Connotation and Denotation

Jim Bogenrief
Critical Practice

Understanding Advertisements: Connotations and Denotations of Images/Texts

Through subliminal and direct visual messages companies use advertisements to capture the attention of an audience within a given demographic. The use of subliminal messaging and connotative imagery is imperative to the success of an ad because it indirectly appeals to the desires and ideals of that demographic. Equally important, direct messaging, which demotes logical understanding, is used to support those messages. Through the process of semiology, one is able to deconstruct an ad to better understand the connotations and denotations of the imagery and text within the advertisement.
Entrepreneur Magazine in an interesting source to find ads that appeal to business minded people. Before opening the magazine on can assume that the reader is interested in this magazine to gain insight on how to be more successful. Therefore, one can expect to find advertisements that appeal to the professional, structured and regimented individual. One ad that clearly does this is an ad for a website called WomenEntrepreneur.com. It is a full-page ad that shows a young, professional woman looking into a computer with the companies website shown on the screen. Surrounding the image is factual text providing various pieces of information.
The first thing that the eye is drawn to is the image of the woman looking into the computer screen. The background of the image is undefined, and appears to be endless. This image denotes the profile view of a young attractive woman with reddish-brown hair. She appears to be of Hispanic heritage. Her skin is a creamy brown and she has perfect complexion. Her hair is tightly pulled back and forms a bun on the back of her head. She is wearing a burgundy, business-casual long sleeve shirt with a collar. The texture of the shirt makes vertical lines. Her gaze is directed into the computer screen. The computer color is two-toned gray and not branded. It is a flat screen and is new and sleek. On the desktop are a keyboard and a mouse. The screen shows the webpage of the company, which is laid out like a newspaper. It shows a number of headlines, all of which are shown in the colors red, white and blue. The first reads, “WomenEntrepreneur is 1 Year Old!”. Another reads, “There is only one thing worse than doing nothing, and that is doing something for nothing.” The other headlines are illegible, but it does show some of the featured areas of the site: Featured Columnist, Entrepreneur Assist, Blogs, Message Boards, Franchises, Success Stories, and News & Resources.
This image connotes a number of things; first, because the woman is of Hispanic descent, one could assume that this advertisement is appealing to a young, Hispanic woman. Because she is attractive and well put together she connotes the idea of success; but not simply success, success in America. The red, white and blue text illustrated on the website connotes American patriotism. It shows that a young Hispanic woman can be involved in the American dream. But the ad also turns the idea of the American dream into reality. She appears to be successful already. The way in which she is dressed, the way her styled is hair, and fancy computer she is working on all connote wealth and success.
The information on the webpage connotes the means by which one can achieve success. The website itself highlights the success of WomenEntrepreneur.com by focusing on the headline “WomenEntrepreneur is 1 Year Old!” The other headlines and website features all are laid out as an instruction manual to success and as a source for inspiration.
After seeing the image in the center of the page the eye is drawn to the text on the top of the page. This text is written in a font similar to Helvetica, very simple yet bold. There are two brief sentences. The first states, “There are 10.4 million women business owners.” This sentence is written in red, bold lettering. The second sentence is also red lettering, but it is not bold; it reads, “And now there’s a place for them to meet.” This text occupies about one third of the layout.
Other than the obvious denotation of the text, its connotation is more subliminal. The specific area of the layout in which the text lies and the boldness of the letters within the text connotes that those two sentences are most important. The connotation behind its meaning is that with the use of their website the aspiring business woman will be linked in with Americas most successful business women. And because there are 10.4 million women who own businesses, their website will make it easy and accessible for a woman to enter a man’s business world.
The bottom quarter of the layout transitions from interactive imagery to straightforward text laid over a black background. Reading from top to bottom the viewer sees a short paragraph followed by one sentence in white contrasting text. The first paragraph forwardly states what the red bold text on the top of the layout connotes. It reads, “Welcome to WomenEntrepreneur.com, a website devoted entirely to what women business owners want and what they need. It’s a place to meet and learn from a community of experts and entrepreneurs who share your passion.” Following that statement there is one line that says, “Visit now to find support for everything you do and solutions to help you do more.” Finally, at the bottom of the page the website is listed with a tagline beneath it which states, “As focused on you as you are on your business.”. The advertisement uses repetition to help engrain the name of the website.
The connotation of this text is very straight forward, as it does not use subliminal messaging to convey its point. It appears that this portion of the ad explains the message of the image and the text at the top of the page. This text reiterates the mission of the website, to link and develop women entrepreneurs. It also connotes the idea of unity and strength in numbers. For example, it states that their website is devoted entirely to what women want and need. The word “entirely” implies that they are experts within the field. It also reassures the viewer that their website is the vehicle needed to unite the aspiring entrepreneur to a professional group of women. The word “expert” further supports that idea. It connotes professionalism and a complete understanding of the business world as it pertains to a woman.
When looking at the text as a whole the denotation is much more general and visible without actually reading and comprehending each section. Women, Entrepreneur, and WomenEntrepreneur appear throughout the advertisement eight times. Those words appear in the uppermost text once, on the computer screen three times, in the white text three times, and once above the tag line.
The words women and entrepreneur connote the name of the website. By seeing them repeated throughout the advertisement it makes their website name more memorable. The viewer only needs to see the name of the company once to recognize it, but by repeating its parts the ad forces the viewer to remember its name.
Finally, the background of the layout is white and undefined. At the top of the page a subtle gradient appears and almost unnoticeably begins to darken. This undefined background setting connotes the idea of open possibilities. If she were in an office setting that would connote the idea of confinement. An entrepreneur is not one that needs to be corralled, she is one that needs to be let loose. An aspiring entrepreneur needs opportunities to be abundant, so the open dreamy background supports the scheme of connections, and success.
With the use of semiology deconstruction of the advertisement for WomenEntrepreneur.com uncovered discrete connotations of text and imagery that were used to make the ad more successful. Additionally, understanding the denotations of all aspects of the ad made its purpose and function more clear.