Where have all the children gone? A visual semiotic account of advertisements for fashion dolls

Bibliographic Data

ID12700625
AuthorsDanielle Barbosa Lins De Almeida (0000-0003-1472-6083, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, corresponding author), Danielle Almeida (Universidade Federal da Paraíba)
Year2009
Volume8
Issue4
Pages481-501
Publication date2009-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueVisual Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-3572 • E-ISSN: 1741-3214
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1470357209343374
OpenAlexW2083411198
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited2

Through features such as design, advertising images and marketing— language-produced texts, toys convey messages that reflect the cultural and social meanings of the world surrounding them. Taking advantage of the fact that many toys have become icons in the age of consumerism, this article attempts to reveal the structures of signification behind the visual discourse of advertisements for fashion dolls retrieved from the children’s toy website: www.mgae.com. Drawing on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design for the analysis of visual features in advertisements, the author examines the topics reflected by advertisements for fashion dolls, the roles they play and the type of relationship that is established between the participants involved. The analyses of the advertisements suggest that, in addition to fostering children’s sense of group identity, they also promote values such as positive self-fulfilment and fashion consumption

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Business · Consumerism · Consumption (sociology · Grammar · Identity (music · Linguistics · Political science · Semiotics · Sociology · Visual arts · Visual language · Digital Communication and Language · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Literacy, Media, and Education · Psychology

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