Rhetoric of the Image

Rhetoric of the Image

Roland Barthes analyses a photographic advert of Panzani, which is seen below. When one looks at the image, one thinks about pasta, Italy and colours.

There are three different messages in the image:

The Linguistic message

The linguistic message is the text in the image. Panzani does not mean anything but it sounds Italian.

Anchorage and Relay

Anchorage means to clarify/explain something in the image with text that is normally obvious while relay means adding more to the image by writing something that is beyond the connotations of the image.

The symbolic message (Connoted)

Fours signs are found in the image without looking at the linguistic part of the message:

– The return from the market (because of the open bag)

– Colours (Italianicity)

– Objects in the image (culinary)

– ‘Nature Morte’ (which means still life)

The literal message (Denoted)

The literal message is the actual objects in the image meaning that for example; the photo of the tomato is a representation of the actual tomato. A message without a code. It is saying what one sees.

Later on in the lesson, we split into groups to discuss an advertising campaign. My group and I had an advertising campaign of a cigarettes’ brand; Parliament.

We discussed that the images all had the same colour scheme; white and blue, just like the packet of cigarettes. It seems like they are in Greece. They say ”The perfect recess” to deliver the message that one can take a cigarette to have a break and relax. The two people seem to enjoy each others’ company which delivers a message that if one takes a Parliament cigarette, they could be just like them.