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.

Image result for i million 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 advert.

However the connotations give a deeper meaning of all these objects the black and white shots give as sense of noir and mystery and also give the advert a sense of class. The man has a lot of possessions and all of them are very expensive giving us a sense of high class as well. the name of the perfume itself is a connotation to  the amount of money that should be associated with having this perfume. The advert suggest that you can be a lady's man if you buy this product and you will be famous as shown in the scene where a camera takes a shot of the man like paparazzi would. Throughout the ad the man flicks his fingers and things seem to appear out of nowhere signifying that he can have whatever he wants. this connotes that the perfume is for someone who has it all.

Image result for i million paco rabanne advert
Figure 2: Poster


In a way this advert works because in the western world we already have everything we need and always want more, everyone aspires to be the man in the advert who can get anything at the flick of a finger without concern for expense. 

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