Advertising has a variety of different codes and conventions, which are regularly used to create meaning. This meaning is what makes avdertising successful, by making customers and consumers respond to it.
Media construct their own mediated reality in advertising texts, through the use of recognised codes and conventions, which is credited by the degree to which an audience can identify the texts meaning which is being portrayed. This connotes that a successful advert is made up of conventions can relate to other adverts, making these rules conventional. For a mass audience to connect with an advert to ultimately make the product sell, it needs to be trusted, needs to be interacted with which is all aided by its codes and conventions.
There are three categories of codes used to convey meanings in media. These are:
Technical Codes - these include camera techniques, framing depth of field, lighting and exposure and juxtapostion.
Symbolic Codes - these codes refer to objects in the adverts, setting, body language of characters or protagonists, clothing and colours used.
Written Codes - These refer to headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language syle.
The term "code" means a communication system which contains elements which have an agreed meaning and which can be combined according to agreed rules.
A code must consist of:
- signs which carry meaning
- agreed rules for combining those signs together
I came across this information via http://www.sssc.vic.edu.au/dpd/Code%20and%20conventions%20in%20Media%20Texts.pdf which has helped me to understand the meaning of codes and conventions.
When I come into my planning stage of my production I can refer back to this information to ensure common codes and conventions are included in my own advertisements.
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