can be added. The strap line is prominent using a vary large font. Because of this the solitary runners, a wheelchair athlete, and two footballers leaping to head a ball, inhabit a place close to the edge of the frame. Proximity to the edge of the frame gives the athletes a prominence that belies their small size and creates balance in the composition.

The messages used in the images relate to keeping your heart healthy - because you need one to have the attributes of endurance, ability, skill, etc. The athletes are used to create an affinity with the health conscious viewer and the attributes of endurance and determination are transferred to the Flora logo that is overlaid across the edge of the blue sky.

The course notes state that:

Products are able to cross class boundaries and, in their perceived reality, move people across those boundaries through attaining the product. Baudrillard would see this pretence of social change as a simulacrum because of its reality to those involved: they know the social change isn't real but because it happens (peers feel the buyer has moved up the world) then it (social movement) becomes a sort of reality. (Gesture and Meaning).

I can see that a simulacrum can also occur in images where a healthy lifestyle is sold through products such as Flora. A prospective viewer watching TV or looking at a magazine would read the images of athletes and absorb the message in the strap lines. They might want to buy a product that gives them a feeling of at least attempting to participate in healthy living and hope to identity with having endurance, stamina and the skill needed to compete in sports.

Source website


Peter Lippmann

This photographer has used the genre of still life and traditional painting as the concept for one of his campaigns. The images are painterly and full of detail creating richly decorated tableaux. The images show designer shoes placed into these scenarios. All still life objects traditionally have a meaning assigned to them that could be read and understood by the viewer. By placing Christian Louboutin shoes in close proximity to the other objects they attain equal status in the arrangement. The high status of fine art painting and it's elitist culture is also transferred to the shoes. The implication is that anyone that can afford these high end shoes is also someone that likes, appreciates and understands the finer things in life.

By associating the Christian Louboutin brand with the long tradition of fine art painting, the notion of longevity is also transferred. The campaign appears to have been very successful as the company have used Lippmann's work for a number of seasons.

Source website


George Logan

This photographer has used the technique of placing incongruous objects in proximity to create a strong visual dynamic. In his work with Whiskas cat food, small domestic cats are seen making contact, rubbing noses etc, with big cats in wild African surroundings. The images are glossy and full of detail; the kind of high quality that's expected in wild life photography. Photoshop has obviously been used to post-process the domestic cats into these surroundings.

A similar technique is used for Sky Go. In these ads a laptop is used to meld an image of a sportsperson on screen with the laptop's environment. This work is very effective indeed. For instance, the laptop is shown on an unseen man's lap by a pool. He is watching a wrestling match. In the background a man is floating on the water; his torso and head are obscured by the laptop and matches up with a mans upper half on screen where another wrestler is frozen, mid-air, about to land a heavy body slam onto the prone wrestler. Even though we know the unsuspecting man in the pool and the prone wrestler about to get slammed are different people in different places, there is a visual tension created between the two.

In the Sky Go campaign men are seen relaxing by the pool in a sunny climate while they watch sports on laptops. Technology and technology services, such as streaming TV, place entertainment at a person's fingertips whenever, wherever, they want. An aspirational lifestyle is also being sold in this ad. It is more than likely that the person using a streaming service is watching from an iPad on a cramped commuter train every morning - certainly much more often than when they are able to take holidays.

Source website

Punctum

• a point of visual interest to which your eye keeps being drawn.
• a point which causes an emotive reaction within the viewer.
• a point that causes conjecture as to why it makes you feel the way you do about the image.

These three bullets from the course notes are useful for remembering how punctum works. I would also say that punctum is subjective and that although studium is always embedded in an image (to enable the viewer to decode it) punctum isn't always present for an individual viewer.

I looked at some (non-OCA) student's examples of punctum and studium on the web. In my opinion there were some clearly incorrect examples being used. A photograph of an upturned car, placed in the centre of the frame, is clearly the subject of the image - and therefore part of the image's studium. If, for instance, the photographer had photographed a woman standing against a wall covered in pasted news headlines then, the woman is the subject, and the mass of newspaper headlines (for the photographer) are an interesting backdrop - all part of the studium. If, in one of those newspaper pictures, the upturned car could clearly be seen, then that could be a point of punctum for those that perceived it. That to me, is what punctum is.

But when I start to think more deeply about the definitions of punctum and studium, I see issues with regard to the points above. What if those points were specifically created by the maker? Can they still be punctum? Surely sometimes those points are specifically placed into an image to be decoded as part of the studium. So how can they be punctum? Is it just because the viewer sees them that way and doesn't perceive the intended denoted or connotative message?

When I think of the constructed work of Cindy Sherman for example. When every element has been planned; when every prop has been placed into the image; how can a viewer see any punctum? I took some time thinking about these concepts and eventually saw that a point in an image can have entirely different connotations than those intended by the maker. Perhaps punctum could be perceived in this way - a point could be both studium (placed there with connotations/denotations for the maker) and punctum for the viewer as it triggers different thought processes, memories, etc. I'm straying into the slippery path of the subject of the de-centered image here.

I think the points above work well when analysing documentary or 'straight' images. That's how Barthes analysed the image of his mother at the winter gardens. And indeed, I've been fascinated by mundane or obscure details taking place in the background of images myself, many times. But when I start to look at conceptual or constructed work with punctum and stadium in mind then I find that these definitions become slippery and less easy to grasp.

Exercise: Targeting an audience

This section of the module looks at advertising. The fourth assignment is designed to pull together what I've learnt in this section and make a calendar. I have no idea where I'm going with my ideas yet -  I have to think about them a bit more and complete the exercises.

This first exercise of this section asks me to look at three current adverts and analyse them as to who, what, and how:

Who is the intended market for the product?

What are they selling?

How are they selling it to the customer?

For the product below the who and the what is obvious; we all eat breakfast cereal don't we? The how I've written in more detail for two adverts below:

This ad for Weetabix uses the notion of health and vitality to portray their product. The image implies that only two ingredients exist in Weetabix - sunshine and wheat; the consumer only has to add the milk for a nutritious, healthy breakfast. There are no people visible in the ad. Many people are needed to transform the wheat in a field through to a factory formed product that ends up on the breakfast table. Once harvested by mechanical means, the product is processed in a factory with added chemicals. This is part of an efficient production process to add colour, texture, and sweetness to the product. Other chemicals are added to lengthen the storage and shelf life.

The ad ignores the reality of factory food production and instead visually imbibes the product with wholesome goodness. 

This ad for the same product uses a completely different approach. Gone are the notions of natural products growing in a sun-kissed field untouched by mechanical production and processing methods.

This image is more post-modern in its visualisation. The viewer is shown a rather grand table setting with a fancy spoon and plates (notice there are four plates stacked from smallest to largest) They all have a crown emblem, as does the napkin ring and spoon handle. This is a breakfast fit for a queen.

I think this advert works on multiple levels. It would appeal to those of a conservative disposition who would perhaps aspire to and enjoy all things grand and traditional. The text 'Fuel Britannia' I think is a knowing nod to 'Cool Britannia' a phrase that was in circulation during the 1990s. The text is there to diffuse any sense of stuffiness and makes the whole image a visual pun. For me, it conjures up additional images of mopeds, street cool, Ginger Spice in her union jack dress - a modern Britain that still keeps the best of its traditions. This is a clever image that works for different audiences.

Below are some more adverts I've noticed online:

This advert is for an I.T. outsourcing company:

Who - I would say that the customers clients are other companies that need I.T. services to enable them to operate their business. This advert would be aimed at professionals making financial decisions on behalf of their companies.

What - Expertise in I.T. services and also peace of mind that sudden technical breakdowns or mammoth infrastructure overhauls can be handed over to a third party to sort out.

How - Through the use of sizeist humour and narrative. In the foreground, a guy with a muscular physique and cool jeans stands legs apart, his hand on hip. He scratches the back of his head at the thought of 'scaling' such a 'mammoth' task as the naked woman on the bed. The implication being that we wouldn't want to undertake the task ourselves (because she's fat, innit!) but the guy in the jeans is ready to have a go, no matter how difficult, he gets the job done  - 'HILARIOUS!'  Oh, HO! HO! HO!

In other words, by outsourcing I.T. services, all those insurmountable I.T. tasks (such as upgrading infrastructure etc) will be done by a company with a willingness to figure out how to complete the job.

I do wonder how the woman model feels about being photographed and used in an advert this way?

This advert for Burger King surprised me. I thought family oriented companies didn't go in for this type of humour.

Who - the clients that eat the produce. This would be people of all ages and demographics.

What - they are selling convenience food that can be consumed either at rest stops, or on the move.

How -  sexual humour is being used to promote the product. I'd be interested to know actually how a family audience would react to this visual imagery - with it's obvious references to seven-inchers and blow jobs. Maybe the ad works on the level of an in-joke between adults that children are oblivious to.


When advertising works well it is enjoyable to read and see. Where the industry lets itself down is its continual re-enforcing of visual stereotypes. I have to say how surprised I am at the blatant stereotyping on most of the advertisements I researched online. I'd thought as a society we were starting to move away from this kind of rubbish. It appears that as long as the concept is done in a jokey way then it's acceptable. The whole culture of  'it's not sexist, racist or homophobic - it's just 'banter' seems to be very prevalent for the last few years. Also, as I tend to fast forward through adverts on TV, don't buy fashion magazines or newspapers, I think I've been a bit caught unawares by how much sex is still used to sell product.

The advertising industry is a very creative place but creativity is directed by market forces. If it makes money then all is good. Sometimes adverts are deliberately designed to shock. Even bad news is good news. It is hard to see if this attitude will ever change.