Stuart Hall
For example, AirAsia, the photography of stewardess which is applied in the print ads must be encoded as such the advert to be able to transfer those signifier from the stewardess to the airline. Therefore, crucially, the advert must be able to know and apply those code which is held by the particular group of consumers, target audience. Well, all people regardless to age and gender can be the passengers of AirAsia, but who is the main target audience AirAsia likes to communicate with? This is the crucial factor (target audience) which can make the adverts conceive of an Unique Selling Point (USP). Based on the particular group of people, the advert can use their language to communicate with them.
In term of gender, I think the potential target audience group is male. Of course, it does have exception depend on the the consideration of race and age. As the print ad I have showed before, figure of stewardess is often putted to use in AirAsia's print ad. The same denotation can be connotated in certain meanings. I will be analysing the same print ads again, but this time I have had tutorial section with my lecturer, Daniel. :D
Denotation 1: The stewardess
Connotation 1: Mother
Myth: The ideology of mother, I will derive an example from a forum. (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080707154432AAOEj1y) When people call you Mother Teresa, they are implying that you are a person that give much of their time and resources even though you are poor in material wealth. It means mother is a role who will spend most of her time on you, the degree of importance to you is extremely high. Just as what the stewardess does, you are always my priority.
Denotation 2: The male passenger
Connotation 2: Son
Denotation 3: The red bracket
Connotation 3: Caring and Warmth
Overall, AirAsia treats people like their beloved one, it shows its womanly concern for you. Also, people nowadays are too busy working, and thus lack of chance to get together with parents and family. AirAsia play a symbolic role as your mother and give you the maternal love which I think the greatest love in thia world. So, maternal love is the selling point in this print ads. <3
Figure A
Denotation 1: Stewardess
Connotation 1: Model
Myth: The first impression comes to my mind is F1 lady (look at the Figure A). Probably, the gesture she does, holding a board. Model means a person employed to display merchandise. This is the definition of model, or else you can go Google image there and type ‘model', there is thousand photographs of figure and portrait with golden mean proportion. Desirable, isn't it? I asked myself an question, why model? In my words, people is more interested on the model, instead of the merchandise sometimes, especially GUYS. Such as those car exhibition, what is the most impressive thing to look at? Exactly, the pretty model.
Denotation 2: Board
Connotation 2: Promotion
In this case, it is merely a sales promotion by using the stewardess as the main object. Who is the target audience again? Men~
Denotation 1: Stewardess
Connotation 1a: Female servant (maid)
Connotation 1b: Imperial concubine
Denotation 2: Man
Connotation 2a: Emperor
Connotation 2b: Nurdy guy
Denotation 3: Malaysia Food
Connotation 3: Spicy, hot and delicious
In conclusion, the overall target audience is men, although the 2nd print ads is advertised without any other man.
Resources:
Rose, G (2007) Visual Methodologies: An introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials, 2nd edition, Great Britain: MPG Books Group.
The Free Dictionary (n.d.) Model. Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/model [Accessed: 6th August, 2013].
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