Blog 4

Find three quotations in “Rhetoric of the Image” that you find illuminating, Discuss them and apply them to the following ad for the last episode of The Sopranos.


1. "in advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional; the signifieds of the advertising message are formed a priori by certain attributes of the product and these signifieds have to be transmitted as clearly as possible."

I thought this quote was interesting because it reveals a complexity in media advertising that perhaps Barthes didn't anticipate. While Barthes contends that the signifieds of an advertising message are "formed a priori by certain attributes of the product" there is reason to believe that this applies to material products like cars and soap, but not to cultural products such as films, TV shows, etc. When advertising a TV show the signifieds of the message are not necessarily formed a priori by the show's attributes. For example, the above ad for The Sopranos has a connotation that America provides the opportunity for all to succeed in a free-market, even if that success comes by way of criminal activity. This is not, however, necessarily a signified message that one would readily associate with early seasons of The Sopranos. Rather, the producers of this show are creating a message in this ad that takes almost a retrospective look at Tony Soprano and what he has accomplished over the entire duration of the series. This makes sense, because the ad is not for the show itself but for the final episodes of it.

2. "If our reading is satisfactory, the photograph analysed offers us three messages; a linguistic message, a coded iconic message, and a non-coded iconic message."

I found this quote particularly illuminating because of its simplicity and apparent validity. In The Sopranos ad, we can clearly identify these three messages. The linguistic messsage, "Made in America", suggests literally that The Sopranos is a television show produced in America. The non-coded iconic message (which utilizes the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty) is that The Sopranos is synonomous with American values, particularly those associated with freedom and liberty. The coded iconic message is more complicated because it juxtaposes the "goodness" of America and its freedom with the harsher reality that criminal enterprises like the Mafia take advantage of this freedom for their own self-benefit.

3. "What is a lexicon? A portion of the symbolic plane (of language) which corresponds to a body of practices and techniques"

The introduction of the term "lexicon" is of particular relevance to the analysis of The Sopranos ad. The phrase "Made in America" is embedded in our cultural lexicon and is layered with different connotations. Literally, it denotes that something was produced in America. The connotations, however, are that things made in America are special for a variety of reasons - they represent quality, they are good for the country because they necessitated the emplyment of American citizens, and that the products themselves are infused with many of the same values we associate with our country. If the phrase "Made in America" was not a part of our cultural lexicon, the linguistic juxtaposition at work in The Sopranos ad would go unnoticed and unappreciated.