A Semiotic Analysis Of The Visuals In Pictorial Advertisements

In the era of visuals, pictorial advertisements are prevalent. Bewildered by the surface meaning of visuals, consumers tend to ignore the ideology and its working mechanism behind these advertisements, which usually results in irrational consumption. Theoretically, semiotics could provide good approaches and perspectives for the analyses of visuals, especially the visuals in pictorial advertisements. However, the application of semiotics to the interpretation of advertisements is relatively sporadic, and it lacks the systematical description and analysis, leaving relatively few theoretical results. On the other hand, few pictorial advertisements take the approach of theoretical semiotics. It is in this background that this paper departs from the basic concepts and principles in Saussurean semiology, such as signifier and signified, syntagmatic relation and paradigmatic relation and the arbitrary nature of signs, together with the trichotomy of signs and unlimited semiosis in Peirce's pragmatic semiotics, Barthes's myth theory and other theories, to do a trial study of the visuals in pictorial advertisements. One point worth mentioning is that:among these theories, subject-constitution theory of Althusser and the myth theory of Barthes provide a critical perspective for viewers in interpreting the ideology and its working mechanism behind pictorial advertisements. Generally speaking, the paper aims at offering a critical perspective for viewers when they are confronted with various visuals and thus raising their awareness of visual literacy and improving their visual literacy.