Connotation + Denotation.

The world of semiotics is very broad, and everything can be interpreted in a variety of different and contrasting ways. Connotation and Denotation allow you to distinguish the simple, initial meaning of a piece of media, from much more in depth idea's.

Connotation is the simple, initial details of a piece of media, literally describe what you see as basically as you can.

Denotation then goes behind that and is what everything within the media can imply or mean, down to the background colours and facial expressions.

The connotation for this advert is a group of people jumping on a beach, with a picture of a phone at the bottom, with various writing.
The denotation is that the company is trying to sell the phone by using that fact that, if you buy the phone, it will enable you have fun with friends, or even obtain more friends by purchasing is. By using the slogan "Dance to your own tune" implies that with the phone, it will be belong to the buyer only and that they can their own uniqueness with it, they do not have to blend in with the crowd. There are also four lines of text further selling the product, by putting two lines in white, and two lines in black, it makes it stand out from the rest of the picture, further tempting the audience with special features of the phone.

here is another example:

The connotation is a man holding two drink underneath the legs of two women, with a red banner and slogan at the bottom.
To start the denotation, we see the slogan says "Zoning inspector by day, Bacardi by night" This implies the man is an everyday worker, that, during the evening, by drinking the product, he can immediately have more fun, and obtain women, his everyday working man status is further implied by his casual red t shirt. By looking at the women in the advert, as they are dressed in revealing clothing, this could suggest the audience is implicitly targeted at men. By the backgroud lights, and the mans facial expression, we can tell he is in a club, having a very good time, further enticing the audience, to buy the drink, and join him in his revelry.

Signs and Signifiers

Signs and Signifiers are closely related, but mean different things, in relation to media.

Signs could be logos, labels or anything that, to an audience, enables them to understand a message from a picture.

A Signifier is something that instantly creates a connection to something else within the audiences mind, and could be as simple as a colour.

Here's an example of a Sign:

this sign, a single exclamation mark, makes the audience think "Alert" or "Danger" the fact that signs are very widely known allow the audience to associated the aspect of "Danger" whenever they see this sign.

These are some examples of how Signifiers can be used in conjunction with signs to give a better, more understandable meaning to an audience:

The sign, being the fire extinguisher, indicates that if a fire ensures, this is where the extinguisher will be, but the fact the sign is red, also signifies Fire, danger and heat. these are all things that audiences associate with the colour red, but it also has a variety of other signifiers such as love or blood.

Even a sign as simple as this has meaning. Green is a common signifier for Go or start, as oppose to red, which means stop. Signifiers allow objects such as signs to help audiences have a clearer understanding of their message, whether for there safety, or other objectives.