Symbolic Relationships in Advertisements

Abstract

The advertisements prepare to the products they recommend a rich symbolic life. What symbolic breadth can be bestowed to a product? Do different product categories require different
symbolic breadths? For some products, creatives want to eliminate every hesitation in the interpretation of the proposed meanings; for others, by the contrary, they propose blurred readings, content-nebulas (U. Eco).

Advertising witnesses different symbolizing modes. The advertisements for fragrance prefer modes which, deploying content-nebulas, ask their readers to give several – and complex – interpretations. The paper presents an interpretation of an advertisement for Boucheron’s Jaïpur
(the 1990s) and proposes another.

Keywords: symbolic relationship, positioning, values, icons