Semiotic Analysis Essay on Travelodge Print Ad in Jetstar Magazine

Running head: SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS ESSAY
Semiotic Analysis Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS ESSAY
The modern world is dominated by advertisements nowadays. It controls the consumer
mindsets with the pictorial depiction of their products and services. Every day the consumer gets
to notice innumerable advertisements all around them in any every form. A print advertisement
focuses on establishing the selling factor of the commodity or service of a given organization in
the most concise way possible (Wagner, 2015). Print Advertisements, or commonly known as
Print Ads portray many aspects of a product or service in just one shot. Therefore, it needs to be
analyzed thoroughly on what makes a Print Ad effectively reach the targeted customers. The
following essay would have this aspect of a Print Ad by Travelodge as published in the monthly
issue of June 2018 for Jetstar magazine. This will be further fulfilled by the analysis of the visual
representation of the advertisement by focusing on its target market the link it has with the
Australian culture.
Semiotic Analysis is a concept that analyzes and studies the signs and symbols that
contain a particular meaning or depiction. It can be either a synthetically created depiction or a
set of naturally used words. It can both be a study of symbols or the nature of the symbols as
represented (O'Halloran, Tan & E, 2017). The objective of the Semiotic Analysis is to develop a
structured analysis on the special symbols, pictures or text on their representation and how an
individual can relate these to the things happening around him. Generally, these special pictures,
symbols or texts embody the cultural depiction of an area or even a country. In this case, the
printed advertisement in Jetstar Magazine depicts an older woman holding onto a croissant in the
breakfast area of a hotel, wearing what seems like workout clothes (Fei et al., 2015). She has her
table full with mouth-watering dishes for breakfast and the expression on her face clearly shows
how happily surprised she is about the entire situation. The advertisement also has a text at the
bottom end of the page, describing the amenities that the hotel serves the customer; the ones

2SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS ESSAY
which seemingly make the hotels appear different than the others. The proper semiotic analysis
of the entire printed advertisement would be carried out in the following way:
 Codes: Codes in a Semiotic Analysis are a set of procedural systems that provides a
framework of the entire symbolical structures, through which a pictorial form becomes
coherent to an onlooker (Sun & Luo, 2016). Just like in this case, the total pictorial form
of the woman holding the croissant to her mouth and having other breakfast items at her
table makes it easier for an onlooker to understand many aspects of the picture. Firstly, it
is not difficult to understand that the picture represents a scenario of a restaurant inside a
hotel. At the background, a couple can be seen having breakfast as well (Percy & Elliott,
2016). Secondly, the woman seems to be working out before the meal; therefore,
depicting that the product offered to the target audience focuses on getting more services
than usual. Lastly, the text under the advertisement clearly signifies what the services the
Travelodge hotels provide the customers in their new areas of services ("Jetstar June
2018 Magazine", 2018). Therefore, the picture codes are absolutely coherent for an
onlooker.
 Conventions: The cultural implication of a sign, symbol or any other form of picture
format for analysis is primarily held upon the way in which an onlooker responds to the
advertisement. Since, this is part of a renowned monthly tabloid that gets featured once in
a month in flights departing from Australia, it focuses on targeting the upper class people
of the society who can afford to travel in flights (Lamba, 2016). The entire scenario of the
advertisement is set up in such a way that it would attract the upper class people. Eateries
inside hotels are quite expensive and they require huge amount of sum; therefore, any
person from the cream of the society would easily be attracted to the mode of conduct by