Ads Analysis

In this course I have learned how to analyze advertisements from different social semiotic perspectives. In this project I apply the strategies to this Starbucks advertisement. The selected advertisement will be discussed in the following five aspects: arrangement, language, images, readership and implications.
First the compositional arrangement of the poster. The poster is divided into two major parts. The upper part takes the image at close shot with a man holding a cup of Starbucks coffee with no eye-contact. It occupies a large proportion of the poster. In addition, there are some ingredients of the coffee placed at the left corner. The Starbucks logo at the right corner, a slogan and some wordings become the second part of the poster.
There are three points about the language strategies. First, Starbucks Coffee belongs to a functional name which is purely descriptive of what the company does. Readers can know this company sells coffee at first glance on the logo. Second, the denotative meaning of the phrase ‘make it your drink’ is that choosing Starbucks as your drink. The connotative meaning is that make your own preference drinks in Starbucks. In the poster the word ‘your’ is underlined in order to sharpen the significance of customizing one’s own drink. Third, there are three sentences in small and white letters. ‘I’ve discovered a latte that I can call my own’, ‘I take my Latte with the jolt of double espresso, but then sign it off with a dash of sweet hazelnut syrup’ and ‘Make it your drink’. There is interrelation between these three sentences. The second sentence ‘I take…… hazelnut syrup’ explains the first sentence ‘I’ve ……my own’. Readers may be confused why they can call their own drink without the second sentence. Readers can understand the idea clearly only when two sentences exist. The second sentence tells the readers that how they can call their own drink according to their flavor. Moreover, the first two sentences explain the third