Code-X (58)
By:
April 11, 2015
Call this feminine skincare code: Moisturized Mermaid.
Definition: Women depicted as deeply — existentially — anxious to avoid dry skin. Like a mermaid, who is in danger of dying if she goes too long without moisturization.
Notes on this code: Color schemes tend to be aquatic: soothing pastels, light blues and greens. Occasionally, as in the Olay ad here, the mermaid metaphor is overt.
MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco