Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure is one of the founders of Semiology, he conceptualised the sign/signifier/signified, which form the main basis of semiotics. A sign is something that can be interpreted by someone as standing for something other than itself, signs can work through any of the senses and take any form.
Roland Barthes furthered Saussure's theory by discussing the connotations and denotations behind texts. A text is an ordered, purposeful assemblage of signs; this could manifest as a sentence, a photo, a film, a sound recording and much more. Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most words naturally carry with them, whereas denotation is the precise, literal definition of a word that might be found in a dictionary.
Semiology is paramount to understanding advertising texts, it helps us to form meaning and communicate messages properly. It can also help audiences to make their own judgement of an advert, people may see different connotations to other people. The way a single sign is read varies for each person due to their unique set of beliefs, background, social factors and demographic. It is important for advertisers to bare this in mind when forming an ad, as the message they believe to be shown could be entirely different for the audience.
Lecture 05/10/16
This is a very good post in that you evidence your understanding of the theory and also see its use and importance for your discipline. Well done.
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