jewelry luxury

7/23/2019 Jewelry Luxury

1/12

Weiss

Staab.

J.

(19901 Nochrichlem',emheorie. FOmUlie SlT7Jhur I/nd empirischer Geho . Frei

burg

Weiss. H. eT

al.

(1995)

Ge

all on Rechls

-

(J:jein Femsehlhemll: Z r Femsehberichl-

erslammg iiher Rech15e.nremisml/s. AlIslnder IInd An-l in Dell1schland .

Opladen.

8

Communications 22 1997) 1

Dimit ri Monelmans

Visual Representation o Luxury

An Analysis o Print

Advertisements for Jewelry

Abs

tract

U/lle research has focused on /he meaning of luxury. Nevenheless, luxury

goods play an impor/an/ role wi/hin society. This arliele employs a semio/ic

approach /0 grasp /he meaning of jewels as luxury produc/s. s symbolic

re-

presen/alion wi/hin prinl adver/isemell/s gives a dear view of h e wa)' adverli-

sers c reale

.

a luxury aura around malerial arlijacls.

luming

Ih em ill/o highi)'

s)'mbolic represenlalions

of

Slalus

and

wea llh. Slarting from a semiolie frame-

\Vork. Ihe research combines a qualilative and quanli/a/ive melhodolog)' la

analyze

Ihe

media conlenl of magazine advertisemenls for jewelry.

Introduction

Pove rty is relative . Depending on the instrument used, hi

gher

or lowe r de

grees of pove ny can be measured. The same goes for luxury; it is as relative

as poveny. The speedboat

cenain

peo ple con

si

der a luxurious product can be

the lifeboat secured to the mega-yacht

of

others . As

aresuIt,

sociologists have

tended

to

avo id the concept. There has been little researc h on luxury products,

as they are not considered a wonhwhiJe research topic. Nevenheless, consid

eration

of

luxury produets

seems

to

ope

n a wide area

of

stratification issues.

Depending on the distinctive

character

luxury pr

odue ts

have, the clarification

of

the functionality of wh at people consider as their luxuries can throw light

on stratification processes. This anicle argues that the first step in better un

derstanding the sociological contours

of

luxury and the ways

in

which luxury

produets work

in

society can be the investigation of the depiction

of

luxury in

advertisements. Al though printed adveni sements are fixed and well-choreo

graphed scenes, they can be very helpful in reconstructing the referent system

advertisers use.

We will use a soc ia l semiotic approach to illustrate the sy mbolic represen

tations of luxury as found in advenisements. Semiotics and the assoc iated

structuralism have fallen from grace in sociological theory. They were not

found convincing, as a general theoretic al framewo rk, because

of

inadequacies

in

explaining less abst ract aspects

of

soc ial life

li

ke

economie

and political be

havior (Giddens, 1995 : 7 15). The failure

of

a grand theory

of

sig ns should

not, however, lead to the comp lete abo lishment

of

the conceptual framework

Communica ons 22 1997) 1

9


2/12

Mortelmans

semiotics

is

offering. In analyzing advenisements, and culture

in

general, it

has demonstrate its value. In visual and cultural sociology there is still a

place for analyzing a whole variety

of phenomena

as sign systems . In

th

is ani-

cle we first look at the basic features of this theoretical approach: the intemal

structure of signs and the cultural information embedded in them .

Advenise-

ments can be treated as texts, as aggregates of signs. Special anention will be

given to the significance of sociological and cultural concepts in analyzing

signs. Goffman s (1979:

25) argument

that "advenisements never depict social

life as it really

is"

is

imponant

in

th is

context.

Advenisers

use a hyper-ritua

lized imagery about the way people think their surrounding environment looks

or should look. Advenisements are symbolic anifacts of social life, promoting

a cenain social sign value instead

of

selling a material use value. A second

step will be the application of this framework towards the analysis of visual

representations of luxury products. How does advenising for luxury goods

make

people

use these products as markers for

cenain

social relationships?

What son of social relations are referred to as imponant? As a case study, we

will use a sample of advenisements for

jewelry

.

Signs in advertisements

Although print advenisements

could

be analyzed as stand-alone signs with

cenain

features, they have proven to be much

richer

when we consider them

as texts. It sounds odd to speak

of

texts in a sociological environment , though

semioticians tend to use this term when they are

dealing

with

complex

signs

consisting of other signs . Print advenisements are th us choreographed scenes

of different signs put together to form an advenisement tex!. In opposition to

linguistic analyses

of

texts, we are not refeffing here to verbaI text. Textual

analysis of print advenisements uses semiotic

concepts

in

order

to find out

what social meanings are involved in an ad.

Drawing

on Judith Williamson's

( 1978: 29) analysis of print

advenisements,

we are in fact looking for social

or

cultural sign

systems

which are used in ads to

create

meaning by

means

of

Juxtaposition .

Take the advenisement for Wolfers in Figure I. t represents a large room

with bright light (sunlight?) shining through draped

cunains

.

The center

of the

page shows a sheet-covered sofa with a woman holding a flute. In front of her

are two cups. The left side of the phorograph is filled with a large cactus,

while the

opposite

end depicts an open door. The Dutch slogan states, "With

Wolfers begins the day." The bOllom pan of the ad has a white, separate box

shaped

pan showing

a necklace (the

advenised

product)

and the brand name.

Under Wolfers, we find a reference to the company 's expenise:

Jeweler

since

1812. The lion-cruwn sign with the underscore 'Royal Warrant Holder' refers

to an official emblem, exclusively preserved to purveyors of the Belgian Roy

al Family.

The

advenisement we have just described

is

c1early a

complex

sign, a text.

After a brief description

of

the manifest content

of

the imagery, the next ana

70

Communications 22 (1997) 1

Visual Representation of Luxury

in

\.

~ \ : .

i'f

I . I> ,'

r

f

1F [ \\C )LFERSDE I A

j

TH;

0 \

/

',

J

-

Ar

.. .:.

-

-

' .

.. /

I

i

_1

o rs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ..

.

.

; ; : ~

-

._

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Figure 1: Wolfers


71


3/12

Mortelmans

Iytical step to retrace the socio -semiotic meaning

of

the ad is to divide the

image into its

cO

stitutive

pans

and to look at the paradi g mati c

choices

that

were made and the syntagmatic combinations the advertisers used to crea

te

the selling argument. Before we start , however, with th is second anal ysis, we

should keep an important

premi

se in

mind

. In

Images in

d

ve rrising: he

need f or a theory

of

visual rhetoric , Scot criticized convincingly the com-

mon analyses of advertising images . She attacked the false underlying as

sumption of the ana lysis

of

visual

ima

g

eries

:

pictures

are not

merely

analo

gues tO visual perceptions but symbolic artifacts constructed from the

conventions

of

a panicular culture " (Scon, 1994: 252 . In

order

to analyze ad

vert isem ent Images, we should, according to Scott, not merely look at

what

they show us but al so at how they show it and from where the se sy mbo lic

forms and arrangements come . However, we are not interested here in the

constructi on

of

the selling argument itself. We do nor look for a rhetori c theo

ry of visual represenrations. In stead, we think Scott's argument is useful in

ov ercoming the classic semiotic sta tement that pi ctures ger their meaning be

cause

of

a resemblance to a referent.

All cultural settings consist (among other things) of sign-systems, each

co mprising a whole hierarchy

of

other sub- sys tem s of signs. They are wh at

Berger and Luckmann

(1966:

63 ) called "the stoc k

of knowiedge

"

of

a certain

culture; an intersubjective sed imenrat ion

of

practi ces and shared experiences

that bec ome objectified. In these sign sy stem s, se mioticians disee m regulari

ties and structuring

mechani

sms.

Main

stream

Saussurean

se miotics

co

nsiders

the intemal logic of a sign system as a jo int process

of

two in teracti ng axes.

A set of sig ns is a combinarion

of

different signs (the so-called syn tag matic

ax is) ,

ea

ch

of

which is

particularly

chosen from a

'category

'

of

signs (

th

e

paradigmatic axis

)2

The regulation

of

household interiors, for example , ca n

he looked upon as a structured whole of sig ns (a text) which is the re sult of a

comhination

of several

signs

(e. g., chairs,

cupboards, painting

s). Each

of

these

comb

ined signs is the result of

aselection

process. Signs tend to belong

toge ther in categories, the so-called paradigms, from which a sign utterance is

chosen . A certain hou sehold interi or co uld have a Kandinsky painting han ging

on the wall.

The

choice

of

this painting is the re sult

of

a paradigmatic se

Je

c

tion from the 'painting '

ca

te

go

ry which could also have ended up as

aR e

no ir.

Besides sig n sys tems act ive in re al world situation s, we can also disee m

vi

rtual sig n systems such as print advertis

ement

s or te lev ision program s. In

the Wo lfers advertisement, for example, we

fll1d

a set

of

sig ns

jo

ined together,

ro llowi ng the syntagmatic rules

of

a visual ad system and resul ting from a

paradigmatic choice from

visual

par

adigms . In the Wolfers ad, the advertisers

have chosen a cacIJ s be si de the chair, instead

of

a fem . They took plain cur

tains instead of striped ones , a straigh t font instead of a hand-written one. All

these choices were combined, following some sort of ad vertising desig n rules

in

o

rder

to create the Wolfers ad tex .

Syntagma tic combinations and paradigmatic choices are both culturally

72

Communicallons 22 1997) 1

Visual Representation

o

uxury

determined

.

The syntagm

atic

rules

gov

eming

a

ce

rtain sig n sys tem

are

not

free-f1oating unive rses . Culture se ts out the rules for combining signs into a

tex . An advertiser needs to take into account ce rt ain rules to create an ad

image.

f

he does not follow these rules

he

will not be able to create an

image

which people decode as an ad vertisemen . There are, however, two important

considera

ti

ons to make here . First , syntagmatic combination rules are never

fixed. Because rul

es

are the resulr

of

sedimented

shared

experiences, they are

constantly chan ging as new interactions become sed imented and legitimized.

Second

, advertisers are not strictly

bound

to the synt

ag

matic rule s

of one

par

ticular period. Within ce rtain boundaries they ca n

pl

ay with these combination

rules. Pre sently. little is known about visual combination ru les (e . g., the theo

ry

of visua

l rhetoric for w hich Scott

was arguing)

. O nly

two rhetorica

l figure s

seemed to have widespread use .

The

met aphor, o n one hand, which compares

two sig ns, and the metonymy, on the other hand , associates one sign with an

other sign (a Jeaf. f

or

example, could be s ignifying a whole tree) . But there

are many other ways in whi ch signs can be combined, especially in images.

Also , paradigmatic choices are social se ttings. In choo sing the elements

for an ad, adverti se rs know very weil the deno tated

3

meanings

of

the element s

of

a certain 'si gn cate go ry' . The y can pJay with these signs to alter their ' it

era\'

meanings or to co nstruct new meanings .

Retumin g to the Wolfers ad. in describing the adverti sement , we have al

ready

divided

the text into pan s , into included signs . Man y s igns on the

page

are

drawn

fro m interi

or

design paradig ms: the

draped curtains

in front

of

high window s, the ope n door with small glass windows, the sheet-covered

sofa and

th e

wr

oug ht-iron balcony.

The

visuaJ

joi

ning

of

these sign s,

sugges

ts

a large ro om with a rather cl ass ic interior de sig

n.

A second range

of

signs

sug

ge

sts a ce

rt

ai n time moment ('dawn'). Th e most important suggestion here

comes from the headline

('

tow ards the

day'). Thi

s

ve

rbal s

tatement

is sup

ported by several visual signs. The bright light shining through the curtains

evokes the picture of the sun rising early in the moming.

The

cups refer to the

traditional

mornin

g ritual

of drinking

tea (or coffee) to start the day. AIso, the

cJothing

of

rhe woman (a striped shirt) s

ugge

sts the early moment

of

the

scene.

The

last important sign we discern in rhe ima ge is the flute the

woman

is

holding

. Take n as show n.

without interpretation

, it

is

not very c lear

whether

or not the woman is a professional f1ute-pla yer. As we will see la ter, th is is

probably not very important , since the f1ute as such , is a powerful sig n.

We tum

our attention , then,

to

the box in th e lowe r

ri

ght side

of

the ad v

er

tisement. We find three i

mportant

signs there. Firs

t

there is the advertised

product itse lf: the pictur e of the necklace . Further, there is the verba I srate

ment

of

the brand say ing it is a

jeweler

working since 181 2 and the selling ad

dress is an exq ui

si

te Brussel s s

hopping

streel.

Finally

, there is the

reference

to

the Royal Family alld the warrant-holding sig n.

If we take the text as a whoie, what meanin g is generated? We ca n discem

Communicallons 22

1997

1

73


4/12

Mortelmans

two general meanings included

in

the Wolfers ad: tirst,

an

elucidation

of

the

quality and superiority

of

the

jeweler

itself, and second , a reference to the tar

get audience. The 'quality meaning of the necklace is constructed in the

white box. Next to the advertised product and the brand name, the addressed

viewer gets to know the long experience

of

the Wolfers

compan

y and its man

date to deliver

jewels

to the Belgian Royal House. Although the Belgian Roy

al House has almost no political power in Belgium, its symbolic function

in

the COUntry is enormous . Being able to use this symbol for a commercial ad

vertisement in a conspicuous sector as the jewelry class, is

astrong

weapon.

Combining this symbol, moreover, with a tradition

of

more than hundred

years, gives the 'quality mes

sage

an imp ac t that the advertiser

doe

s not need

more than a little surface of the image to construct this meaning. The mere ac

cumulation

of

these signs is enough to create the message that Wolfers is not

a norrnal

jeweler

but a well-established company.

Besides the 'quality message there is a more important addressing mes

sage: Wolfers jewelry is not intended for everyone. The clientele they are

looking for are higher-eaming groups in society. How can we discern this

message from the

photograph

Wolfers is using? First, we have the interior

signs: the height

of

the house suggests that the room we are looking into is

part

of

a very large house. The balcony and the open door with glass sugges ts

that we are dealing with a mansion

or

a manor, maybe even with a sort

of

cas

tie .

So

the interior design of the room we see, submits a meaning which

shows an upper class room.

Next , the moment : why should advertisers choose to conjure up the idea

of

an ea rly moment?

t

seems as if it were not important. But, in fact, it is

quite important to use

momings,

instead

of

a roman ic evening scene. The

model

in

the picture is not dressed to go to work, she does not even show any

intentions

of

going to work. This seems to suggest that she wiJl not go any

where. In stead

of

a business woman rushing to work , she seems to have a full

day ahead

of

her, without even thinking

of

work. Moreover, she starts her day

playing the flute.

The

flute helps to suggest the upper class environment

in

two ways. First, playing a flute belongs to the so-called higher arts. Second,

the woman s

eems

to have time to play the flute the whole day . This is very re

miniscent

of

what Thorstein Veblen said more than a century ago:

So, for instance, in our time there is the knowledge of the dead lan

guages and the occult sciences . . .

of

the

va

rious form s of

dome

stic music

and other household art In all the se branches

of

knowledge the initial

motive fro m which their acqui

si

tion proceeded al the outset, and through

which they first came into vogue, may have been

something

quite differ

ent from wish to show that

one s

time had not been spent in indus

trial employment; but unless these accomplishments had approved them

selves as serviceable evidence

of

an unproductive expenditure

of

time,

they would not have survived. (Veblen,

1965: 45)

Someone

playing a flute in the moming, suggests they belong to the 'Iei

74

Communications 1997) 1


of

Luxury

sure class' . Although the leisure class as Veblen

saw

it no longer exists and

conspicuous consumption today has taken a completely different form, there

remains a sort of picture of an upper class able of excluding themselves from

any productive work, at lea st for women as suggested in the Wolfers adver

tisemenl.

The

layout of the photo strengthens this observation.

The door 10

the

room is open, while the woman is looking in th

at

direction as if her partner

has

just

left for work.

A methodological

framework

for

visual analysis

As the preceding ana lysis has suggested, the construction of the Wolfers ad

was a result

of

using seve ral sign systems in order to

create

two main mes

sages. By tracing back the different signs that were used, we are able to get a

look at the use advertisers

make of

cultural information in order to create a

commercial se lling argument.

The

flute, for

example

, exemplities that the dif

ferentiating function

of jewelry

is strengthened by

th

e use

of

a sig n system

with the same purpose. The semiotic method of ana lyzing advertisements,

however, has always been critiqued for its arbitranness.

Because of

its stress

on individual readings

of

the advertisements it is hard to base interpretations

on large samples of advertisements. And if large samples were used , as by

Williamson and Goffman

,4

there were nearly always criticisms that the sam

pling

of

ads was not performed in a scientitic manner. SemiOlic analysis relies

too

of

ten on the individual capacities

of

the analyst to tind hidden myths'

or

deeper layers in adverti sements (Leiss

l

al.

1986:

165

- 166 )

In

order to overcome this criticism, we developed a combination of a qual

itative - i. e., socio-semiotic - interpretation of the data with a quantitative

base . Our researc h aimed at an explorative study of cultural sign systems ad

vertisers use to create visual representations of luxury item s. In order

10

find a

sociolog ical definition of the luxury concept, we first trace the relevant sign

systems society hands out to give luxury items their significance in contem

porary con sumer culture. In using the constructed world

of

advertisers, we try

to make contact with the underlying sign sys tem s society uses to create a lux

ury cachet around certain consumer durables.

We propose a three- step analysis of visual and verbal information

of

ad

vertisements drawing on both quantitative

and

interpretati ve techniques.

The

first step consists

of

the co nstruction

of

a random sample

of

advertisements.

We drew a sam ple

of

1,372 different advertisements. The

elements came

from

s

ix

Dutch magazines and

comprised

twelve product items .

The

selected maga

zine arti cles spanned a penod from

197

8 to 1994. For this article, we used

onl y the ads for jewelry: this resulted in a sub-sample

of 69

entities.

The

second step

in

the analysis procedure was to split up the image into

constitutive parts. We decided to code the advertisements using tive main ca

tegories: the advertised product, persons, supporting objects (in the fore

ground), the background setting and the text

6

For each

of

the categories its

.oarance was not ed.

This

is the so-called manifest

inf

ormation that can be

Communicalions 1997) I

75


5/12

Mortelmans

discemed in advertisements:

color of

hair, place

of

the product

on

the image,

style

of

background. In fact, we are making an inventory of the denotated

meanings of the signs

in

the advertisements. The denotated mean ing of a

flure, for example, is a music instnlJnent. Looking quantitatively at this infor

mation, we obtain a general picture

of

the different sign systems advertisers

used to sell jewelry.

This

sort

of analy

sis,

however

,

would

leave a

great

deal

of

information

concealed.

As e1aborated earlier, the flute in the Wolfers ad

has a different meaning than its denotative 'instrumentness'.

In a third step we take the quantitative figures as a basis for a re-interpre

tation of the data Depending on the

purpose of

the researcher, one can con

ceive this interpretative

phase

in

two

ways. The first possibility is to stress the

syntagmatic combinations

used in the advertisements. In

doing

so, we are,

in

fact, constructing a base for a rhetorical

analysis

of the

advertisements.

Jac

ques Durand used this kind

of coding in

his r hetorica I theory

of

advertise

ments. He developed a coding scheme based on two different axe

s:

the rheto

rical operation and the relation

between

the

constituted

signs Durand,

1987: 295). He started with a simple proposition on which four different op

erations

could

be

perforrned: a sign can

be

added to the

simple

proposition;

a

nd

a sign can

be

suppressed,

substituted or exchanged

for

another

sign.

The

second axis

of

coding consisted

of

the relation between the signs involved .

Durand

1987: 295) found four different relations: identity, similarity, differ

ence and opposition. Using these two axes enabled the construction of a two

dimensional grid in

which

all classic rhetorica I figure s fitted.

Durand

suc

ceeded

in finding visual

equivalents

for

every

rhetorical figure in his frame

work. Although his analysis dates from the early 1970s and surpasses the

scope of this article, we strongly believe he reached a firrn base for further in

vestigation of rhetorica I fig ures in advertisements. In fact, following this

method

would enable a researcher

10

trace all different scenes into syntag

matie rhetorica

combinations. Ir is

important, however, to realize that adver

tisements often have several rhetorical operations included. Coders should be

attentive to thi s and take into account the multiple possibilities of using rheto

rical figures.

In this article we do not concentrate on the syntagmatic combinations of

the

advertising

text, but we tend to focus on the

second

possible direction in

the interpretative phase: what are the paradi gmatic choices advertisers have

made?

The

quantitative

analysis

left us with several clu sters of inforrnation:

categories of objects being

used , styles

of background, clothing style

and vi

su

al

expressions of persons on the advertisements. Starting with th at inforrna

tion, we

could

al

e?

direct the interpretative analysis towards the

selection of

the most striking use of paradigms in the advertisement for certain products

and use the classic

impressionistic semiotic

method

7

in order to confirrn or to

adjust the findings. f we find , for example, a 20 use of mansion in the

hackgrounds , an in-depth socio-semiotic analysis of these backgrounds can

enrich

these findings. This

second paradigmatic analysis should

focus more

76


Visual epresentation o uxury

on the latent

meanin

gs

behind

the used

signs of the

text.

Rather

than looking

at denotated meanings of these signs, we are looking for areasonabie interpre

tation

of

the signs, a

reasonable

set

of possible connotations.

This kind of analysis can go even further by looking for myths and sym

bol s implemented in the advertisement. Culture builds myths, not as a con

stnlction of

false ideas, but as tools

designed

to

understand aspects of

the sur

rounding reality. Myths deal with many subjects. Lvi-Strauss did substantial

research on the role

of myths

in primitive societies,

while

Barthes

wrote about

myths in

industrialized capitalist environments

8

Myths comprise stories

about

gender, family,

governmental legitimacy

and

so

on.

Symbolism

is

another

way in

which denotated meanings

can

be

eroded.

While myths still make use of denotated meanings of signs, which acquire a

different connotated meaning by

putting

them in acultural narrative, symbo

Iism creates new meanings by using a third sedimentation and conventionali

zation of a denotated meaning. Take the escutcheon on the Wolfers ad. While

looking at the meaning of this sign one

COmes

up with the drawing of a lion

with a crown on top of it and some arrnoristic decorations . This denotated

meaning

is,

of course

, not the actual

meaning

in the Wolfers ad.

One of

the

other possible connotations of this sign is that the sign is a royal emblem or it

is a quality indicator for

specific

brands.

But

above these

possible

con nota

tions and the

denotated meaning,

it is

obvious

that the lion-sign

has

a

sym

bolic value . As a symbol this sign is able to represent another complex text,

i. e., the Royal Family.

Due

to

conventionalizations,

this sign

was eventually

able to stand in the place of all possible connotations of the Royal House

9

To conclude this methodological framework, here is a summary

of

the dif

ferent steps.

The analysis could

be viewed as a return to the

creation of

the

advertisement. McCracken described the creation of an advertisement as a

succession of

four steps to be taken by a director. First, a

director

has to iden

tify the properties with which he wants the advertised good to be invested.

Next, the se

properties

are

looked

for in the surrounding culture and translated

into a range

of

different

choices

to

be made

.

The

third

step

involves a deci

sion about the way in which these cultural qualities are portrayed in the adver

tisement.

The

last question is the place the

advertised product

will

take

in this

whole setting (McCracken, 1986: 75).

Our

methodology is

designed

to

uncover

each

of

these creative steps, and

focuses especially on the cultural meanings which slipped into the advertise

ment.

The quantitative

part

looks

for the general choices that were made in

McCracken 's

third step: how can

certain

cultural

phenomena be

represented

in a visual or verbal manner?

The

interpretative part of the research tries to

look further at the cultural

meanings themselves

. The possibility

of looking

at

the rhetorical way of presenting the paradigmatic choices belongs to the third

decision

to

which McCracken

referred.

We turn

our

attent on now to the

analysis of

the

sample of jewelry

where

we looked for cultural meanings advertisers used

10

create selling arguments.

ommunications 22 1997) 1


6/12

Mortelmans

ResuJts: Advertisements of

jewelry

JeweJry as device o socio

I

display

Do c10thes speak?" asks Fred Davis (1992 : 3) in the first chapter of Fashion

culture and identiry.

Answering this question affirmalively is

al

most stating

the obvious, it has become a clich, he says. People do, indeed, use material

culture to communicate with each other, to convey statements about them

selves, their 'self' and their lifestyle. The use

of

c10thes and the role

of

fash

ion has been widely studied since the beginning of this decade. In this anicle,

however, we are not interested in the social use

of

c othes as

'self

' construct

ing lOols. We want, rather, to look at the advertised depiction of this world .

The

world

of

fashion, in our case the world

of

fashion accessories, is itself

a sign system in which people use signs in order to create texts. We dress our

bodies with different sets (texts) of signs every time we step into a new cultu

rally-defined sphere: a suit or overalls to work, nightwear to sleep, evening

dress to go ou . Culture defines the contexts in which we choose our clothes

te

xts. Culture helps us by supplying codes which suggest the appropriate para

digms to pick out

'suitable'

c othes and accessories.

Jewelry always takes a supplemental role in the c othing system (or per

haps we should say 'Fashion

System'

as Banhes (1983) did). Jewelry has, as

c10thing accessory, two essential qualilies : its subordinateness and its non

instrumenta ity. The first aspect

of

jewe lry comes from the hierarchical orga

nization

of

the c othes system itself. Western cultural settings define the ge

n-

eral outline

of

a clothing text as a three-way hierarchy: underwear, upper gar

ments 1 and accessories. Underwear and upper garments are both essentials in

a c10thing tex . One can technically do without them, but ce rtainly not so

cially. Both are sub-systems within the clothing system with their own syntag

matic rules and paradigmatic choices. The accessory system is subordinated

to Ihese two in the sense that it is

of

ten a redundant sub-system. A mechanic

wearing overalls

at

work does not need any accessories. We could define the

accessory as a sign having a primary decorating functionalily . It is nOl de

manded to create the general

meaning

one wishes to create with the c10lhing

lext, bul il has a closing effect, Ihe ' finishing touch ' . Besides the subordinate

ness of the accessory, there is also the suppression of it s instrumentality. Jew

elry, such as neckJaces, do not have aspecific functionality towards the cloth

ing tex . Even when we can discem a trace of instrumentality,

I it

is always

suppressed in favor

of

the decoration princip le. We could say that an acces

sory has a minimal amount of use-va lue incorporated and rests almost com

pletely on its sign value (Baudrillard,

1981 : 65 - 69).

But c c e s s o r i ~ s in general and jewelry in particular are not without func

tionality. They do carry their own meaning and they effectively play a role in

the creation

of

a clothing ensemble. Accessories fulfill three main functions: a

monadic, a dyadic and a multirelational one . First of all, accessories perform

an ego-directed functionality. In combining c10thes and accessories one can

experience an individualistic pleasure as a reflection

of

inner emotional states .

78

Communlcations 22 (1997) 1

Visual

Representation

of

Luxury

One chooses accessories according to a mood or because

of

an aesthetical

pleasure (Roach Eicher.

1979: 8)

It is, however, difficult to recognize th is

function , because every mood one expresses with clothes is definitely part of

an expression towards others.

Next to psychological realm of personal emotions, c10thing has a pri

mary social functionality. Individuals use c10thes and accessories as meaning

devices towards others.

This

social direcmess, however, has two different

faces : one in which jewelry gets its specific meaning

in

the display towards

an undefined audience. i. e. , a multiple target group and another meaning in

which the

jewelry

plays aspecific role in a dyadic face-lO-face relation.

Jewelry has aspecific role as accessory. lt s primary goa l in social cate

gories is distinction. N

ec

klaces , earrings and brace ets have denotated mean

ings, which show the difference between the wearer and non-wearer. Very of

ten there is a ge nder-related aspect connected to the wearing

of

jewelry.

Although men do

have their own jewelry, the concept normally relates to

clOlhing accessories wom by women. At least that is the overall cultural deno

tation given to

jewelry

. The re are ,

of

course, men wearing necklaces

or

a bra

celet, or women wearing cuff links, but we tend to situate these practices in

particular subcultures .

The last function jewelry has is its role in a dyadi social relation. Jewelry

has a special role in face-to-face relationships. The most obvious example is,

of

course , the

exchange

of wedding rings between partners. In this case the

primary function is not the distinctive character

of

the wearer towards the

non-wearer but the materiaJizing

of

the whole existing relationship in an ob

ject. The wedding ring is a unique object, symbol of the relationship of the

coupie ... Fashio n plays as negligible a role at the strictly sy mbolic level as at

the level of pure instrumentality" (Baudrillard, 1981: 66). For this reason al

moS no advertising is expected to appear for wedding rings in magazines.

But dyadic relationships take more forms than wedding

ceremonies

. Jewelry

also plays an important role as exchange currency between people. People ex

change jewelry of ten as a gift expressing the state

of

their relationship at that

moment, without investing too much symbolic power in it. Even this ex

change

process tends t have

aculturally

defined

asymmetry

. Culture expects

men

o

give and

wo

men to receive

jewelry

in the gift-givin g proces

s.

Absence

of

persons

The prelimInary step in our analysis of jewelry is the quantitative analysis of

some aspects

conceming

this three-fold funclionality . Special attention is gi

ven

10

the social dimensions because they will more Iikely be used

in

visual

advertising material. The first striking trend concerned the use of persons in

our sample. Only one-third contained one or more persons. This is surprising

since the sign system to which jewelry belongs is directed lOwards the body.

As expected, the gender ratio favors women (79%

of

28 depicted persons) .

Mosl women appeared alone. This could point to two possible explanations:


79


7/12

Mortelmans

on one hand, the advertisements

could

be directed

at

men , urging them

tO

buy

the jewelry for the woman the y see

l2

in the picture. On the other hand, adver

ti se

rs

could be usi ng the reverse message, directing the advertisements

10

warus wOlllcn and contriouting to effort 10 discriminate themselves from

others.

In a few cases a male model entered the scene

or

several women were pic

lUred in a group. Nearly all models were classified as adults. Out of the 69 ad

vertisements, we found onl y two advertisements with children, and only one

advertisement with

elde

rl

y people.

There

is a clear trend to use single,

fe-

male persons (if persons are involved at all .

Also, ba

ckgro

und settings are

quite

stereotypical: 77% do not really have

an imaginative background, but merely a single color. Thi s sort of background

is

used to focus attent on

onto

the advertised product. Using a single color

back

gro

und increases the

importance of

the colors used since th

at is

the only

signification conveyed with the sign. Frequently used background co lors are

black or white and grey. Use of figurative backg rounds depends on the use of

per sons in the jewelry ads. When persons are used, the backgrounds differ

significantly. Person s are more likely to be portrayed in interiors or in lei sure

related environments.

All

of

the advertisements did show the advertised jewelry.

This

is not very

surprising since jewelry has no standard look as, for example, a can of Coca

Cola. Advertisers need to drawattention towards the aesthetic qualities

of

the

jewelry

before they can begin to add additional va lue

s.

The artisan and artistic

features of the product are, in the case of jewelry, best shown by presenting

pictures o f the

jewels.

The advertised

pr

oduct is usually supported with

some

well-chosen objects

or visual effects. These objects are often indicators to the preferred reading of

the ad.

There

is not

one

particular category of frequently used objects in our

sample. Although the quantitative an

al

ys

is

nf nojects

dnes

nnt suggcst a gcn

~ a l

trend in the use

of

meaning indicators, funher analysis of the sample

could show

some

particular uses not

immediately

apparent.

Qualitative

interpretation

We

will not delve

much deeper

into the analysis of the manifest

meaning

of the

sample.

There

are

many

sophisticated techniques helpful in analysis at thi s le

vel, but we prefer

10

draw attent ion

10

the latent

meaning

of jewelry advertise

ments. Starting from the quantitative trends

observed earl

ier,

we

will look for

ways

in which the observed trends are to be interpreted. In the presentat ion

of

our results, we e1 ploy the depictive method used by Goffman and Williamson.

This

means

that

the observed

trends

are

interpreted in a verbal way, while illus

trating the

phenomenon

with

examples

drawn from the sample. Because the

sa

mple

was

drawn

from Dutch

magazines

, there

could

be s

ome

language pro

hlems

conceming texts and headlines. As far as they are crucial to the under

standing

of the illustration, they will be translated in

endnotes

.

80 Communications 22 t997) 1


The

qualitative analysis reveal ed five types of advertisements for jewelry.

We

constructed

the types based on the late nt

meaning

in the advertisements or

the typical struclUre of the ad. The main criterion for the initial division re

sulted from trends found

in

the quantitative analysis as outlined earl ier. We

looked especially for the reasons behind the low frequencies of pi clUred mod

els and the

connection

between the presence

of

these

models

and those of fi g

urative and non-figurative backgrounds.

Jewelers instead

of

jewelry

The first category in the sample co nsists of jeweler-directed advertisements.

Thi s type of ad vertisement has a quite stereotypical layout serving only one

goal:

drawing

attent i

on

to a particular jewelry store. The

advertisements

make

no explicit allusion to a certain addressee- [n fa ct the overall construction

does not attempt 10 be creative or rhetorical at all: the y rather present the pro

duct

in

a dry and professional way.

The advertisements are Iike

pictures

from an an-catalog. The

look of

this type is nearly identi ca l in the whole sample : a rectangular in the mid

die of the

page presents one

or more jewels from a ce rtain collection. Ju st

above

or

ju

st beneath the rectang le is the name of the

collection

or

th

e

name of the jeweler. At the bottom

of

the page , the ad vertisements present

a

phone

number or

addresses where

the panicular jeweler can be found

Sometimes

the

cen

trality of the rectangular is abandoned by

framing

the

whole page and pre senting the name

of

the jeweler

somewhere

near the

pictured jewels.

The catalog type vei ls i

tself

in a low profile format. The absence of all

headlines, figurative backgrounds and supponing objects, leaves the receiver

alone wilh the product itself. The mere presentation of the product focuses on

.

';.

. .

~

t .

< ~

'e .

- ,

.

Figure 2: Gaspard

Figure 3: Van Essen

Communicatlons 22 (1997) 1 8


8/12

Mortelmans

5Au7 wooDw

f

j

\

J

ij' \j

~

~ ~ : : _ ~ ~

. . f::=

Figure

4:

Dali

its qualities .

The

framing

of

the product intensi fies this process: as real works

of

art, these

jewels

are framed and

catalogued.

It

is, therefore, not accidental

that the pictured jewels are particula

rl

y detailed. Manifestly, the

ca

talog type

presents

a picture

of

a

jewel,

but latently , thi s picture is the exaltation

of

the

jeweler

's competence.

It

unifies jeweler and

jewe

l in a m useum-like way: the

work

of

art is framed

and

be ars the

autograph

of

the

creator

, the artist.

Fi

gure

4 leaves the work

of

art layo ut but names its

collection af

ter the

fa

mou s

Spanish

painter

Salvador

Dali .

Also

, this ad presents

it

s

jewels

as pieces

of

fine art,

derived

from the arti san capacities

of

its creator, as if it were Salva

dor

D a

li

himself.

Unlike

the low level type

of advertis

ing, there

is

still a lat

ent

level. The

t:atalog type pla ys an aesthetic game. Similar to the liking process

of

works of

art, professional skilIs are ascribed to the artist

af

ter a sort

of

aesthetic ap

proval has aroused. By stre ss ing the detailed handwork included

in

these jew

els, the ad asks its

audience t

recognize

th em

as little works

of

art which are

automatica

ll

y linked to the ass umed qualities

of

the artist, the jeweler.

Broadening the jewelers' area

Comparable to the catalog type, the second gro up

of

jewelry advertisements

are al

so

deprived

of hum

an presence. The y are , however, not

of

the

same

low

profile type as

described

earlier. Jewels

presented

in this second type are sup

ported by diffe: kind

of

signs:

backgrounds,

objects, he

adlines

and texts.

Unlike the catalog type , there was no standa rd la

y-o

ut in the second type . Vi

sually, there

is

not

one

parti c

ul

ar outlook: all kinds

of

positionings are used.

Only one

co mmon

characteristic deserves

special

mention

: the absen

ce of pe r-

sons stil l

causes

the

jewels

to be pict ured in a detailed way and in a ce ntr al

position on the page.

14

82


Visual

Representation

of Luxury

; ; : : ~ ;

'

1 1111 r

' ~

.

,

. .

. .

Figure 5: Schroeder is

Figure 6: Cartier

l6

The big

difference

with the catalog type is the explicitness

of

the ads. In

stead o f

assuming

the

receiver

to

connect

the

jewels with the outsrandingness

of

its creator, the

textual

fragments or the accompanying objects and back

grounds

help the

receiver

to

decode

the

advertisement. Take

Figure 5, for ex

ample . Comparable to the Wolfers ad in Fig ure

I ,

Schroeder

comb

ines severa l

signs: the pict ure

of

Luxembourg,

the

sym

bol

of

the Ro ya l H

ouse,

the

symbol

of

Luxembourg itse lf and the explanatory text

of

the '

hi story' of

the company.

On the manifest level , the co mbination

of

these signs see ms to deliver objec

tive

information

about Mr.

Schroeder

and the l

ocatio

n

of

hi

s

jewelry

store in

Lu x

emb

ourg. But the mere com bination

of

the se signs in an advertisement

leXI

turns the

so-ca

lled

objective information

into a seco nd

layer

, a latent

meaning . All

of

the se signs work together to create an atmosphere

of

tradition

and experience. Again, the brilliance of the creator is illuminated.

The Cartier ad in Fi gure 6 is more ambiguous. Who is u n q u Certainl

y,

Cartier as a

jewe

ler. But the headline makes a second allusion : the unique

ness

of

the creator

can

be transferred to the consumer. Cart ier works in thi s

advertisement in two directions: stating

it

s own qu aliti es as a fine artist and

re

fe

rring to the

socia

l status play in which

people

search for

uniqueness

in

order to distinguish themselves from others. Although Cartier uses a broader

range

of

sig ns to

co

nstruc t the

advertisement

, there is sti ll

an apparent

si mi

larity to the catalog-type: a central positioned rectangular wi th the jeweler

name as a signature beneath its 'art-work . A concluding remark here is the

connection under

the

photo

gra ph

of

the

jeweler with

a

geographical

place.

Although th e promoted

jewelry

stores

of

Cartier are located in Belgian ci

ties, the

advertisement makes

notice

of

some famous

cities

in the

lu

xury

world. It is a phenomenon we found in several advertisements: the local bou

tique

is promoted

wit h the aid

of

fam

ous

foreign cities or countries. Mani-


83


9/12

Mortelmans

festly, one could assume that

Canier

is giving information where consumers

can also buy their jewelry.

But

that is not the intended connotation of men

tioning Geneva

or

New York. Because

of

its world-wide differe ntiation , Car

tier - just as other luxury companies - have to guard the exclusiveness

of

their product. Simply stating Belgian selling addresses might confuse the tar

get public that Cmier

jewels

are sold everywhere, as if it were ordinary. By

connecting these Belgian cities to

other

metropoles, Canier gives the impres

sion that people are still

shopping

in huge luxury cites, instead

of

at the

shop next door. It

is

a strategy designed

10

convey their presence throughout

the world.

This second group

of

jewelry

advenisements is much richer in its visual

and verbal originality. Instead

of

simply presenting the product as the result

of

a brilliant jeweler, more paradigm s are being used: figurative backgrounds

and te)(ts give an extra

dimension

10 the advenised product.

Nevenheles

s, all

advertisements

promote

the jeweler's ski lIs and exclusiveness. In doing so.

Ihey indirectly pass these qualities to the consumer who will buy the

jewels

.

Neither

of

the first two types constructs, however, a direct consumer addres

see .

They

never direct the advertisement to the target public .

This

changes in

advenisements

where mode

Is are used.

Jewelry as inter gender socialization

The

construction of the

jewelry

ad

changes dramatically

with the entry of

llan. As has already been demonstrated, models are not used as often as was

expected.

Only

one-third of the

sample contained

modeis. Since jewelry is a

clothing-related accessory, the use

of

models is important because

of

its pre

sumed

socializing

aspects. By using people advenisers might want to set an

example on the use of the product, the appropriate social situation or the kind

of target group the product is intended for. In general these aspect., can be ap

rlied to other products as weil.

In the case of jewelry, we are especially interested in the gender-related

aspects of the sample. The quantitative analysis showed an over-represenla

lion

of

women in cases where model s were used . Moreover, when women

were shown, they were not put in a social relation with other people (males or

females), but tended to be

ponrayed

alone. That result suggested two comple

mentary hypotheses:

either

the addressee

gender

was

male

which could mean

that men were addressed in order to buy jewelry for women, or women them

selves were addressed in order

10

inspire them to be narcissistic.

Analyzing advertisements

with mod els did not fully

confinn our

hypoth

eses . Out of 22 a( venisements containing a female model, only two

advenise

ments were founa with a female addressee.

The

second construction is used

llore frequently:

12 advenisements

could be coded as presenting themselves

lowards a male. All of them were directly

connected

to the idea of gifl-giving,

10 which

we

will come back later. But these tumed OUI not to be the only pos

sibilitie

s.

Some advenisemenls contained a model wilhout explicitly construcl

84

CommunJcalions 22 19

97

1


o Luxury

ing a gender-related addressee. They are very much

li

ke the types described

above . Most oflen, a large piclure is accompanied by the name of a colleclion

or a panicular jeweler, in combination wilh a selling address.

Although Ihe

jewelry sample contained only

a few male-directed

or

fe

male-direcled advenisemenls both cases

deserve

to be examined more close

Iy.

We wish 101race some indicalive traits about the gender-relaled uses in

jewelry advertisements. First, we

examine

brief1y two

advenisements

directed

at women. Both ads use lextual phrases to sel up the female

addressee

.

They

show Ihe picture

of

women

in

combination

wilh a headline in the firsl person

and a body text in the second person (see Figures 8 and 9). Surprisingly,

bOlh

ads were from the same jeweler (Bigor).

They

address

women

wilh the mes

sage

Ihat in order 10 be beautiful and irresistible , they should buy jewelry. t

seems very much like a clich : produclS are sold with the promise

of

beauty

and allractiveness. is an idea al ready mentioned by Williamson (1978:51),

and we will return

10

it

later in the male-directed

jewelry advenisements.

There is nothing new under Ihe sun

one could

say,

excepl

for one lillie detail.

Both jewelry ads refer

10

the price

of

Ihe jewels , stating Ihal Bigor are afford

abJe, even inexpensive jewels . Without Jinking both together,

il

is quile sur

rrising Ihal Ihe two jeweJry advertisements which are directly addressed 10

wards women mention inexpensiveness . As a result, we did not find a single

advenisemenl addressed 10 women mentioning very expensive jewelry. As

said earl ier, we cannot conclude th at real advenisers fall back on a deeply de

notaled idea that luxury

jewe

ls are not to be

boughl

by

women

themseJves

OUI

of

SOme

son of narcissis tic fashion.

It

still

remains

, however, a curious phe

nomenon that expensive, exclusive jewelers never adv en ise with a female

constructed addressee.

l

Figure : Bigor 1)17

Figure

8:

Bigor

(2)18


85


10/12

Mortelmans

Figure 9: Slaets

l9

Figure 10: Gibson

20

Male-directed advertisements, on the

other

hand, all use the gift-giving

idea. Men are urged to buy jewelry for women, never for themselves. The

non-instrumentality of

jewelry makes

it very sensi ti ve to symbolic exchanges.

Jewelry

can easily

be emptied of extern al meaning and 'filled' with personal,

symbolic meanings (McCracken, 1986. A close analysis reveals, however, a

two-fold incentive for males to buy jewelry.

Primarily, advertisers urge men to

bu

y

jewelry

as a present. In doing so,

they are in fact

changing

the sign status of the product. Instead of selling

clOlhing accessories, the sign value changes to a

symbolic

meaning transmit

ter. The commodity, whatever it may be, is tumed into a sign deprived of all

instrumentality,

taking

on the

symbolic

value of the relationship between the

giver and the receiver. The symbolic value is usuall y the greatest at the mo

ment

of

exchange itself. After that , the commodity can take on other mean

ing

s,

sometimes real instrumental

ones

(i. e. in the case of

exchanging

kitchen

tools).

Because

of its

extreme

low

degree

of instrumentality, jewelry easily

takes

on symbolic

values which results in an

easy

transformation into a gift.

Gift-giving, however, is a difficult process requiring several skilIs. One eas

ily

makes mistake

s by

choosing

the wrong present. Especially when intimate

relations are concemed,

people

are very alert in

their

selection process. Re

garding

Christmas

presents,

Theod

ore

Caplow

presented th ree general rules

that people should keep in mind in

order

to pick an appropriate presen

t:

A

Christmas

gift should (a) demonstrate the giver s fam iliarity with the recei

ver's preferences; (b) surpri se the receiver. .. (c) be sca led in economic value

to the emolional value

of

lhe relationship (Caplow, 1984: 1313). Jewelry ad

vertisemenls see m to make use of Caplow s last selection rule. As ec onomic

value is a standard

on

which

one can

read the

importan

ce of a relationship,

then the opposite will be lrue as weil: advertisers teil men that the more ex

86

Communicatlons 1997) 1


pen sive their gift, the better

their

relationship with their wife.

Symbolic

mean

ing invested in a present becomes substituted for a pecuniary inves tment in

objects . Thi s is perfectly illustrated with the base

line

many

jewelry

advertise

ments have : 'A

diamond

is forever ' . Not surprisingly, we only found this base

line in advertise ments using the 'gift- givi ng idea.

On

a manifes

t,

denolated

level,

one could

argue that a diamond is forever, or at least will last longer

than the

owner

will live. When a man gives such a diamond to a woman, he

is in fact

symboli

ca lly exchanging the

etemity

of their relation. At least , that

is the

symbolic meaning

invested in the accessory at the

moment

of

exchange.

This is, however, not the

only

male-directed sort of

message

found in

jew

elr)' advertisements.

Men

are not only urged to express their emotional feel

ings through jewelry, advertisements also teil them to

decOI ate their wives in

an

impudent

Yeblian way. In

hi

s description

of

the leisure class at the end

of

the nineteenth century, Yeblen (1965) argued thaI

women

served perfectly

tO

show a man s pecuniary success. For the leisure class, a woman was lhe cere

monial consumer of .the

goods her

husband produced. The headline of Figure

10 (When a man s success means

th

e happiness of a woman) show s thaI

some

of

these ideas have nO disappeared in our modem times

2 1

The Gibson ad

show s a second tactic advertisers use in male-directed advertisements: female

decoration as proof of financial or industrial success. Wome n are thus viewed

in a subsidiary role, as

persons

to be made

happ

y by

decorating

them. Just as

women-directed

advertisements, this sort of male superiority seldom appears

in advertisement

s.

Nevertheless, the mere existence

of

th is sort

of mes

sag e in

dicates a target publi c.

Conclusion

What does this anal ysis adds to the

comprehension

of luxury? As argued ear

lier, the main intent was to determine which cultural sig n systems advertisers

used

tO

promote jewelry. Jewelry

can

by no mean s give complete insight into

the realm

of

luxury, but these preliminary results do suggest som e indication

of the overall picture.

The most

apparent

observat ion is the effort adverli sers take to turn the

jew eler into an artist. Being a jewe ler is not presented as a sort

of

artisan

trade. This would be perfectly possible since artisan products are also scarce

and expensive, of ten with a luxurious

connotation.

Connecting jewelry tO

works of art, however, inserls the product into the sphere

of

hi gh culture.

Many

sociologists have done research on the phenomenon.

One

of the impor

tant ideas in

Bourdieu

's (1994)

D

istinction

for

exam

ple is the distinctive fea

tures of works of art. In

hi

s discussion about the aesthetization of every day

life, Featherstone (1992: 25) argues that tendencies towards such an aestheti

zat ion relate

tO

the distinction between high culture and mass culture. Con

necting

jewelry

wit h legitimate art , means at the same time an insertion of

high status connotations.

Besides

the denotative

meaning

of a c10thing acces

sory, jewelry beco mes a status tooI in its

capacity

as art work. FUrlher, adver-

Communications 22 1997 1

87


11/12

Mortelmans

tisers draw heavily on culturally denotated luxury signs. The use of metro

poles

of

luxurysuchas Paris andMilan

in

thepromotion of regional stores

in-

dicatesthis.

The visual analysis

of

magazine advertisements for luxury products can

be seen as theproduction side of luxury. How does the economic sector pro

mote commodiries as luxury?The visual analysis of prinr advertisemems has

suggested that companies refer to several culrurally established sign systems

whichare used to conveydistinctive meaning. But referring to status-bound

sign systems does not equal sellingcommodities as distinclive luxury. In or

der to complement this abstract (sender) analysis we need insight inro the

actual use

of

luxury products

as

prestige-driven social markers. Future re-

search could examine the decoding process

of

luxury signs: which connec

tions work

IOward

promotinga luxury objectandwhich fail ?And,more

im

portantly, which so-called luxury items playa role in distinclion processes?

People do not takeadvertising

as

the onlysource for constructinga lifestyle .

Peer pressuresandimitationbehaviorare probablymore important in this

re-

specl.

We

have shown

in

this article that magazine advertisemems acquire their

ultimate meanings from thecultural context in whichtheyarecreated. Luxury

is embedded

in

our collective consciousness.

In

combining quantitative

re

search with qualitative techniques

we

have tried

10

make the semiOlic frame

work applicable

to

explore this cultural connection

in

alargesample. Using

several research techniqueswas essenrial to overcomesamplingprobiems on

the one hand and superficial interpretations

on

theother. Future applications

couldconcentrate

on

otherproductcategories outside luxury goods.

Ir

could

alsocomprisemore advancedtechniques (e.g., latent class analysis)forana

Iyzing the quanritative phase,making the inrerpretative aspect more accessi

bie.Such extended workmay conrributeto the analysis

of

visual information

in amore complete andreliable manner.

otes

The author gratefully acknowledges the fmancial suppon provided forthis project by

The Belgian National Fund for Sc ientificRe search.

I . In 'The PhotographicMessage', Roland Banhes, for example, refers tothe photo

graphic representation as areduction (of proponion. perspectiveand color)of the

sce ne

it

self , the literal reality. Although Banhes recognizes additional messages

above this literalone,a lot of advenisement research stays

at

thebasic'representa

lion-axiom

2. The

se 'ca tegories' arealsoculturallyoriginated clusters

of

meaning.

3.Den otation ani' connotation are another pair

of

sem iotic jargon stress ing the sedi

mentation itself of a sign's meaning. Roughly one can see denotationas the Iiteral

meaning of a sig n. It

is

themost common meaning

of

asign,

of

ten tobefound

in

dictionarie

s.

4.Goffman didnotuse a semioticapproach

10

analyzeadvenisementsbuthedidhowever

aqualitative, individualreadingof alargesampleof advenisement s.(Goffman, 1979).

88

Communications 22

1

997) 1

Visual Representation o Luxury

'i.Alluding onasoc io-sem iotic work fromYardaLeymore ( 1975): ' Hidden m ylh' .

6.Several other categorizations would havebeen possible. Wehave chosentospl

it

up

the advenisements s ign in these sign co mponents because theyallowforaresea rch

towards cultural constructions within the advenisement. Techni ca lclass ifications

(camera angle.shot. etc.)are less useful since they concentrate on the forma

I

as

pects of the imageratherthanthecontent layer.

7.Wecallthis method 'impressionistic' because

of

ten, as

in

the research

of

Banhes or

Williamso

n,

few attent on goes

10

sampling methods and methodological questions.

Authors concentrate ona single image, tryingto unravel the coded message

in

an

advenisement. Although

few

of

these

exercises

can be

called

representative, the

method gives surprising information aboutthe cultural

coding of

signs.

e. g.

maga

zine advenisements. We implement this method as a third phase in a research in

stead

of

using

it

asa t

oo

iinitself.

8.See :Banhes( 1957); Levi-Strau ss

(196

7).

9.Again, the speciflc co ntext andthe working codes

\ViII

suggest the meaning of lhe

symboL f one isagainsttheRoyalHouse. the lion-signwill symbolize all thenega

live qualities of the Royal Family,while for a 'royalist' thes ign will sym bolize posi

tive things.

10

.By ' upper garments' , wemean all cJothing pans that are accepted

in

theWestern

culturalcontextastobewom publicly.

11

.

Cuff

links, for example, have a functionality in the sense that theydo effective ly

close the cuffs of a s

hin

. Neve nheless, theyare not wom so le ly toclose the cuffs

because anormalbutton \Vould besufficiemto obtain thisgoal.

12.

We are dealing

in

this case witha

son

of substi rution process. The malemagazine

reader is expectedto substilUte him self intothe addressed personin the

adveni

se

ment. Judith Williamson dealt thoroughl y

wi

th these

advenisement

mechanisms:

Another type of

absence

isthat of aspectator,and this is usuall y connectedwith

sex .(.. . ads invi te you 10 constitute yourse lf in coincidence withanabsent person.

and in relationto cenain given

objects

- o

ne

of whichmay bea member of theop

posite

sex

(

William so

n, 1978: 80-81).

IJ An addressee is not the receiver of a message.

It

is rathertheinternal creation of a

receiverinsidea sig n or a text. InadvenisementSsuch as those pre sentedhere ,we

can assume that the addressee is aconsumer.Thi s anicie. however, proves thatthe

rece iverof the adve ni sement is different from the original intended addressee. The

same relation ship canbe distinguished atthe sender

si

de between asender andan

addresser.

14 .There was only one adveni sement in this class where the advenised product was

completely omitted .

l'i Tran

sL:

Clancing Ihmugh Ihe hook

of

jewelry

of

Schroeder is like rediscovering Ih e

hi

slory

of

jewelry in Luxembourg. Afler his ,raining in I

he Uniled

SlO/es, LamberT

Schroeder m

oved

1

Lux

embourg in 1877. In 1890 he senl a caralogue

of

jewels in-

lel1ded a.wedding

gl fl. Afew years laler,

he became

'Royal Warranr Ho/de

r

a /il/e

we


12/12

Mortelmans

18.

TransJ. : Headline: !nesislible. IhO/'s

how

wonl/O beo Bod)' lexl:

ani

) Big or makes

you really beaUliful and

irresislible. Change )'our jewel s as oflen as yOI/ wanl. II is

cen ainl

) nOl

Ih e price Ihal will Slap )'ou. Bigor hos Ihe newesl eolleclion

of

irresisli

bie jewels. now la be

found

in beller perfumeries

and

special')' s/Ores in Ihe counTry.

19. TransJ.: Headline : Do nOl promise

her

heaven. give

.

Body text :

Every qualiTy diamond

of

one caralor more is ftre , brilliance ond beauTy

in ils pureSI farm. Crealed b)' nalure ilself and never equaled b)' any olher malerial.

Diamol1o is unique. like every wamen con nOl be eompared. Four characlerislics

mnke a diamond s qualiTy and va lue; Ihe)' are called

Ih

e

4

C's:

CUi.

color, c1ariTy

and

caral-weighl. The)' also are imporlanT la delermine Ihe jewe 's beauTy. The ring

SIaeIs

jeweler

is presenling is a heaven for her. A rillg

of

)'ellow gold and palaline

wilh a diamond

of

107 coral. This jewel is on unforgel1able gift IhalleTs Ihe unsur

passed qualiTy

of

Ihe diamond spark ie.

A

diomond is forever.

20. Trans!.: Headlin

e:

OlJe

caralor more. WhelJ a man's success means Ihe happiness

of

a woman

Body text:

A beauliful diamond

of

one coral or more. Every diall10nd is scarce.

BUI

OU

of

all diamands Ihal are discovered each

) eaT,

ani)' one in a million will become

a slone

of

ane

caralar

more.

JUSI

as love. ils value

lViII

increase wilh Ihe )'ears.

A

wonder Oul of Ihousand

s.

Bom from earlh

/0

li ve

wiTh

a "'Ol1an. The eXlraordinary

solilOr)

diamond

Show Ih e world 117 1 nO/hing was possible .vilhoul her.

A

diamond

is forever. De Beers.

2I.

The Gibson advenisemenr shown in Figure 10 appeared in a magazine in 1982.

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