Iconography of the US

One icon that originated in the United States that has now been imposed on other cultures is the McDonald’s Golden Arches.  In America the Golden Arches became popular through McDonalds’ branding efforts.  The arches were actually developed to be part of the design for the first McDonalds storefront, but the architect did not want to include them over the doors.  Dick McDonald liked the design of the arches and decided instead to have the arches included in the signage for the store, and eventually it stuck as the company logo (Hughes, 2008). 

When McDonalds decided to expand internationally, they decided to keep the same logo since it was synonymous with quality food and quick service in America.  Originally McDonalds attempted to keep their standard US menu abroad, but quickly realized that they would need to adapt to local tastes if they were going to succeed.  By keeping the logo the same and adjusting to the cultures that they were operating within, McDonalds was able to brand foreign consumers to have a positive view of the arches.  The arches are still synonymous with quality fast food on the international level, but more than that they are a symbol of American culture.  The heart of the menu is still American-based foods, but the adaptation is what has allowed the company to become popular abroad.  McDonalds can also be seen as a sign of American big business since it has thousands of international locations.  They follow the traditional American big business model, but through their branding efforts they have avoided many locations disliking (or simply ignoring) this symbol.

The Golden Arches have been received positively both in the United States and internationally largely due to branding.  McDonalds has done well in marketing their product on both fronts, leading to the positive associations.  In the United States, McDonalds typically has large signs along the highways signaling that an oftentimes much needed rest stop is nearby.  The Golden Arches appear to be a sign that there is an oasis during a potentially long highway trip.  Even when people are not driving on the highway, the Golden Arches cause many of us to think of McDonald’s famous golden French fries.  McDonalds has also maintained a relatively positive corporate image, which has helped to maintain the positive sentiment felt when Americans see the Golden Arches icon. 

Similarly, the Golden Arches have generally been met with positive sentiment on an international level.  There is not a lot of research on if the Golden Arches have the same effect that they do on Americans, but the company has experienced success abroad, and the Golden Arches are known for being internationally recognized.  There has even been an economic theory developed around the Golden Arches relating to globalization and its effect on foreign policy and conflict.  Essentially, the theory notes that no two countries that contain a McDonalds franchise have ever gone to war with each other (Haeber, 2008).  Whether or not this theory holds water is certainly debatable, but it is a fun fact.

Since McDonalds is in so many countries it is hard to argue that one specific icon would be a better choice than the Golden Arches, but perhaps in a country such as Japan (where a lot of American culture is widely understood) an image of a hamburger or fries may be more appropriate.  It communicates what the restaurant serves in a visual manner, which could overcome a cultural barrier.  However, when all is said and done, the Golden Arches are the most widely recognized brand logo, and it is probably the perfect icon to be used no matter where the company moves.

References

Haeber, J. (2008, January 8). What is the golden arches theory of conflict prevention?. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-30640309/what-is-the-golden-arches-theory-of-conflict-prevention/

Hughes, M. (2008, January 04). Logos that became legends: Icons from the world of advertising . Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/logos-that-became-legends-icons-from-the-world-of-advertising-768077.html

Brain/Pharma Ads

After viewing “The Secret Life of the Brain,” I feel that I will, at some point, make more of an effort to improve memory function by keeping my brain active.  Word puzzles/games are supposed to be very good at keeping multiple areas of the brain functioning, so as I get older it would certainly be beneficial to do that.  I cannot say that I will be making any instantaneous changes, but this tour certainly gave me a deeper insight to the brain.  Unfortunately I have never taken an anatomy course, so my understanding of the brain was limited before viewing this virtual tour.  I had heard of all of the parts of the brain before at one time or another, but I will admit that I was very ignorant to the majority of their functions.  I knew that the frontal lobe regulated reasoning, but I was unaware about its connection with the limbic system being such a large part of emotion.  For me that would probably be the “fun fact” that I took from the tour.  I would say this is a good example that the truth can be made visible, but only to a point.  This tour simplifies the actual appearance of the brain, which, if seen in real life would appear significantly different to this diagram.  However, diagrams are meant to simplify the real thing, and this tour does do a good job of explaining each various area of the brain.  So, as a visual itself it is not a truthful representation of the brain, but as a diagram it truthfully describes the real thing.

Advertisement Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w06gQqYWTW4

Product:  Stelara

This advertisement for Stelara does not immediately give a checklist of symptoms of the illness, but it does state that it is for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.  Psoriasis is pretty cut-and-dry, so the symptoms do not interpellate the viewer as much as the fact that you only need four doses per year after two starter doses.  The ad also states that in a medical study, 7 out of 10 patients that used Stelara saw up 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks, and 6 of 10 saw their psoriasis as “minimal” or “gone” at 12 weeks (no typo, so if it was the same study they are contradicting themselves).   

As somebody who suffers from psoriasis (although not moderate-severe), I was very interested in what this ad had to say because it is very difficult to control psoriasis flare-ups during certain seasons.  However, with the very few symptoms of red, itchy, flaky, or scaly skin comes many side effects.  There were eight side effects including cancer, seizures, and infections that can cause brain damage.  The commercial promises that Stelara can help to reduce your plaque psoriasis and let you go on living your life without worrying about your skin.  This is evident in the ad through the use of various visuals of a woman appearing happy as she is preparing for a large family photo.  She seems to evoke a high level of confidence and is smiling, whereas one can assume somebody with severe psoriasis would not be as happy.  The advertisement actually shows minimal skin outside of the woman appearing in a purple dress at the end, which I found interesting.  Psoriasis is very common on the elbows, so I would guess it is showing that you can wear short sleeves and not have to worry about visible psoriasis.  As somebody with only mild psoriasis, I can say that I would much rather keep some red patches on my skin than risk brain injury or death, but perhaps this ad is attractive to some people.

Pastiche

A well known example of pastiche in the film industry would be the original Scary Movie (as well as the whole series).  The movie primarily plays off of the plotline to the popular film, Scream, but incorporates other more recent movies (at the time) such as  I Know What You Did Last Summer.  The film is noticeably a reworking of the past due to the strong parallels in the film.  The movie opens with a scene very similar to Scream where the main character receives a threatening phone call before being attacked by a killer in the Scream mask.    There is a chase scene, much like in the original, but humorous aspects are added such as the killer stabbing a breast implant and the girl being hit by her own father in a car.  Ultimately, she ends up dead, just like in the original movie Scream.  The movie, as a remake of these horror films, “uses the old text to create a layered intertext between the two works, summoning in viewers the depth of feelings that extend across both texts and the time periods between them,” which is how the book describes a pastiche(Cartwright & Marita, P. 331).   Scary Movie takes the original Scream, which was considered extremely scary at the time it was released, and meshes it with horror movies that became a little more laughable in their respective times to connect the works in a parody.

Scary Movie, as a pastiche, is most definitely a pastiche with parody.  Much like the example in the book of The Simpsons playing with Psycho, Scary Movie “plays” with the plot of these scary films.  There is no intent to make a statement about the movies; it is only attempting to add some humor to films usually considered dark (Cartwright & Marita, P. 330).  The only way in which Scary Movie questions these past horror films is through the ridiculous humor in the film.  It seems to be questioning how realistic these horror films are, and plays on this notion through the ridiculous antics of the killers in the movie.

Scary movie intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT2ONcpBJ4A&feature=related

 

 

The memebase website is a good example of a pastiche because it has many visual examples of plays on original works.  The front page holds a great example with a graph of the United States and all of its stereotypes (see above).  Rather than just showing the states with their names or some relevant statistic, it uses the map of the United States to show the most common stereotype about people in that state.  It is asking the viewer to draw a connection between the state and the stereotype and analyze what is commonly associated with each state.

This map of US stereotypes is also an example of pastiche with parody because of its playful nature.  Usually state maps that do not list state names will show something such as political party, or chief export, but this map chose to list something irrelevant in terms of its level of seriousness.  This work questions the originals by seemingly asking, “What do people really think about this state?”  It almost seems to say that it doesn’t really matter what demographics are in the state because the stereotype of the state will summarize all you need to know.  Whether that is right or not is a matter of opinion, but for some this map could be humorous (personally I feel it could have been done much better-this one seems to have very little effort in it).

The rest of the memebase website seems to be similar in terms of its pastiche works.  Most are parodies, but assumedly this is because the website is meant to be humorous.  It takes various issues that usually are not very serious is nature and creates humorous visuals that playfully question the original.

References:

Cartwright, L. Marita, S. (2009). Practices of looking: An introduction to visual culture. (2nd ed., pp. 330-331). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Culture Jamming

Original Ad                                                              Rough sketch of new ad copy

                           

To provide an example of culture jamming I turned to AT&T for a print advertisement.  I do not believe that the advertisement that I found is their current slogan, but it is still one of their more memorable advertising campaigns.  In this advertisement, AT&T claims that they have “more bars in more places,” simply boasting that they have good coverage across the country.

My reworking of the advertisement would take that slogan and change “More bars” to “More charges” so that the tagline would now read, “More charges in more places.”  I would also change the image of the man to somebody holding a phone bill with a flabbergasted look on his face.  Finally, I would tack on “leads to the highest bills” prior to “in America” in the subhead (see rough example).   Both AT&T and Verizon like to boast that they have the best coverage and the best data plans, but both are constantly ending up in news stories where unsuspecting customers (usually parents of teenagers) wind up with bills costing thousands of dollars due to hidden charges.

I chose this particular advertisement because of its simplicity in terms of images, which puts the focus on text.  AT&T only uses the bright orange to draw attention to the advertisement, and then attempts to lure the customers in with an actual message.  This focus on the text allows my reworking of the advertisement to have more of an impact.

I chose the oppositional reading of this advertisement because I feel that it is an issue that is simply overlooked because of the sheer size of AT&T.  I personally use Verizon Wireless, but my distain for Verizon’s customer service has me at the point where I would not be the least bit upset if Verizon were to go out of business.  AT&T and Verizon have such a stranglehold on the market that they can force consumers to pay all sorts of unnecessary data charges.  A recent class action lawsuit relating to data charges was ruled in favor of Verizon, which furthers the stranglehold that these phone giants have.  The new data plans for both companies boast 2 gigabytes of data for “only” $30 per month.  The advertisements never tell you how fast 2 gigabytes of data is used on a smart phone, which then leads to customers getting slammed with overages.  I’m fortunate enough to be “grand-fathered” into the unlimited data plans, but I still feel that the new data pricing is ridiculous.  The fact that both companies have all sorts of fees that nobody seems to know about (because nobody actually reads the 5 page contract in size 3 font) seems a little unfair, which is why I chose this alternate reading.

In order to combine these two ideas of design and copy, I attempted to avoid making large modifications to the ad.  The hope is that these slight changes would keep the advertisement looking like something that AT&T would actually produce with a much different message than expected.  I would attempt to find a man with an expression powerful enough to show his emotion, but not so eye-catching that people would ignore the copy.  The subtleness of the image with the power of the small changes to the copy should provide an alternate reading strong enough to expose the unfairness of AT&T’s pricing practices.

Media Tracking

I tracked my media consumption on Wednesday 3/28 and Thursday 3/29.  In an attempt to create a more visual display of my media consumption, I chose to color code my Excel tracking sheet by the media used for the longest period of time during an hour span.  Looking at the visual display, it is clear to see that internet was the media that I consumed the most in a 48-hour span by a large amount.  I was online for at least some part of an hour for a total of 18 hours during the 48 hour span.  However, after discussing the idea of the “internet” as a media I felt it necessary to differentiate between time spent on the internet for fun versus time spent doing homework or work related browsing.  I found that my consumption was split 50-50 at 9 hours for each activity.  The media that I consumed the least was recordings (music), having only consumed music for a total of one hour in the forty-eight hour span.  In terms of duration, my mobile consumption was likely very close to my music consumption, but in terms of frequency my mobile consumption was much higher.

Digging a little deeper into my media consumption, it appears that I used media to communicate with another person for some part of eight hours.  Much of that communication only took place over short times spans (under 10 minutes), but the phone calls and Skype conversations were usually an hour or longer.  I also spent roughly 10 hours engaged in media that was monologic, primarily being television or video games (one hockey game accounting for nearly three hours of that time).

Looking at all my various times of media consumption, I can say that the amount of time spent online was a little surprising to me.  It is odd to see a quantified number, but I realize that a majority of my day is spent in front of a computer, usually multitasking while connected to various other forms of media.  That likely creates distractions, so my actual consumption numbers may be difficult to judge, but I knew that internet consumption would be my highest total.  However, I did not realize that my internet consumption took up some part of 18 hours in a two-day span.  Granted, there are situational factors that I know were affecting this two day span.  I am currently actively seeking a job, and have been spending a lot of free time trying to browse the internet for opportunities or leads.  Also, with the temperature once again dropping I find myself not spending time outside.  Had I tracked my media consumption last week I can guarantee that at least three of my internet or Xbox hours would have been spent outside with no connection to media.  One final issue would be the determining what type of media consumption I was actually experiencing.  There were times where I would be watching television on the internet or reading print articles online, which blurs the lines in the types of media.  If I broke my consumption down into even more specific parts the number of hours for each activity would likely change.

Reflecting on my media consumption for this two day span, I can say that I will not actively seek to do anything differently in terms of media consumption.  A lot of my time spent online has been for either school or job seeking, so I am not really concerned with that consumption since it is mainly productive.  My time spent playing video games was likely inflated by the cold weather, so that will decrease by itself when the weather gets warmer.  The only thing I would potentially change is the amount of times where the television is on in the background during the day.  Technically the TV in my dorm is my roommate’s TV, so I tend to just leave it alone.  If it were my choice I would probably leave it off just to limit distractions, but I hardly notice that it is on the majority of the time.  Overall, I do not think that I will be making many changes to my consumption habits prior to school ending, but I would be curious to see my media consumption on a day where I do not have anything productive to do (i.e. summer).  Regardless, it was still a little eye opening to see a quantitative display of my media consumption simply because the numbers were higher than I would have guessed.

Flag Raising at Iwo Jima

By: Joe Rosenthal

February 23, 1945

 

Creative Commons

The Creative Commons project takes a new approach to giving the owner rights to his/her material while still allowing other users to utilize and share the information.  The general idea of “all rights reserved” is that the owner holds the exclusive rights to the work and that nothing can be done with the copyrighted work without explicit permission from said owner (Engelriet, 2006).  The Creative Common project has set up a standardized system that takes a “some rights reserved” approach that allows creators to maintain their copyright while still allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work under specified conditions.  In doing so, the project allows for works to be distributed more openly on the internet, and promotes the internet being used for its original intention (information sharing).

The Creative Commons project allows the subjects of the work to be redistributed or shared as long as it stays within the boundaries of copyright law.  An example would be Flickr’s shapefile dataset and mash-ups of other photographs.  All of the subjects of those works are allowed to be used by others who feel the images would be useful as long as the creator has allowed for the work to be redistributed in such a manner and still receives credit.  The subjects themselves are distributed at will, but the logic is that this allows for the images or information to be used more freely.  Another example would be GSK pharmaceuticals surrendering the copyrights on their datasets to allow for other scientists to perform additional research.  It puts the focus on the information itself and allows for greater collaboration in working towards a common goal.

If Creative Commons had been around for Gone with the Wind and the works for Sherrie Levine and Michael Mandenberg the situations certainly would have been different.  The case of Gone with the Wind would have been a little complicated because Margaret Mitchell was looking to have the life of her copyright extended.  She wanted to hire writers to write a sequel, but then have the estate own their work.  Under the Creative Commons, Margaret Mitchell would be allowing authors to copy characters from her work, but they would not be able to use them for their own commercial purposes.  However, if the copyright expired, the authors would be able to ask for credit on their own works under the Creative Commons.

The case of Sherrie Levine and Michael Mandenberg would have been much more cut and dry under the Creative Commons.  Sherrie Levine could have taken the photos she copied from Walker Evans and simply given him credit for redistributing the photos.  This wouldn’t have given her the recognition that she was looking for, but it would be legal under the idea of the Creative Commons.  Then Michael Mandenberg could have shared the images a second time as long as the original creator, Walker Evans, was still given credit for the photos on his website.

The Creative Commons affords rights to ownership of publicity when trying to reproduce it for commercial reasons, but there are still legal exceptions.  In the Bela Lugosi case (Lugosi v. Universal Pictures), Lugosi’s widow and son tried to claim that Universal Pictures could not use Bela Lugosi’s likeness for commercial gains without their permission.  The court ruled that because Lugosi had not converted his personal image into a property right in his life it could not be revived by his heirs in his death (essentially the chance to do so died with him).  If the Creative Commons had been applied to this case, Bela Lugosi could have claimed his likeness and prevented Universal Studios from using it commercially in his life, but once he died the family cannot revive that claim.

References:

Engelfriet, A. (2006). The phrase “all rights reserved”. Retrieved from                 http://www.iusmentis.com/copyright/allrightsreserved/

Spectatorship & Power Relations in Advertising

In this advertisement for Hallmark recordable storybooks, we see a boy with a book looking up at what we would assume to be a parent or close relative.  It appears that the subject has no idea that he is the object of the photograph that we are viewing simply by his body language.  In terms of his body itself, he is turned slightly askew from the camera (evident by his head and the slight angling of the book), signaling that his attention is clearly focused on something else that may not appear in the frame.  If he was aware of the camera, he would turn the book to face the camera directly rather than simply angling it down towards his chest.  Moving beyond his body language, the most defining characteristic that shows his lack of awareness of the camera is his gaze.  His eyes are clearly fixated on some object that lies outside of the frame of the photograph.  He shows no evidence of attempting to glance out of his peripherals; he is clearly engaged with someone else.  For the sake of the advertisement this is powerful because it encourages the reader to be drawn into the moment captured in the photograph and picture what/who the boy is looking at.  For the parental audience (the ad is out of Good Housekeeping, which is popular for mothers), the ability to connect to “bed time” and a potential story before bed can be powerful.  Having a photograph where the boy is looking at the camera would not be anywhere near as powerful because it removes that connection.  It would be a little boy, who is not your own son, looking at you and smiling.  Rather, by choosing to have the boy wrapped up in a moment, unaware of the camera, we as the viewer are drawn into the moment and can make a deeper connection.

Conversely, in this second advertisement for Coca Cola, which is also playing off of the idea of spending time with family, we see two subjects, one of whom is clearly aware of the camera.  In this photograph it appears that Ryan Secreast is potentially unaware of being the subject of the photograph (his body being square to the camera suggests he is aware, but his eyes are clearly focused on the boy), whereas the boy in the image is clearly aware that he is the subject of observation.  In this advertisement the boy is clearly in the position of power simply due to his gaze.  His gaze instantly demands attention as you begin to look at this ad.  Your eyes are instantly drawn to the boy because it appears that he is looking at you, and seems to know that you are looking back at him.  There is an instant connection, whereas Ryan Secreast simply appears.  Much like in Las Meninas, where the other people in the painting put the attention the princess through their gazes, Ryan Secreast puts more focus on the boy with his eyes.  By looking at the boy who is looking at us, it is simply unavoidable to lock onto the boy as the dominant person in the photograph.  Had these two people been looking at each other or their drinks, it would become a little more difficult to determine who the more powerful character in the ad is.  By choosing to have the boy clearly aware of the camera and having Ryan Secreast focus extra attention on the boy, the viewer is seemingly forced to make a connection with the young man.  Once again, for the intended parental audience (also out of Good Housekeeping), the focus on the boy (representing family) rather than Ryan Secreast (representing American Idol) sends the intended message that Coke and American Idol can help to bring the family together.

Both of these advertisements take different approaches in terms of awareness of being observed by their subjects, and yet both advertisements are communicating to similar audiences.  In the first photograph the young boy is laughing likely due to joy from his book, but that joy is directed to another person not in the frame.  In the second advertisement, the boy is clearly looking out and smiling as if to communicate to us as the viewer that Coke and American Idol are an enjoyable combination.  Despite their different approaches, both advertisements are attempting to communicate a similar message to the same audience.

Appropriation in Popular Culture

Honda CRV 2012 Super Bowl Advertisement:

A very recent example of appropriation in popular culture would be the Honda CRV commercial that was aired during the Super Bowl.  The commercial had present day Matthew Broderick play the role of himself intertwined within the story that was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Focusing first on the movie itself, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was a movie based around the concept of enjoying life.  The famous line in the movie is, “Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”  It was one of those movies that appealed to every age and social group because we all have those days where we just dream of taking a day off and enjoying life.  The movie takes a comedic approach to accomplishing this by having the fake illness escalate throughout the course of the day, but the overall message made it an instant classic (maybe better described as a cult classic).

In this Honda CRV commercial, the appropriation of the movie is quite obvious.  Rather than being Ferris Bueller, Matthew Broderick is going through a day in his own life.  It begins the exact same way as the movie with Broderick calling into work pretending to be sick.  He then goes throughout his day in an unknown location that appears to be somewhere on the west coast, very similar to the way that Ferris paraded around Chicago.  Many of the well recognized lines from the movie are thrown into the commercial including the most famous line (mentioned above), as well as paralleling the famous attendance scene (“Bueller, Bueller”) with the valet service.   There are other minor details such as a man in a Detroit Redwings jersey behind Ferris on the ride, but most of the parallels are intentionally obvious due to the goal of the advertising.

Through appropriation the advertisers for Honda have attempted to associate their vehicle with the ability to have a day much like Ferris Bueller did.  Essentially Honda stole the idea of going out and living life and attempted to commercialize it by positioning their vehicle at the center of the wild day.  The message that advertisers are hoping that the takeaway for viewers is that the Honda CRV is the vehicle for those people who want to enjoy life.  Obviously the majority of us do not have the luxury to skip work/school and do such, but the aspiration to live a life like Ferris and the connection to a beloved movie has the potential for a powerful connection to its viewers.

Another example of how the commercial appropriated the movie was the location.  Unlike the movie that attempted to show off the beauty of Chicago, the Honda commercial made the location rather ambiguous with the palm trees and beach being the only clues as to where Matthew is.  From an advertising standpoint, this was likely done to ensure the focus of the commercial was on the vehicle rather than the location.  This tactical move proves to be an example of appropriation because the director of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has said that the film was partly a “love letter” from him to the city of Chicago (AMC Blog, 2007).  In a sense, the movie itself was more than just a story about enjoying life; it was an advertisement for the city of Chicago and what it offered in comparison to New York, which has always been a hotspot for Hollywood films.  In this advertisement, Honda completely ignores the idea of making any city look better than another and ensures that the focus is only on the car.

Overall, Honda created an entertaining advertisement that also provides a good example of appropriation.  Their use of the film was obviously not subtle so that viewers would recognize the connection, but the meaning of the original production has been changed for the sake of selling vehicles.  The effectiveness of the advertisement will be judged based on sales figures, but it’s certainly an advertisement that makes me want to re-watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

AMC Blog. (2007, April 17). Ferris bueller: John hughes and chicago. Retrieved from http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2007/04/ferris-bueller-.php

Image Icon Advertising

In this advertisement for the Dodge Challenger, George Washington is the image icon meant to stir up the viewer’s emotions.  Outside of simply being the first president, George Washington is often referred to as the father of our country.  He was a brave war hero depicted in many famous paintings for his acts, most notably crossing the Delaware.  His bravery is often exalted to heroic levels and he is a perfect symbol of the spirit that our country was founded on.  He is a symbol of freedom and just being “American” in general, which is obviously what Dodge is attempting to convey in this advertisement.  To dislike George Washington is to be un-American, so this ad is certainly attempting to play on that idea of national pride.  This advertisement is not necessarily “universal” in that not everybody wants their car to be American, but the idea of national pride is certainly universal, and that is what this ad is playing on.  The car could be positioned with another famous war hero (in a relevant situation) and have just as strong of a message in another country, and the same idea would remain intact.  However, most educated people in the world would understand the message in this particular ad regardless of their feelings toward America because they would understand what George Washington meant to the country.

The Dodge Challenger itself is strategically positioned in the middle of what looks to be a “painting” (since photographs were not around in the Revolutionary War) with George Washington standing proudly with his hand on it.  This is almost as to suggest that George has a deep connection to this vehicle and that this car stands for everything that he stands for.  Put the two together and the advertisement is trying to say that the Dodge Challenger is as American as the founder of our country, which is obviously seeking those potential consumers who take pride in their country.

Breaking down this advertisement in terms of semiotics, we can look at the two pieces as a signifier and signified.  From Barthes point of view, the signifier in this advertisement is the Dodge Challenger and the signified is the concept of being a true American as discussed above.  Put together this ad is trying to say that the Dodge Challenger is the car for a true American.  The tagline, “This is the car you buy because you can’t buy a bald eagle,” further demonstrates this sign by bringing yet another sign of national pride into the pitch.  From Peirce’s point of view this ad takes on all three forms of signs.  As an iconic sign, the car is positioned within other soldiers to seem like a part of the militia; most likely as George Washington’s “horse.”  The sign is the same as in Barthes’ model  in that soldiers fight for freedom, so the Challenger is a sign of freedom, but it is iconic because it is intended to appear to be part of the army (despite obviously being misplaced in time).  It could even be extended further if the car is intended to represent George Washington’s horse (by its positioning) in that it could be the car is a sign of hard work and strength (Cartwright & Marita, 31).  From a symbolic standpoint, the fact that the car is the Dodge Challenger is something that would require a viewer to understand the English language.  The tagline is probably the best demonstration of a symbolic sign because somebody would recognize an image of a bald eagle, but may not necessarily understand what it is or what it stands for by just seeing the word without knowledge of the language (Cartwright & Marita, 32).   Finally, as an indexical sign, the idea that this ad is a photograph is attempting to create the idea that this moment actually happened in history.  Obviously the car was not at this moment in history, but “photos never lie,” so one can see what the advertisers were attempting to do(Cartwright & Marita, 33).

Overall this advertisement for the Dodge Charger creates a very clever advertisement in an attempt to sell the car as a true American vehicle.  The use of George Washington as a symbol of the American spirit was a good one, and the execution of the image itself was excellent.  For me personally this advertisement is not very convincing simply because every auto maker is trying to take the “American car made in America” route, but most of them are made overseas.  I think this is certainly the cleverest approach, and the TV commercials that accompany this ad campaign are quite entertaining, but it is nothing new for me.  Granted, I am also not as swayed by “made in America” as some people are.  I drive a Toyota, and I’m not sure if it came from one of their American factories or Japan, but I’m happy with it.  I just want my car to work well; it doesn’t matter where it comes from.  Even if it comes from America, I don’t know if I’m putting Americans to work or just machines, so it is really just not a good angle for me personally.  As a marketing major, I would say it is an effective ad for transmitting the intended message, but as a consumer I would say it is nothing more than an amusing ad.

 

References

Cartwright, L., Marita, S. (2009). Practices of looking: An introduction to visual culture. (2nd ed., pp. 31- 33). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.