Measuring the luxurious in advertisements: On the popularization of the luxury perfume market
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Dimitri Mortelmans
Dimitri Mortelmans (b. 1972) is a professor at the University of Antwerp 〈dimitri.mortelmans@ua.ac.be〉. His research interests are in sociology. His publications include ``Repartnering and (re)employment: Strategies to cope with the economic consequences of partnership dissolution'' (with M. Jansen & L. Snoeckx, 2009); and ``Content versus style: Acquiescence in student evaluations of teaching?'' (with P. Spooren & P. Thijssen, 2011).
Abstract
This article looks at the different cultural codes that create the luxury sign value. Research data were gathered from a sample of 1,372 magazine ads taken from six magazines, comprising twelve product categories. We deal with only three products from this sample. The analysis focuses on the construction of perfume ads. Our main hypothesis is that the image of perfume as a luxury product is lowering. Until well into the 1960s, perfumes were exclusive luxury products. Since the 1970s, however, the perfume industry has developed explosively. The article examines the effect of this boom on the construction of the perfume sign value within advertisements. A comparison is made with ads of exclusive watches on one hand and household appliances on the other hand. The results confirm the devaluation hypothesis, showing a few luxury codes combined with advertising codes regularly found in advertisements for mass consumption products.
About the author
Dimitri Mortelmans (b. 1972) is a professor at the University of Antwerp 〈dimitri.mortelmans@ua.ac.be〉. His research interests are in sociology. His publications include ``Repartnering and (re)employment: Strategies to cope with the economic consequences of partnership dissolution'' (with M. Jansen & L. Snoeckx, 2009); and ``Content versus style: Acquiescence in student evaluations of teaching?'' (with P. Spooren & P. Thijssen, 2011).
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- A life for images: Homage to Omar Calabrese
- Semiotic entanglement: The concepts of environment, Umwelt, and Lebenswelt in semiotic perspective
- Passage à l'écrit et production du sensfictionnel : Deux cas du berbère
- The role of symbolism in adolescent gang membership: Results of a pilot study
- What can a philosophy and ethics of communication look like in the context of documentary filmmaking?
- Micropolitics: Signs of interpersonal hierarchy and solidarity in everyday conversation
- Boris Uspenskij and the semiotics of communication: An essay and an interview
- The (non-)random distribution of formational parameters in the established lexicon of Israeli Sign Language (ISL)
- Consumer satisfaction and confirmation of habits of comprehension: The effect of inductive print advertisements – Peircean comments
- Hegemonic signification from perspective of visual rhetoric
- Measuring the luxurious in advertisements: On the popularization of the luxury perfume market
- Environmental issues in unconventional social advertising: A semiotic perspective
- Jim and Bonnie's telephone conversation revisited: A meaning-based approach to talk in interactive events
- Political semiotics of national campaign posters and pictorial representation: Thailand's 2011 general elections
