Reading advertising images - a complex semiotic process Cover Image

Lectura imaginii publicitare – proces semiotic complex
Reading advertising images - a complex semiotic process

Author(s): Anda Ionaș
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Communication studies, Theory of Communication
Published by: Editura Universitatii LUCIAN BLAGA din Sibiu
Keywords: advertising; semiotic process; referential advertising; allegorical advertising; symbol; index; icon;

Summary/Abstract: On an intentional level, reading advertising images is a guided reading. The potential buyer is guided towards an already constituted meaning that needs to be decoded. Over time, advertising has evolved from referential advertising, which presents the advantages of purchasing a product or service, to allegorical advertising, which uses subversive techniques, appealing to a series of elaborate social codes or archetypal invariants, with an effect on the buyer's subconscious. Today, the connotative value of the advertising image becomes even more important than the denotative one. Its original purpose is hijacked by the complexity of the phenomenon, because advertising does not just sell products, but images of the world, with a pronounced self-referential character.

  • Issue Year: 56/2023
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 73-84
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Romanian