Rhetoric Of Image

In ‘The Rhetoric of the Image’ Roland Barthes utilises an advertisement from Italian food company ‘Panzini’ in order to illustrate the three types of messages identifiable within an image. He describes these messages as ‘linguistic’, ‘non-coded’ and ‘coded’ messages. He identifies how images can hold significance for the reader beyond their literal meaning.
Firstly, one can apply the first of three messages that Barthes articulates, the ‘linguistic’ message. The linguistic message can be described as the textual components of the advertisement. In this particular advertisement there is paragraph of white text at the top stating: “Children learn by copying, so growing great kiwi kids starts with being a great parent. Ask about a Plunket parenting
The building blocks refers to the relationship of the parent and child in the photography, not a literal building block, instead this depicted relationship serves at the building block of ‘great parenting’ which Plunket parenting courses can provide. Therefore the advertisement depends upon the ability of the reading to understand this twofold message and relate this back to Plunket through the affiliation of the Plunket logo and branding. Thus the linguistic message here includes both a denotative signified and a connotative signified. The former being the idea of a tool and the latter being the idea that. Therefore, the linguistic message of the text has a twofold
This former simply requires an understanding of the term ‘building blocks’, typically meant to describe a unit used to build something up. However, on a connotative level, especially in conjunction with the other coded elements of the image, we can understand that Plunket is using ‘building blocks’ to describe the building of a relationship by a parent teaching his son new skills. In this way, the coded images can be seen to work in conjunction with one another to supply a second message in addition to a literal one.
Therefore, we can identify what Barthes refers to as the ‘rhetoric’ of the image, the combination of signs working in concert with one another to persuade a reader. In this case, we can see that the multiple meanings of the linguistic message are being used to persuade the reader than the service advertised holds value. Thus the connotations within the signs are associated with Plunket through the use of branding and logo in order to associate these characteristics; masculinity, parenting, credibility with their