Social Semiotic Analysis of Women Portrayed in Pakistani Television Advertisements

Abstract

Consumers are exposed to a wide range of advertisements on a daily basis. These advertisements can be found in a variety of media technologies, including radio, television, print (such as magazines and newspapers), billboards, and cinema. This research examined on the Portrayal of women in electronic media advertisements in Pakistan. Advertising now reaches far more people than it used to with traditional media since it has major presence in new digital media which has also transformed immensely in recent time. Semiotic analysis was used as a study tool to investigate how advertising gender builds different meanings and beliefs in a culture. Adverts from various Pakistani TV stations and newspapers were chosen as samples for this study. These commercials were chosen because they showed women in a particular way. These advertisements deliver and utilize a wide range of meaning, symbols and messages also called semiotics in their advertisements. Importantly, lot of signs and symbols surrounds large part of any individual, however, the way they comprehend these signs, symbols and meaning differ from one to other individual. Barthian semiotic analysis on the denotative and connotative levels of significance was used for the analysis. The study's findings showed that ads in Pakistan place a strong emphasis on women's bodies and outward looks.