Brooke Marcy

 

Summery of “Signs Address Somebody” by Judith Williamson.

 

 

In ”Signs Address Somebody” by Judith Williamson, she begins by defining signs as having meaning only as long there is someone to give them meaning.  Signs would not exist if they did not have meaning existing within the receivers belief system.  In order for an ad to have meaning, the product must replace an “image or feeling.” Yet Williamson points out, that this relationship between product and consumer is a reciprocal one. The consumer gives meaning to the product and the product gives meaning to the consumer. To fully understand this relationship it is important to examine the space existing between “signifier and signified.”  Williamson notes that this space is held together by the invisible existence of ideology.  Ideology is considered the absolute truth, and we do not question its existence or the belief system it supports. We like to consider ourselves free individuals capable of making our own decisions, when in fact, it is our ideology that dictates our belief system and influences our choices.  In her writing, Williamson explains how advertisements work within our ideology and “invite us freely to create ourselves in accordance with the way in which they have already created us.”

 

We live in a society in which value is determined by what we are willing to exchange for it.  In other words, the more something means to us the more valuable it becomes.  Advertisers are aware of this transference and emphasize value to encourage consumers to buy their products.  By working on the assumption that the consumer/subject intrinsically has the inherent ideology to translate signs into meaning, the advertisers are able to use signs in their ads as a form of manipulation. We see the ad, we recognize it’s meaning, and we buy the product. Here the subject actively fills the space between the ad and its meaning.

 

Williamson points out that since it is the subject that brings the meaning to the ad, then the ad, as well as being “made by us and in us, it is also made with us.”  She uses the example of Clairol as representing happiness. Not only is the consumer able to buy happiness by purchasing a box of Clairol, but the purchase also signifies us, creating a new system of groups.  The consumer enters in to the happy group of Clairol users, which in turn reflects what sort of person you are, a happy Clairol girl. So now the product has actually transferred traits, you are a happier person because you are a Clairol user.  Subjects are now categorized into different groups depending on the products they buy, each “ occupying a particular position in the social structure.”

 

Next Williamson explores Levi-Strauss’s definition of totemism. Levi-Strauss says,” The term totemism covers relations. posed ideologically between two series, one natural, the other cultural.” Williamson argues that ‘totemic’ groups created through advertising are not natural. These groups are based on the members using the same cigarettes or drinking the same soda. Though these groups overlap allowing for multiple memberships, they have been created by the consumers allowing the products to identify who they are and how they feel. Because of this, products and feelings become interchangeable.  People choose products by recognizing themselves “as the kind of person who will use a specific brand.”  In other words, ads must exist from the inside out, so when we are confronted with many choices, we choose the one that best describes our lifestyles and ourselves.

Williamson uses an ad for Cockburn’s port to illustrate how we become participants in the ad itself. In the Cockburn’s port ad, a discriminating group of friends are gathered around a table enjoying a glass of port.  The advertisers have left the place at the head of the table empty; this is the place that has been saved for you. After placing yourself in the ad, you can easily identify the other people at the table as your friends, and as a unique and discriminating individual, you can see yourself joining them in a glass of port.  This ability to interchange ourselves with the people in the ads “ leads to the idea of the mirror phase.”  Regardless of whether it is a group of people or a singular person, we are capable of transferring ourselves into the ad becoming the “you,” and since we are unique and special individuals, the ad must be speaking directly to us.

 

Williamson points out that by individualizing products through naming, they are actually naming the products after us.  We interchange ourselves with the product making the car we drive or the soap we use a reflection of ourselves. This being, we the consumers tend to choose the products that would best represent out ideal selves.  The advertisers realizing this identity transfer design the ads to flatter our egos, making us feel that it is our own preexisting taste and individuality that makes their products a logical choice. Williamson also explains that it is essential for advertisers, though placing us in groups, to keep us as individuals making our own choices, that way if we by buy their product, we will stand out in a crowd.

 

By remaining flexible and identifying the different aspects of each individual, ads are capable of expanding the definition of self.  By addressing people as having multiple experiences, interests and belief systems, advertisers are able to market products as being essential to all aspects of life, thus taking into account who you are at any given moment.  Yet no matter how complex we are as individuals, the many facets of our lives create a whole. Williamson uses the example of an ad showing a woman in various life roles representing “all the kinds of women within you.”

 

Advertising arranges women and men into separate categories, emphasizing different needs.  Women are divided into two parts, the workingwoman and the ideal woman.  Ads tell us that women must physically transform themselves to play different roles.  Williamson uses the example of an ad featuring a woman biochemist.  The woman transforms at the end of the workday by changing out of her work clothes, male influenced, into a soft feminine blouse, abandoning her male association and transforming into her feminine self. In other words, she can be a woman or a biochemist but not a woman biochemist.  Ads focused on men also divide men, but this time, the division is between family and masculinity.  For example, a car ad will try to appeal to men by selling both virility and family comfort. The power of ads lies in their ability to feed off the “subjects own desire for coherence and meaning in him or herself.”

 

Society places emphasis on the Self, and ads respond to the need for individuality within the whole. Levi-Strauss says, “We have each become our own ‘totem’.  Thus the signifying branches of society are inextricably bound up with what we are-who we are.”  Williamson points out that ideology is reproduced in advertisements and is inextricably linked to the conscience.  She sites Lacan’s theory concerning how a child looking in a mirror will separate his identity from what he sees.  The mirror image becomes an object, allowing the child to “ place himself in a similar relation to an object,” thus the child now sees himself as both the object and the subject. Advertisers know that people viewing an ad will place themselves in the role of the imaginary person, making the ad a personal experience. This is how advertising is able to tell us who we are and who we want to be. Thus we assume that by purchasing their product, we will come one step closer to becoming the ideal self-seen within the ad.

 

Williamson looks at how advertisers “ by offering us symbols as the objects of unity, they ensnare us in a quest for the impossible.”  We live within this system of signs lead by desire, which is the “root of the process of the Symbolic.” We are constantly driven to strive for the ideal, and advertisers play to our desires.  If we buy their products, we will become the person we wish to be, smarter, funnier, happier etc. We are even capable of believing that it is our face on the product box, and that by purchasing the product, we are buying a new improved self. Williamson point out that “we are both product and consumer; we consume, buy the product, yet we are the product. Thus our lives become our own creations through buying.”