More than just pictures and words

Do you pay close attention to the TV commercials disrupting your favorite series? Or to the print ads in a magazine? I guess nobody does. But how come that we still get the message of the ad? That is because of the semiotics of the ad, which means the use and interpretation of signs and symbols.

Let’s have a look at these three examples: 

This ad for OLAY body wash is divided into two parts. In the upper third you can see blue tiles, a drain, foamy water and the words “Oh No!” written with something white and creamy. The letter “O” looks like a spiral and is placed over the drain. The bigger part of the ad shows a picture of a wet shoulder, two fingertips and the words “Oh Yes!” written with something white and creamy as well. The words “Oh Yes!” look smoother and tidier than the words “Oh No!”. In the lower left corner you can see the product, which is a moisturizing body wash. There are also two explanative texts.

By dividing the ad in two parts, the observer can see that there is a comparison between two products: the OLAY ultra moisture body wash and its competitors. The upper part of the ad stands for all the other moisturizing body washes where the moisturizing effect does not stick to the skin but goes down the drain with the water. The spiraling “O” indicates the direction in which the body wash is flowing. Moreover, the “Oh No!” looks very scribbled which supports the negative meaning of the picture. At last, the blue tiles look rather cold when contrasted with the warm red color of the shoulder in the lower picture. Here, the observer can empathize with the model in the ad because you can see the water dripping on the shoulder and the fingertips indicate a typical movement when you soap yourself. The fact that the words “Oh Yes!” look so smooth creates the impression of a nice creamy body wash.

Billboard on the left says “tired?”, billboard on the right says “awake!” and in the lower right corner “muchmuch caffeine”

These billboards advertise a German cola called Fritzkola. On each billboard you can see a plain white ground, two bottle caps (either folded or normal) and one word (either “tired?” or “awake!”). On the right billboard there are also the product itself and the words “muchmuch caffeine”. These two billboards are not always next to each other.

The bottle caps look like eyes being closed (tired) or opened (awake), meaning that your eyes are open wide when you drink Fritzkola because it has so much caffeine in it. The fact that you do not always have both billboards next to each other makes the observer curious because there is no product in the “tired?”-billboard. The colors black and white resemble the design of the bottle which is completely black and only has the name on it in white letters.

This German TV commercial is one of my favorites. It shows several people trying to reverse into a parking space with the help of their cars’ parking sensors. Sometimes you can see the car from the outside, sometimes the drivers and sometimes the other passengers in the car. The facial expressions range from concentration through frustration to anger. At the same time you hear different beeping sounds which form the song “Time to say goodbye” by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli. After these scenes the beeping sounds stop and there is a black screen with the words “Bye Bye Beep Beep” written in white. And then you can see a smart being reversed into a parking spot and the only sound you hear is the driving car.

This commercial puts emphasis on one of the major advantages of the smart: its size. It does not need parking sensors because you can easily park in any parking spot. The creators of the commercial used several different kinds of people so that chances are high that the observer can identify with one of them and empathize with his or her feelings of frustration in that situation. The song “Time to say goodbye” introduces the statement “Bye Bye Beep Beep” and helps people remember the commercial better because it is creative to make a song out of parking assistant beeps. The fact that there is no background music or sound in the end creates a strong contrast to the chaotic scenes from the beginning and it calms the observer. Like this, the observer will associate the smart with calmness and the other cars with chaos and frustration.

As you can see, everything in an advertisement is there for a reason! So maybe next time when your movie is interrupted by a commercial break you can use your new knowledge and analyze the semiotics.