Write a definition for yourself of denotative and connotative meaning. Explain in your own words why connotative meanings are important to advertisers. Explain how images can have connotative meanings as well as denotative.

Explain the denotative and connotative meanings of the following:

BOY

Now let’s look at some ads and their denotative and connotative meanings:

Where do connotative meanings come from? Why do people’s connotations differ widely when looking at the same word or image?

"An expensive ad represents the toil, attention, testing, wit, art, and skill of many people. Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials. Any expensive ad is as carefully built on the tested foundations of public stereotypes or 'sets' of established attitudes, as any skyscraper is built on bedrock." Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The extensions of man, 1964, New York: New American Library, Inc., p. 203.

‘the ad and the ego’ What do these words mean? Medium/media Ego Citizen Democracy “A democratic civilization will only save itself if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection – not an invitation for hypnosis.” Umberto Eco ‘the ad and the ego’