“Nothing in Advertising is There By Accident”

If there was one thing that shocked me the most out of all the things we were shown in class it was the “Madonna On Top” video. Lipton asked us to come up with a theme or a saying for the commercial and the only one’s I could think of were, “wear gap jeans” or “Be a celebrity like Madonna and Missy and buy from the Gap.” I would never think of something like “Madonna’s on Top.” For one thing, I didn’t even see the racism in the clip; it didn’t even occur to me that that was a feature in the commercial.

I thought it was really interesting when Lipton started pointing out the individual, little things that proved his thesis; like the chain on the left side of her jeans or how she was looking over the left side of her shoulder or how the scenery painting was painted when it went behind her but they showed the back of it when they carried it behind Missy. I thought it was particularly meaningful when Lipton pointed out how the director filmed her head and shoulders and how that was a dominant, commanding shot, verses how they shot Missy from the knees up. I also found it interesting how they showed Missy almost creeping out from her stage door with the M on it, compared to how they introduced Madonna in a positive way right from the start.

I have always been one that is interested in the secret meanings behind things, and this analysis of the commercial had me captivated. I think it’s so, so interesting how advertisements work and are organized and every little thing is thought out. I’ve never really thought about it, how nothing is there by accident, how if I see a particularly unattractive person selling something, it’s that way for a reason. I love how I’ll be watching a commercial and not even think that the people in them are actors, just because they fit their role so well. It doesn’t even occur to me that someone sat there and planned where the vase of flowers would sit or picked out the color the mother is wearing or what pictures would be hanging on the wall or anything like that.

This introduction to semiotics made me look forward to the essay I was writing, because I knew that I would be interested in what I was writing about. I couldn’t get over the fact that the commercial was racist. Because the world that I live in personally is so devoid of racism, I couldn’t believe that a company would make a commercial with it so plainly obvious. Only, it wasn’t so obvious, I even admitted that I didn’t even think of racism when I watched it. Perhaps that is just the way I was brought up to think though. Would someone else with different beliefs see it right away? Was it really racism or was the commercial just geared towards making Madonna on top? What if she were paired with someone else, someone white? The commercial could be exactly the same, and Madonna would still come out “on top.”