Well, according to semiologist, these are ‘signs’ in everyday life. Every sign consist of its signifier and signified. (Chandler)
Signifier: The physical form of the sign (part of the overall sign) as we perceive it through our senses; an image.
Signified: The meaning we associated with the sign. (The mental concept generated from the signifier.) (Barthes.)
For example:
CHOCOLATE = Signifier
= Signified
Heart-shaped chocolates
A signifier not necessary has only one signified but many such as . . .
Chocolate sundae.
Chocolate fudge cake.
Chocolate Chips.
And so, a sign has an inter-relationship (an inseparable bond) between the image of the signifier and the content of the signified.
Roland Barthes,
“Semiotics is the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie, because if something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth; it cannot, in fact, be used to tell at all.”
Basing from this, it is possible to tweak a neutral sign into an ideological tool.
Let’s take the heart-shaped chocolate (signified) as to further my explanation.
What are the connotations of the above photo?
Just to name a few, it signifies. . .
Love. When things are shaped like a heart, it often relates to love. This concept is planted in our head because we know that the heart is where we feel emotions such as love, tenderness, pain and affection.
Passion. Color also contributes to connotation. As you can see above, the chocolates are wrapped in red color aluminium. The color red is often associated with passion possibly to the use of red roses that symbolizes love.
However, some people may not think that red signifies passion and that heart isn’t always associated to love. Connotations are fluid as each individual has different perspectives on different things. Thus, this is when anchorage comes in. Before going through a deeper understanding, let’s take a look at this video clip.
What we can deduce from the first half of the video, is a woman trying to break the non-blinking world record. However, what we didn’t know until the second half that it was actually an advert on Carre de chocolat when she couldn’t resist the goodness of chocolate as it melts in her mouth which – unfortunately - made her blink.
The message therefore finally sinks in as the advert uses ‘anchorage’ at the end of the commercial. It ‘anchor’ the commercial by channeling a specific interpretation. – without anchorage, the whole interpretation will end up in all direction and this may not deliver the right message across.
With that being said, semiotics is a powerful tool of analysis as it helps us to be familiar with the works of visual images. It helps us answer what isn’t seen or mentioned rather than what is.
Works Cited
Barthes., R. chapter 25: Semiotics. In E. Griffin., A first look at communication theory. (p. 324). New York, NY.: McGraw-Hill.
Chandler, D. Semiotics for beginners. In Analyzing visual communication reader. University of Brunei Darussalam.
red. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2010, from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red#Sin.2C_guilt.2C_pain.2C_passion.2C_blood.2C_and_anger
