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

Prompts

  • Define and identify the three types of messages that Barthes breaks down in the Panzani advertisement (linguistic, coded iconic, non-coded iconic).
  • How is the Panzani advertisement trying to persuade and influence the viewer?

Response

A linguistic message is the use of language to guide and send a clear message to various audiences depending on the context and purpose of that message. This can be communicated through various ways, whether physical or digital, but texts and words are the main symbols to send that message. Everything can be transmitted, from simple names that we associate with an object or element in common, to words or texts that express idealisms or cultural meanings that move away from everyday life and go beyond simple meaning.

Coded iconic are all those elements present in the image, that to understand we require cultural knowledge. This type of knowledge helps us to understand and decipher the different messages that are not textual or obvious. Why the use of these colors, objects, styles, actions, positions, etc? They are those elements in view of all, which are part of our general culture that act together to cause a feeling, emotion, message, etc.

The non-coded iconic message is literally that. Objects or elements that are there with a literal meaning, do not have hidden messages, do not join with other elements to decipher their message, and it is not necessary to have the extensive cultural knowledge to know what it is about. For example, if you see a bottle of sauce, well, that’s it, a bottle of sauce.

Panzani’s advertising seems to me that it uses coded iconic symbols to attract the audience. For starters, they are promoting a wide variety of pasta and Italian cheese parmesan. So you use red, white, and green colors to give it that Italian heritage and to make it look real. If you want pasta, it better be Italian. Also, the use of a red background and the elegant way of placing the products and other objects send a message that they are high-quality and possibly expensive products. All these different elements tell us that the result is a vast repertoire of Italian products that are rich, classy, and proud of their heritage.