Ipod Essay
Not so long ago I was reading a magazine in a cafe in which featured interviews with three "average New Zealand men" and they were all asked the same questions, and one of the questions was: what is on your iPod at the moment? (Only one of the four confessed not to owe an iPod) I asked myself is everyone supposed to have an iPod or is it becoming a synonymous to a portable music device? iPod became so successful that now has an iconic image; for instance, all I need to see is their headphones to know if an individual is listening to one or not. In my case the only source of portable music I have is a $12.95 worth Dick Smith Electronics portable radio, and I am absolutely sure that if I attach a white looking headphone to it, people will ask me what's on your iPod? My answer will certainly be to Radio Jockey Stables from ZM.
91.0 fm is where I heard a Samsung advertisement for their Z5 MP3 player which serves well to illustrate a quote by Christian Metz that says: "human intervention, which carries elements of a proper semiotics, affects only the level of connotation" (Braudy and Marshal, 1999); the point I try to make by using this quote is that if anyone hears the Z5 advertisement knows that the product is being compared with an iPod. I will discuss the connotations and denotations of this advert, because it may be there where it lays the success or failure of this particular advertising campaign launched by Samsung.
I am only looking at this avert from a spectator's perspective, since if I try to look at it from the creators angle it would only be speculation. I taped the advert played on ZM (91.0 fm) the 10th of May 2006 around 9:00 pm. Here is a transcript I made of the advert:
Imagine a sensual seduction dressed in black, Imagine a slick firm body, Imagine it lasting 35 hours, Imagine 1.8 inches.
The new Z5 MP3 digital music player, Double the storage capacity with WMA, 35 hours of pure music pleasure 1.8 inches of photo viewing satisfaction, Don't compare apples with oranges, Test drive the Samsung Z5 MP3 player today.
The first time I started to think of advertising as a form of poetry is when I read something by Berger A. Arthur which says that nowadays the only kind of poetry we get comes in a "bastardized" form from radio and TV commercials (Berger, 1999). I wouldn't say that advertising is a form of art but I would agree that it uses some techniques used in poetry. That is why I would like to bring out another point made by Christian Metz in which he says that "connotation brings us closer to viewing cinema as an art" he also says that "to speak a language is to use it, but to speak cinematographic language is to a certain extent invent" (Braudy and Marshal, 1999). Perhaps poetry is in some way the creative grouping of words in order to create a meaning that has to be decoded by the audience. We will analyse both, the connotations and denotations of this advert.
Most adverts have the same connoted meaning, which is: choose our products above our competitors' (Barthes, 1985). The connotation in this Samsung advert is that the Z5 is better than the iPod, which is why you should buy the Z5 instead of the iPod. Let us take a look at the connotative constructions of this advertisement and start of with a quote by Barthes in which he says that: "In a word the more duplicity an advertisement sentence contains or the more multiple it is, the better it fulfils its functions as a connoted message. The better the signifier of the advert is, the better it lets its readers link its product with the greatness of the world. Like poetry, with rhetoric, we can connote many other meanings, which gives us pleasure" (Barthes, 1994). I believe that the advertisement here relies a lot in producing pleasure on its audience since we are the ones responsible for breaking the denoted codes of the advert, and by breaking these codes we (the audience) will gain pleasure. That is why we can say, "The poet is aware of the connotative value of every word in his poem. But here the limits of his experience as a human being interpose. He knows only those connotations out of his own experience" (Lockerbie, 1964). This means that the creators of this advert are perfectly aware of the connotative value of every word in their Z5 advertisement; but in the case of this advertisement there is a preferred reading, that leads its audience to interpret it in a single way, which is to buy the Z5 instead of the iPod. This is in contrast to a poem in which every single individual is open to interpret the poem according to his/her own personal experience; but ultimately the intended result is to produce pleasure in the audience.
In order for the creators of the advertisement to get this result they need to be aware of the social conventions present in our culture. What I mean by conventions is that; like in a language we know that certain words connotes something because we are aware of these conventions that is why the word dog connotes a dog and not an elephant. Metz talks about the culture codes and he says that "the cultural codes in each social group are so ubiquitous and well assimilated that the viewers consider them to be natural -basic constituents of mankind itself (although they are clearly products, since they vary in space and time). The handling of these codes require no special training, that is to say no training other than living, and having being raised in a society"(Braudy and Cohen, 1999). iPod launched a ferocious advertising campaign and as a result it now became a social convention, we are born and raised in this society, hence we are aware of the iPod. The Z5 advertisement understands this and uses it for its own gain.
Once we started looking at the conventions of the advert I will start to look at the denotative aspects of it, and I would like to start by looking at the term suture. Jacques-Alain Miller defines Suture as "that moment when the subject inserts itself into the symbolic register in the guise of a signifier, and in doing so gains meaning at the expense of being"(Silverman, 1999). I find this definition very useful for our denotative analysis, because the advertisement never mentions the iPod, but because of the way in which the advert is built the iPod becomes the subject of the advertisement; meaning is gained because the iPod exists, because it is part of the signifier of this text. The second part of the advert more or less explains what the first is referring to, so here is where the advertisement leads its audience to the preferred reading. The first verse in the second part introduces the product by giving its name, Z5 with no particular connotation; this verse only means that the Z5 is an MP3 player. The second verse on the other hand is where the advertisement intends to make the audience compare it to the iPod; I would say that from there we start looking at the advertisement in a completely different angle. "Double the storage capacity with WMA". Double who? The iPod. Then third and fourth verse appears: "35 hours of pure music pleasure; 1.8 inches of photo viewing satisfaction". Now these words mean to the audience that the iPod does not last for 35hrs. The fourth verse makes sure the audience understood these messages by telling us no to compare apples with oranges.
I don't want to research the features of both products[1], and find out if the iPod has or not a 35hr long lasting battery, or if it has a screen as big as 1.8 inches, or if it has less storage capacity than the Z5. The argument is that the Z5 implies this on the advert, and the reason they can have that effect on people is because that on the advertising campaign launched by iPod there is no reference to these particular features, 35hrs, 1.8 inches, bigger WMA capacity. I will use a metaphor to better explain this argument; take for instance a particular film. Imagine that we are introduced to a character twice and each time a particular music plays when the character is introduced; now imagine that this character has perhaps died, but after his death later on in the film, that same music is played again. The audience will tend remember the character when the music is played (Braudy and Cohen, 1999). The iPod was introduced much earlier in our society and has become a convention; the Z5 has being introduced recently and by highlighting its features we compare them with the iPod and we are lead to believe that these particular features are better than the iPod.
In the second part of our denotative analysis we need to take a close look at C. S. Pierce, in which he says that a sign can be divided into three aspects, "iconic, indexical, symbolic" (Harman, 1999). The symbolic part belongs more to the connotative analysis rather than the denotative. Because a sign is "symbolic to the extent that its significance depends on human convention" and this will have more to do with hidden meanings, meanings that need to be decoded by the audience, so it belongs to connotation. Now, let us take a look at the iconic and indexical analysis and how are they applicable to our advertisement.
"A sign is an icon to the extent that its significance depends on the inner nature of the sign. Typically some qualitative or structural resemblance between the sign and what it signifies". We can say that the text we are analysing is iconic because it tells us what the Z5 is in the literal sense, it is a MP3 player with a 35hr long lasting battery and that it has double the storage capacity with WMA. "A sign is an index to the extent that its significance depends on a real connection between the sign and what it signifies". Our advert is an indexical sign because it represents the Z5.
The reason I make this iconic and indexical analysis is to help illustrate that the advertisement relies not only on the connoted meanings it creates but it also needs to rely on the literal, denotative meanings it generates. We, the audience, need to be perfectly aware of what is being advertised: a MP3 player from the Samsung brand called Z5.
After being bombarded with advertisements and messages from the iPod, and after seeing so many people wearing those white headphones, I must admit that I felt the desire to owe an iPod. Samsung aimed this advert at every one who does not, like me, owe an iPod and what the advert does is to introduce a choice to the consumer. The connotative elements of this advertisement, compares both iPod and Z5. The denotations in the advertisement introduce the Z5 to the audience. From my point of view; as a consumer as well as an audience member the Z5 advertisement made me be a bit more cautious when thinking about buying an MP3 player; and I believe that the advertisement is very successful, because it tells me that the iPod is not the only and last choice and it also reminds me that owing an iPod is not a compulsory thing.
Bibliography
Barthes, R., (1994). The Semiotic Challenge. California: University of California Press.
Barnes, Winston H. F., (1945). The Doctrine of Connotation and Denotation. Mind, New Series, Vol.54, No. 215 p 254-263. JSTORE
Barthes, R., (1985). The Grain of the Voice. London: Jonathan Cape LTD.
Berger, A., ed. (1999). Signs in Contemporary Culture, an Introduction to Semiotics. Wisconsin: Sheffield Publishing Company.
Bierman, Arthur K., (1962). That There Are no Iconic Signs. Philosophy and Phenomelogical Research, Vol.23, No.2 p 243-249. JSTORE
Bondanella, P., (1997). Umberto Eco and The Open Context: Semiotics, Fiction, Popular Culture. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Braudy, L. and Cohen, M., ed. (1999). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lockerbie, D. Bruce, (1964). Poetry: Denotation and Connotation. The English Journal, Vol. 53, No. 9 p 691. JSTORE
www.ipod.com
www.samsung.com
----------------------- [1] Actually the Z5 shares more similarites with the iPod nano and they both cost exactly the same.
Radio Zumbi, a radio do povo brasileiro na Nova Zelandia.
Saturdays 8:40 104.6 Planet FM
91.0 fm is where I heard a Samsung advertisement for their Z5 MP3 player which serves well to illustrate a quote by Christian Metz that says: "human intervention, which carries elements of a proper semiotics, affects only the level of connotation" (Braudy and Marshal, 1999); the point I try to make by using this quote is that if anyone hears the Z5 advertisement knows that the product is being compared with an iPod. I will discuss the connotations and denotations of this advert, because it may be there where it lays the success or failure of this particular advertising campaign launched by Samsung.
I am only looking at this avert from a spectator's perspective, since if I try to look at it from the creators angle it would only be speculation. I taped the advert played on ZM (91.0 fm) the 10th of May 2006 around 9:00 pm. Here is a transcript I made of the advert:
Imagine a sensual seduction dressed in black, Imagine a slick firm body, Imagine it lasting 35 hours, Imagine 1.8 inches.
The new Z5 MP3 digital music player, Double the storage capacity with WMA, 35 hours of pure music pleasure 1.8 inches of photo viewing satisfaction, Don't compare apples with oranges, Test drive the Samsung Z5 MP3 player today.
The first time I started to think of advertising as a form of poetry is when I read something by Berger A. Arthur which says that nowadays the only kind of poetry we get comes in a "bastardized" form from radio and TV commercials (Berger, 1999). I wouldn't say that advertising is a form of art but I would agree that it uses some techniques used in poetry. That is why I would like to bring out another point made by Christian Metz in which he says that "connotation brings us closer to viewing cinema as an art" he also says that "to speak a language is to use it, but to speak cinematographic language is to a certain extent invent" (Braudy and Marshal, 1999). Perhaps poetry is in some way the creative grouping of words in order to create a meaning that has to be decoded by the audience. We will analyse both, the connotations and denotations of this advert.
Most adverts have the same connoted meaning, which is: choose our products above our competitors' (Barthes, 1985). The connotation in this Samsung advert is that the Z5 is better than the iPod, which is why you should buy the Z5 instead of the iPod. Let us take a look at the connotative constructions of this advertisement and start of with a quote by Barthes in which he says that: "In a word the more duplicity an advertisement sentence contains or the more multiple it is, the better it fulfils its functions as a connoted message. The better the signifier of the advert is, the better it lets its readers link its product with the greatness of the world. Like poetry, with rhetoric, we can connote many other meanings, which gives us pleasure" (Barthes, 1994). I believe that the advertisement here relies a lot in producing pleasure on its audience since we are the ones responsible for breaking the denoted codes of the advert, and by breaking these codes we (the audience) will gain pleasure. That is why we can say, "The poet is aware of the connotative value of every word in his poem. But here the limits of his experience as a human being interpose. He knows only those connotations out of his own experience" (Lockerbie, 1964). This means that the creators of this advert are perfectly aware of the connotative value of every word in their Z5 advertisement; but in the case of this advertisement there is a preferred reading, that leads its audience to interpret it in a single way, which is to buy the Z5 instead of the iPod. This is in contrast to a poem in which every single individual is open to interpret the poem according to his/her own personal experience; but ultimately the intended result is to produce pleasure in the audience.
In order for the creators of the advertisement to get this result they need to be aware of the social conventions present in our culture. What I mean by conventions is that; like in a language we know that certain words connotes something because we are aware of these conventions that is why the word dog connotes a dog and not an elephant. Metz talks about the culture codes and he says that "the cultural codes in each social group are so ubiquitous and well assimilated that the viewers consider them to be natural -basic constituents of mankind itself (although they are clearly products, since they vary in space and time). The handling of these codes require no special training, that is to say no training other than living, and having being raised in a society"(Braudy and Cohen, 1999). iPod launched a ferocious advertising campaign and as a result it now became a social convention, we are born and raised in this society, hence we are aware of the iPod. The Z5 advertisement understands this and uses it for its own gain.
Once we started looking at the conventions of the advert I will start to look at the denotative aspects of it, and I would like to start by looking at the term suture. Jacques-Alain Miller defines Suture as "that moment when the subject inserts itself into the symbolic register in the guise of a signifier, and in doing so gains meaning at the expense of being"(Silverman, 1999). I find this definition very useful for our denotative analysis, because the advertisement never mentions the iPod, but because of the way in which the advert is built the iPod becomes the subject of the advertisement; meaning is gained because the iPod exists, because it is part of the signifier of this text. The second part of the advert more or less explains what the first is referring to, so here is where the advertisement leads its audience to the preferred reading. The first verse in the second part introduces the product by giving its name, Z5 with no particular connotation; this verse only means that the Z5 is an MP3 player. The second verse on the other hand is where the advertisement intends to make the audience compare it to the iPod; I would say that from there we start looking at the advertisement in a completely different angle. "Double the storage capacity with WMA". Double who? The iPod. Then third and fourth verse appears: "35 hours of pure music pleasure; 1.8 inches of photo viewing satisfaction". Now these words mean to the audience that the iPod does not last for 35hrs. The fourth verse makes sure the audience understood these messages by telling us no to compare apples with oranges.
I don't want to research the features of both products[1], and find out if the iPod has or not a 35hr long lasting battery, or if it has a screen as big as 1.8 inches, or if it has less storage capacity than the Z5. The argument is that the Z5 implies this on the advert, and the reason they can have that effect on people is because that on the advertising campaign launched by iPod there is no reference to these particular features, 35hrs, 1.8 inches, bigger WMA capacity. I will use a metaphor to better explain this argument; take for instance a particular film. Imagine that we are introduced to a character twice and each time a particular music plays when the character is introduced; now imagine that this character has perhaps died, but after his death later on in the film, that same music is played again. The audience will tend remember the character when the music is played (Braudy and Cohen, 1999). The iPod was introduced much earlier in our society and has become a convention; the Z5 has being introduced recently and by highlighting its features we compare them with the iPod and we are lead to believe that these particular features are better than the iPod.
In the second part of our denotative analysis we need to take a close look at C. S. Pierce, in which he says that a sign can be divided into three aspects, "iconic, indexical, symbolic" (Harman, 1999). The symbolic part belongs more to the connotative analysis rather than the denotative. Because a sign is "symbolic to the extent that its significance depends on human convention" and this will have more to do with hidden meanings, meanings that need to be decoded by the audience, so it belongs to connotation. Now, let us take a look at the iconic and indexical analysis and how are they applicable to our advertisement.
"A sign is an icon to the extent that its significance depends on the inner nature of the sign. Typically some qualitative or structural resemblance between the sign and what it signifies". We can say that the text we are analysing is iconic because it tells us what the Z5 is in the literal sense, it is a MP3 player with a 35hr long lasting battery and that it has double the storage capacity with WMA. "A sign is an index to the extent that its significance depends on a real connection between the sign and what it signifies". Our advert is an indexical sign because it represents the Z5.
The reason I make this iconic and indexical analysis is to help illustrate that the advertisement relies not only on the connoted meanings it creates but it also needs to rely on the literal, denotative meanings it generates. We, the audience, need to be perfectly aware of what is being advertised: a MP3 player from the Samsung brand called Z5.
After being bombarded with advertisements and messages from the iPod, and after seeing so many people wearing those white headphones, I must admit that I felt the desire to owe an iPod. Samsung aimed this advert at every one who does not, like me, owe an iPod and what the advert does is to introduce a choice to the consumer. The connotative elements of this advertisement, compares both iPod and Z5. The denotations in the advertisement introduce the Z5 to the audience. From my point of view; as a consumer as well as an audience member the Z5 advertisement made me be a bit more cautious when thinking about buying an MP3 player; and I believe that the advertisement is very successful, because it tells me that the iPod is not the only and last choice and it also reminds me that owing an iPod is not a compulsory thing.
Bibliography
Barthes, R., (1994). The Semiotic Challenge. California: University of California Press.
Barnes, Winston H. F., (1945). The Doctrine of Connotation and Denotation. Mind, New Series, Vol.54, No. 215 p 254-263. JSTORE
Barthes, R., (1985). The Grain of the Voice. London: Jonathan Cape LTD.
Berger, A., ed. (1999). Signs in Contemporary Culture, an Introduction to Semiotics. Wisconsin: Sheffield Publishing Company.
Bierman, Arthur K., (1962). That There Are no Iconic Signs. Philosophy and Phenomelogical Research, Vol.23, No.2 p 243-249. JSTORE
Bondanella, P., (1997). Umberto Eco and The Open Context: Semiotics, Fiction, Popular Culture. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Braudy, L. and Cohen, M., ed. (1999). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lockerbie, D. Bruce, (1964). Poetry: Denotation and Connotation. The English Journal, Vol. 53, No. 9 p 691. JSTORE
www.ipod.com
www.samsung.com
----------------------- [1] Actually the Z5 shares more similarites with the iPod nano and they both cost exactly the same.
Radio Zumbi, a radio do povo brasileiro na Nova Zelandia.
Saturdays 8:40 104.6 Planet FM
Comentários
Good essay, you definitely have good arguments to sustain your point of view and to send the message. I'd like to comment that, as a reader, I found some parts of the essay repetitive and tirying, so here's my constructive criticism, hope you'll take it on board.
Cheers,
Roberto