Addicted to Ads
...oldly in red. The word attracts the eye because it is centered above her bra that is twisting, almost revealing her breast. The color red stands out and has the connotation of passion, danger, and fire. The word addict can be interpreted several ways. Is the woman addicted to sex? Drugs? Perfume? The ad has many sexual erotic connotations. Perfume itself is “definable semiotically as an artifactual surrogate for sexually-meaningful scent.” First of all, she is only in her bra and underwear. Her bra is lacy, a fabric connoting sensual texture in our culture. There is more skin shown than in most PG-13 movies. Her skin is illuminated with warm colors of red, yellow, pink, and orange. This makes her appear to be “red hot.” This indicates how during sexual pleasure, body temperature rises. The woman looks as though she is “in heat.” Her hand is suggestively tugging at her panties and is radiating a lot of red. Perhaps she is a stripper ready to give the “red light special.” The window that is in the background has lights in it standing out against darkness or night. The darkness of the night has a connotation of sexuality. Are the lights coming from a racy city outside? Or are the lights a reflection coming from inside the room? The blue, indigo, yellow and red lights would be the kind seen at a strip bar. Or can the ad be read with mythical interpretation? Perhaps the woman is one of the many female characters in The Metamorphosis who are burning with passion. For example, the raging flame of love for Jason strikes Medea. Simply put, she becomes addicted to his love. Most noticeably the woman’s whole body and the window in the background are drenched. The wetness looks like beads of sweat. Her hair is even dripping. Plus, the fact that her hair is dark has the connotation of experience and impurity. This can be assumed to mean that she is sweating from an act of passion. The sign of wetness also signifies female arousal or orgasm. The colors mixed with the wet signs make the ad look “wet and wild.” Sexual readiness and desire are also shown by the way that the model is exposing her neck, jaw line and curvy waist. Look at the very erotic expression on her face. Her lips are red, which reinforces of the idea she is sexually stimulated. The word addict in combination with all the sexual connotations reveals the subtext that she is addicted to sex. She is seen as a sexual figure whose perfume brings out the addict in her. Maybe she sprays the perfume everywhere that she wants to be touched. The sexual signs and the word “admit it” exclaim, “I am a sex addict and I’m not afraid to show it.” A lot of this unabashed female sexuality has been shown in our culture through half naked celebrities such as Brittany Spears who practically give an audience a strip tease as a performance. The ad is saying that women, who are aware of their sexual power and are not ashamed to show it, wear this perfume. Another possibility of the significance of the ad is that the woman is addicted to drugs. The word addict is culturally associated with drugs. Again the word addict is written in red that is a connotation of danger and even blood. The deep red color on the woman’s neck with the wet hair clumped has an almost gory and violent look to it. Maybe this connects to blood and or death from an overdose. The woman sweating could also indicate drug use. When someone uses certain drugs, they will sweat profusely. Also the multi-colored lights create a disorienting almost hallucinating effect. The woman is looking down out the window that appears to be revealing city lights. Could she be looking out there because she wants to go out and experience the night life of partying, dancing, going to clubs, and doing drugs? Again she appears to be enjoying her addiction and is not afraid to admit it. Both the sex and drug connotations give the perfume a raw, dark, luring, guilty pleasure type of feel. At last an aim of the ad also could ultimately be that when a man smells the perfume it will sexually stimulate his olfactory system, he will enjoy the scent, become addicted to it, and eventually become addicted to the woman who wears it. Then after time, he also will have to come to terms with this addiction to the women and her perfume by just admitting it. The other ad from Cosmopolitan is meant for the same audience as the perfume ad. This ad however, may not be easy for most people to decode. For in order to understand the subtext of the picture, one must have the cultural knowledge of what the horse has been a symbol of passion for many centuries. In art paintings and in literature from the ancient world to the Renaissance to today the h...