ESSAY QUESTION: Use a semiotic analysis to discuss the ways that gender is represented in one of the images provided (Nescafe advertisement).

Semiotic analysis is useful for examining texts, to "unravel structures of meaning beyond mere presence or absence" (Van Zoonen: 74). In this essay semiotics will be used to discuss ways that gender is represented in a Nescafe advertisement published in CLEO. The idea of first, second and third orders of signification, as outlined by Liesbet Van Zoonen, can be used as one way to analyse this advertisement, by describing the literal elements of the image (denotation), …

…ircumstances of its use, ensures that the meaning of the text is never nor determined only by the features of the text itself." (Van Zoonen: 79) This ad can be seen as a simple advertisement for Nescafè, featuring a popular celebrity, or can be interpreted further, examining representations of gender, culture and ethnicity. BIBLIOGRAPHY CLEO, Magazine, August 2000, p27. Lecture Notes & Course Reader Van Zoonen, L., Feminist Media Studies, Chapter 5: 'Media Texts and Gender', London, 1996.