Wednesday, April 2, 2014

What would be a Barthian analysis to a tv commercial showing a young woman in fashion using a new washing machine and a new washing powder?

Roland Barthes is famous as a semiotician, so there are a
few ways one could give a Barthian twist to a TV commercial about a fashionable young
woman using a washing machine and washing powder. Since semiotics deals with symbol
systems, one would have to look at what the commercial symbolizes, or, in Barthian
terms, what does it signify. Just as the map is not the territory, but a signifier for
that territory within the limitations of the medium, the commercial itself is a
signifier for consumerism, but the specific details of the commercial can be separate
signifiers. The fashionable woman, the washing machine, and the soap are all separate
signifiers, each with its own significance within the larger framework of the
commercial. So... it could signify our obsession with the newest and latest products;
consumer culture in general; society's attitude toward women's role as the one who
cleans up; our relationship with technology; or any of a number of other
interpretations, each of which would be valid within the context of the Barthian
universe.

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