Barthes

Barthes' article "Rhetoric of the Image" discusses the many meanings an image can provide to someone looking at it. An image is like looking at a re-presentation or resurrection of an image, and has a certain process of signification for the viewer. Barthes decided to look at significations of the image in advertising because of the intentional messages meant for an audience. Most advertisements have a single typical sign, a linguistic message, which is counted as one message. Written messages interpret the image for whoever is consuming it, but there are also other subtle signs in the message. Advertisers conduct studies to find out small details like what color attracts people to their product.

The concentration on detail in advertising can be seen in every magazine, especially with perfume and cologne ads. Women are usually placed as vulnerable and "feminine", while men are always in a strong stance to represent masculinity. While these ads seem natural to us because of our cultural knowledge, someone unfamiliar with our culture may wonder why women are always touching their faces and standing in suggestive positions in perfume ads. Advertisers are trying to make women think that using a certain scent will make them feminine or more attractive to men. The body language of the women are highly suggestive, and the text directs the women to want to be desirable with tag lines like "Be Delicious" for DKNY's scent. The message does not have a code, but we interpret it through our knowledge bound up with our perception. These advertisements mask the constructed meaning under the appearance of the given meaning. The meaning of the image to the viewer depends on the practical, national, cultural and aesthetic kinds of knowledge that he or she has.