Textual Analysis – Name of product in the middle of advertisement. Image of a man sitting down with a woman sitting on his shoulder. Image of the fragrance in the bottom right-hand corner. Small text at bottom of the page.
Semiotic Analysis – Dominant signifier is of the man sitting down with a woman sitting on his shoulder. An iconic sign is of the fragrance itself. The indexical and symbolic signs are the stance that the man and woman are in, plus the clothes that they are wearing, as they imply a sexual feel to the product.
Representation – The representation in this advert is reactionary because it tries to use ‘sex’ to sell a fragrance. It does this through the stance that the man and woman are in, as well as the clothes that the woman is in. It also shows sexual tension between a heterosexual couple, rather than an lgbtq+ couple. This is reactionary because stereotypically straight couples are always shown in adverts, and lgbtq+ couples rarely receive representation in the mainstream media.
Textual Analysis – Name of product at the top left of advertisement. Large image of a shirtless man sitting down in the middle of the ad. Image of the fragrance in the bottom right-hand corner. Small text at the left bottom of the page stating who ‘discovered the fragrance + small text at the bottom right of the page.
Semiotic Analysis – Dominant signifier is of a shirtless man sitting down. An iconic sign is of the fragrance itself. The indexical and symbolic signs are the stance that the man is in. It displays power and masculinity. The name of the product is also an indexical sign because the word allure suggests that the fragrance is ‘alluring’ (defined as: powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating; seductive).
Representation – The representation in this advert is reactionary because it attempts to use the model’s conventional attractiveness to sell its fragrance. The model is shirtless, showing a hairy chest and toned body (associated with masculinity). He also has a strong jawline and sharp features which are conventionally attractive. By using this model, the fragrance is suggesting that men who use that fragrance will also look attractive and have sex appeal.
Textual Analysis – Name of product at the top right of advertisement, with slogan above it in bold text. Large image of a shirtless man riding a horse in the centre of the ad. Image of the fragrance in his hand, with water spilling out from under it. Beach + sea in the background.
Semiotic Analysis – Dominant signifier is of a shirtless man riding a white horse. An iconic sign is of the fragrance itself. The indexical and symbolic signs are the stance that the man is in.
Representation – The representation in this advert is reactionary because it attempts to use the social concept of ‘smelling masculine’ to sell its fragrance. The model is shirtless and riding a white horse. He has a cut body with defined muscles. Again, the fragrance uses a conventionally attractive model to try to sell to male consumers. However, there is a humorous element to the advert. The model is in a rather comical pose, with his hand on his hip and body in a contorted pose. The slogan is also slightly humorous stating “smell like a man, man”.
Textual Analysis – Large image of a child in the centre of an ad. Wide text of the companies slogan layered across the child’s face.
Semiotic Analysis – Dominant signifier is of a child. The indexical and symbolic sign is the slogan that the company has used “The best a man can get”.
Representation – The representation in this advert is radical because it attempts to fight toxic masculinity through representation. Usually, male fragrance companies use the social construct of ‘being a man’ to try and sell their product, however, Gillette has flipped the coin on this approach by criticising the very idea of ‘being a man’ and instead suggesting that ‘men need to be better’. The image of a child paired with this slogan creates a more emotional response for viewers, and it suggests that the way to change is through youth.
Textual Analysis – Large image of a popular celebrity (Chris Hemsworth) in the centre of the ad. Text stating company name in the top right of the ad. Picture of fragrance in the bottom right of the ad. Fragrances slogan (hashtagged) in the bottom left. Above it is the description of the fragrance. The background is of a city.
Semiotic Analysis – Dominant signifier is of a famous celebrity in a suit. The indexical and symbolic sign is the slogan that the company has used “The man of today”. An iconic sign is the fragrance itself.
Representation – The representation in this advert is reactionary because it suggests that men have to look and act a certain way to truly ‘be a man’. By using Chris Hemsworth (a stereotypically masuline man) as the fragrances model, Boss becomes part of the problem concerning body image. It suggests that men need to be ‘cool’ and ‘sexy’ to really be a man. Also, by clothing him in a sharp snappy suit and photoshopping him in front of a city, the brand is again suggesting that men need to be a certain way to be accepted.
Ronaldo the celebrity is in the advertisement and so is the shampoo bottle. The bright colours (gold) suggests that he is important.
Semiotic Analysis
The dominant signifier is Ronaldo the footballer and there is anchorage in the image to provide context of what the product itself does “Removes dandruff and Styling residue”. He also creates an ideology by pointing to his head that using that shampoo will make you smart in some way.
Representation Analysis
This advertisement would be a reactionary representation as it is seen as normal for celebrities to sell themselves. This could be seen as a counter-type as he is not accompanied by a woman in this advert which would be seen as stereotypical.
Image 2 (Nivea):
Textual Analysis
With the denotation of this you can see that there is a man and a woman in the shower and they are naked, both seem to be smiling and enjoying themselves. And the brand name is Nivea.
Semiotic Analysis
The code of the product is that you will be happy if and with someone if you use this product maybe even suggesting that you will be with a woman. And the signifier of the object is shampoo bottle.
Representation Analysis
Through the process of signification you can see that the product has been scaled down the anchorage with the text would be “What men want” causing Voyeurism towards the heterosexual male. You could see this advertisement as patriarchy
Image 3 (Aveeno):
Textual Analysis
They are saying that now it is “Healthy to wash your hair everyday” as if it wasn’t before hand. Which could be creating a myth. They also use harmonizing colours such as green.
Semiotic Analysis
You start to see a paradigm with the advertising of hair products. This can be seen as radical as people might not believe the fact that there hair was no healthy before.
Representation Analysis
This pictures that provide anchorage may be misrepresenting reality. The industry also seems to be a hegemony of woman as it is dominated by them.
ANALYSE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIGNIFIERS AND SIGNIFIEDS IN THE TWO CSP GAMES COVERS
In this essay I am going to apply a semiotic analysis to both the Tomb Raider and Metroid video games covers. I will discuss Saussure’s idea of signifiers and the signified and how the representation of women in tomb raider is both radical and reactionary.
I will argue that Lara Croft is both objectified for being a woman however also represented as a radical character, although it is seen as a good thing a woman being the main character in an action game I don’t believe that it will be a productive representation of women in the gaming industry. Tomb raider is a presentation of the theory of the ‘ the male gaze’ created by Laura Mulvey, the male gaze is an act of depicting women, from a straight male perspective that objectifies and sexualises women for their own pleasure, I don’t believe that this is a productive nor positive representation of women in the gaming industry.
In the front cover of the video game tomb raider, the dominant signifier Lara Croft is positioned in a very particular way in order to show her assets, sexualising her with her polygonal breasts and breathy voice, it is hard for some heterosexual males to see her as representing more than an online sexual fantasy. Lara Croft was a huge exception to a rule that still sadly holds true for much of the gaming industry today:” building a franchise around a female lead is seen as a risk” because stereotypically women are not portrayed as action seeking characters.
In the Metroid front game cover the main character “Metroid” is displayed to be a big shouldered, muscular, masculine character, however the person controlling the suit is actually a female character, That is portrayed to appear as masculine which implies that men are stronger and better at defense in comparison to females; it also implies that the male suit is to defend Samus because she cannot defend herself. In addition to this the character is meant to meet the reactionary assumption of what tough, dominan character should be, this is shown to be a male character. The concept of a woman being the main character of a popular video game is a tremendous thing and it gives a good view on the company releasing the game, however there are other ways to avoid the reactionary, negative stereotype of women being oversexualised. ‘(From an article called “Diversity matters”) – This shows that no matter how much effort or help that a company can put in, there is always more to go, or more to do before people are happy.
In addition, the character Lara Croft from tomb raider is shown to be a capable, independent woman who can fend for herself. However Lara Croft can be seen to be in a revealing crop top and a tiny pair of shorts which specifically show off her sexual assets which are unrealistically curvy and creates an unrealistic expectation for women and girls playing the game and from the male perspective which goes along with the belief of a patriarchal society. As Well as this, in other video games male characters have full suits of armour that defends and helps the character and doesn’t show off certain parts of the character’s body but when it comes to a woman they don’t need armour and the majority of their body is shown off. This further shows how the idea of the male gaze is dominant in the video games industry.
In conclusion, both characters from Tomb Raider and Metroid are unjustifiably treated because of their gender. We can see Samus being represented as the opposite of her gender to display the idea that she cannot defend herself, therefore she needs to use and be protected by a big suit of armour that looks masculine on the outside and we can also see Lara Croft being oversexualised to fit the male gaze and identify her as a sexual object for the presumed straight male sales and attraction by using certain clothing.
