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categorized the patterns of meaning in signs as iconic, symbolic and indexical. Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as
„signifying‟ something referring to or standing for something other than itself. Peirce and Saussure, for instance, were both concerned with the
fundamental definition of the sign.
B. Definition of Advertisement
Advertisement, like language, is a system consisting of distinct signs. It is a system of differences and oppositions which are crucial in the transfer
of meaning. In the commodity market there are many products such as soap, detergent, cosmetics, breakfast cereal, margarine, beer and cigarettes which
are essentially the same. Advertisement is a message designed to promote or sell a product, a
service, or an idea. Advertisement reaches people through various types of mass communication. In everyday life, people come into contact with many
different kinds of advertisement. Magazines are, like newspapers, a major print medium, but magazines have characteristics that are in marked contrast
to newspapers. Magazines, for the most part, are a more specialized medium in terms both of readers and advertisers.
15
Mass magazines have decline slightly, while special interest titles of magazines about teenagers, men‟s
health, women‟s stuff, technology, and gardening continue to grow. In reaching more extended fields or carrying on a campaign of national scope,
15
David W.Nylen, Advertising: Planning, Implementation, and Control Ohio: South-Western Publishing Co, 1975, p. 290.
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magazines and periodicals may be employed to carry the message. Class advertising that is appealing to readers in a particular line of industry is often
successful through the use of trade magazines and periodicals. Even though in contemporary society, advertisement can be found
everywhere. It can be defined very generally that advertisement is the promotion of goods or services for sale through impersonal media
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. Moreover a famous specializing man was born in America, Otto
Klepper 1986 as he said in his book with the title Advertising Procedure that the advertising was came from the Latin ad-vere which mean
transferring idea and though to the other.
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In the other side printed advertisements are found in newspapers and magazines. Poster advertisements are placed in buses, subways, and trains.
The message is the actual content being transmitted by the sender.
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Furthermore advertisement is form of communication used to help selling products and services. Typically, it communicates a message including the
name of the products or services and how that products or services could potentially benefit to the consumer. However, advertisement does typically
attempt to persuade potential consumer to purchase or to consume more of particular brand of product or service. It is providing information, calling
attention to, and making known something that you want to sell or to
16
Guy Cook, The Discourse of Advertising; Second Edition London: Routledge, 2001, p. 9.
17
Rendra Widyatama, Pengantar Periklanan Yogyakarta: Pustaka Book Publisher, 2007, p. 13.
18
Ralph. E Hanson, Mass Communication; Living in a media world New York: Mc Graw Hill 2004, p. 11.
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promote. Advertisement, like language, is a system consisting of distinct signs. It is a system of differences and oppositions which are crucial in the
transfer of meaning. In the commodity market there are many products such as soap, detergent, cosmetics, breakfast cereal, margarine, beer and cigarettes
which are essentially the same.
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Advertisement is also defined as any paid form of non personal communication about an organization, product, service,
or idea by an identified sponsor. It plays a very important role in society, particularly in industrialized countries that have well developed mass
communications infrastructures. There are some categories of issues concerning advertising and society; some represent the aggregate effects of
advertising on society‟s value and lifestyles and on society‟s economic well- being. It involves issues of ethnics, manipulation, taste, advertising to
children, cigarette and environmental, marketing, and health claims in food marketing. By analyzing the signs in the source culture, the writer can
identify their functions and transfer them into a target language by finding equivalents in the target culture. This section will focus on the theories of
Charles Sander Peirce regarding signs that will enable the writer to apply aspects of discourse analysis in relation with semiotic analysis in dealing
with cultural aspects in persuasive advertisements during translating the hidden message.
19
http:www.generation-online.orgcfcformalism.htm
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C. Semiotic Contributes to the Advertisement
