I believe this is an icon because according to Discourses in Place, an icon is, “a picture of the thing in the world.” In the AT&T advertising campaign “More Bars in More Places” they take pictures of random objects that physically resemble the bars one would find on a cell phone. At the same time I felt this ad was also a symbol because the other pamphlets had different objects from different areas all over the world. This would convey the message meaning if you get a plan with AT&T you would have signal bars where ever you go.
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February 3, 2010 at 9:17 pm |
I agree with your analysis completely. I would definitely agree that this is an icon, because the buildings lined up in the photo resemble the bars on your cell phone. I liked how you also went further and labeled this as a symbol. At first I didn’t see it, but it does make a lot of sense. For most Americans, seeing objects lined up in bars means AT&T to us, although it is pretty arbitrary. Someone in another country might not know what this resembles.
February 3, 2010 at 11:19 pm |
I agree that this is an icon because it is resembling something physical in the world. it isn’t pointing at something so it would not be an index. I don’t necessarily think that it is a symbol because i don’t think it has a deeper more significant meaning to it.
February 4, 2010 at 12:25 am |
there are a number of symbols in this image, as well as icons. Some symbols i would like to point out would be the at&t logo which is the blue sphere. this definitely is an arbitrary symbol that represents the company. The way the buildings are shaped is also an example of a symbol because we are supposed to associate this with cell phone coverage. Also the saying we’ve got you covered is a symbol because we are supposed to associate the term covered with cell phone coverage.