enjoy decoding ads

Bignell says "ads often seem more concerned with amusing us, setting a puzzle for us to work our, or demonstrating their own sophistication ......[encouraging] us to participate by decoding their linguistic and visual signs and to enjoy this decoding activity" (33).

Ads do not really say you "should" buy this or you "should" buy that. It makes us decode the massage via the ads that the advertisers want to communicate, using cultural ideology we have.


This ad does not say anything about the product. The image of the products is clearly shown only in the very end of ad for a moment and the ad does not even indicate what is good about this product nor what is the benefit for us, consumers, to buy it. But somehow it attracts consumers; this is because the consumers read and decode the message on the visual image.



The ad is from Japanese mobile phone company called softbank. Even though they do not sell their mobile phones internationally, which means that the target audience is Japanese, the image the audience see is far away from Japanese culture. The company depicts Western or American high-class party using Cameron Diaz, a famous Hollywood star. What can we decode from these images?

First of all, by portraying western images, I think the company gives their mobile phone the image of more cutting-edge, sophisticated, privileged, urban life-style compared to the rival companies using Japanese-like images on their ads. The image of foreignness for Japanese might also show them that even though the products are not supposed to be used internationally, they are for those who are internationally-minded people and live in the metropolis like Tokyo.
Moreover, using a Hollywood star in the ad, that also sends the audience a message that the mobile phone is a part of luxurious life. And also, the company might also target women by casting Cameron Diaz, a typical figure of a beautiful woman, that is, a Caucasian with blond hair, blue eyes, nice body, as they sell the image of their products because many Japanese women choose their mobile phones depending on the look and brand-image and how the products would make them look. Communicating this recognisable sign of absolute western beauty and maybe cuteness of how she acts, the company might cut a prominent figure among other companies in terms of telling their brand image to the women.

Now almost all people have mobile phones. In Japan the mobile phone market is quite competitive, and for consumers buying a new model of the mobile phone costs a lot (around $500 or $600). For the companies it might be important to enable the consumers to decode their ads and to buy into the connotations while making them enjoy the process of decoding.