Advertising and trompe l’oeil: Seduction and production of meanings

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between advertising and the trompe l’oeil technique. In order to identify the ways in which advertising uses this technique and to evaluate the potential of meanings added to advertising as well as to the products or brands, when associated with this technique, we make use of Baudrillard (1997, 2004) to deal with advertising and the trompe l’oeil. The question will also be posed after a semiotic analysis of an ad of shoes of the brand Christian Louboutin from the perspective of the semiotics or logic of Charles Sanders Peirce, which makes it possible to inventory the potential of meanings engendered by the ad through its qualitative, referential and symbolic aspects. This paper may be relevant to show how the look constructed with the technique of trompe l’oeil sets up an atmosphere of seduction, which is intensified with the referential and symbolic aspects of advertising as shown by the analysis.

Key words: Advertising, trompe l’oeil, seduction, production of meanings.