مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Visual Semiotics and Interpretation in the Moroccan Television Advertisements: The Case of ‘Garlic Cube Knor’ and ‘Prince Biscuit’

Abstract :

For many of today’s cultural critics and semioticians, questions about visual semiotics and interpretation of TV images are of central concern. It focuses on the ways visual images communicate messages and also on the system that dominates their code and usage. Admittedly, television advertising is a communication field whereby images are perfect representation of life. This paper examines the construction of meaning of visual messages in television advertising from a semiotic analysis perspective. More precisely, patterns of meaning construction are analysed and interpreted. For this purpose, I have investigated two specific advertisements The ‘Garlic Cube Knor’ and the ‘Prince Biscuit’ commercials which ran in Moroccan 2M channel. Obviously, traditional criticism mostly questions the aesthetic aspects of object or the text according to their face values. However, semiotics largely makes inquiries into the manner of which the meaning is created rather than simply investigating what it is. The results yielded both iconic message elements and symbolic or indexical ones. However, symbolism seems to be more effective and prevalent than iconic meaning.