Williams breaks down the language of the advertisement into codes- considering every aspect of audience interaction and subconscious connotations. These include, language, ideology, form (signifier), context (signified), the gaze, linguistic puns, sex, puzzles, the imaginary. In addition, special chapters are given to science and nature as tools to of communication, and how these techniques engage trust to play on fear and Freudian beliefs. Williams acknowledges that some level of knowledge must be present before viewing the advertisement, as the meaning only exists within the viewers head. Also, we need a 'prerequisite of the ads connotation process' in order to process meaning fully.
We all have an 'imaginary ideal ego' we try and satisfy, yet when that ego dissolves there can be negative effects on identity and character, finding ourselves lost and unaware of a direction in whom we want to be. This corresponds with the ideas of 'self fulfilling prophecy', in which you channel your 'ideal ego' to become your ultimate personal idea. and the book breaks down critical advertisements and discusses their intended and subjective meanings, as well as the 'tools' on how to create a successful advertisement and suggest a brand message.
'People are made to identify themselves with what they consume'. An expensive designer handbag, which is also comically male in scale suggests the person carrying the bag has lots of money, and are therefore better in some way than the onlookers of the bag, it also shows they have lots of money to indulge in fluid trends. As humans we have a need to belong and have a 'social place'. Williams argues this idea of a 'common culture' as a 'genuine social being' is something we all have- similar to the prescience of Guy Dubord's 'Spectacle'.
Despite these ideals about utopia through spending, theorists like Williams are fully aware that as a society, we need to keep spending (and therefore commerciality to remain dominant or else society will fall to pieces economically. 'Mass media, in some extent praises this, [as consuming] can fulfil a positive function in our lives', however Dubord would argue that this is merely a tool to silence and pacify the masses, making the real common culture a society content with being fed to and going through the standard motions of living. In this position, society is not striving or questioning the governments policies and not really engaging with societal issues outside of our safe little bubbles, where we can shop online and get it posted the following day packaged up as an 'experience'. This act itself affirms how 'experience' is necessary when considering any form of advertising or branding collateral; the viewer/user engages with the brand and the persona they establish from that experience. To an extent, consumer culture has become The Spectacle by people instagraming their shopping bags and new finds- as a society we are not adverse to indulging, but one could question if publicising this turns life into a catwalk and Instgram like a magazine. Upwards comparison theory is also relevant here, as this publicity is encouraging a perception of low societal status if 'similar' people cannot do the same. Human relationships may be effected due to the false nature projected by aspiration on social media, relating to 'schizophrenic advertising' discussed in a later chapter of Decoding Advertising.
'The information we are given is frequently untrue, and even when it is true we are sold the unnecessary.'
Form (concept) and Content (visuals) must flow harmoniously for the Ad to be understood. Signifier + Signified create 'the sign', essentially the symbolic meaning and coding of what we are reading. This is one of the primary tools for creating advertising covered by Williams and is an ever changing concept.
In Figure A7 the scene is positioned to create a new world, the kitchen is altered to a 'new-real life' in which the products are creating a new glorious world, emphasised by the colour ways.
In Figure A8, Chanel No 5 featuring Catherine Deneuve there is 'no need for subject and figure to link directly', by being 'placed together there can be the assumption of the same meaning', broken down into the signified being glamour and beauty, and the signifier being Catherine Deneuve, movie star and elegant celebrity persona, echoing European class and sophistication. The advert is channelling elegant past connotations of No5 as a brand, rather than reinventing new ones. Williams discusses how this whole advert pins on Catherine Deneuve's 'image', painting the two to have a shared meaning of French chic and famous elegance.
Paradoxically, ideology means that we are all participants in advertising. 'We become identified with a product' and 'we differentiate ourselves from other people by what we buy'. Williams discusses how we may do this with masculinity, often referring to someone as an 'Old Spice man', meaning slightly dated but gentlemanly, or a 'Guinness Man' meaning strong and rugged.
"The term Totenism covers all relations, post ideologically, between two-series, one natural, one cultural"- Levis Strauss
When discussing 'Nina Ricci Paris' perfume identity, Williams argues that 'the idea of multiple identities is only an illusion'. The caption reads "All the women you are", which is publicly directed to the whole audience, but multiplicity implied is still centred on you, and by the product". This builds on the idea that our identity is based upon the 'groups' we identify with, as a way to explain who we are, what we like and how we fit into society.
Figure A28 shows a sunglasses Ad for upmarket brand 'Chachet'. The copy reads 'We know you don't want to look like the next girl'- so attempts so show a differentiation between styles, showing the viewer something 'different','but in this difference there is a sameness', as they are again made to all look exactly the same.
'Schizophrenic advertising' is visually showing or alluding to multiple character roles, her job as a bio-chemist is a separate classification to her role as a woman. 'She is only a woman when she relinquishes all signs of her career'. Strauss says we have become our own 'totems' by classifying roles in such way. Williams also discusses Jaques Lacan's 'psychoanalytic theory', observing his view that consciousness is 'created and not inherent.' By creating a consciousness we relate back to the subject of ideology. Lacan uses words such as 'imaginary' and 'symbolic' to describe the realms of sameness, as apposed to classifying each subject to have a distinct meaning predetermined. Ideology is the representation of imaginary relationships between real things and meanings, so his theory highly relates to consumer culture.
'Cooking' is a term used by Strauss as an alternative to what happens to goods in a similar process to that of liquid modernity. The importance of 'the natural' increases proportionally as as societies distance from nature further. However, once nature is re-given a significance, using the "raw to give status to the cooked', indicates that culture can lead us back to it (nature)". This cyclical process outlining nature and 'the raw' with consumerism is almost biblical in quality, yet raises questions on excessive consumerism and implications of false needs.
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