“Rhetoric of Images”

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

Response

The ad is trying to convince and entice the viewers by portraying the product as more natural than it may be by using natural foods in the ad. By doing this, it helps them to promote both their noodles and their other related products which I found very intriguing considering that it puts them in a unique position of power when it comes to convenience. The linguisitic message is that the product is from italy or somewhere where the language used is from. The red colored background is very effective for some reason, maybe related to the overwhelming feeling of the red and the striking presence of a tomato when compared to the color of the packaging.

The netting used to hold everything is related to how natural foods that are prepped to for transport sometimes look. The typography is serif and can be characteristic or indicative of something important in regards to the advertisement. The story of how natural foods make these products and meals is portrayed through this advertisement. Literally, the origin and inspiraton behind the advertisement is shown, backed by the use of serif typeface and color choice that very closely mimics that of the tomato and looks similar to other food advertisements/paintings.