HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

The Semiotic Analysis of a Print

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HUIMIN ZHENG

Student Number: 139000939

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

Date: 08/11/2013

Number words: 1080

Introduction

These days, we are surrounding by an increasing number of

images associated with brands, logos, and commodities.

Furthermore, these images (as signs) play an essential

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

role in advertisement. According to Papson,

advertisements can combine and recombine signifiers and

signifieds to define specific meanings of commodities.

Advertisers arrange these signs to achieve their

commercial value from these signs’ original meaning to

another one (Goldman& Papson, 1996). Some of them do

succeed, and this paper will examine a print

advertisement of a successful brand, analysis it by

semiotics and then evaluate how does it gain a steady

status in viewers’ mind by using signs.

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

Main body

It was claimed that the sign is a ‘signifier’, a material

object that has a particular meaning (Williamson, 2002).

A brand can have lasting market value if it represents

itself well with using typical signs, much like the

advertisement shows, which includes the colors and the

bottle itself. Every brand wants to be represented by

some signs successfully in the brand competition, and

semiotics has become a useful method to achieve it

(Goldman& Papson, 1996). Such as Coca cola, it’s a very

successful company on launching its brand. In the terms

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

of semiotics, Coca Cola has a long story of advertisement

with a variety of visuals. The managers unified the

corporate image through visual signs, and then kept

promoting the brand and establishing a systematic,

constant, efficient and distinctive branding campaign by

using the visual positioning of advertisement. The Coca

Cola symbol has been an American icon for almost a

century. The Coca Cola name has been a household word for

even longer. For the remarkable success of Coca Cola,

this assignment chose a print advert and will attempt a

semiotic analysis of it.

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

The main color of this advertisement is red which is the

typical color of Coca Cola. Even sometimes when people

see this kind of red, the feeling of that soft drink

would come out of their heads. This image shows wave and

cloud-like objects moving upward coming out of the Coca

Cola. Viewers can imagine when they open a bottle of a

Coca Cola, they would see the similar effect. The

movement of each object shows as if it is moving upward

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

and going to the sky passionately. Many vibrant colors

are displayed on this advertisement with objects such as

butterflies, happy faces, hot air balloons, and flowers

within the cloud-like waves. Those objects account for

almost half space of this advert, and the other half is

the bottle and logo, which could give viewers a balanced

visual feeling. Moreover, there is a slogan ‘live on the

coca side of life’ at the middle of the bottle，which is

one part of the promotion series named ‘happiness in a

bottle’. This new slogan is to call people to know their

real lives, hear their natural voices, and feel that life

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

is full of colors.

At the beginning of the analysis of this advert, a

definition of semiotics should be given (often referred

to as ‘semiology’). According to Saussure, who is widely

considered as the father of semiotics, it can be

understood as ‘the study of signs’ in the simplest way.

It was claimed that the signifier is a material sign,

which usually exists in real world, and the signified can

be understood as its psychological conception (Goldman&

Papson, 1996). Moreover, the advertising image would be

emphatic if the signs are organized in an appropriate way

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(Barthes, 1999). Berger (1972:7) explains, “Seeing comes

before words”. Then advertisers started to use images to

enhance the characteristics of the products. There is an

old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words; so

many advertisers usually try to communicate messages by

using visual signs, rather than bore the viewers in heavy

texts.

Then this paper will explain what each sign indicates by

using the method of semiology. The signifier of a bottle

of Coca Cola apparently signifies the product. Moreover,

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

the reason why the advertiser use a real photo instead of

a drawing or painting could be that the product is so

much familiar by public. Even the color is original

without any exaggeration by any Microsoft, because just

the product itself is the most useful way to give us the

feeling of enjoyment and the straightest way to show the

essential role of this advert. The color of background is

red, which is the representative color of Coca Cola, and

public has accepted this over decades.

These signs also signified a particular brand culture and

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

deep background. This advert was launched in March of

2006 when it had gone through a difficult way and gained

a high position in the market of soft drinks. But with

the over centuries development, Coca Cola has tried to

make itself associate with thousands different signs on

advertisements, and lose its original ways in recent

years. Some critics point that this advert shows the Coca

Cola brand’s global strategy seems to return to the

traditional style. In the traditional Coca Cola

advertisements, that bright red color, fluttering

ribbons, curve glass bottles, which are all full of

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

invaluable magic. Bob Garfield, who wrote the ‘Ad Review’

in Advertising Age, claimed that the zizi bubbling sound

while opening a bottle of soft drink is the most

attractive, mouthwatering sound in the world. And now the

advertisers are emphasizing on the important things they

used to stress in the past.

However, even though so many old elements are organized

in this advert, the way of organization and the slogan

are new. ‘The Coke Side of Life’, and the wave and cloud-

like objects moving toward coming out of the bottle are

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

all signifiers that indicate the spirit of Coca Cola,

which is refreshment and enjoyment. The coke side of life

can make us think of a joyful，positive，relaxed life that

coke brings us over decades. Promoting this core value of

brand constantly might be an efficient way to last long

in the whole market (James& Jerry, 1996).

In conclusion, semiotics has increasingly become a tool

in brand competition (Goldman& Papson, 1996). Signs with

a particular meaning could give brand a more efficient

way to be remembered by public. Such as the bright red

color and the streamlined designed bottle of Coca Cola.

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

Keeping promote its product by using these typical signs

may not be successful all the times, but it does have

remarkable result on being accepted by public steady.

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Reference

Print advertisement [online] available at: A print advert

of Coca Cola

Barthes, R. 1999. Visual Culture: The Reader. London. Sage.

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HUIMIN ZHENG Date: 8/NOV/2013

Berger, J. 2008. Ways of Seeing. London. Sage Publications.

James C. Collins & Jerry I. Porras 1996. Building Your

Company’s Vision. Britain. Harvard College.

Williamson, J. 2002. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and

Meaning in Advertising. Great Britain and the United

States. Bath Press.

Goldman, R. & Papson,S. 1996. Sign Wars. New York. The

Guilford Press.

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