An analysis of how a seemingly simple public service advertising campaign goes about persuading the viewer through subliminal messages and a discussion regarding some of the ideologies behind advertising.

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Through using an advert issued by the Department of Health and Social Security regarding drug abuse (see appendix 1) this essay aims to examine how the intending meaning is portrayed through semiotics. Through the work of theorists such as Roland Barthes one can apply a certain amount of theory to the speculative perception of the advert in hand, after all seeing is believing but a framework of analysis allows for a more informed opinion. The messages omitted by advertising campaigns are not always as blatant as one may first suppose, The many individual signs within a text build to produce an overall message, which often occurs subconsciously. A discussion will follow regarding the ideologies behind advertising in general, and how this is evident within this particular text, discussing the ideas of theorist John Berger.

To propose a meaningful commentary on the way in which this advert is deliberately formulated semiotics will be considered. Semiotics is the study of how texts communicate what they mean; it is the science of signs. A sign is simply a thing object, word or picture. It will have a particular meaning to a person or group of people. A sign is made up of two parts a signifier, the actual material object and the signified, which is its meaning. An advert needs more than one sign to convey an entire meaning; Roland Barthes called this the "myth" the build up of signs to convey the whole meaning, or layers of signification. Barthes would look at the advert and see the intended meanings and implications of seemingly unimportant commodities which work together to produce the overall message. For example Barthes may ask, "what does the text say about the product (or in this case the subject matter)?" The text states clearly that the subject matter is heroin. It gives information of the side effects, such as feeling ill and losing weight, and states that it is an addictive drug. The image provides a clear representation of a heroin addict and explains that it is controlling. The next question Barthes would ask is "how is the dream, lifestyle or experience sold?" The image of the girl is very undesirable. She looks sad and out of control, helpless and tragic. This choice of lifestyle is certainly not aspiring for anybody. This is intended to turn the viewer off from choosing heroin. The third and final question Barthes may ask is "What goes without saying?" or "What are the false assumptions made resulting in a kind of ideological abuse?" "I resented seeing Nature and History confused at every turn, and I wanted to track down, in the decorative display of what-goes-without-saying, the ideological abuse which, in my view, is hidden there." Culture has a way of shaping the publics ideologies allowing the media or art to represent things as though it is natural as opposed to being due to social or historical reasons. For example a scientist is portrayed in modern culture as a male because it goes without saying that naturally more males are interested in science. It is not strictly true however as it maybe to do with social reasons and the historic role of women as to why fewer females have the opportunity to enjoy and learn science. With regards to the advert in question it is assumed that young girls/women between the ages of 15 and (the intended audience, as per the agency Yellowhammer who created the campaign ) aspire to be glamorous. The tagline is "Skin care by heroin" which is a direct imitation of a cosmetic advert presuming this irony will be enough to put all young women off the drug as it is natural that all women wish to be beautiful. It also "goes-without-saying" that no one would ever wish to become dependent on such an apparently uplifting chemical, it is natural that no one should desire any drug other than alcohol or nicotine, or is it because culture tells it that way? At one time in history it was considered social to take opium, extracted from poppy seeds, now it is a terrible crime to desire a drug processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the Asian poppy plant.

With those three questions the intended meaning of the text begins to become clear. However to arrive at the conclusion of "taking heroin is bad" subconscious messages have been processed by the readersain without them realising. The text is full of signifiers resulting in the signified that creates the overall message. For example take the facial expression of the girl. The overall expression is glazed, she appears to be unaware of anything. The absent looking eyes are a sign of emptiness and a loss of control. They look wide which implies vulnerability; she represents the hunted as opposed to the hunter, which is a metaphor for the drug itself. The head is slightly tilted expressing she is absent-minded. The skin has been paid particular attention to as it is in direct relation to the tagline. She has white skin and her eyes have dark circles around them, her lips are slightly parted all connoting death and a skull like appearance. She represents someone dying from a heroin addiction. There is a clearly visible blemish on her cheek, it is obviously assumed that girls at this age fear blemishes. Her hair and eyeows are untamed implying the girl has no interest in taking care of herself or she is incapable of doing so as the drug has control of her. Another sign is the use of colour. The background of the image is striking as it is nothing but grey. Grey connotes misery, it has a definite sense of unhappiness, for instance "grey days" or "feeling grey" or "grey moods". The background matches the mood of the subject. The subjects T-shirt is also grey, very nearly identical to that of the background, this links the background with herself suggesting the misery is upon her. The T-shirt is on her, clinging to her like the unhappiness, and it is the heroin causing this misery therefore implying the heroin is inside her. She is a part of the grey background. There is nothing except a mass of dull colour, which implies there is little else in the addicts life besides a consuming amount of misery and a massive amount of isolation. There is nothing for the reader to associate her with or to put her in to any sort of context, this resembles the vacuity of her lifestyle, the blankness of it. Judith Williamson writes of how colour is used in advertising to connect "the object and a person…The womans skin is precisely the same colour as the eggs. Her hair matches the cupboards. Again, we see while the kitchen is meant to reflect her, she is in fact merely an object in the kitchen…". This quote is in reference to a kitchen advert describing the link between the subject and the background (which so happens to be the product, is what this advert is dealing with too as it is the empty lifestyle that is being sold.)

The theorist Roger Fry analysed paintings using formalism. Fry maintained that subject matter was merely there to wrap form around. His ideas can be used to a certain extent with regards to advertising and photography. He had five emotional elements, which he believed were the only important aspects needed to decode artwork. One of those was colour. He said, " That this [colour] has a direct emotional effect is evident from words such as gay, dull and melancholy, in relation to colour." It is fair to say that Fry probably would have agreed with the drawn conclusions concerning colour and the advert in hand. He would have said the girl herself was irrelevant it was the way in which she was expressed that told the true meaning. For instance, another of his elements was light and shade. He said "Our feelings towards the same object become totally different according as we see it strongly illuminated against a black background or dark against light." The light in the photograph has been deliberately engineered. The girl has been lit from above to cast shadows over her eyes and exaggerate the cheekbones giving a skull like appearance, which carries implications of death. However this top-lit glow offers a ray of hope to the viewer. A subtle way of saying, "there is help available."

Through this analysis and dissection of the text the way in which the overall intended message is displayed becomes apparent. Through signs of wide eyes, grey colours, pale skin and an ironic tagline subconscious thoughts are processed by the viewer who composes an impression within seconds of looking at the advert. However, the impact of the piece is down to something other than the semiotics. There is an ideology behind advertising as a whole that encourages this text to be successful in persuading the target audience against using heroin. Theorist John Berger writes extensively on the theory behind publicity, which helps to address the second aspect of this discussion in relation to the effect that the message has on the viewer. At this point of analysis the intended message has been established by the reader, "to use heroin is bad, say no." This has been concluded through a series of fast processed thoughts stimulated by the signs existing in the piece. But what about this conclusion encourages the viewer to be persuaded? It has already been established through Barthes theory that "it-goes-without-saying" that the target audience are turned off from the image as it is not aspiring, but why?

Berger writes on the theory that the notion of glamour keeps the wheel of capitalism turning, without glamour there would be no envy and without envy people would not be concerned with buying products which would make them better people or have richer more fulfilling lives. Advertising persuades of a transformation by showing already transformed people, and as a result are now enviable. To be envied is to be glamorous in some form, and so publicity manufactures glamour. "The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life…It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better." This quote is helpful in describing the ideology behind advertising. The idea of wanting to better oneself is exploited by making the spectator desire to be like the person in the advert. "Glamour can not exist without personal and social envy…Publicity does not manufacture the dream. All that it does is to propose to each one of us that we are not enviable yet could be." So how does the notion of glamour fit in to this advert distributed by the Department of Health and Social Security? Bergers theory of using envy as a tool to sell products really works with this advert, however it needs switching round. Envy and glamour have been used but to have the opposite effect. In Barthes words "it-goes-without-saying" that girls between the ages of 15 and wish to be glamorous so the subject is made as unappealing as possible to dissuade the spectator from taking heroin. The fact that the format of the text has been made to resemble a cosmetic advert shows this. The image works in showing the end result of a heroin addict, essentially saying, "if you use heroin, you too could look like this". A usual cosmetic advert follows the same structure but shows a radiant, beautiful woman essentially saying the same, "if you use this product, you too could look like this." (See appendix ). The end result is the key, advertising works on the basis of saying this is what one could look like in the future, it speaks of the future offering a different, better lifestyle to the one the viewer has. The advert in question displays the lifestyle of a heroin addict and makes it unenviable, prompting the spectator to feel their own life is better than the one presented to them, the subject is the opposite to everything one aspires too. Berger believes, "Publicity begins by working on a natural appetite for pleasure" and pleasure is exactly what this image does not connote.

Through establishing the finer points of the advert and discovering how the message is omitted it has help to understand how an advertising campaign such as this one has a profound effect on its target audience. Analysing the semiotics of the text has shown how it is successful in dissuading young people from taking the drug, and it has shown how what seem like meaningless and sometimes unnoticeable commodities make up a powerful statement. It is evident that the smallest signs can have meanings which are taken for granted, which is how the whole text works together to present a lifestyle or experience. This advert is successful in portraying a tragic and unappealing experience through semiotics, but also through the ideology of glamour and aspiration. This text has been a fine example for John Bergers theory and it is evidence enough to prove it successful. It seems the publics aspiration to be glamorous and beautiful is enough to build a campaign around putting people off a drug, which probably more importantly renders the addict economically and mentally unstable.

Books

Barthes, Roland, Mythologies, (New York The Noonday Press, 1)

Berger, John, Ways of Seeing (Londonitishoadcasting Corporation and Penguin Group Ltd, )

Fry, Roger, "An Essay in Aesthetics" in Art in Theory, edited by Charles Harrison edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Oxford Blackwell, 1),

Saunders, Dave, 0th Century Advertising (London Carlton Books Limited, 1)

Williamson, Judith, Decoding Advertisements Ideology and Meaning in Advertising (London Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 178)

Websites

http//www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/heroin.html accessed 06 January 00

Magazines

Oil of Olay Advert in Glamour, June 00, p.

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