Jewelry Luxury

Weiss

Staab. J. (19901 Nochrichlem',emheorie. FOmUlie SlT7Jhur I/nd empirischer Geho". Frei­

Dimitri Monelmans

burg
Weiss. H. eT al. (1995) Ge.....all "on Rechls - (J:jein Femsehlhemll : Z"r Femsehberichl­
erslammg iiher Rech15e.nremisml/s. AlIsländer IInd An-l in Dell1schland. Opladen.

Visual Representation of Luxury.
An Analysis of Print
Advertisements for Jewelry
Abstract
U/lle research has focused on /he meaning of luxury. Nevenheless, luxury
goods play an impor/an/ role wi/hin society. This arliele employs a semio/ic
approach /0 grasp /he meaning of jewels as luxury produc/s. I1s symbolic re­
presen/alion wi/hin prinl adver/isemell/s gives a dear view of /h e wa)' adverli­
sers 'creale . a luxury aura around malerial arlijacls. luming Ih em ill/o highi)'
s)'mbolic represenlalions of Slalus and wea llh. Slarting from a semiolie frame­
\Vork. Ihe research combines a qualilative and quanli/a/ive melhodolog)' la
analyze Ihe media conlenl of magazine advertisemenls for jewelry.

Introduction
Poverty is relative . Depending on the instrument used, hi gher or lowe r de­
grees of poveny can be measured. The same goes for luxury; it is as relative
as poveny. The speed boat cenain people con si der a luxurious product can be
the lifeboat secured to the mega-yacht of others. As aresuIt, sociologists have
tended to avo id the concept. There has been little researc h on luxury products,
as they are not considered a ' wonhwhiJe' research topic. Nevenheless, consid­
eration of luxury produets seems to open a wide area of stratificatio n issues.
Depending on the distinctive character luxury produe ts have, the clarification
of the functionality of wh at people con si der as their luxuries can throw light
on stratification processes. This anicle argues th at the first step in better un­
derstanding the socio logical contours of luxury and the ways in which luxury
produets work in society can be the investigation of the depiction of luxury in
advertisement s. Al thou gh printed adveni sements are fixed and well-choreo­
graphed scenes, they can be very helpful in reconstructing the referent system
advertisers use.
We will use a soc ia l semiotic approach to illustrate the sy mbolic represen­
tations of luxury as found in advenisements. Semiotics and the assoc iated
structuralism have fallen from grace in sociological theory. They were not
found convincing, as a general theoretic al fram ework , because of inadequacies
in explaining less abst ract aspects of soc ial life li ke economie and political be­
havior (Giddens, 1995 : 7 15). The failure of a grand theory of signs should
not, howeve r, lead to the complete abolishment of the conceptual framework

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Mortelmans

Visual Representation of Luxury

semiotics is offering. In analyzing advenisements, and culture in general, it

has demonstrateó its value. In visual and cultural sociology there is still a

place for analyzing a whole variety of phenomena as sign systems . In th is ani­

cle we first look at the basic features of this theoretical approach: the intemal

structure of signs and the cultural information embedded in them . Advenise­

ments can be treated as texts, as aggregates of signs. Special anention will be

given to the significance of sociological and cultural concepts in analyzing

signs. Goffman 's (1979: 25) argument that "advenisements never depict social

life as it really is" is imponant in th is context. Advenisers use a hyper-ritua­

lized imagery about the way people think their surrounding environment looks

or should look. Advenisements are symbolic anifacts of social life, promoting

a cenain social sign value instead of selling a material use value. A second

step will be the application of this framework towards the analysis of visual

representations of luxury products. How does advenising for luxury goods

make people use these products as markers for cenain social relationships?

What son of social relations are referred to as imponant? As a case study, we

will use a sample of advenisements for jewelry.


in

Take the advenisement for Wolfers in Figure I. It represents a large room
with bright light (sunlight?) shining through draped cunains. The center of the
page shows a sheet-covered sofa with a woman holding a flute . In front of her
are two cups. The left side of the phorograph is filled with a large cactus,
while the opposite end depicts an open door. The Dutch slogan states, "With
Wolfers begins the day." The bOllom pan of the ad has a white, separate box­
shaped pan showing a necklace (the advenised product) and the brand name.
Under Wolfers, we find a reference to the company 's expenise: Jeweler since
1812. The lion-cruwn sign with the underscore 'Royal Warrant Holder' refers
to an official emblem, exclusively preserved to purveyors of the Belgian Roy­
al Family.

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Signs in advertisements
Although print advenisements could be analyzed as stand-alone signs with
cenain features, they have proven to be much richer when we consider them
as texts. It sounds odd to speak of texts in a sociological environment, though
semioticians tend to use this term when they are dealing with complex signs
consisting of other signs . Print advenisements are th us choreographed scenes
of different signs put together to form an advenisement tex!. In opposition to
linguistic analyses of texts, we are not refeffing here to verba I text. Textual
analysis of print advenisements uses semiotic concepts in order to find out
what social meanings are involved in an ad. Drawing on Judith Williamson's
( 1978: 29) analysis of print advenisements, we are in fact looking for social
or cultural sign systems which are used in ads to create meaning by means of
Juxtaposition .

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Figure 1: Wolfers

The advenisement we have just described is c1early a complex sign, a text.
After a brief description of the manifest content of the imagery, the next ana­

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Communications 22 (1997) 1

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71

Visual Representation of Luxury

Mortelmans

Iytical s tep to retrace the soc io -semiotic meaning of the ad is to divide the
image into its cOrJ stitutive pans and to look at the paradi g mati c choices that
were made and the syntagmatic combinations the advertisers used to create
the selling argument. Before we start , however, with th is second anal ysis , we
should keep an important premi se in mind . In 'Images in Adve rrising: The
need f or a theory of visual rhetoric', Scot! criticized convincingly the co m­
mon analyses of advertisin g imag es. She attacked the false underlying as­
sumption of the analysis of visual imageries: "pictures are not merely analo­
gues tO visual perception s but symbolic artifacts constructed from the
conventions of a panicular c ulture " (Scon , 1994: 252). In order to analyze ad­
vert isem ent Images, we should , according to Scott, not merely look at what
they show us but al so at h ow they s how it and from where these sy mbo li c
fo rms and arrangements come . However, we are not interested here in the
constructi on of the selling argument itself. We do nor look for a rhetori c theo­
ry of visual represenration s. In stead , we think Scott's argument is useful in
ov ercoming the classic semiotic state ment that pi ctures ger their meanin g be­
ca use of a resemblance to a referent . I
All cultural settings consist (among other things) of sign- systems, each
co mpri si ng a whole hierarchy of other sub- system s of signs. They are wh at
Berger and Luckmann (1966: 63 ) called " the stoc k of knowiedge " of a certain
culture; an intersubjective sed imenration of practi ces and shared experiences
that become objectified. In the se sign sy stem s, se miotician s di seem regulari­
ties an d structuring mechani sms. Mainstream Saussurean se miotics considers
the intemal logic of a sign system as a joint process of two in teracti ng axes.
A set of signs is a combina rion of different signs (the so-called syn tag matic
ax is) , eac h of which is particularly cho sen from a 'category ' of signs (th e
paradigmatic axis)2 The regulation of household interiors, for e xample , ca n
he looked upon as a structured whole of signs (a text) which is the re sult of a
comhination of several signs (e. g., chairs, cupboards, paintings). Ea ch of
these combined signs is the result of aselection process. Signs tend to belon g
toge ther in categories, the so-c alled paradi g ms, from which a sign utterance is
chosen . A certain household interi or co uld have a Kandin sky painting han ging
on the wall. The choice of this painting is the re sult of a paradigmatic seJec­
tion from the 'painting ' cate gory which could also have ended up as aRe noir.
Besides sig n systems act ive in re al world situation s, we ca n also d isee m
vi rtu a l sig n systems such as print advertisements or te lev ision program s. In
the Wo lfers advertisement , for example, we fll1d a se t of sig ns joined toge ther,
ro ll owi ng the syntagmat ic rules of a visual ad system and re sul ting from a
paradigmatic choice from vis ual paradi g ms . In the Wolfers ad, the advertisers
have chosen a cacIJ s be si de th e c hair, in stead of a fem . They took plain cur­
tains instead of striped ones , a straigh t font in stead of a hand-written one. All
these choices we re combined, following some sort of ad vertising de sig n rules
in order to create the Wolfers ad tex!.
Syntagmatic combinations and paradigmatic choices are both c ulturally

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Communicallons 22 ( 1997) 1

determined . The syntagmatic rules goveming a ce rtain sig n system are not
free-f1oating un iverses. Culture sets out the rules for combining signs into a
tex!. An adverti ser nee ds to take into account cert ai n rul es to create an ad­
image . If he does not follow these rules he will not be able to create an image
which people dec ode as an ad vertisemen!. There are, however, two important
considerati ons to make here . First , syntagmatic combination rule s are never
fixed. Because rul es are the resulr of sedimented shared experiences, they are
constantly changing as new interactions become sed imented and legitimized.
Second, advertisers are not strictly bound to the syntag matic rule s of one par­
ti c ular period. Wit hin ce rta in boundaries they ca n pl ay with these combination
rules. Pre sentl y. little is known about visual combination ru les (e. g., the theo­
ry of visua l rhetoric for w hic h Scott was arguing) . O nly two rhetorica l figure s
seemed to have widespread use . The meta phor, o n one hand, w hich compares
two sig ns, and the metonym y, on the other hand , associates one sign with an­
other sign (a Jeaf. for example, could be signifyin g a whole tree) . But there
are many other ways in whi c h signs can be combined, especially in images.
Also , paradigmatic choices are social se ttings. In c hoosi ng the elements
for an ad, adverti se rs know very weil the denotated 3 meaning s of the elements
of a certain 'si gn category' . The y can pJay with these signs to alter their '!it­
era\' meanings or to co nst ruct new meanings .
Retumin g to the Wolfers ad. in describing the adverti sement, we have al­
read y divided the text int o pans , into included signs . Man y sign s on the
page are drawn fro m interi or design parad ig ms: the draped curtains in front of
h igh windows, the ope n door with s mall glass windows, the sheet-covered
sofa and th e wrought-iron balcony. The visuaJ joi nin g of these sign s, suggests
a large ro o m with a rather cl assic interior de sign. A second range of signs
suggests a ce rt ai n time moment ('dawn'). Th e most important suggestion here
comes from the headline (' tow ards the day'). Thi s ve rbal statement is sup­
ported by several visual signs. The bright light shining through the curtains
evokes the picture of the sun rising early in the moming. The cups refer to the
traditional mornin g ritual of drinking tea (or coffee) to start the day. AIso, the
cJothing of rhe woman (a striped s hirt) sugge sts the early moment of the
scene.
The last important sign we discern in rhe image is the flute the woman is
holding . Take n as shown. without interpretation , it is not very c lear whether
or not the woman is a professional f1ute -player. As we will see la ter, th is is
probabl y not very important, since the f1ute as such , is a powerful sig n.
We tum our a ttention , then, to the box in th e lower ri ght side of the ad ver­
tisement. We find three important signs there. First, th ere is the advertised
product itse lf: the pic ture of the necklace . Further, there is the verba I srate­
ment of the brand say ing it is a jeweler working since 181 2 and the se lling ad­
dres s is an e xq ui si te Brussel s shopping streel. Finally, there is the reference to
the Royal Family alld the warrant-holding sig n.
If we take the text as a whoie, what mea ning is generated? We ca n discem

Communicallons 22 (1997) 1

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Visual Representation of Luxury

two general meanings included in the Wolfers ad: tirst , an elucidation of the

qu ality and superiority of the jeweler itself, and second , a reference to the tar­

get audience. The ' quality' meaning of the neckl ace is constructed in the

white box. Next to the advertised product and the brand name, the addressed

viewer gets to know the long experience of the Wolfers compan y and its man­

date to deliver jewels to the Belgian Royal House. Although the Belgian Roy­

al House has almost no political power in Belgium, its symbolic function in

the COUntry is enormous . Being able to use this symbol for a commercial ad­

vertisement in a conspicuous sector as the jewelry class, is astrong weapon.

Combining this symbol, moreover, with a tradition of more than hundred

years, gives the 'quality message' an impac t that the advertiser does not need

more than a little surface of the image to construct this meanin g. The mere ac­

cumulation of these signs is enough to create the message that Wolfers is not

a norrnal jeweler but a well-established company.

Besides the 'quality message' , there is a more important addressing mes­

sage: Wolfers jewelry is not intended for everyone. The clientele they are

looking for are higher-eaming groups in society. How can we discern this

message from the photograph Wolfers is using? First, we have the interior

signs : the height of the house suggests that the room we are looking into is

part of a very large house. The balcon y and the open door with glass sugges ts

that we are dealing with a mansion or a manor, maybe even with a sort of cas­

tie . So the interior design of the room we see, submits a meaning which

shows an upper class room.

Next , the moment : why should advertisers choose to conjure up the idea

of an early moment ? lt seems as if it were not important. But, in fact, it is

quite important to use momings, instead of a roman tic evening scene. The

model in the picture is not dressed to go to work, she does not even show any

intentions of going to work. This seems to suggest that she wiJl not go any­

where. In stead of a business woman rushing to work , she seems to have a full

day ahead of her, without even thinking of work. Moreover, she starts her day

playing the flute. The flute hel ps to suggest the upper class environment in

two ways. First, playing a flute belongs to the so-called higher arts. Second,

the woman seems to have time to play the flute the whole day. This is very re­

miniscent of what Thorstein Veblen said more than a century ago:

So, for instance, in our time there is the knowledge of the dead lan­

guages and the occult sciences ... of the va rio us form s of domestic music

and ot her household art ... In all these branches of knowledge the initial

motive fro m which their acqui si tion proceeded al the outset, and through

which they first came into vogue, may have been something quite differ­

ent from th~ wish to show th at one's time had not been spent in indus­

trial employment; but unless these accomplishments had approved them­

selves as serviceable evidence of an unproductive expenditure of time,

they would not have survived. (Veblen, 1965: 45)

Someone playing a flute in the moming, suggests they belon g to the 'Iei­

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Communications 22 (1997) 1

sure class' . Although the leisure class as Veblen saw it no longer exists and
conspicuous consumption today has taken a completely different form, there
remains a sort of picture of an upper class able of excluding themselves from
any productive work, at least for women as suggested in the Wolfers adver­
tisemenl. The layout of the photo strengthens this observation. The door 10 the
room is open, while the woman is looking in th at direction , as if her partner
has just left for work.

A methodological framework for visual analysis
As the preceding ana lysis has suggested, the construction of the Wolfers ad
was a resu lt of using seve ral sign systems in order to create two main mes­
sages. By tracing back the different signs that were used , we are able to get a
look at the use advertisers make of cultural information in order to create a
commercial se lling argument. The flute, for example, exemplities that the dif­
ferentiating function of jewelry is strengthened by th e use of a sign system
with the same purpose. The semiotic method of ana lyzing advertisements,
however, has always been critiqued for its arbitranness. Because of its stress
on individual readings of the advertisements it is hard to base interpretations
on large samples of advertisements. And if large samples were used , as by
Williamson and Goffman ,4 there were nearly always criticisms that the sam·
pling of ads was not performed in a scientitic manner. SemiOlic analysis relies
too often on the individual capacities of the analyst to tind hidden myths' or
deeper layers in adverti sements (Leiss el al., 1986: 165- 166)
In order to overcome this criticism, we developed a combination of a qual­
itative - i. e., socio-semioti c - interpretation of the data with a quantitat ive
base. Our researc h aimed at an explorative study of cultural sign systems ad­
vertisers use to create visual representations of luxury items. In order 10 find a
sociolog ical definition of the luxury concept, we first trace the relevant sign
systems society hands out to give luxury items their significance in contem­
porary con su mer culture. In using the constructed world of advertisers, we try
to make contact with the underlying sign system s society uses to create a lux­
ury cachet around certa in consumer durables.
We propose a three- step analysis of visual and verbal information of ad­
vertisements drawing on both quantitative and interpretati ve techniques. The
first step consists of the co nstruction of a random sample of advertisements.
We drew a sam ple of 1,372 different advertisements. The elements came from
six Dutch magazines and comprised twelve product items . The selected maga­
zine arti cles spanned a penod from 1978 to 1994. For this article, we used
onl y the ads for jewelry: this resulted in a sub-sample of 69 entities.
The second step in the analysis procedure was to split up the image into
constitutive parts. We decided to code the advertisements using tive main ca­
tegories: the advertised product, persons, supporting objects (in the fore­
ground), the background setting and the text 6 For each of the categories its
.oarance was noted. This is the so-called manifest information that can be

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Mortelmans

discemed in advertisements: color of hair, place of the product on the image,
style of background. In fact, we are making an inventory of the denotated
meanings of the signs in the advertisements. The denotated mean ing of a
flure, for example, is a music instnlJnent. Looking quantitatively at this infor­
mation , we obtain a general picture of the different sign systems advertisers
used to sell jewelry. This sort of analy sis, however, would leave a great deal
of information concealed. As e1aborated earlier, the flute in the Wolfers ad
has a different meaning than its denotative 'instrumentness'.
In a third step we take the quantitative figures as a basis for a re-interpre­
tation of the data .. Depending on the purpose of the researcher, one can con­
ceive this interpretative phase in two ways. The first possibility is to stress the
syntagmatic combinations used in the advertisements. In doing so, we are, in
fact, constructing a base for a rhetorical analysis of the advertisements. Jac­
ques Durand used this kind of coding in his rhetorica I theory of advertise­
ments. He developed a coding scheme based on two different axes: the rheto­
rical operation and the relation between the constituted signs (Durand,
1987: 295). He started with a simple proposition on which four different op­
erations could be perforrned : a sign can be added to the simple proposition;
and a sign can be suppressed, substituted or exchanged for another sign. The
second axis of coding consisted of the relation between the signs involved .
Durand (1987: 295) found four different relations: identity, similarity, differ­
ence and opposition. Using these two axes enabled the construction of a two­
dimensional grid in which all classic rhetorica I figure s fitted. Durand suc­
ceeded in finding visual equivalents for every rhetorical figure in his frame­
work . Although his analysis dates from the early 1970s and surpasses the
scope of this article, we strongly believe he reached a firrn base for further in­
vestigation of rhetorica I figures in advertisements. In fact, following this
method would enable a researcher 10 trace all different scenes into syntag­
matie (rhetorica I) combinations. Ir is important, however, to realize that adver­
tisements often have several rhetorical operations included. Coders should be
attentive to thi s and take into account the multiple possibilities of using rheto­
rical figures.
In this article we do not concentrate on the syntagmatic combinations of
the advertising text, but we tend to focus on the second possible direction in
the interpretative phase: what are the paradi gmatic choices advertisers have
made? The quantitative analysis left us with several clu sters of inforrnation:
categories of objects being used , styles of background, clothing style and vi­
su al expressions of persons on the advertisements. Starting with th at inforrna­
tion, we could al e? direct the interpretative analysis towards the selection of
the most striking use of paradigms in the advertisement for certain products
and use the classic impressionistic semiotic method 7 in order to confirrn or to
adjust the findings. If we find , for example, a 20% use of mansion in the
hackgrounds , an in-depth socio-semiotic analysis of these backgrounds can
enrich these findings. This second paradigmatic analysis should focus more

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Communications 22 (1997) 1

on the latent meanings behind the used signs of the text. Rather than looking
at denotated meanings of these signs, we are looking for areasonabie interpre­
tation of the signs, a reasonable set of possible connotations.
This kind of analysis can go even further by looking for myths and sym­
bol s implemented in the advertisement. Culture builds myths, not as a con­
stnlction of false ideas, but as tools designed to understand aspects of the sur­
rounding reality. Myth s deal with many subjects. Lévi-Strauss did s ubstantial
research on the role of myths in primitive societies, while Barthes wrote about
8
myths in industrialized capitalist environments Myths comprise stories about
gender, family, governmental legitimacy and so on.
Symbolism is another way in which denotated meanings can be eroded.
While myths still make use of denotated meanings of signs, which acquire a
different connotated meaning by putting them in acultural narrative, symbo­
Iism creates new meanings by using a third sedimentation and conventionali­
zation of a denotated meaning. Take the escutcheon on the Wolfers ad. While
looking at the meaning of this sign one COmes up with the drawing of a lion
with a crown on top of it and some arrnoristic decorations . This denotated
meaning is, of course, not the actual meaning in the Wolfers ad. One of the
other possible connotations of this sign is that the sign is a royal emblem or it
is a quality indicator for specific brands. But above these possible con nota­
tions and the denotated meaning, it is obvious that the lion-sign has a sym­
bolic value . As a symbol this sign is able to represent another complex text,
i. e., the Royal Family. Due to conventionalizations, this sign was eventually
9
able to stand in the place of all possible connotations of the Royal House
To conclude this methodological framework, here is a summary of the dif­
ferent steps. The analysis could be viewed as a return to the creation of the
advertisement. McCracken described the creation of an advertisement as a
succession of four steps to be taken by a director. First, a director has to iden­
tify the properties with which he wants the advertised good to be invested.
Next, the se properties are looked for in the surrounding culture and translated
into a range of different choices to be made . The third step involves a deci­
sion about the way in which these cultural qualities are portrayed in the adver­
tisement. The last question is the place the advertised product will take in this
whole setting (McCracken, 1986: 75).
Our methodology is designed to uncover each of these creative steps, and
focuses especially on the cultural meanings which slipped into the advertise­
ment. The quantitative part looks for the general choices th at were made in
McCracken 's third step: how can certain cultural phenomena be represented
in a visual or verbal manner? The interpretative part of the research tries to
look further at the cultural meanings themselves. The possibility of looking at
the rhetorical way of presenting the paradigmatic choices belongs to the third
decision to which McCracken referred .
We turn our attent ion now to the analysis of the sample of jewelry where
we looked for cultural meanings advertisers used 10 create selling arguments.

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ResuJts: Advertisements of jewelry
JeweJry as device of socio I display
"Do c10thes speak?" asks Fred Davis (1992 : 3) in the first chapter of Fashion,
culture and identiry. Answering this question affirmalively is al most stating
the obvious, it has become a cliché, he says. People do, indeed, use material
culture to communicate with each other, to convey statements about them­
selves, their 'self' and their lifestyle. The use of c10thes and the role of fash­
ion has been widely studied since the beginning of this decade. In this anicle,
however, we are not interested in the socia l use of c!othes as 'self' construct­
ing lOols. We want, rather, to look at the advertised depiction of this world.
The world of fashion, in our case the world of fashion accessories, is itself
a sign system in which people use signs in order to create texts. We dress our
bodies with different sets (texts) of signs every time we step into a new cultu­
rally-defined sphere: a suit or overalls to work, nightwear to sleep, evening
dress to go ou!. Culture defines the contexts in which we choose our clothes­
te xts. Culture helps us by supplying codes which suggest the appropriate para­
digms to pick out 'suitable' c!othes and accessories.
Jewelry always takes a supplemental role in the c!othing system (or per­
haps we should say 'Fashion System' as Banhes (1983) did). Jewelry has, as
~ c10thing accessory, two essential qualilies: its subordinateness and its non­
instrumenta!ity. The first aspect of jewelry comes from the hierarchical orga­
nization of the c!othes system itself. Western cultural settings define the gen­
eral outline of a clothing text as a three-way hierarchy : underwear, upper gar­
ments 10 and accessories. Underwear and upper garments are both essentials in
a c10thing tex!. One can technically do without them, but ce rtainly not so­
cially. Both are sub-system s within the clothing system with thei r own syntag­
matic rules and paradigmatic choices. The accessory system is subordinated
to Ihese two in the sense that it is often a redundant sub-system. A mechanic
wearing overalls at work does not need any accessories. We could define the
accessory as a sign having a primary decorating functionalily. It is nOl de­
manded to create the general meaning one wishes to create with the c10lhing
lext, bul il has a closing effect, Ihe ' finishing touch ' . Besides the subordinate­
ness of the accessory, there is also the suppression of it s instrumentality. Jew­
elry, such as neckJaces, do not have aspecific functionality towards the cloth­
ing tex!. Even when we can discem a trace of instrumentality, I I it is always
suppressed in favor of the decoration prin ciple. We could say that an acces­
sory has a minimal amount of use-va lue incorporated and rests almost com­
pletely on its sign value (Baudrillard, 1981 : 65- 69).
But accessori~s in general and jewelry in particular are not without func­
tionality. They do carry their own meaning and they effectively play a role in
the creation of a clothing ensemble. Accesso ries fulfill three main functions: a
monadic, a dyadic and a multirelational one. First of all, accessories perform
an ego-directed functionality. In combining c10thes and accessories one can
experience an individualistic pleasure as a reflection of inner emotional states.

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Communlcations 22 (1997) 1

One chooses accessories according to a mood or because of an aesthetical
pleasure (Roach & Eicher. 1979: 8) It is, however, difficult to recognize th is
function , because every mood one expresses with clothes is definitely part of
an expression towards others.
Next to thi .~ psychological realm of personal emotions, c10thing has a pri­
mary social functionality. Individuals use c10thes and accessories as meaning
devices towards others. This social direcmess, however, has two different
faces : one in which jewelry gets its specific meaning in the display towards
an undefined audience. i. e. , a multiple target group and another meaning in
which the jewelry plays aspecific role in a dyadic face-lO-face relation.
Jewelry has aspecific role as accessory. lt s primary goa l in social cate­
gories is distinction. Nec klaces , earrings and brace lets have denotated mean­
ings, which show the difference between the wearer and non-wearer. Very of­
ten there is a ge nder-related aspect connected to the wearing of jewelry.
Although men do have their own jewelry, the concept normally relates to
clOlhing accessories wom by women. At least that is the overall cultural deno­
tation given to jewelry. There are , of course, men wearing necklaces or a bra­
celet , or women wearing cuff links, but we tend to situate these practices in
particular subcultures .
The last function jewelry has is its role in a dyadiè social relation. Jewelry
has a special role in face-to-face relationships. The most obvious example is,
of course , the exchange of wedding rings between partners. In this case the
primary function is not the distinctive character of the wearer towards the
non-wearer but the materiaJizing of the whole existing relationship in an ob­
ject. The wedding ring is "a unique object, symbol of the relationship of the
coupie ... Fashio n plays as negligible a role at the strictly sy mbolic level as at
the level of pure instrumentality" (Baudrillard, 1981: 66) . For this reason al­
moS! no advertising is expected to appear for wedding rings in magazines.
But dyadic relationships take more forms than wedding ceremonies. Jewelry
also plays an important role as exchange currency between people. People ex­
change jewelry often as a gift expressing the state of their relationship at that
moment , without investing too much symbolic power in it. Even this ex­
change process tends tO have aculturally defined asymmetry. Culture expects
men lo give and wo men to receive jewelry in the gift-givin g process.

Absence of persons
The prelimInary step in our analysis of jewelry is the quantitative analysis of
some aspects conceming this three-fold funclionality. Special attention is gi­
ven 10 the social dimensions because they will more Iikely be used in visual
advertising material. The first striking trend concerned the use of persons in
our sample. Only one-third contained one or more persons. This is surprising
since the sign system to which jewelry belongs is directed lOwards the body.
As expected, the gender ratio favors women (79% of 28 depicted persons) .
Mosl women appeared alone. This could point to two possible explanations:

Communications 22 (1997) 1

79

Visual Representation of Luxury

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on one hand , the advertisements could be directed at men , urging them tO buy
the jewelry for the woman they see l2 in the picture. On the other hand, adver­
ti sers could be usi ng the reverse me ssage, directing the ad vertisements 10­
warus wOlllcn and contriouting to effort 10 discriminate themselves from
others.
In a few cases a male model entered the scene or several women were pic­
lUred in a group. Nearly all models were classified as adults. Out of the 69 ad­
vertisements, we found onl y two advertisements with children, and only one
advertisement with elderl y people. There is a clear trend to use single, fe­
male persons (if persons are involved at all).
Also, background sett ings are quite stereotypical: 77% do not really have
an imaginative background, but merely a single color. Thi s sort of background
is used to focus attent ion onto the advertised product. Using a single color
background increases the importance of the colors used since th at is the only
signification conveyed with the sign. Frequentl y used background co lors are
black or white and grey. Use of figurative backgrounds depends on the use of
persons in the jewelry ads. When persons are used, the backgrounds diffe r
significantly. Person s are more likely to be portrayed in interiors or in lei su re­
related environments.
All of the advertisements did show the advertised jewelry. This is not very
surprising since jewelry has no standard look as, for example, a can of Coca
Cola. Advertisers need to drawattention toward s the aesthetic qualities of the
jewelry before they can begin to add additional va lues. The artisan and artistic
features of the produ ct are, in the case of jewelry, best shown by pre sen ting
pictures of the jewels.
The advertised product is usually supported with some well-chosen objects
or visual effects. These objects are often indicators to the preferred reading of
the ad. There is not one particular category of frequently used objects in our
sample . Although the quantitative an al ys is nf nojects dnes nnt suggcst a gcn­
~Ial trend in the use of meaning indicators, funher an alys is of the sample
could show some parti c ular uses not immediately apparent.

The qualitative analysis reveal ed five types of advertisements for jewelry.
We constructed the ty pes based on the late nt meaning in the advertisements or
the typical struclUre of the ad. The main criterion for the initial division re­
sulted from trends found in the quantitative analysis as outlined earl ier. We
looked especially for the rea sons behind the low frequencies of pi clUred mod­
els an d the connection between the presence of these models and those of fi g­
urative and non-figurative backgrounds.

Jewelers instead of jewelry
The first category in the sample co nsists of jeweler-directed advertisements.
Thi s type of ad ve rtisement has a quite stereotypical layout serving only one
goal: drawing attent ion to a particular jewelry store . The advertisements make
no explicit allusion to a certain addressee-" [n fa ct the overall construction
does not attempt 10 be creative or rhetorical at all: they rather present the pro­
duct in a dry and professional way.
The advertisements are Iike pictures from an an-catalog. The look of
this type is nearly identi ca l in the whole sample : a rectangular in the mid­
die of the page presents one or more jewels from a ce rtain collection. Ju st
above or just beneath the rectangle is the name of the collection or th e
name of the jeweler. At the bottom of the page , the ad vertisements present
a phone number or addresses where the panicular jeweler can be found .
Sometimes the cen trality of the rectangular is abandoned by framing the
whole page and presenting the nam e of the jeweler somewhere near the
pictured jewels.
The catalog type vei ls itself in a low profile format. The absence of all
headlines, figurative backgrounds and supponing objects, leaves the receiver
alone wilh the product itself. The mere presentation of the product focuses on

Qualitative interpretation
We will not delve much deeper into the analysis of the m anifest meaning of the
sa mple. There are many sophisticated techniques helpful in analy sis at thi s le­
vel, but we prefer 10 draw attent ion 10 the latent meaning of jewelry adverti se­
ments. Starting from the quantitative trends observed earl ier, we will look for
ways in which the observed trends are to be interpreted. In the presentat ion of
our results, we e"1 ploy the depictive method used by Goffman and Williamson .
This means that the observed trends are interpreted in a verbal way, while illus­
trating the phenomenon with examples drawn from the sample. Becau se the
sample was drawn from Dutch magazines , there could be some language pro­
hlems conceming text s and headlines. As far as they are crucial to the under­
standing of the illustration, they will be translated in endnotes.

80

Communications 22 (t997) 1

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Communicatlons 22 (1997) 1

Figure 3: Van Essen

81

Visual Representation of Luxury

Mortelmans

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Figure 6: Cartier l6

Figure 4: Dali

Figure 5: Schroederi s

its qualities. The framing of the product intensi fies this process: as real works
of art, these jewels are framed and catalogued. It is, therefore , not accidental
that the pictured jewels are parti cula rl y detailed. Manifestl y, the catalog type
presents a picture of a jewel, but latently, thi s picture is the exaltation of the
jeweler's competence. It unifies jeweler and jewel in a m useum-like way: the
work of art is framed and be ars the autograph of the creator, the artist. Fi gure
4 leaves the work of art layout but name s its collection after the fa mou s
Spanish painter Salvador Dali . Also, this ad presents its jewels as pieces of
fine art, derived from the arti san capacities of its creator, as if it were Salva­
dor D a li himself.
Unlike the low level type of advertis in g, there is still a latent level. The
t:atalog type plays an aesthetic game. Similar to the likin g process of work s of
art, professional skilIs are ascribed to the artist after a sort of aesthetic ap­
proval has aroused. By stre ss ing the detailed handwork included in these jew­
el s, the ad asks its audience to recognize th em as little works of art which are
automatica ll y linked to the ass umed qualities of the artist , the jeweler.

The big difference with the catalog ty pe is the explicitness of the ads. In­
stead o f assuming th e receiver to connect the jewels with the outsrandingness
of its creator, the textual fragments or the accompanying objects and back­
grounds hel p the receiver to decode the advertisement. Take Figure 5, for ex­
ample . Comparable to the Wolfers ad in Fig ure I , Schroeder comb ines severa l
signs: the pict ure of Luxembourg, the sym bol of the Roya l H ouse, the symbol
of Luxembourg itse lf and the explanatory text of the ' hi story' of the company.
On the manifest level , the co mbination of these signs see ms to deliver objec­
tive information about Mr. Schroeder and the location of hi s jewelry store in
Lu xemb ou rg. But the mere com bination of the se signs in an advertisement
leXI turns the so-ca lled objective information into a seco nd layer, a latent
meaning . All of the se signs work together to create an atmosphere of tradition
and experien ce. Again , the brilliance of the creator is illuminated.
The Cartier ad in Fi gure 6 is more ambiguous. Who is unique ~ Certainl y,
Cartier as a jewe ler. But the headline makes a second allusion : the unique­
ness of the c reator can be transferred to the consumer. Cart ier works in thi s
advertisement in two directions: stating it s own qu aliti es as a fine artist and
re fe rring to the socia l status play in which people search for uniqueness in
order to distinguish themselves from others. Although Cartier uses a broader
range of sig ns to construc t the advertisement , there is sti ll an apparent si mi­
larity to the catalog-type: a central positioned rectangular wi th the jeweler
name as a signature beneath its 'art-work '. A concluding remark here is the
connection under the photograph of the jeweler with a geographical place.
Although th e promoted jewelry stores of Cartier are located in Belgian ci­
ties, the advertisement makes notice of some famous cities in the lu xury
world. It is a phenomenon we found in several advertisements: the local bou­
tique is promoted with the aid of fa mous foreign cities or countries. Mani-

Broadening the jewelers' area

Comparable to the catalog type, the ·seco nd group of jewelry advertisements

are also deprive d of hum an presence . They are , however, not of the same low

profile type as described earlier. Jewels presented in this second type are sup­

ported by diffe: ~nt kind of signs: backgrounds, objects, headlines and texts.

Unlike the catalog type , there was no standa rd lay-out in the seco nd type . Vi­

sually, there is not one parti cul ar outlook: all kinds of positionin gs are used.

Only one co mmon characteristic deserves spec ial mention : the absen ce of pe r­

sons stil l causes the jewels to be pict ured in a detailed way and in a ce ntral

14

position on the page.

82

Communications 22 (1997) 1

Communications 22 (1997) 1

83

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Visual Representation of Luxury

festly, one could assume that Canier is giving information where consumers
can also buy their jewelry. But that is not the intended connotation of men­
tioning Geneva or New York. Because of its world-wide differe ntiation , Car­
tier - just as other luxury companies - have to guard the exclusiveness of
their product. Simply stating Belgian selling addresses might confuse the tar­
get public that Cmier jewels are sold everywhere, as if it were ordinary. By
connecting these Belgian cities to other metropoles, Canier gives the impres­
sion that people are still shopping in huge luxury cites, instead of at the
shop next door. It is a strategy designed 10 convey their presence throughout
the world.
This second group of jewelry advenisements is much richer in its visual
and verbal originality. Instead of simply presenting the product as the result of
a brilliant jeweler, more paradigms are being used: figurative backgrounds
and te)(ts give an extra dimension 10 the advenised product. Nevenheless, all
advertisements promote the jeweler's ski lI s and exclusiveness. In doing so.
Ihey indirectly pass these qualities to the consumer who will buy the jewels .
Neither of the first two types constructs, however, a direct consumer addres­
see. They never direct the advertisement to the target public . This changes in
advenisements where mode Is are used.

Jewelry as inter-gender socialization
The construction of the jewelry ad changes dramatically with the entry of
!llan. As has already been demonstrated , models are not used as often as was
expected. Only one-third of the sample contained modeis. Since jewelry is a
clothing-related accessory, the use of models is important because of its pre­
sumed socializing aspects. By using people advenisers might want to set an
example on the use of the product, the appropriate social situation or the kind
of target group the product is intended for. In general, these aspect., can be ap­
rlied to other products as weil.
In the case of jewelry, we are especially interested in the gender-related
aspects of the sample. The quantitative analysis showed an over-represenla­
lion of women in cases where model s were used . Moreover, when women
were shown, they were not put in a socia l relation with other people (males or
females), but tended to be ponrayed alone. That result suggested two comple­
mentary hypotheses: either the addressee gender was male which could mean
that men were addressed in order to buy jewelry for women, or women them­
selves were addressed in order 10 inspire them to be narcissistic.
Analyzing advertisements with mod els did not fully confinn our hypoth­
eses . Out of 22 a(!venisements containing a female model, only two advenise­
ments were founa with a female addressee. The second construction is used
!llore frequently: 12 advenisements could be coded as presenting themselves
lowards a male. All of them were directly connected to the idea of gifl-giving,
10 which we will come back later. But these tumed OUI not to be the only pos­
sibilities. Some advenisemenls contained a model wilhout explicitly construcl­

84

CommunJcalions 22 (1997) 1

ing a gender-related addressee. They are very much li ke the types described
above . Most oflen, a large piclure is accompanied by the name of a colleclion
or a panicular jeweler, in combination wilh a sellin g address .
Although Ihe jewelry sample contained only a few male-directed or fe­
male-direcled advenisemenls, both cases deserve to be examined more close­
Iy. We wish 101race some indicalive traits about the gender-relaled uses in
jewelry advertisements. First, we examine brief1y two advenisements directed
at women . Both ads use lextual phrases to sel up the female addressee. They
show Ihe picture of women in combination wilh a headline in the firsl person
and a body text in the second person (see Figures 8 and 9). Surprisingly, bOlh
ad s were from the same jeweler (Bigor). They address women wilh the mes­
sage Ihat in o rder 10 be beautiful and irresistible, they should buy jewelry. lt
seems very much like a cliché : produclS are sold with the promise of beauty
and allractiveness. 11 is an idea al ready mentioned by Williamson (1978:51) ,
and we will return 10 it later in the male-directed jewelry advenisements.
There is nothin g new under Ihe sun one could say, excepl for one lillie detail.
Both jewelry ads refer 10 the price of Ihe jewels, stating Ihal Bigor are afford­
abJe, even inexpensive jewels . Without Jinking both together, il is quile sur­
rrising Ihal Ihe two jeweJry advertisements which are directly addressed 10­
wards women mention inexpensiveness . As a result, we did not find a singl e
advenisemenl addressed 10 women mentioning very expensive jewelry. As
said earl ier, we cannot conclude th at real advenisers fall back on a deeply de­
notaled idea that luxury jewels are not to be boughl by women themseJves OUI
of SOme son of narci ssis tic fashion. It still remains, however, a curious phe­
nomenon that expensive, exclusive jewelers never advenise with a female­
constructed addressee.

la
Figure 7: Bigor (1)17

Communications 22 ( 1997) 1

Figure 8: Bigor (2)18

85

Mortelmans

Visual Representation of Luxury

~.
Figure 9: Slaets l9

Figure 10: Gibson 20

Male-directed ad verti sements, on the other hand, all use the gift-giving
idea. Men are urged to buy jewelry for women, never for themselves. The
non-instrumentality of jewelry makes it very se nsi ti ve to symbolic exchanges.
Jewelry can easily be emptied of extern al meaning and ' filled' with personal,
symbolic meanings (McCracken, 1986). A close analysis reveal s, however, a
two-fold incentive for males to buy jewelry.
Primarily, advertisers urge men to bu y jewelry as a present. In doing so,
they are in fact changing the sign status of the product. Instead of selling
clOlhing accessories, the sign value changes to a symbolic meaning transmit­
ter. The commodity, whatever it may be, is tumed into a sign deprived of all
instrumentality, taking o n the symbolic value of the relationship between the
giver and the receiver. The symbolic value is usuall y the greatest at the mo­
ment of exchange itself. After that , the commodity can take on other mean­
ings, sometimes real instrumental ones (i. e. in the case of exchanging kitchen
tool s). Because of its extreme low degree of instrumentality, jewelry easily
takes on symbolic va lues which result s in an easy transformation into a gift.
Gift-giving, however, is a difficult process requiring several skilIs. One eas­
ily makes mistakes by choosing the wrong present. Especiall y when intimate
relations are concemed, people are very alert in their selection process. Re­
garding Christmas presents, Theodore Caplow presented th ree general rules
that people should keep in mind in order to pick an appropriate presen t: "A
Christmas gift should (a) demonstrate the giver's fam iliarity with the recei ­
ver's preferences; (b) surpri se the receiver. .. (c) be sca led in economic value
to the emolional value of lhe relationship" (Caplow, 1984: 1313). Jewelry ad­
vertisemenls see m to make use of Caplow's last selection rule. As economic
value is a standard on which one can read the importance of a relationship,
the n the opposite will be lrue as weil: advertisers teil men that the more ex­

86

Communicatlons 22 (1997) 1

pensive their gift, the better their relationship with their wife. Symbolic mean­
ing invested in a prese nt becomes substituted for a pecuniary investment in
objects . Thi s is perfectly illustrated with the base line many jewelry advertise­
ments have : 'A diamond is forever ' . Not surprisingly, we only found this base
line in adve rtise ments using the ' gift- givi ng' idea. On a manifes t, denolated
level, one could argue that a diamond is forever, or at least will last longer
than the owner will li ve. When a man gives such a diamond to a woman, he
is in fact symbolica lly exchanging the etemity of their relation. At least, that
is the symbolic meaning invested in the accessory at the moment of exchange.
This is, howeve r, not the only male-directed sort of message found in jew­
elr)' advertisements. Men are not only urged to express their emotional feel­
ings through jewelry, adverti sement s also teil them to decOI'ate their wives in
an impudent Yeblian way. In hi s description of the lei sure class at the end of
the nineteenth century, Yeblen (1965) argued thaI women served perfectl y tO
show a man 's pecuniary success. For the leisure class, a woman was lhe cere­
monial consumer of .the goods her husband produced. The headline of Figure
10 (When a man 's success means the happiness of a woman) show s thaI some
of these ideas have nOL disappeared in our modem time s 2 1 The Gibson ad
show s a second tactic advertisers use in male-directed advertisements: female
decoration as proof of financial or industrial success. Wome n are thus viewed
in a subsidiary role, as persons to be made happy by decorating them. Just as
women-directed advertisements, this sort of male superiority seldom appears
in advertisement s. Nevertheless, the mere existence of th is sort of message in­
dicates a target publi c.

Conclusion
What does this anal ysis adds to the comprehension of lu xury? As argued ear­
lier, the main intent was to determine which cultural sign systems advertisers
used tO promote jewelry. Jewelry can by no mean s give complete insight into
the realm of luxury, but these preliminary results do suggest som e indication
of the overall picture.
The most apparent observat ion is the effort adverli se rs take to turn the
jeweler into an artist. Being a jeweler is not presented as a sort of artisan
trade. This would be perfectly possible since artisan products are also scarce
and expensive, often with a luxurious connotation. Connecting jewelry tO
works of art, howeve r, inserls the product into the sphere of hi g h culture.
Many sociologists have done research on the phenomenon. One of the impor­
tant ideas in Bourdieu 's (1994) 'Distinction' for exam ple is the distinctive fea­
ture s of works of art. In hi s discussion about the aesthetization of every day
life , Feathersto ne (1992: 25) argues that tendencie s towards such an aestheti­
zat ion relate tO the distinction between high culture and mass culture. Con­
necting jewelry wit h legitimate art , means at the same time an insertion of
high status connotations. Besides the denotative meaning of a c10thing acces­
sory, jewelry becomes a status tooI in its capacity as art work. FUrlher, adver-

Communications 22 (1997) 1

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Visual Representation of Luxury

Mortelmans

tisers draw heavily on culturally denotated luxury signs. The use of metro­
poles of luxury such as Paris and Milan in the promotion of regional stores in­
dicates this.
The visual analysis of magazine advertisements for luxury products can
be seen as the production side of luxury. How does the economic sector pro­
mote commodiries as luxury? The visual analysis of prinr advertisemems has
suggested that companies refer to several culrurally established sign systems
which are used to convey distinctive meaning. But referring to status-bound
sign systems does not equal selling commodities as distinclive luxury. In or­
der to complement this abstract (sender) analysis we need insight inro the
actual use of luxury products as prestige-driven social markers. Future re­
search could examine the decoding process of luxury signs: which connec­
tions work IOward promoting a luxury object and which fail ? And, more im­
portantly, which so-called luxury items play a role in distinclion processes?
People do not take advertising as the only source for constructing a lifestyle.
Peer pressures and imitation behavior are probably more important in this re­
specl.
We have shown in this article that magazine advertisemems acquire their
ultimate meanings from the cultural context in which they are created. Luxury
is embedded in our collective consciousness. In combining quantitative re ­
search with qualitative techniques we have tried 10 make the semiOlic frame­
work applicable to explore this cultural connection in a large sample. Using
several research techn iques was essenrial to overcome sampling pro biems on
the one hand and superficial interpretations on the other. Future applications
could concentrate on other product categories outside luxury goods. Ir could
also comprise more advanced techniques (e. g., latent class analysis) for ana­
Iyzing the quanritative phase, making the inrerpretative aspect more accessi­
bie. Such extended work may conrribute to the analysis of visual information
in a more complete and reliable manner.
Notes
The author gratefully acknowledges the fmancial suppon provided for this project by
The Belgian National Fund for Sc ie ntific Research.
I . In 'The Photographic Message', Ro land Banhes, for example, refers to the photo­

graphic representation as a reduction (of proponion. perspective and color) of the

sce ne itself, the literal reality. Although Banhes recognizes additional messa ges

above this literalone , a lot of advenisement research stays at the basic 'representa­

lion-axiom' .
2. These 'ca tegories' are also culturally originated clusters of meaning.
3. Den otation ani' connotation are another pair of sem iotic jargon stressing the sedi­

mentation itself of a sign's meaning. Roughly one can see denotation as the Iiteral

meaning of a sign. It is the most common meaning of a sign, often to be found in

dictionaries.
4 . Goffman did not use a semiotic approac h 10 analyze advenisements but he did however

a qualitative, individual reading of a large sa mple of advenisements. (Goffman, 1979).


88

Communications 22 (1 997) 1

'i. Alluding on a soc io-sem iotic work from Yarda Leymore ( 1975) : ' Hidden mylh' .
6. Se veral other categorizations would have been possible. We ha ve chosen to spl it up
the advenisements s ign in these sign component s because they allow for a research
towards c ultural constructions within the advenisement. Techni ca l classifications
(ca mera angle. shot. etc.) are less useful since they concentrate on the forma I as­
pects of the image rat her than the content layer.
7. We call thi s method 'impressionistic' because often, as in the research of Banhes or
Williamson, few attent ion goes 10 sampling methods and methodological questions .
Authors concentrate on a single image, trying to unra ve l the coded message in an
advenisement. Although few of these exercises can be called representative, the
method gives surpri sing information about the cultural coding of signs. e. g. maga­
zine advenisements. We implement thi s method as a third phase in a research in­
stead of using it as a tooi in itself.
8. See : Banhe s ( 1957); Levi-Strau ss (1 967).
9. Again, the speciflc context and the working codes \ViII suggest the meaning of lh e
symboL If one is against the Royal Hou se. the lion-sign will symbolize all the nega ·
live qualities of the Ro yal Family, while for a 'royalist' the sign will sym bolize posi ­
tive things.
10. By ' upper garments' , we mean all cJothing pans that are accepted in the Western
cultural context as to be wom publicly.
11 . Cuff links, for example, ha ve a functionality in the se nse that they do effective ly
close the cuffs of a shin . Neve nheless, they are not wom sole ly to close the cuffs
because a normal button \Vould be sufficiem to obtain this goal.
12. We are dealing in this case with a son o f s ubstiruti on process. The male magazine
reader is expected to s ubstilUte him self into the addressed person in the advenise­
ment. Judith Williamson dealt thoroughl y wi th these advenisement mechanisms:
"Another type of absence is that of a spectator, and this is usuall y connected with
sex . (. . .) ads invi te you 10 constitute yo urself in coincidence with an absent person.
and in relation to cenain given objects - o ne of which may be a member of the op­
posite sex" (William son, 1978: 80-81).
IJ. An addressee is not the receiver of a message. It is rather the internal creation of a
receiver inside a sig n or a text. In advenisementS such as those presented here , we
can assume that the addressee is a consumer. Thi s anicie. however, proves that the
rece iver of the adve nisement is different from the original intended addressee. The
same relationship can be distinguished at the sender si de between asender and an
addresser.
14 . There was only one adve ni sement in this class where the advenised product was
completely omitted .
l'i . Tran sL: Clancing Ihmugh Ihe hook of jewelry of Schroeder is like rediscoverin g Ih e
hislory of jewelry in Luxembourg. Afler his ,raining in Ihe Uniled SlO/es, LamberT
Schroeder m oved 10 Luxembourg in 1877. In 1890 he senl a caralogue of jewels in­
lel1ded a.' wedding glfl. A few years laler, he became 'Royal Warranr Ho/der. a /il/e
we .<l il/ 110Id TOday.
16. Trans!.: Headline : Being unique is an an BOl/om of Ih e page: Canier jewels are
sold exclusively al Carrier jewelers and in bOUfiques "Musl de Carrier". Th ese jew­
els are sold lVilh a cerllficale of aUlhel1liciry.
17. Trans L: Headline : I Ihink Iherefore, 1 am.
irresislible beaulifu/. Body lexI: You are
aClive and )'OU Ihink lVilh evel)' move you make. Thal's wh)' you know Ihe way of Ihe
world. Also beauty has ils price: Big or has a jewel for you from on /y 420 fl: Irresis­
lihle beaury does nOl have fO be expensive, whal did you expecr?

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McCracken. G. (1986) Culture and consumption : a theo retical account of the Slructurc
18. Tran sJ. : Head line: !nesislible. IhO/'s how! wonl/O beo Bod)' lexl: ani)' Big or makes
ano movemenr of the cultura l meaning of consumer goods . JOl/mal of Consum er
you really beaUliful and irresislible. Change )'our jewels as oflen as yOI/ wanl. II is
cen ainl)' nOl Ih e price Ihal will Slap )'ou. Bigor hos Ihe newesl eolleclion of irresisli­ Research. IJ. 71-84 .
Roach , M. E., & Eicher, J. B. (1979 ) The Janguage of personal adommen !. In
bie jewels. now la be found in beller perfumeries and special')' s/Ores in Ihe counTry.
J. M. Cordwell & R.A . Schwarz (Ed s.). The fabrics of culIure. The anlhropology of
19. TransJ. : Head line : Do nOl promise her heaven . give il.
clO lhilJg and adommenl (pp . 7-2 1). The Hague. Paris: MoulOn Publishers.
Body text : Every qualiTy diamond of one caralor more is ftre , brilliance ond beauTy
SCOll. L.M. (1994) Image s in advenising: the need for a the ory of visual rhetoric . Jour­
in ils pureSI farm. Crealed b)' nalure ilself and never equaled b)' any olher malerial.
nol of Cons umer Research. 2! , 252-273 .
Diamol1o is unique. like every wamen con nOl be eompared. Four characlerislics
Veb!en . T. ( 1965 ) The Ih eory of lire leisure class. New York: Sentry Press.
mnke a diamond 's qualiTy and value; Ihe)' are called Ih e 4 C's: CUi. color, c1ariTy
WilJiam son . J. (1978 ) Deeoding adverlisemellls. !deolog)' and meaning in adverlising.
and caral-weighl. The)' also are imporlanT la delermine Ihe jewe!'s beauTy. The ring
London : Marion Boyars.
SIaeIs jeweler is presenling is a heaven for her. A rillg of )'ellow gold and palaline
wilh a diamond of 1.07 coral. This jewel is on unforgel1able gift IhalleTs Ihe unsur­
passed qualiTy of Ihe diamond sparkie. A diomond is forever.
20. Trans!.: Headlin e: OlJe caralor more. WhelJ a man's success means Ihe happiness of
a woman.
Body text : A beauliful diamond of one coral or more. Every diall10nd is scarce. BUI
OUI of all diamands Ihal are discovered each )'eaT, ani)' one in a million will become
a slone of ane caralar more. JUSI as love. ils value lViII increase wilh Ihe )'ears. A
wonder Oul of Ihousands. Bom from earlh /0 li ve wiTh a "'Oll1an. The eXlraordinary
solilOr)' diamond Show Ih e world 11701 nO/hing was possible .vilhoul her. A diamond
is forever. De Beers.
2 I. The Gibson advenisemenr shown in Figure 10 appeared in a magazine in 1982.

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