Journal 7 & 8: Advertisements

       The first advertisement I chose is from the March issue of Cosmopolitan, it’s a CoverGirl ad with Drew Barrymore for their Lash Blast Fusion mascara. The denotation of the photo is first of all Drew Barrymore and secondly the product itself, an image of the mascara in the bottom right corner. The connotation of the main part of the ad (the photo of Drew) could be different depending on the audience. This ad is meant for a woman, whose reaction might be jealousy or admiration. This is what was intended because if women admire the girl in the ad, they will want to look as beautiful as she does. This could make them want to purchase the product if the ad can convince them that the product is enhancing the model’s beauty. The photo is fresh looking with the hair pulled back, even lighting and a white background. It’s subtly sexy, appealing to the female audience. The one thing about the photo that really jumps out is her eyelashes. Her eyes are the main focus and the eyelashes are very bold, making the audience think that the reason the photo is so beautiful is because of her eyelashes, and the mascara. The myth in this ad is the notion that this type of beauty is attainable in normal life. People don’t think about Photoshop being used to smooth the skin, enhance the eyes, shape the nose, etc. They don’t think about the false lashes that Drew is wearing and the hours spent on getting the lighting just right, not to mention the professional hair and makeup artists. Of course this is one source of a lot of self-esteem issues and eating disorders in our society. This ad plays off the desires of women to be beautiful and to purchase a product that will make them more beautiful and desirable.

            The second ad is for Weight Watchers from the March issue of Women’s Health. It’s for their coffee cake dessert product, which is 3 “points” according to the ad. The photo’s rich colors, warm light and close up detail of the cake make the cake look delicious. It has connotations of warmth, the taste of cinnamon, and a rich, delicious dessert. However, when the viewer sees the Weight Watchers brand name attached to this image, the connotations suddenly change. Now the cake looks like it’s low calorie, low fat, won’t make you gain weight, or is even good for you. Now we are looking at diet food that looks delicious. This invokes the cultural myth that you can “have your cake and eat it too”; that you can eat foods like coffee cake and still lose weight. In reality this diet dessert will not be as satisfying as a coffee cake that is not considered a diet food. This ad plays off the audience’s desires to lose weight, be healthy, or maybe be more attractive. But most importantly it plays on the desire to eat sweet foods like coffee cake. I have a huge weakness for desserts and just looking at this photo makes me want to eat coffee cake. By invoking that craving and at the same time offering a diet friendly option, Weight Watchers has created a convincing advertisement. Placing the ad in Women’s Health magazine seems like the perfect audience. Readers of this magazine might be trying to lose weight or get in shape, or they might just be women who eat healthy and would be interested in a diet dessert. 

Journal 6: Cigarettes

I used a photo of a cigarette and created my own graphic of blood dripping from the tip of it. Obviously this is to represent an anti-cigarette view. The blood is in some ways an index for death and in some ways a symbol. Blood is present sometimes when death occurs, just as the book's example of smoke is present when a fire occurs. However not every instance of blood involves death and not every instance of death involves blood, so the blood is also a symbol that people have learned to associate with death, suffering, and illness. I chose to keep the background white because I wanted the focus to be the color red in the blood graphic. 

Journal 5: Metaphor

This advertisement for the iPhone is a metaphor comparing the phone to the world. The point they want to get across is that if you have the iPhone you have the world at your fingertips, and I think this ad is effective. It's very simple, the black background with the black on the phone creates a message that's easy to read. The first thing the viewer sees is the blue photo of the earth, then the phone. The simple message is effective in communicating that the iPhone can do anything you want it to do, without actually talking about what the phone does.

Journal 4: Arrows

I found all of these arrows within a few blocks of my house. I grabbed my camera and got in my car expecting to go on a drive to search for them, but I immediately began spotting them everywhere and only made it a few hundred yards before I was finished. It made me wonder, if there are more than twenty arrows clustered in this small area, how many were there in my entire town? Why do we use this symbol so much? 

As the article "Setting Sights on the Arrow" by Phil Patton said, the arrow is one of the most basic and universal symbols and has been around since at least the 18th century in a graphic form. The bow and arrow dates back much further, and arrows appear on the earliest compasses. The article discusses how the arrow has evolved from it's early uses to being used in art and everyday graphics used to communicate. Only a symbol with a strong meaning would have survived this long. 

So what does the arrow mean? Of course it communicates direction, and it is associated with war. The article also observes that it can have connotations of "energy, effort and spiritual yearning." I'm sure this ancient symbol will continue to evolve over time.