读书笔记 Decoding Advertisements.docVIP

Decoding advertisements: Ideology and meaning in advertising by Judith Williamson P12 advertising sets up connections between certain types of consumers and certain products and having made these links and created symbols of exchange it can be use them as ‘given’ P17 The sign consists of signifier, the material object, and the signified. P18 Signifiers are things, while form is invisible; signifieds are ideas, while content implies materiality. P18 There are three crucial points here. In the first place this ‘meaning of the signifier’ involves a correlation of two things: the significance of one(jetty) is transferred to the other(tyre). This correlation is non-sequential; the two things are linked not by the line of an argument or a narrative but by their place in a picture, by its formal structure. In the second place this ‘transference of significance’ does not exist as completed in the ad, but requires us to make the connection; it is nowhere stated that the tyre is as strong as the jetty, therefore this meaning does not exist until we complete the transference ourselves. In the third place, the transference is based on the fact that the first object(jetty) has a significance to be transferred. The advertisement does not create meaning initially but invites us to make a transaction whereby it is passed from one thing to another. A system of meaning must already exist, in which jetties are seen as strong, and this system is exterior to the ad- which simply refers to it, using on of its components as a carrier of value(in the case of A1, strength, durability)-i.e. As a currency. The system which provide ads with this basic ‘meaning’ material- a grist of significance for the ad mill- are what I call ‘Referent Systems’. They are clearly ideological systems and draw their significance from areas outside advertising. P20 Saussure says that with the word H-O-R-S-E, where the concept of horse is what is signified, the referent is what kicks you. Thus the referent alway