Rhetoric of the Image - A study on Paco Rabanne's 1 Million Advert
In "Rhetoric of the Image" Barthes is trying to examine and understand the message behind an image. He wants to show to what extent they go at creating an ideological world view. Practically he is asking himself "what is the effect of images on society?". Barthes mainly focuses on adverts to deliver his message since they are a condensed form of image that needs to deliver its message as quickly as possible otherwise it is easily overlooked. As an example I will be taking an advert and analysing it the way Barthes analysed the pasta advert for Panzani. Which used the Italian sounding name connoting a sense of quality and assurance to the product, because of the Italianicity of the name and branding. I will be discussing the 1Million Advert by Paco Rabanne. Figure 1: Perfume In the advert for this perfume for men, the denotations give us a simple description of the things we are seeing i.e. a rich man, a car, gold etc... In a way it is a simple...