A Semiotic Analysis of The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso Advertisement.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini, saya memilih iklan The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso untuk dijadikan sumber data. The Body Shop adalah suatu perusahaan yang bergerak dalam bidang kosmetik yang didirikan pada tahun 1976 di Inggris oleh Dame Anita Roddick.

Saya menganalisis signifier dan signified yang terdapat di dalam iklan tersebut dengan menggunakan teori semiotik. Saya menemukan bahwa terdapat dua konsep dalam iklan ini, yaitu kealamian dan kecantikan. Masing-masing dari konsep tersebut memiliki beberapa petanda yang terbagi menjadi dua bagian, yaitu petanda visual dan petanda tekstual. Konsep kealamian memiliki sembilan petanda visual dan satu petanda tekstual. Konsep kecantikan memiliki lima petanda visual dan tiga petanda tekstual.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background of the Study

It is common for companies to use advertisements to sell their products or services as according to R.R.Barthwal, advertisement is a “persuasive communication” (Barthwal 417); therefore, an advertisement is a medium in which advertisers try to persuade prospective buyers or clients to buy their products or services. In making advertisements, the advertisers have to focus on the product which they want to sell by thinking about how the words are arranged, also what letters and pictures to be organized (Bovee and Arens 283). Therefore, advertisers create their advertisements as attractive as they can to achieve the goal that is making the viewers buy the products or services offered.

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Maranatha Christian University advertisements do not give attention about the message behind it. People only enjoy it and focus on what the products or services that the advertisements offer. They are usually unaware about why the advertisers make the advertisements in such a way, for example why certain images, colour, and words are chosen and put in the particular positions in the advertisement. Whereas, the advertisers arrange them on purpose to make representations of the products that are offered. Therefore, I feel challenged to analyze an advertisement and find out the message behind it.

Based on the article Iklan Kecantikan dan Budaya Populer, the most frequent advertisement to appear in the media is beauty advertisements such as soap, shampoo, and skin whitening products (“Iklan Kecantikan dan Budaya Populer”). Therefore, I am interested in analyzing beauty advertisement because it will be interesting to know how a certain brand tries to persuade potential customers. The same article also mentions that an advertisement will offer the products that are popular in the market (“Iklan Kecantikan dan Budaya Populer”). Concerning beauty products, an article entitled Organic, All-Natural Beauty and Skincare Products & Information article says that natural beauty products is popular nowadays (“Organic, All-Natural Beauty and Skincare Products & Information”). It happens because there is increasing awareness of the dangers of using chemicals in the beauty products (“An Introduction to Natural Skin Care”). One of the beauty products that focuses on its naturalness is The Body Shop. Therefore, I am interested in analyzing one of The Body Shop newest products, that is Moisture White Shiso.

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“Defend Human Rights”, and “Protect Our Planet” (“Our Values”). One of the five values plays a very important role in caring for the earth that is “Protect Our Planet” in which the company refers to the way how to reduce the negative impact to the earth (“Values & Campaign”). For example, this company that is inspired by nature uses not only natural ingredients for the products but also plastics which can be recycled for the packaging of the products (“Protect Our Planet”). Based on a book which entitled On Positioning, the target of this product is people who agree to the values that The Body Shop holds which is having awareness of the environment (Kartajaya 19). Therefore, it means that The Body Shop is a cosmetic company which also has awareness of the earth.

I decide to analyze the Moisture White Shiso that appears on the Indian The Body Shop Website. Based on the article Dia Mirza Appointed Body Shop’s Brand Ambassador, India has a high level of selling The Body Shop products (“Dia Mirza Appointed Body Shop’s Brand Ambassador”). The advertisement that I am analyzing is the one that appears on the first page of the Website and takes the biggest space in the Website page.

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Maranatha Christian University viewers. In this way, an advertisement can be considered successful to communicate with the viewers when the goal is achieved.

In order to make a thorough analysis, I use not only theory of semiotics but also some other theories such as the theory of advertising, beauty, make up, photography, and colour. Those theories help me find the sign system of The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso advertisement.

The significance of the study is the readers will understand the meaning behind the advertisement so that they can have additional knowledge before they buy The Body Shop products, especially the moisture white product. They can be more careful when they decide to buy the products; moreover, they will not fully trust the advertisement because in essence, an advertisement will persuade the viewers to buy the products as their goal.

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1.2Statement of the Problem

There are three problems which are raised:

1. What are the signifiers of The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso advertisement? 2. What are the signifieds of The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso advertisement? 3. How do the signifiers and signifieds relate to create the sign system of the

advertisement?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

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1. To show the signifiers of The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso advertisement. 2. To show the signifieds of The Body Shop Moisture White Shiso advertisement. 3. To show how do the signifiers and signifieds relate to create the sign system of the

1.4 Methods of Research

Before choosing the advertisement to analyze, I read some books to find some theories about semiotics and advertising. After that, I chose an advertisement to be analyzed and thought about the concept. I searched more theories and information which support the advertisement that I had chosen. Then, I analyzed the data. Last, I wrote the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analyzing the advertisement, there are two concepts of the advertisement found, those are naturalness and beauty. Therefore, the analysis is divided into two parts. The first analysis is to show how the concept of naturalness is represented in the advertisement. It is found that the concept appears in ten signifiers. The concept appears in both visual and textual signifiers. Concerning the visual signifiers, the naturalness concept appears in nine signifiers which are divided into three parts. The first part is the model such as model the makeup that the model wears, the model’s hair style, the model’s hair colour, the model’s outfit, and the model’s facial expression. The second part is the use shiso leaves, realized in the pictures of shiso leaves that appear in some parts of the advertisement. The last part of the visual signifiers is the use of colour such as green, white, and brown. Whereas, the textual signifiers have only one signifier which is the word shiso. Both the visual signifiers and textual signifier support the concept of naturalness.

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the concept appears in five signifiers which are the model’s facial features, the model’s skin, the model’s makeup, the model’s hair, and the capture of the model. Next, the textual signifiers have three signifiers such as the headline, the text on the bottle, and the bottom text.

Knowing the result of the analysis, I conclude that the naturalness concept has more signifiers than the beauty concept. Therefore, it means the advertisement prefers to put emphasis on the naturalness concept rather than the beauty concept. In my opinion, this happens because The Body Shop still holds its value firmly which refers to the naturalness.

As mentioned previously, this beauty advertisement appears in The Body Shop Website in India. In my opinion, the use of the model who is an Indian emphasizes the naturalness of this advertisement for Indians. However, the model has the beauty characteristics of Western beauty as shown in the analysis. The standard for beautiful face is a Caucasian face with fair skin. Yet, the model also has the natural side as an Indian which is the characteristics of an Indian such as brunette hair and brown eyes. Therefore, the Western beauty as the beauty standard that applies on the model is naturalized by her Indian characteristics so as to make the Indians who see this advertisement can accept the beauty that is shown by the model.

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Maranatha Christian University of the word shiso in the name of this brand variant also supports the idea of naturalness.

Concerning the advertisement textuality, this advertisement uses a celebrity as its model. This is in accordance with the theory in Chapter II that a famous person is often used an advertisement to increase sales. In my opinion, the use of Dia Mirza, as an Indian celebrity who is well known in India as the model, the product can make be known easily by using the Indian people.

Moreover, as can be seen, this advertisement uses a model whose face is flawless. As the advertisement is a beauty product advertisement, the purpose of showing the model with flawless skin is to make the product which is offered in the advertisement more convincing. It is also mentioned in Chapter II that in beauty advertisement the model is shown to have a face like a goddess, or have the perfect beauty. As presented in the analysis, the model in this advertisement follows the standard of beauty. Thus, her face can be said to have perfect beauty as it meets all the standards.

The last element of textuality that is an advertisement should have the information about the advertisement itself also appears in this advertisement. As can be seen, there are some information in the bottom of the advertisement so the viewers can understand what kind of product it is. Therefore, this advertisement as being a printed advertisement has done the strategies well to make its product known and accepted by the market.

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make a semiotic analysis will need quite a lot of time to search for suitable theories to support the analysis.

After doing my analysis, I have some suggestions for future researchers who want to do a semiotic analysis for their thesis, especially for beauty product advertisements. The important thing is they have to know exactly the concept of the advertisement. Therefore, they will not feel overwhelmed in analyzing it. Moreover, they have to find the supporting theories that are suitable with the concept.

In my opinion, it is not easy to do a semiotic analysis of an advertisement because the supporting theories must be related to the concept. It is also challenging because at the beginning, there are some difficulties in searching for the supporting theories but during the writing process, I can get additional knowledge.

In my personal opinion, the advertisement that I choose to be my data is a simple advertisement, because it does not use many colours and pictures. Even so, according to semiotic point of view, the visual signifiers and the textual signifiers have done well in this advertisement to create clear positioning and brand imaging especially through its textuality.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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