Blog Post #5

 

1) McLuhans claim 'the medium is the message' means that media—regardless of content—reshape human experience and exert far more change in our world than the sum total of the messages they contain(Griffin, pg. 310). In this case, this advertisement being in print allows it to be seen by a wider audience, and is something that can be put anywhere and everywhere. Were it a tv advertisement, it would probably be something I would shut off, but being in print allows the ad to show ALL the benefits of using it's product. So the medium of a print advertisement allows people to maybe not even have to read all of those benefits- they can just take a quick glance and will see that there are a lot of benefits to using this product. One downside to this medium, however, is that an advertisement like this is very optional and not necessary to read- and perhaps the amount of words on the page would turn a customer away before they even have a chance to read what the ad is saying. 

The implications that anyone can read this ad on the go and get an idea that this product serves a lot of benefits, even without reading the full thing, will tell the producers that simply getting a positive message out there about their product- they will get audiences thinking about what it is they're selling. For me personally, I had no idea that a TIDE product made for cold water would be able to provide so many benefits, so this is something that the producers of this item would see effectively makes people do a double take and possibly buy their product. 

2) A sign in this advertisement would be any of the benefits we're told can come about by using this product, such as the energy-saving comparison to being able to power an XBOX for over 600 hours, charging an iPhone over 10,000 times, etc. The signified is defined as the meaning we associate with the sign (Griffin, pg. 321) The signifier is defined as the physical form of the sign as we perceive it through our senses, an image (Griffin, pg. 321). In the case of this advertisement, the signified is appealing to a 'pathos' of a customer, in making them want to help the world by using this product, by using all the benefits that come with it. The signified of this advertisement is the very recognizable 'TIDE ' logo in the middle, a logo that many people know- which lets us know what kind of a product it is before even reading the advertisement. 

3)The dominant code of this advertisement is that buying this product will help the world and the environment in many ways. It's the main purpose of this message, it's what they're using to try to sell you on buying the product, and it's what's going to take precedent in the eyes of the customer over everything else. The negotiable code would perhaps be the amount of TIDE product you'd use when washing your clothing, although this advertisement does leave little in the way for negotiating in this aspect.  The oppositional code of this advertisment would be the fact that viewers might not believe that a different kind of TIDE product has the ability to change the world for the positive as this advertisement is suggesting. Thus, it may come off as counter-productive when trying to sell this product to people by using the pathos appeal, because people won't believe that such a product could provide that much benefit to the world.