On The Meaning Production Of Modern Advertising: A Perspective Of Semiology

Advertising is actually a sign operation. And Commodities, which are different from those in the real market, are just a sign in advertising view. The purpose of advertising is to build a meaning domain to endow commodity with meanings so as to determine its position in social classification system. The endowed meaning appears as an added value or symbolic value of the product. It can bring additional profits or excess profits to the producer. This is why advertisers are willing to pay for the enormous ad-rate. Semiology can be used not only as the name of a subject or an academic field, but also as a research method. It can reveal the interior meanings that things contain. However, it's hard to avoid polysemy and confusion of its definition in applying semiotic methods due to the complexity of semiotic system. This thesis suggests to return to the first principle of semiology. The author thinks that we should, by applying the semiotic theory and tools of De Saussure, try to reveal the semiotic essence of advertisements from the four aspects of signifier and signified, diachronic and synchronic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic, langue and parole. Many classical advertising cases are used in the analysis.