Rhetoric of the Sopranos

When creating an advertisement it is important to consider the images being used. In his essay, Barthes discusses the power an image whether it be a drawing or a photograph. This knowledge can be used to examine any type of advertisement. One example an image used to advertise the series finale of the the television show The Sopranos.

One quote that stands in my mind in relation to the advertisement is "The type of conciousness the photograph involves is indeed truly unprecedented, since it establishes not a conciousness of the being there of the thing (which any copy could provoke) but an awareness of haing been-there." This statement is especially relevent when it omes to this image. Looking at it, you understand that you are not experiencing the event, but rather the viewing of the image is the event. Since it is an advertisement for a television show it is all about seeing what is not actually happening, but feeling a connection to it nevertheless.

Also the statement "Does the information duplicate certain of the informations given in the text by a phenomenon of redundancy or does the text add fresh information to the image?" is very intereseting in relation to this image. One of the most prominent images whithing the image is that of the Statue of Liberty. Just above Lady Liberty are the words "Made in Amerca." One may believe that this is a show of patriotism. The only issue is that despite being an American icon, the Statue of Liberty was built in France. I have never seen an episode of The Sopranos so I cannot fully understand why the caption was there, but it gave it's own meaning to me. I felt that it was trying to say that like the Statue of Liberty, it is not as all American as it would appear.

A third quote which interested me was "the photograph is not the last (improved) term of the great family of images; it corresponds to a decicive mutation of informational economies." This particualarly struck me becasue It discussed how there is so much more story to a film that a photograph. A photograph simply tells the story of something that happened in one moment in time. A film spans both time and place. The interesting thing about the image we are examining is that it is an photograph which is advertising a television show which has the same properties of a film. By showing this one moment it is compelling people to watch the show and see all the other moments.