Second Assignment

This is an advertisement for AT&T mobile phone network.  The signifier is an image of two painted hands holding up an AT&T phone with the captions "Best coverage worldwide" and "More phones that work in more than 200 countries, like Japan."  The hands are painted like Koi fish which originally came from Central Europe and Asia and now are strongly associated specifically with China, Japan, and Japanese Koi ponds.  Koi fish also often connote good fortune, success and prosperity.  These connotations serve to uphold the image this phone company is trying to make for itself: successful, reliable, etc.  These signs are also used to denote Japan strictly as an example of their worldwide network coverage.

This is an advertisement for Kubota tractors/work vehicles.  The signifier is an image of a large, black and orange construction vehicle full to the brim with Japanese people, clad in blue work outfits, with their faces squished to the glass.  This image is paired with a large caption that reads "Jam Packed With Japanese Engineering".  A smaller, longer caption informs the reader that the product being sold is special and interesting because it's "Made in Japan" which conveys "trust, quality and engineering excellence".  The image is very clean and professional-looking with bright colors.  The signs strongly and obviously connote the idea of Japanese excellence in engineering skills and technology in general.  The image also uses the indistinguishable amount of 'nameless, faceless' Japanese people to signify 'Japanese-ness' under the product's hood.

This is a Japanese advertisement for a drink called "Max Coffee".  The signifiers are two images of a figure in a business suit with a Max Coffee can for a head and large, bright yellow and black comic-block text in the middle.  One image of the figure shows him leaping forward expressively with a briefcase in hand.  The other shows the figure, with an ID tag clipped to his suit, giving a thumbs up and speech bubble.  The bright text and capital English words connote feelings of excitement and energy especially since the only English words are MAX and COFFEE (which we already associate with caffeine and high levels of energy).  Even without understanding what's written in Japanese, the audience has a clear understanding that the signs are being used to sell this product through visual representations that it makes the figure eager, raring and ready to go to work.

First Assignment

This is an advertisement for the Nissan 'Cube' car.  The signifiers are the photo of the woman (edited so that one half of her face is laid next to itself to form one whole face) and the captions "SYMMETRY SUCKS" and "Humans aren't symmetrical, why should their cars be?" below it. There's also a photo of the car model and the brand's logo.  The image connotes the belief that symmetry is the truest form of beauty and that humans are instinctively drawn to more symmetrical faces.  The larger caption paired with the image mean to convey that the woman in the photo, who doesn't normally look like this (only half like this) looks worse or not good in this new form.  These signs mean to convince the audience that symmetrical is not always (or never) better in humans so this could be the case for the cars they purchase as well.  Thus suggesting that the audience purchase their car model which is non-typically a-symmetrical.