A Semiotic Study Of Myth And Identity Construction In Foreign Luxury Brands Advertisements

With the fast development of economy, foreign luxury brands have enjoyed a spending spree in China, and the consumption is increasingly high. The elites and the young people are the major consumers, the former considering the luxury as the symbol of high social status while the latter regarding the luxury as good embellishment of unique temperaments and high grade. Luxury for Chinese is a symbol of social positions and luxury consumption is high-end. They endow their owners’ unique status by expensive price, distinguished quality and noble temperament. To some degree,the vivid identity construction of luxuries is a main part of social cultural communication. According to researches, the advertisement plays an important role in shaping people’s understanding of luxury items. In this essay, with some of Chanel and Louis Vuitton advertisements as studying objects, the author applies semiotic approaches into the analysis of sign selection and myth creation in luxury advertisements so to decode luxury identity construction.Semiotically speaking, all information or meaning is not “contained” in the world;it is created in accordance with a complex interplay of codes or conventions. By summarizing other scholars’ study, six dimensionalities of luxury brand connotations are concluded, and on this basis, the author brought up the proposition that in story-telling, advertisements create the luxury identity by endowing the connotation of six dimensionalities of luxury brands into many kinds of signs, and by the combination of these signs, the luxury myth are created and delivered to the audience in purchasing and using these articles. Detailed analyses are made on the interplay of signs in terms of signifier and signified, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, as well as how luxury myth is created and meaning generated, aiming to achieve a better understanding of the luxury identity construction.The major findings of this essay are as follows: firstly, with different signs chosen,the advertisements of these two well-known brands present different brand orientations and advertising themes. Secondly, the signs used agree with the proposition and conform to the six dimensionalities. Chanel selects signs based on its feminization positioning while Louis Vuitton emphasizes its historical and cultural reputation and value. Besides, by using different collocations of signs, the two brands create totally different myths. Chanel creates an ego woman image while Louis Vuitton focuses on the long-lasting quality and practicability.