Semiotic Analysis

• Man• Sexy• Healthy / Ripped• Calvin Klein brand• Comfortable• Virility• “Package”• Inadequacy???• Jealousy???• Fear???

What are the intended signifieds?

Semiotic AnalysisWhat are potential unintended signifieds?

Semiotic Analysis

• Homoerotic???• Corporate• Propaganda• “Douche bag”• Alienated (from brand)

What are potential unintended signifieds?

Semiotic AnalysisHow is the signifier shaping the signified?

Semiotic Analysis

• Black and white– form and mass rather

than color– authenticity

How is the signifier shaping the signified?

Semiotic Analysis

Semiotic Analysis

Transcoding (the signified)

Semiotic Analysis

Transcoding (the signified)

Minority groups often appropriate the language of oppression to assert power

“Black” (“Black is Beautiful” from the 1960s)

“Nigger”“Queer”“Bitch”

“The CD cover of his album Put Yo Hood Up (2001) shows Lil’ Jon clad in a pair of black rubber coveralls, his open-mouthed expression of rage and intensity augmented by the added effect of gold teeth, sunglasses, and long dreadlocks, creating a general impression of a demented slaughterhouse worker or other grotesque. The draping of the rebel flag around his shoulders in the picture, far from constituting an endorsement, communicates the hostile occupation of a symbol. The cover image seems the worst nightmare of a white supremacist, a demonic, superpowered black man appropriating, occupying, and defiling the treasured symbol of Dixie.”http://www.southernspaces.org/contents/2008/miller/9a.htm

Semiotic Analysis

"I wear the belt for southern pride and to rebel. . . . I don't take the Confederate flag that serious as far as the racial part is concerned." Andre 3000 of OutKast

I'm Sorry Miss Jackson

Semiotic Analysis

Trans-coding (the signified)

Other examples?

Semiotic Analysis

Semiotic Analysis

Semiotic Analysis