OUGD401- Task 4 (Semiotic Analysis) Danesi, R. (2002) 'Understanding Media Semiotics'.

Special K TV Advert UK, featuring "Shine" by Dublin's Laura Izibor 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7a7K_JS1Yw

This advertisement (Special K 2009) was televised in Britain and represents as a whole the idea of diet culture (the need to be thin). As a form of advertising it uses certain aspects of a persons wants/needs, which is especially targeted at women. As part of Maslow's “Hierarchy Of Needs” this advertisement focuses on the idea of esteem, this includes confidence, achievement and respect of others/ by others. Advertisers use the idea of a want or a need for something to be obtained to sell products and in this instance it is the want/need to be skinny. Products for dieting and beauty often use the idea of someone being incomplete or that they are flawed. But push the idea that a certain product will make them feel fantastic and fulfill their whole lives. In this advertisement in particular it shows the female looking into the mirror and comparing herself to a skinny model wearing a red swim suit (the beauty ideal) when she, herself is wearing casual loose clothes and overall feeling ashamed for this. Beauty advertisements often push the idea of an ideal beauty and that women should be beautiful, they also push the idea that weight is highly important, if not the most important impact to a woman’s self esteem, therefore being able to sell diet products (Special K). The reason women must be beautiful is part of a myth and a socially constructed idea by the media in particular men, this is due to their still being men in charge on large media corporations and still being in a somewhat patriarchal society. This means that women in advertisements are portrayed to be the submissive gender and that their main source of happiness is to be beautiful/thin. 

Across all of the media this myth that women should be thin is enhanced by models and repeated imagery of thin women/ photo-shopped women in magazines to create the perfect ideal, this ideal cannot be obtained and creates an impossible goal for women especially. This idea of a socially constructed myth can be proven by a quote which was famously said by Kate Moss; "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" which flared controversy across newspapers and brought to light the accepted myth that women should be thin. 

This advert in particular as a text is made up of many signs, which connote certain ideologies based on the myth used within diet advertisements. The screen shot of the woman looking into the mirror denotes that she is wearing jeans and casual clothes, this is the literal meaning however this use of mise en scene (everything that appears before the camera/ in the frame and its arrangement— for example: composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, sounds, and lighting) connotes that she is unhappy and ashamed of how she looks due to the facial expression and how she longingly looks at the photograph from the magazine, the other signs used to connote this is the spoken codes which say “looking to shape up for summer?” all these codes work together to portray that not being the ideal weight makes you unhappy and you must act on that. The repeated shot of including the magazine cutting enhances the idea of a want to be thin and therefore a goal; this is used in most of the scenes of the advert (continuous use of the myth). 

The scene at the end of the advert states: “see if you can get slimmer in just two weeks” this voiceover enhances the myth that women must be thin to wear a swim suit and to feel confident to do so, therefore selling their product based on the consumers belief that buying this product will give them happiness. Happiness is connoted within this end scene by the use of a pop music track, smiling facial expressions on the women within the shot as well as a close up of the models body, which again repeats the idea of a goal and the myth of a need to be thin. The use of a red swimsuit follows from their branding identity, the colour red here connotes the ideas of strength, power and determination, which therefore also signifies that being thin through eating this product, will give you confidence and these qualities.