September 2nd, 2020 
Write a 500-word (or two-page) essay to analyze a work of art of your choosing, based on the following prompt.
Prompt: Describe and analyze the formal devices at work in an advertisement of your choosing (may be visual or time-based/audio-visual) and connect them to semiotic reading of the piece. Think of the formal choices as signs that contribute to the way in which the ad creates meaning. Utilize the concepts explored in Ch. 1 of Practices of Looking and Rhetoric of the Image by Roland Barthes. What are the layers of meaning-making signs in this artifact? What is the denotation and connotation? Identify and analyze the use of signifier and signified. Evaluate whether your interpretation of the image changes after a detailed formalist and semiotic analysis.
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