ii Maranatha Christian University
iii Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam skripsi ini, saya membahas makna dari sebuah iklan yang dikeluarkan
merek busana terkenal di dunia, Dolce & Gabbana.
Skripsi ini menyoroti dua makna yang dapat dihasilkan sebuah iklan yaitu
makna denotatif dan konotatif. Untuk mendasari analisis ini, saya menggunakan
teori semiotik yang ditulis oleh Ferdinand de Saussure dan Roland Barthes. Dalam
menganalisis makna konotatifnya, saya menggunakan teori feminis yang berfokus
pada objektifikasi wanita.
Makna denotatif yang saya temukan dalam iklan ini adalah para pria seksi
dan wanita seksi yang berpose seksual satu dengan yang lain. Makna konotatif yang
saya temukan adalah wanita menjadi objek seksual bagi para pria, bahkan wanita
sendiri juga membuat dirinya menjadi objek seksual bagi pria.
Iklan ini dapat dikatakan sebagai iklan yang mempunyai pesan yang dapat
menyinggung pihak-pihak tertentu, terutama wanita. Iklan ini juga dapat
mempengaruhi masyarakat yang melihatnya untuk meyakini bahwa objektifikasi
seksual terhadap wanita adalah wajar dan bahkan mempengaruhi para wanita
sehingga yakin bahwa dirinya hanyalah objek seksual bagi pria. Jadi dengan adanya
analisis ini, masyarakat dapat menjadi lebih berhati-hati dan cerdas dalam menerima
51 Maranatha Christian University
APPENDIX
Dolce&Gabbana 2007 Spring/Summer Ready-to-Wear Collection Advertisement
1 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF STUDY
In daily life, we can find signs in a variety of forms everywhere. In the
morning, as we get up and go to the bathroom to brush our teeth, we can find signs
in the form of text on the tube of our toothpaste. While we are driving in our car, we
often see a sign in the form of a picture of a beautiful lady on the soap advertisement
board by the street. Each time we wear a shirt with a cartoon character on it, we are
actually wearing a sign.
As mentioned above, signs can come in a variety of forms. A most common
form of signs that we can easily find in our daily life is advertisement. According to
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, advertisement is “a notice, picture, or film
telling people about a product, job, or service” (“Advertisement def. 1). Therefore, the
main function of a picture in an advertisement is to introduce a product to the public.
In fact, an advertisement may suggest more than just an introduction to a product. It
2 Maranatha Christian University or the company behind the advertisement because advertisement is a sign and a
sign can stand for somebody or something else other than the sign itself (Gordon
14).
In this era, advertisement has become one of the main tools of the company
to get maximum profit. In reaching their goal, they may not care about the negative
effects their advertisement may cause. They still use the advertisement even if it
means violating the moral principles or rules of behavior generally accepted by
society or a social group. As a result, the advertisement may give some negative
effects to some people who see it and it may even tend to suggest an offensive and
disrespectful message to a certain group of people.
Dolce & Gabbana is considered as one of the companies that sometimes
tend to suggest a rude or even offensive message in their advertisement. It is one of
today’s leading international luxury goods groups and also Hollywood’s number one
choice of designer (dolcegabbana official website). However, some of their
advertisements are considered controversial in the world because the picture or the
message of their advertisement is considered rude or even offensive to some
people. With women as their target market, this group is considered to have more
influence around the world. The company distributes their products and
advertisement not only in Europe, but also in the United States and Asia.
In this thesis, I choose to analyze an advertisement of Dolce & Gabbana,
which has some advertisements that tend to suggest a rude or even offensive
message. I took the advertisement from ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com, a blog that
inform us about “the latest and the greatest art, design, style, and fashion from all
over the globe” (ifitshipitshere.blogspot). The title of my thesis is Female
3 Maranatha Christian University Objectification in Dolce & Gabbana Advertisement: A Semiotic Analysis. The topic is
significant because an advertisement is an important means of communication in our
daily lives these days and people need to pay attention to advertisement more
closely as it sometimes suggests negative things which can influence their lives,
especially when the advertisement tends to suggest some rude or even offensive
messages to some people. After reading this analysis, the reader is expected to be
more careful and more critical in accepting a message from an advertisement.
In this thesis, the field of linguistics to which my topic belongs is Semiotics.
The founder of semiotics is Ferdinand de Saussure, whose theory I will use.
According to Saussure, semiotics is “a science that studies the life of signs within
society…” (Silverman 5). He divides signs into two parts; they are “signifier” and
“signified”. Signifier is “the meaningful form” while signified is “the concept which the
form evokes” (6). The second theory I will use is proposed by another important
figure in semiotics, Roland Barthes. According to Barthes, “The denotative sign is
made up of a signifier and signified. But, the denotative sign is also a connotative
signifier. And a connotative signifier must engender a connotative signified to
produce a connotative sign” (Cobley and Janz 51).
To support my analysis, I will also use a theory of female sexual
objectification from a feminist perspective. The objectification of women is an
important idea in feminist theory. Feminists regard “sexual objectification as
objectionable and as playing an important role in the inequality of the sexes”
(“Sexual Objectification”). The objectification of women involves “disregarding
personal and intellectual abilities and capabilities, and women's reduction to
instruments of sexual pleasure for men” (“Sexual Objectification”).
4 Maranatha Christian University
2. What is the connotative meaning of the advertisement?
1.3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
In this thesis, I would like to show:
1. the denotative meaning of Dolce & Gabbana spring/summer 2007
ready-to-wear collection advertisement.
2. the connotative meaning of the advertisement.
1.4. METHOD OF RESEARCH
The method that I use in writing this thesis is divided into three steps. First I
begin the research by finding and reading some books that are relevant to the topic
discussed so that I can get the theory which I can use to support my analysis.
Second, I analyze the denotative meaning and connotative meaning of the Dolce &
Gabbana Spring/Summer 2007 Ready-to-Wear Collection Advertisement. Finally, I
5 Maranatha Christian University advertisement. The last chapter, Chapter Four, is the conclusion from all those
42 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the advertisement, I conclude that in the first order system,
the denotative meaning is sexy men and a sexy woman who are making sexual
gestures to each other because they are sexually attracted to each other. The men
are sexy because they are generally good looking and they have dark hair and tall
muscular bodies. The woman is sexy because she has smooth skin and long hair. In
addition, she is also slim and young. She also wears lingerie and high heels as well
as a red lipstick, which makes her look sexy. Both the men and the woman are
making sexual gestures. The men’s sexual gestures to the woman are gazing at the
woman, putting his thumb into his pocket, rising one of his hands as high as his neck
while touching his jacket collar, holding the woman down, standing with his hands on
his hip, and sitting while spreading his legs. The woman is also making sexual
gestures such as lifting her hips, closing her eyes and slightly parting her lips.
In the second order system, the connotative meaning is men objectifying a
43 Maranatha Christian University
countries and such countries are usually considered as open-minded countries, but
still they see this advertisement as an insult to women. The Advertisement
Self-Discipline Institute (IAP) says the advertisement “offended the dignity of the woman,
in the sense that the feminine figures is shown in a degrading manner” (“'Gang rape'
Dolce and Gabbana advert banned”). I have also proved it through my analysis that
the advertisement shows not only objectification done by men to women, but also
objectification done by women to themselves. In other words, this advertisement not
only displays woman as an object for men but also shows a woman who objectifies
herself.
The advertisement suggests an offensive message for women. That is why
the advertisement becomes controversial all over the globe, especially in Spain and
Italy. Dolce & Gabbana insists that “the ad was never meant to be controversial and
that it represented an erotic dream; a sexual game.” (Angela). Although they insist
44 Maranatha Christian University they never meant to insult anyone, the fact is the advertisement is controversial. I
think the company wants to get maximum profit through the controversy caused by
the advertisement. “Controversy sells just as well as sex does” (Bartz) because
when an advertisement becomes controversial, many people will be curious about it
and then they begin to find out what it is about and they will want to know about the
product in the advertisement and so there is a chance that they may want to buy the
product.
Dolce & Gabbana does not only use controversy to sell their product, but they
also use the women’s sexual objectification and the self-objectification done by
women. These days, some women strongly believe that they have to be sexually
attractive and they have to have an ideal body to get attention from men. The truth is
by having this belief, women has objectified themselves, but Dolce&Gabbana sees
this as an opportunity to sell their product to women in order to get maximum profit
without considering that it will result in negative effects to the women and men if they
see the advertisement.
The advertisement will give more negative effects to women. Some of them
already believe that they have to be sexually attractive and ideal to make men
interested in them. By seeing this advertisement, they may become more convinced
that they need to be sexually attractive objects to be enjoyed by men to make men
interested in them. In other words, women will be more convinced that the only way
to attract male is by objectifying themselves. This advertisement makes the
self-objectification among women more likely to happen.
The advertisement will also give some negative influence to men. The
advertisement suggests a woman as an object for men to enjoy. When men see the
45 Maranatha Christian University women. Men may see a woman as a sex object to be enjoyed, not as human being
with feelings and personality.
Sanchez and Broccoli state in their research entitled Self-objectification and
Relationship that self-objectification done by women are also linked to “numerous
mental health and interpersonal costs including lower self-esteem, more symptoms
of eating disorder, depression, more sexual problems and dysfunction, poorer
performance on academic tasks, and greater shame and anxiety ...” (3). My
experience supports their statement. When I was a teenager, I had the tendency to
believe in women’s self-objectification. I read a lot of magazines which promoted the
idea that a girl must be pretty and slim to attract boys. It made me lose my
confidence in my physical appearance. I thought that I had to be slim and pretty, so
the boys would like me. I went through some diet that made me feel sick. Thus, I
know that self-objectification done by women results in the negative way of thinking
and is even dangerous not only to women’s personality, but also to their health.
A semiotic analysis suggests that there is no absolute truth in a sign system.
Another analysis may be done on the advertisement, which results in different
meaning and concept. For the researchers who are interested in doing an analysis
on the similar topic or data, I suggest that they find reliable theories to support their
analysis. It is also advisable for the researchers to always use their logical thinking
and appropriate approach in doing a semiotic analysis.
46 Maranatha Christian University
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