Sunday, November 23, 2008
Read Between the Legs
The image in this anti-smoking ad demonstrates Roland Barthes’ concept of “double articulation” of language and myth. The ad exhibits knowledge of signs— in this case, of a cigarette and fingers and their literal significance— and how to manipulate these signs to extend their referents in order to effectively communicate the intended meanings. In other words, there is a denotative meaning associated with the two fingers and the cigarette, but there are also many connotations purposely coded into the image to convey a message in a persuasive manner.
At the language level, there are two fingers (the index and the middle) and a cigarette between them. The literal meaning is about as far as denotation goes in this ad; the rest of the meanings are to be found at the level of myth. Both the fingers and cigarette possess specific literal signified meanings, but they are positioned in a way to connote “legs” and a “penis”. Furthermore, the text in the ad acts to reinforce the connotative meanings of the image, clueing the reader in terms of what the two fingers and cigarette represent; thus, the text works with the image to make more explicit the connotations of the ad.
