Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Rats and prostitutes and coin slots


This is a print ad for Boecker Public Health, a pest management provider in Beirut. It shows a trail of toilet paper leading from the open door of a bathroom to a rathole in the wall. 

It uses the rathole as a sign. The signifier is a hole in the wall, curved on top and flat to the floor on the bottom. Its short, but tall enough to accommodate a large rodent. It's lit from within, which makes no sense. 

The signified is the apparently oversized family of probably-rodents living in this building. They are not actually shown. 

The ad implies that the rats are living comfortably, both because they are using human toilet paper (implied by the fact that the toilet paper extends into their home) and because there is a plain caption saying "don't let them get too comfortable."


This is an outdoor ad by Pro-Sentret, a prostitution advocacy organization in Norway. The agency deliberately set up the poster to extend out of its frame. The poster shows a woman, and a caption implies that she's a prostitute. This poster relies on the interaction of its viewers: since the poster extends so far out of the frame, passerby are likely to step on it as they walk by. 

The signifier is the act itself of stepping on the poster. 

The signified is the inhuman treatment and consideration of prostitutes in Norway.


This is an ad for some car. It stars some guy who puts coins into various slots in his car to turn on its radio and air conditioning. His date is very impressed. When everything seems to be going well, the bells and whistles shut off and start blinking and beeping, asking for more coins. His date loses interest as he fumbles around, embarrassed. The ad closes with the message, "Don't pay extra for extras." It shows its car, captioned "All extras included."

The ad implies that a savvy consumer whose car includes bells and whistles will have a successful date, as shown in the first half of the ad. A unsavvy consumer who buys a car without those things will embarrass himself, like the guy in the second half of the ad. The wisest consumer will by a Citroën, a car that includes those things, and won't have to pay so much maybe. 

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