The construction of a semiotic analysis for any text must take into account certain presuppositions on the part of the viewer and of the producer of the text. One of these presuppositions is context. This is no different for a thirty second commercial spot for a new line of Breyer’s ice cream. All of the commercial’s syntagmatic elements can easily be understood when questions of why and how and even why not and how not are applied to the text. These simple and platonic questions can reveal a lot about the nature of the text’s system of signs.

Initially, the question of why this syntagm? must be asked. The answer, simply put, is to sell ice cream, specifically to the individual viewing the spot. The next question would then be how are they doing this? This is not a question of syntagm, but a question of paradigm. The choice of signs must be made carefully to represent the image that Breyer’s ice cream wishes to convey. In the case of this commercial, only a paradigm with a “positive connotation” can be applied to the commercial’s semiotic clockwork. Seemingly, Breyer’s has chosen an “innocent/healthy” paradigm. This is reinforced by the ice cream being of a “light” brand and the constant presence of women and children in the spot. This is also reinforced by what the commercial is not doing. The commercial is not using sex (only one example of what it is not doing) to sell ice cream. Even if the viewer becomes intrinsically aware that they are being sold an “innocent/healthy” ideology, they cannot deny the fact that they are not being sold a sexual ideology.

Taking these facts into consideration, the analytic semiotic breakdown becomes clearer. The issue of the signifier becomes nothing more than identifying the signs or system of signs that denotes the given signified (in this case: female, blonde and twins). The secondary signified, or the connotation, then becomes a matter of placing the first signified within the context of the understood paradigm discussed above. While a denotation of “female” could in other circumstances connote sex, this paradigm is simply not allowed within the present context of Breyer’s syntagm. The female nurtures and represents a kind of natural, Eden-esque beauty. In the same way, “blonde” comes to represent health and physical beauty, but not directly in a sexual fashion. The idea of “twins” comes with thoughts of conformity to this previously understood health and innocence.

Understanding the presuppositions of both the viewer and the producer of the text allows for a clearer understanding of the semiotics at play.

Breyers ice cream creates an atmosphere of a wholesome small town for its commercial. They want people to think of their ice cream as old-fashioned and so they use signs to create a feeling of small town America, where things are simple. In the commercial, the headshots of women have a background of green. This sets the women in a garden or park. At times, nice patio furniture is in the frame with the women. This suggests not only country but also not the city, not the ghetto, and not foreign. There are five shots of women eating the ice cream throughout the spot, suggesting nature, and an intended audience for the commercial—boasting half the fat for their ice cream. As the voice over points out that the ice cream is only half the fat, a shot of a woman stretching on her porch appears on the screen. As the Breyers people see it, women are more interested in watching their weight than men and so is their intended audience.

One woman is African American. Being among all the white females of the spot, her headshot stands out as a required diversity attempt. But even she is dressed in white and surrounded by green. Hometown America is traditionally thought of as white. When ethnicity appears, one thinks of the diversity of cities and the different neighborhoods of cities (little Italy, the projects, Chinatown, etc.). In all of the shots there is a sense of leisure. The cow in the pasture shot is lazily grazing. The churn is shown several times. To churn ice cream one must have leisure time. The shot of the double Ferris Wheel suggests a county fair and leisure. Whiteness suggests the privileged classes who have time and money. Whiteness and the country suggest lazy summer days with not a care in the world. This explains the absence of the city, which suggests business, movement and struggle. It also explains the absence of minority groups that also suggest struggle. Breyers needs the carefree lazy atmosphere of hometown America.

Whiteness or blondness also represents purity, quality and cleanliness. Breyers makes ice cream that comes in many flavors, yet they only show vanilla, along with the vast amounts of cream that go into the ice cream, all of which reinforce blondness. Because Breyers new ice cream is called double churned, they take all of these subtle atmospheric qualities and double them. The Ferris Wheel is a double Ferris Wheel. There are two rainbows in the sky of the field where the cow grazes. There are two little girls with blond hair, dressed in white eating and loving their vanilla ice cream. These images contain all the connotations of the other images but "times two." Double churned ice cream is doubly good, just as two rainbows are naturally wonderful and amazing and twin blond girls are doubly white, happy, and carefree. The novelty of twins suggests Breyers ice cream has a taste that will delight the taste buds, because it is double. Bryers ice cream is quality, natural, white, peaceful, smooth and creamy, with half the fat, and doubly so.

With a cheerful and wholesome-sounding trumpet synth I discovered myself in a fantastical, carefree world revolving around ice cream and women! The spot’s first shot, of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman wondrously looking to the heavens as she samples her first bite of vanilla ice cream, launches the viewer into the woman’s thoughts, as images whirl. While the ice cream-eating could be occurring during a lazy Saturday, the absence of any men in the spot’s world gives indication that this is a weekday with all the men off working hard—presumably to bring home more ice cream. The image of a woman at home, alone, on a weekday reinforces various connotations. Her upward glance gives the viewer a sense of her insightfulness. This, coupled with her pleasant reaction to the ice cream gives a feeling of intuitiveness on her part. At first bite she seems to know that the whole bowl is filled with an amazing ice cream.

There is also a notion of domesticity that follows the commercial. If the women portrayed are home alone during the daytime they must be minding the household, cleaning and cooking. This connotation may be considered politically incorrect by some but one must consider that this spot probably aired during the daytime, when the majority of television are female.

The first woman in the Breyers spot is blonde. Random selection? Doubtful. If no detail in a film is an accident, then certainly no detail in a thirty second television advertisement can be random. The image of a blonde woman is sure to bring some ideas to mind. One connotation is purity. Blondes have always held lofty positions as beautiful creatures. While not every blonde can be considered “pure,” the notion accompanies the feeling of beauty, perhaps harkening back to some angelic quality blondes were considered to have.

The commercial’s third signifier, the twins, also carries several connotations. Immediately thoughts of matching and mischievous pranks spring to mind, but those thoughts are quickly dispatched by the image of young, blonde girls. As mentioned with the blonde signifier, their hair color leads to a notion of purity but this notion is emphasized and amped up by their matching white dresses. They frolic in nature, smiling and enjoying their Breyers. The imagery leads to a sense of serenity and happiness, a sense of ease associated with childhood.

Who knew so much could be associated with such quick and seemingly insignificant imagery? Those tricky folks at Breyers sure know how to market their wholesome image…and make me want a pint of ice cream..

Selling “Breyers-ness,” this Breyers Light Double Churn ice cream commercial hits its target audience directly where it aims. Clearly, the creative executives behind this work of advertisement mastery have studied extensively—or at least could study extensively—the art and effectiveness of semiotics. Commercials that last for a mere 30 seconds have to get it right in order to make an impression on a viewer in such a small period of time. Therefore, commercial directors have to use the analysis in semiotics to break down every sign they intend to use bit by bit.

For example, the writers of this Breyers spot chose to use all females for the characters enjoying their ice cream. What does that mean? The scene opens with a woman taking a slow, savory bite of presumably Double Churn Vanilla. This is maybe 3 seconds long. Instantly, audiences see short, curly, red hair on a woman with little-to-no makeup on, appearing as though she is as fresh and clean as the ice cream she is eating. The women to follow also go makeup-free, in part because they are alone, outside, or just too young. Some of them are stretching, some are smiling—and all have nice, healthy, slender bodies, no doubt a direct result from eating only Breyers Light ice cream. So why women? Perhaps in part due to the cliché in our culture that women eat ice cream when they are alone after being dumped. But in this instance, it is even more than that. “Female” connotes comfort, support, and beauty—qualities you can embrace yourself if you choose Breyers.

Furthermore, the signified “blonde” is also precisely intended for use in this commercial. It is notable that the young girls, like the ice cream, are blonde. The concept of “blonde” connotes simplicity, light-ness, carefree-ness, happiness, airy-ness, and even sweetness. Therefore, the pale, light hues of blonde used here imply that Breyers Light Double Churn ice cream is simple (free from complex ingredients), light (not too fattening), carefree (not unhealthy), happy (making the break-up hurt just a little bit less), airy (perhaps giving you a high feeling) and sweet (which is why you turn to ice cream in the first place).

But why the two matching-clothes wearing, identical young girls, each with two braids in their hair? Could it be so simple as to represent “double-the-goodness” of Double Churn ice cream? Quite simply, yes. Besides the Doublemint gum jingle that rings in our heads (“double your pleasure, double your fun!”), the idea of twins brings to mind abundance, having extra, and repetition. Thus, Double Churn ice cream is a product that, because it’s double, you have an abundance/extra/twice as much to enjoy—whether or not that is actually true.

It appears that 30 seconds is in fact plenty of time to sell a product—thanks to the abundance of connotations our culture has evolved over the centuries.

In Breyers' commercial for their “New Double Churned Ice-Cream”, a very precise ambiance is produced in order to affect consumers in a certain way. This ambiance is that of a home-like goodness that can usually be associated with homemade ice cream. Many signs are used to produce this ambiance—from a cow beneath two rainbows to a bucket of cream—all of which can connotatively be connected to the feeling of homey-ness. Three important signs in the commercial—female, blonde, and twins—are of heightened importance because of their connotative values.

A female is presented in one of the first shots in this commercial eating a spoonful of Breyers ice-cream. This is significant not because of what is happening but because of how it is presented. To most people in American culture, a female represents motherhood; and likewise—to most—motherhood is associated with a home-like feeling. This “homey goodness” is exactly what Breyers wants consumers to associate their product with. By having only females in the commercial, Breyer’s ensures that the message will be accepted by most viewers. Were the opening shots of a male eating ice cream, the connotative value of the commercial would have changed greatly. Males generally are not associated with the home-sweet-home goodness that Breyers is conveying in this commercial. Males are generally associated with commercialization and industrialization in American culture whereas females are still (regardless of the fact that they are seen more frequently in large commercial industry) connected with the connotative values of home-makers. Had a male been presented in the commercial in place of a female, the message would have still been conveyed to viewers, but the effect would have not been as profound.

It is also important to point out that since Breyer’s New Double Churned Ice-Cream has half the fat of regular Breyer’s ice cream, women are the consumers who are more likely to purchase it because of the huge diet wave that has just hit America. Women are more likely to purchase the low fat ice cream in the supermarket in a feeble attempt to save their waistline, whereas most men are less concerned with the number of grams of fat in their bowl of ice cream.

Another important sign in the commercial is blonde. Blonde is a word that has never-ending connotative value in American culture especially since the rise of the “valley-girl” in the early nineties and the insistence upon the overuse of bleach in the hair industry in today’s culture. However, Breyer’s focuses more on the other side of blonde in their commercial, trying to promote an innocence through blondeness, rather than a feeling of ignorance. Viewers take the sign “blonde” in this commercial as a representation of innocence and a child-like quality because of the signs that surround it. Were the images of cows in pastures, state-fair rides, and back yards full of trees replaced with images of Beverly Hills, the connotative values of “blonde” in the commercial would have completely changed.

One of the most important signs in the commercial was the shot of the twins, where each little girl is dressed in white with her blonde hair pulled back, eating Breyers ice cream in a tree-filled enclosure. This is one of the most important shots in the commercial because when it is shown, the narrator has just said “…and double the smiles with Breyers new Double Churned Ice Cream”. The best way to get across the message of double-anything is to use twins. This has been proved by their use in commercials since the introduction of the Wrigley’s twins in early advertising campaigns. Not only do the twins in this shot represent the double churned ice cream, but also reinforce the home-like feeling by the way that they are dressed and their surroundings when they are shown. White apron-like dresses are almost always associated with life on the farm, especially in the movies or on television because the mother on the farm always has on a white apron.

Though all of the individual signs in the commercial are important, it is necessary to note that none of the signs would have the same connotative value without the presence of the other signs surrounding them in the commercial. Though it is clear that Breyers is trying to promote a home-like feeling with their commercial, it is also possible to say that it is not necessarily a home-like feeling that they are selling, but rather the feeling of Breyers-ness. Were the American consumer to look at a cow in a pasture and think of the Breyers commercial rather than grandmother’s house; then the commercial has clearly done its job.

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Last update: 1/22/2005