Judith Williamson

"Decoding Advertisements" by Judith Williamson in 1978 is regarded as a classic of semiological analysis by many authors. Unlike Leymore, Williamson did not focus on the whole system of advertising, nor did she attempt to reduce the meaning in ads to a discrete set of structural dimensions and an Exhaustive Common Denominator. Williamson was interested in uncovering the mechanisms by which meaning is created in ads.

She contends that the first function of an ad is to create difference. Only goods which are essentially the same, such as cigarettes, beer, soap and perfume, need to be advertised. The way in which difference is created is by means of an image. However, an image is only of use in creating a difference insofar as it is itself part of a series of differences. She provides a compelling example of the processes which work to transfer meaning from one system of signification with which we are familiar (which she calls the referent system), to that of the product with which we are unfamiliar.

This becomes clearer when the example is described. Williamson describes an example of an ad in which the face of Catherine Deneuve, a well known French actress and celebrity, is pictured beside a bottle on which the words "Chanel No. 5" are inscribed. In order to successfully decode the ad, the "informed" reader must recognize the fact that Catherine Deneuve is part of a system of signs which marks her as different from other celebrities. They are then invited to make a connection between the signified of Deneuve (sophistication, elegance) and the signified of the perfume. The ad refers back to the system from which the sign (Catherine Deneuve's face) was lifted. It is only by referring back to this system of differences that the sign can function.

Williamson illustrates this point by way of another example. In this case, Margeaux Hemingway is pictured beside a bottle on which the word "Babe" is inscribed. Within the "celebrity" referent system Margeaux Hemingway may be differentiated from Catherine Deneuve in that she is a "tomboy". The two celebrities are clearly differentiated from one another in terms of what they signify. The signifieds which they confer on the different products are also therefore differentiated: Catherine Deneuve is not Margeaux Hemingway; Chanel No. 5 is not Babe.

This is represented as:

CD	=	MH
No. 5	=	Babe

Williamson asserts that this contrived system of linkages assumes a type of inevitability so that the link made between the two systems seems "real" or "natural". The form of advertisements is thus ideological in that they involve the false assumption which is at the root of all ideology that, because things are as they are, this is somehow natural. Advertising's technique is to strip away feelings or emotions from the systems in which they originally gain meaning and to correlate them to tangible objects, linking the unattainable with the attainable. Perfume becomes associated with "sophistication". The myth that objects can conjure up happiness is not new; however, the myth that their purchase and possession can lead to happiness is new. The products thus endowed with meaning become objective correlates.

So Williamson argues that products initially take on meaning as the signified from one system of meaning (the referent system) is correlated with the signified of the product. Once this transfer has taken place the product itself comes to mean. This can be illustrated through the reversal which took place in the advertising of Heinz beans. The advertising moved from "Heinz means Beans" to "Beans means Heinz". In the latter example all beans are completely enclosed by the signifier. A product can then move from signifying meaning to actually generating meaning, from meaning happiness to being happiness: "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet".