Semiotics and Ideology: Style Icon

Semiotics is the organized study of signs. Signs carry a meaning through art and media as they are the central element of language and communication. Semiotics studies both linguistic and non-linguistic sign systems as we investigate how mass texts and images produce meaning and communication between people. Every piece of text or image is a sign that must be deciphered in order to be understood by the viewer. Most messages are either upfront or subtle to the point things often defined by what they are and what they are not.
Advertisements are a great way to study semiotics as they carry signs aiming at selling the product through enticing images of models and catchphrases. It is a big step for marketing as advertisements are able to persuade or manipulate a person in becoming interested in a product or cause. “Branding” has been used in many advertisements as it involves correlating a product or image with certain assets in the minds of potential consumers.
With the ever-changing ways of technology advertising has reached a whole new pinnacle of forte. Being able to alter text and images to entice potential consumers, manipulating them into believing what they see is true and validate their authenticity. However, Photoshop is not just for acne and makeup advertisements. It can also be used to take things from history or popular culture and recycle them into new advertisements and ideas. The print advertisement I found happened to be in the November 2013 issue of Cosmopolitan. Advertisements in Cosmopolitan have always been intriguing to me as they tend to shock or offend the audience or so cheeky the advertisement is almost a parody of real life itself. Other advertisements take classic images and reutilize them to fit the adverts. In this case it uses a style icon, a person forever memorialized for her beauty, sex appeal, and talent; Miss Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe has always been epitome of sex in media. Mystery and paparazzi have followed her since