The first point I came across in the essay was that Barthes believes a good image should be able to stand alone without the need for text, however in advertising the text that goes along with an image is very important as it allows for the product to be sellable. These two points are both very true, because like he said an image should be photographed or drawn in a way that easily explains to the viewer the message it is getting across without the need for a caption, however in the world of advertisement, a caption is very important because it allows for the designer to make the viewer/buying to focus in on exactly what they want you to get from the advert and not just something you believe to be of significance.
The linguistic message of a photo or image is one supported by a caption. The image of the shopping bag of Panzani products has two meanings to it when the linguistic message is taken away. Firstly is the idea of the products being in the bag as though they were just purchased making them fresh and secondly the colour scheme of the image being of reds and greens and then content of the shopping bag gives the Italian theme. Also Barthes believes that the variety of products within the shopping bag shows that the company has alot of different things to sell, and finally he talks of this display as being set up as if for a still life portrait. The use of the caption in this particular image is purely for advertisement, but it shows to the audience that even with the advert removed a great deal can still be understood from the image, the objects are still recognisable and the colours and set up show this italian theme. The final point made by Barthes about this image is that, even had the caption not been there in the first place we still, through our knowledge would be able to tell what the image is, something that a younger child would not have the skill yet to do.
The argument as to whether you need text to support an image is a point brought up in this essay, because there was a time when there was no words used to support an image and now we just seem to rely on it all the time, and this debate of the importance of the text is relevant here. Does the text just repeat what is already said in the image or does the text add new information, something you couldn't get from the picture alone? Sometimes text is used in advertising in images to make a certain aspect stand out, something again that you might not necessarily get straight away from the picture but when the text is added it helps draw your attention straight to this point and this point only. This is a technique used by designers to pre-choose what to make the audience focus on, usually a unique selling point or attraction. When there are no words at all beside an image Barthes believes it to be allowing the naturalness of the photo to come out and let people make up their own minds of what they think is happening. This is known as a denoted image, but again Barthes believes this to be a bad idea when it comes to advertising because you want to make people think in a certain way about something, therefore the inclusion of text he thinks is very important.
A dialogue along side an image is slightly different as this is telling a story more than just giving information, this is usually found on comic strips or cartoons. The text in this situation goes along side in conjunction with the image as it is aiding in telling the story and without it the stories would make no sense.
This is all I managed to get from the essay, so all I need to do now is meet with my group and see if anyone else has got any other insights and then get on with the rest of the task.
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