The Heinz advertisement, http://www.hemmy.net/2007/05/27/without-heinz-creative-advertisement/, is a very good example of how semiotics, the study of signs, uses images to create a certain meaning. According to the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, signs are composed of a signifier and a signified. In the Heinz example, the advertisement shows a few pictures of different meals that are made out of cardboard and look very bland because they do not contain Heinz Ketchup. These images are actually the signifier. The viewer is supposed to consume these images and think that food is very bland and tasteless, almost like cardboard, without Heinz ketchup (not any ketchup, Heinz ketchup). Here, cardboard is not used for its literal meaning, that you will actually be eating cardboard. It is actually used to represent or connotate the lack of flavor that is in the food without the ketchup. The creators even use breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals to show that all foods will not be as good without the ketchup. This concept that is created in our minds is the signifier because it is the message we make out from looking at the images. The signifier and the signified make up a sign that communicates to us or actually lies to us. We all know that eating our french fries without ketchup will not taste like cardboard!
