Week 3: Semiotic

A Semiotic Analysis of Calvin Klein Perfume Ads

Like it or not, advertising has a large influence of our life; from what we wear, what we eat and to what we think. Advertising is so powerful and persuasive to a point that we as consumer sometimes fail to aware of its main purposes. Thus, through semiotic analysis, we are now able to understand how advertiser, marketer or media expert in general effectively used ‘systems of signs’ to communicate with their audience. Using Calvin Klein perfume ads as the main example, this journal will try to analyze these advertisements in terms of how signs are structured carefully in order to convey the producer’s hidden messages and persuasive meanings of the product.

The above examples are perfume advertisements for Obsession by Calvin Klein, a cologne product for men which I found on Google image. These ads were very controversial and debatable because it featured underage Kate Moss (presumably around 14 or 15 years old) who is presented as a grown-up woman lying nakedly in her sexually suggestive poses making these ads looks like [child] pornography rather than perfume commercials. In a country like the United State for example, ads can be categorized as pornographic images when: (1) focusing on the genital area, (2) showing unnatural poses, (3) depicting children as sex objects, (4) implying that the children are willing to engage in sex, and (5) suggestive settings (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/ethics/calvin_klein_case_study.cfm).

There are several things that can be connote from both adverts: (1) representation of femininity- women are passive, fragile, need to be cared, and loved by men, (2) women are property of men (3) representation of physical beauty - an ideal woman is the one with slim and sexy body and (4) representation of heterosexual relationship – focus on male dominance and female submissiveness.

These connotations can be identified through several signifier given in the ads. For example, on the first advert, the female model is lying down uncomfortably on a couch, showing her back naked body while facing her face to the camera. Whereas on the second advert, the model laying on her side while facing directly to the camera, with only her right arm to cover her breast and her right thigh to cover her sensitive part. Both ads used dark materials as the background (noticed that the first ad used dark couch while the second ad used dark shadow) which is in accordance to the model’s dark hair and a good contrast with her smooth, flawless and exposed skin. The way the model’s body presented here actually represent the ideology of what a woman’s body should look like –slender, sexy and seductive. The model’s fragile figure portrayed in these ads also reflects that woman as a weaker sex thus female submission and male domination is inevitable. The model also presented as being delicate, fully naked with her sexually suggestive poses and her expression of ‘willingness’ in both adverts which suggest that: (1) women need to be nurture, (2) women should look desirable and sexually appealing to heterosexual men and (3) it also indicates that man who wears this cologne is a heterosexual male. Even though these ads is about men’s perfume and the fact that there is no man in the photo but instead a young naked girl presented as a grown-woman implies that female, in general, is the sex symbol or object for men. The large-print text “Obsession” (the perfume’s name) which placed above the model and the small text beneath the word Obsession, “for men” in both ads signify that sexy woman (like the model) is the obsession that every normal heterosexual man should have, which also mean to portray that women are property of men.

After analyzing these adverts using semiotic, one can immediately tell that the politics behind these ads are about sexuality, female exploitation as well as sex discrimination. Calvin Klein used these politics to manipulate the audience, both male and female. Male viewers may identify themselves as being self-worth, powerful, the stronger sex and women, on other hand, though retaliate, may identify themselves as the weaker sex. The cultural codes behind these ads present the significant ideology that men are much more valued and powerful than women; this is especially true in patriarchal mediated society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Website:

Media Awareness Network (2010). Calvin Klein: A Case Study. Retrieved August 20, 2010 from

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/ethics/calvin_klein_case_study.cfm

Books:

Stokes, J. (2003). Semiotics. How to do media and cultural studies. Ed. Woo, C. H. in Analyzing Visual Communication. Brunei Darussalam: University Brunei Darussalam, 2010.

Tanaka, K. (1994). Advertising Language: A Pragmatic approach to advertisements in Britain and Japan. London: Routledge.