C103 The Semiotics of Advertising
Fall 2025
Term Paper Information
 

• Well, there is a term paper for this course as well!
  • Why have a term paper?
    • It's a good opportunity to ask you to pull a lot of widely disparate things together in one piece of work.
    • Some of you will discover in doing this that semiotic methodology can really give you an angle of attack on a cultural problem.
    • Looking at a wider range of related ads can suggest that there is more to the content of advertisements, and their analysis, than you previously realized.
    • I enjoy reading them, and I get a number of good ads from them which I can then recycle in future editions of this course.
    • Students find ads in places I would personally never even look at, so this provides some much-needed diversity in sources
    • The more you write, the better you get at it
    • This is by far the most important, weightiest assignment in the course this summer, equivalent to a final exam.
  • General data:
    • Aim for roughly 5 standard pages of text in the paper, call it 1,500 words (plus copies of all the ads you are writing about). This is just a guideline, not a precise requirement. Write as much or as little as your topic requires.
    • The term papers are due on the Thursday of Week 16 (Finals Week, 12/18/2025), before midnight. Submit them electronically via the Canvas site in any of the five accepted formats.
    • Before doing your paper, you must submit a one- or two-paragraph description of your topic and get my approval. Deadline: Wednesday 11/19/2025 (the middle of Week 13; this proposal is due more than 4 weeks before the term paper itself is due). These will also go to Canvas. If you don't get a response either approving of the term paper proposal or objecting to it and asking you to revise it by Friday 11/21, send me a follow-up email to gfowler@iu.edu. My intention is that if you are motivated to work on the term paper over the Thanksgiving holiday, you should be able to get started on it. You must get approval before writing your term paper. On the positive side, you get a flat 20 points of credit for submitting an acceptable proposal. This credit is all or nothing, I am not evaluating the proposals, just approving them and noting their existence.
      • What should this topic proposal contain?
        • Clear statement of topic (which of the pre-suggested topics you are using, how you are modifying it, any special slant you have on the topic).
        • Brief description of source material (what kind of ads are you using, where are you getting them)
        • If you do a topic that is not derived from the suggested ones below, you should go into a bit more detail, and you might even give me an example of the kind of material you are looking at. For anything really different, make an appointment to come talk with me about it first.
      • Here are a couple of sample proposals from past semesters which earned full credit. These are not the very best I have ever received, and I have left in some typos and lapses in English usage, but they show some advance thought about framing a topic, some progress made on finding appropriate ads, and they all provide the information required in various formats.
        • Why do I insist on these proposals? Two main reasons
          • I would like to ensure that you don't look around for a topic and supporting materials the night before the paper is due. That results in worse papers and more people inventing excuses for not turning them in on time.
          • In some cases I might have useful guidance for you, either an idea about something you could do to help the paper, or a warning about avoiding some pitfall.
      • Finally, I am going to credit you with 20 points for doing this. You get the full credit if you do it to my satisfaction. I might ask you to rephrase the proposal in order to get the credit, if there is something seriously wrong with it.
    • Submit the paper as a document. Double-spacing is stupid for an assignment you turn in online (the purpose of it is to enable the grader to write between the lines, and that isn't going to happen via Canvas), but you should aim for the equivalent of five double-spaced pages (about 1,500 words in Microsoft Word). Ads may be inserted directly into the document, or linked to, but please CHECK the links in the submitted version to make sure they actually work.
    • It often helps to number the ads, and then any cross-references to an earlier or later ad in the paper can be given by citing the ad number.
    • The number of ads you should include cannot be specified in advance, as it depends upon their nature and how you analyze them, but you might start by planning to collect around 10 print ads or a smaller number of video ads for your paper.
    • I'd like to see the sources for the ads. This could be URLs, or a website where you found them, etc.
    • No more than one ad may be taken from among those you have encountered during the semester in the weekly bundle assignments (for example, if an ad I presented inspired you to look into a particular ad campaign for the term paper). A significant component of this assignment is that you have found interesting, contentful ads worthy of analysis, and seeing an ad I first showed to you doesn't contribute to that.
    • It is your task to weave your materials into a coherent and well-flowing essay.
• Remember that the term paper is worth 100 points, and so it amounts to your final exam for this course (since we don't have a traditional final). A good term paper can help make up for a couple of missing assignments.
• Here are my suggestions on how to select a topic for this paper:

1. A semiotic analysis of a series of related advertisements for the same product.

   Dig up a series of advertisements for the same product, and do a semiotic analysis not of the individual ads, but of the entire set of ads. To do this effectively, you will usually need at least 10 or so related print advertisements; if you use video advertisements, you may not need that many. A model for this kind of topic might be the homework assignment based on the Silk Cut ads. Hint: It is far easier to produce a good paper when your ads are not merely copies of each other, but differ in ways that enrich the series. So, the Got Milk ads are not going to give you a great deal of material to discuss here, and if you chose to talk about them, you are going to write a dull paper unless you find a very original angle.

   Many companies produce series of ads exploiting similar themes. Prominent examples include Absolut vodka, 7-up, Budweiser, Volkswagen, McDonalds, Levis, Nike, Got Milk, Calvin Klein, but there are literally hundreds, even thousands of others.

2. A semiotic analysis of a set of ads for competing products

   Select a product category (say, brands of beer, SUVs, competing lines of clothing, perfumes, etc.), and select a number of advertisements in this same product niche from different companies. Then do a contrastive semiotic analysis of the different ads, concentrating both on shared elements and contrasting elements. Hint: Your discussion of contrasting elements is usually far more interesting than an enumeration of overlapping features, so in most cases you should concentrate on that aspect of the topic. Inevitably this topic may lead to discussion of which ad or ads are more effective in selling the competing product, and that's okay, but be sure to couch your discussion in semiotic terms. We are not especially interested in a marketing analysis.

3. A semiotic analysis of a variety of unrelated ads which share a strong semiotic unity.

   Pick an aspect of semiotics which interests you, for example, the use of bright color as an attention-getting device, or the manipulation of the viewer through ideological codes. Then find a number of advertisements which exploit this semiotic device, and analysis their use of it in communicating their messages. Variant: You can also pick a number of ads which feature some thematic unity, such as using sex to sell the product, or ads featuring animals, etc. Then write your paper about the varying ways these similar themes may be used semiotically. For example, you might have ads using sex ironically, metaphorically, for paradigmatic or syntagmatic effect, or other possibilities.

   BTW, the semiotic topics for the next couple of weeks are "Interactions" (aka intertextuality) in Week 1, "Codes" and "Manipulation" in Week 15. Intertextuality often makes a really good term paper topic, in my experience. If you are at all interested in this or codes, you might take an advance look at these textbook chapters and see if they might be something you'd like to use in your term paper. Manipulation is not really covered in the textbook (although it is often implicit in everything we are doing), but you understand that idea intuitively, and it might also be a suitable starting point for a few of you.

4. Your own original, independently conceived topic

It is possible to do something else with this paper. If you are the creative type and really want to go in a different direction, write an especially clear and detailed proposal to get my attention with it, and in fact it might be a good idea to correspond separately with me by email.

Grading principles on the term paper:

100	Excellent paper overall Correct and pertinent use of semiotic terminology and concepts Ads chosen thoughtfully Whole thing hangs together well, i.e., reads like an essay and not a series of separate analyses of individual ads Good use of English and almost no errors in proofreading or editing Uses semiotic methodology to tell me something new that I didn't find obvious when I looked at the ads myself Gives all necessary source information
95	Good paper overall Correct and pertinent use of semiotic terminology and concepts Ads genuinely do illustrate the concepts you are discussing Decent cohesiveness of exposition No more than minor errors in language and proofreading Doesn't necessarily tell me anything new, but I nod in agreement while I read it Gives all necessary source information
90	Decent paper overall Some possible minor confusion in use of semiotic terminology and concepts, but generally done right Ads are pertinent to the topic Some effort to produce a cohesive exposition, but doesn't read completely like a fluid essay Significant but still tolerable errors in writing, proofreading, etc. Generally correct in assertions and conclusions, with some debatable points or unexplored ideas Gives all necessary source information
85	Acceptable paper overall Any confusion in use of semiotic terminology and concepts does not overwhelm the material used correctly Ads acceptable Transitions from one point to the next are jerky or absent altogether; reads like a series of separate homework answers rather than a single essay Errors in writing, proofreading, etc., start to get intrusive Majority of assertions and conclusions are okay, but some points are simply wrong or misused May be errors in necessary source information, or something may be missing for no apparent reason
80 and lower	Lower scores can be given due to additional degradation in the points I am looking at (enumerated above). No precise scale is possible, but I try to be fair

 

Here is some general information or discussion of how to go about doing an in-depth semiotic analysis.

1. "A semiotic analysis": what does that entail?
2. Two views:
   • Chandler's outline for approaching a text semiotically.
   • Arthur Asa Berger's systematic framework:
   1. Isolate and Analyze the important signs in your text:
      1. What are the important signifiers?
      2. What do they signify?
      3. Is there a system that unifies them?
      4. What codes can be found?
      5. Are ideological or sociological issues being addressed?
      6. How are they conveyed or hinted at?
   2. Identify the central structure, theme or model of the text:
      1. What forces are in opposition?
      2. What forces are teamed with each other?
      3. Do the oppositions or teams have psychological or sociological meaning? What are they?
   3. What is the narrative structure of the text?
      1. How does the sequential arrangement of events affect meaning? What changes in meaning would result if they were altered?
      2. Are there any "formulaic" aspects to the text?
   4. Does the medium being used affect the text? How?
      1. Use of shots, camera angles, editing, dissolves, and so on.
      2. Use of lighting, color, music, sound, special effects and so on.
      3. Paper quality, typefaces, graphics, colors and so on.
      4. How do the speaker's words, gestures and facial expressions affect meaning?
   5. How does the application of semiotic theory alter the original meaning you might have ascribed to the text?
3. A note on plagiarism
   • I hope I don't have to warn you: I have an extensive collection of on-line resources on the semiotic analysis of advertisements, and it would be dangerous for you to try to lift material from one without any attribution.
   • This course is based on you analyzing advertisements based on your own perceptions and intuitions, informed by some degree of awareness of how semiotics works. Research is not required. I really want to hear what you think about the ads you consider in your term paper.