A Study on the Expression Strategy of Femininity in Hair Product Advertisement: Focused on Roland Barthes’s Smiotics

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze what kind of femininity was strategically used to emphasize the functions of a product in advertisements for hair care products. Semiotics based on Roland Barthes s Mythical Semantic Analysis Framework was used to see how the strategic use of language and visual signs in the advertisement appear by selecting four shampoo or essence TV commercials that use a female model. The analysis results are as follows. First, in hair care product advertisements, both metaphorical language and visual signifiers are used to express the state of hair before using the product. Second, it showed the advertisements used various visual signifiers to depict the functionality of the product. Third, in hair care product advertisements, the characteristics of using femininity were used to emphasize the effects of the product. Hair product advertisements were found to effectively apply femininity to match the function of the product, and it was found to represent desires and elicit identification through an emotional connection with women.