Ad Campaigns & Semiotics

In class, we created political campaigns for and against gun control and for or against a candidate. Let's look at signs. A sign is made up of a signifier, which points to a signified. A signifier is some kind of thing (generally a tangible object, color, or something that a 10 year old could describe). What is signified is a little more difficult to get to. What is signified has cultural connotations, and you must keep context in mind. A signifier can point to many different things, and it is very subjective, but the goal is to be as objective and relevant to your context as possible. Now, we can take a look at some of these ads created in class, and we can distinguish what is a signifier and what it points to.



Danielle's Ad Campaign:

Signifier: Red curtains at the beginning of the movie..
Signified: There will be some sort of show or entertainment.

Signifier: The Statue of Liberty..
Signified: This generally represents freedom and America. (It is also indicative of something good.)

Signifier: Capitol of United States..
Signified: This, again, represents the United States. It can blur the line between what the candidate is saying and American standards.



Holly's Ad Campaign

Signifier: A girl in a white dress with her hair done and makeup on..
Signified: She is a bride in a wedding.

Signifier: A girl in a dress holding a gun..
Signified: Guns are harmless.

Signifier: A man sitting under a dead animal with a gun propped over the animal (the man is smiling).
Signified: He just hunted the animal, and he is proud.



Josh's Campaign Ad

Signifier: Balloons and campaign advertizements..
Signified: A celebration is taking place. (The person in the photo may have done something successfully.)

Signifier: Black and white image of news microphones held up to someone's face..
Signified: The person is being questioned about something. (Probably something that isn't so good..)

Signifier: Penny - (There is red text that says flat out that Mitt Romney is two faced, so we can't quite ignore that...)
Signified: The penny and the words two faced over the penny are pointing to two things:
When people are two faced, they say one thing to one person and say another thing (with their other face) to another person. The reference to the penny is really a reference to a coin. Some people would trick others by using a two faced coin (with the head of a president on each side) to flip, when making a deal or bet on the flip of a coin. That way, if the person always called heads, the person would always win. It has ONLY negative connotations; it is not good to be two faced.