Semiotics in Advertising

Semiotics are used in adverting on a daily basis since it helps the viewers understand the ad much better.

For the first ad, it's an outside IKEA ad.


Denotation:IKEA sells furniture for your house. It's affordable, comfy, and nice looking according to this ad. You can personalize it however you want to match your house. They mostly use red since its a great attention getter. Also, by having people and furniture on this billboard it makes people do a double take.
Connotation: I see furniture on this billboard and a couple sitting. But when I look closer I see the word JOY. This makes me think of the holidays since you always hear joy to the world during Christmas time. Under that you see "decorate for the holidays"and then IKEA is directly next to that. By seeing those words you get the feeling of decorate your house to match the holidays and IKEA has the furniture that is needed to do this.

The second ad I will use is Advertising print. I decided to use a Nike Ad for this one.


Denotation: Lebron James dunking the basketball ball with a determined look on his face like he will do whatever he has to win. You can see fans in the background and a basketball hoop.

Connotation: Lebron James is determined win. He is giving it his all and even though he has an easy basket to make he's still focused to make every point count. The phase "Will To Win" means in order to win you have to have the want to do it and the will to make it happen. The colors are red which matches his uniform, black for the background,and white to make the phrase and the nike symbol pop out.

The last ad is the T.V ad. For this one I chose the GEICO Hump Day Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWBhP0EQ1lA

Denotation: a camel walking around a company asking everyone what day it is. The commercial has an office feeling to it with a camel walking around.

Connotation: This camel is walking around asking everyone what day it is. They keep ignoring him even though he knows they hear him. Finally he gets someone to say its Wednesday in which he responds with HUMP DAY! They then show two people from Geico saying how happy are Geico customers in which they respond with happier than a camel on hump day.