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. People touch and understand the world through their senses. In addition to the language information received from the voice, the second channel for receiving information is the way seen by the eyes, which is vision. Image and type are the media for people to receive visual information. The content displayed in the image can be called Sign. When people can easily identify the things and meanings in the pictures, this is called signified. Because people see those pictures, they can automatically recognize the information in their minds. The first thing that gets to mind is the red background, spaghetti, cheese, and tomato. In terms of color, red background, green logo, and white net. These colors give the impression of Italy because the Italian flag is green, white, and red. Therefore, it is easy to mistake this spaghetti brand for Italian, and also think Panzani is a word from Italian. In fact, the name of this brand comes from French, and the brand also belongs to French. So why are their ads designed like this? The reason is that brands want to express that their spaghetti tastes pure and authentic. Although it is made in France, it tastes absolutely Italian. With the tomato beside, customers can easily associate a pasta dish—the classic tomato spaghetti. The cheese and mushroom, that is white sauce mushroom spaghetti, which is also a classic spaghetti practice. In the poster, there are some vegetables under the spaghetti. In addition to implying other practices of spaghetti, it also expresses that the raw materials of spaghetti are fresh. These elements are deepening people’s impression and gain customers’ favor. So people will accept and trust this brand and buy Panzani’s spaghetti.