Decoding Advertising 

Linguistic message
​Denotation - non coded

• Lancome Paris - Brand, biggest type on ad making it stand out most (hierarchy)
• Dreamtone - name of skincare
• 'Skin tone of dreams even without makeup' - The results you get after using product.
• 'New' - Common phrase on products in ads. 
• Has information on what's different about this product '3 formulas tailored to all skin tones' 

Connotation - coded

• Dream - perfect, light, airy. Makes us imagine our ideal outcome. 
• Typography - Very luxurious, clean typeface. Also very feminine with the thin and thick strokes .
• 'New skincare' - The next best thing, people want to see the latest product. Mentioned quite a lot on this ad. 

Image message 

Denotation - non coded 

• Image of a young beautiful female model, looking over shoulder. Light shining upon face making it glow. 
• Pink rose
• soft skin tone colours with a bright pink pop of colour in the rose and product 
• product placed in bottom left
• engagement with the audience as she is making eye contacts - grabs viewers attention

Connotation - coded 

• young model has perfect skin makes us imagine we would have perfect skin if we use product
• pink rose is very feminine, delicate and pretty similar to females skin. 
• the colour pink symbolises qualities such as softness, delicacy, kindness, romantic and feminine. Qualities most females want. 
• The pop of colour on the product really makes it stand out