Roland Barthes’ “Rhetoric of the Image“ essay from Image – Music – Text, Translated by Stephen Heath. Hill and Wang, 1977. (excerpt)

Images hold and convey meaning. Human minds have a tendency to believe what we perceive. In this advertising poster, we see spaghetti, cheese, and tomatoes on a red background, which reminds us of Italy because of the colors utilized. The Pamzani text is white, while the background is green, as well as the packet is green, red, and white, which are the colors of the Italian flag. Since not everyone speaks Italian, we think the name Panzani is Italian.It is actually a french brand, thus the advertising agency is playing a smart move. When we think of spaghetti, we usually think of Italy, and the colors make us think of Italy as well in the poster, but it’s actually French, and the name of the brand is also French. They made it on purpose to get our attention since everyone wants authentic food, and since spaghetti is from Italy, people would want to buy this because it looks Italian.