A Semiotic Kind of Life
What is the world around us trying to say? Many of the sources we take cues from for lifestyle, education, and entertainment are driven by semiotics. Semiotics, as defined by Silverman and Rader in their book “The World as a Text”, holds the main idea that everything is a sign. Well, how does that work? If everything is a sign, as stated by Silverman and Rader, how can people clearly pick up the many messages being sent to them through this “secret code” of objects and images? To make something into a sign there is a two part process; selecting a signifier, an object that exists and stands as the representation, and the signified, what that selected object means and what that meaning is telling us to do. It’s not as complicated as it sounds but there is much more work behind the process than simply selecting an object and applying meaning.
Advertising is well known for its use of semiotics in selling products to consumers that businesses want them to buy. It can be viewed as a form of storytelling that can be as brief as an image and as long as a commercial or a full-page ad. Women are often used in advertisements as both signifiers and the target audience for a product. The role of a woman as a signifier has often been used to express meanings of sex appeal, elegance, intelligence, and maternalism. Below we take a look at print ads from the past that use women as the signifier.
The tobacco industry is notorious for its use of women as signifiers. This Virginia Slims advertisement from 1968 really digs into the power of women in two ways: one through the use of text, the other through the use of imagery of the popular television super hero Wonder Woman. What exactly is this ad conveying to women of the late 60s? If we take a look at the last line of the written text “In view of these and other facts the makers of Virginia Slims feel it highly inappropriate that women continue to use fat, stubby, cigarettes designed for mere men.” Prior to this line the advertisement essentially lists all of the health comparisons of men to women, painting the health, wellness, and livelihood of women superior to men. Paired the the powerful stance of Wonder Woman, the main signifier in the ad, a woman of the late 60s could be moved to purchase the cigarette made just for her.
Moving ahead a few of years to 1972, we see a different approach of using women as a signifier in this Palmolive dish detergent advertisement. The woman in the center is a reoccurring character in the ad campaign, Madge the manicurist. Her role as the woman women go to for beautification and care for their overworked hands makes her an authority on the products that are best for caring for them. What is signified by the bottom image is that Palmolive brand dish detergent is tough enough to take care of washing dishes yet moisturizing enough to soften the hands — Madge can even use it on her clients for manicures.
As we move into the 80s we now can see the shifted role of the woman from once being depicted as a youthful, carefree woman or in the home as a wife and often a mother as well, to being a career-woman. This ad from the Australian company Berocca puts an emphasis on the need for the working woman to care for her health and wellness because she is doing it all. Our signifier here is an older woman with a locked gaze straight into the camera. The cracks on her face, also a signifier, show the viewer to effects of the burn-out and exhaustion she is feeling due to the hard work she puts in at the office and at home. A haunting reminder that having it all may come with consequences if you don’t take care of you.
The significance of using a gender role to signify a product is most certainly becoming a tool of the past as society grapples with the reality of identity. It’s a good thing, for representation to shift and change to match the needs of not only the market, but of society as a whole. It is, however, interesting to look at these three ads and think deeply on the significance of each woman in the marketing campaign, how their femininity and roles tell not only the story built for the viewer to believe, but the story of the societies each of these women existed in. Everything in the world is indeed a sign.
