I went a bit of a different route for my advertisements you could say. Both are indeed advertisement, as covers to any magazine are an advertising foreshadow to what may come within it’s pages. Both advertisements are Incredibly similar despite both being made by different publishers and at different times and by different designers(albeit contents within both and established text on both are way different, the background is the same.. sort of). Both advertisements(covers) sport the same depressing character, a very depressed looking individual(presumably Kurt Cobain? I don’t know…who cares).
In the first one, by Newsweek, All colors are muted(gray scaled) allowing for ample attention to be acquired by the large white print and ‘areas of red’, such as the title and supporting features as I call them. You have a STRIKING(bold huh?) Suicide immediately facing you in big, bold letters. Coupling this with the very sad(depressing) background image, you have yourself a very literal meaning or a denotation. Being that the advertisement is very literal, I don’t think(at least I don’t think, maybe someone else does) it can be considered connotative(connotation).
While you could call it a ‘myth’ that all suicidal(or depressed) people have that same sad look on their face(just brainstorming here, I don’t know for sure whether they all carry this look), I’m sure not all do. I’m sure some hide it pretty well. The sign and the signified have a very clear and direct relationship here: Suicide(a definite Iconic word) being the signifier and The very depressing man in the Background being the Signified. Putting these two together is a definite sign. Also, the muted colors make for a much more “Sad”, dull look, really driving home the point.
In the advertisement by Rolling Stone, colors are similar to those of the first. You have very muted(depressing under circumstance) colors, while the relationship between the signifier and signified are greatly different from that of Newsweek. The signifier seems to be “Who is Kurt Cobain” so presumably the signified is Kurt Cobain. While the Newsweek advertisement is completely grayscale(minus the red and orange) this advertisement offers a bit more color to the figure in the background. Giving his eyes some slight color pulls the advertisement’s colors into a unity. While the first one certainly had a clear relationship between signifier and signified, making an “index”, this one is not as clear making it more of a symbol. This remains true as long as you don’t know who the figure is and assuming there is something else present it could mean(maybe you could call this an index too). Whether or not you could consider it an index or a symbol is debatable, but there is no doubt to the Iconic nature of the ad. That is because there is a very sure connection between the photo and what the photo represents(as with all photos).
Unlike the first ad., this one featured a greater portion of the photographed signified. This works well for this one with the given text, completely optimizing it. Same as before, the dark colors bring out the lighter(richer) colors, the whites and blues. The connection between the signified and signifier is both literal and not literal, depending on what it means individually. Meaning, if you don’t draw the connection it won’t be denotative. Where before you could see clear relationships in the first one where the character certainly looks depressed, maybe on the verge of suicide. These ads, as they are covers, are trying to sell you the magazines. Maybe the first one could draw in those interesting in reading up on suicide, or those contemplating suicidal action. Rolling stone is offering you the chance to enter the person of Kurt Cobain. Depending on who you are(as I don’t like reading magazines), these could be clever tools to inspire you to lay down the cost required to read into these magazines.
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