Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising (Open Forum)

As a professional copywriter and senior lecturer in advertising, I cannot believe that this turgid treatise is still being touted as some seminal work that offers insights into how professional advertising works. Pseudo-academic, pretentiously obscure (perhaps to obscure its confused thinking?), and terribly dated (written by a young Marxist back in 1978 as her university dissertation and never revised since). Do yourself a favour and read something more relevant and entertaining, unless you want to become another dull Media Theory lecturer rambling on about Structuralism and Semiotics and in thrall to French linguistic philosophers whose clouded vision presumably resulted from smoking all those Gauloises.

Decoding Advertisements must be a the top of your reading list if you are studying either the media or photography from A level to Degree. A thought provoking book which will make you question how we are manipulated by the media and the advertising industry - you will never view a photograph in the same way again.

Decoding Advertisements is a witty, clever, and accessible introduction to the pernicious world of advertising. Judith Williamson writes for a general audience, and has loads of interesting insights to offer into the ways in which advertisements shape our thinking and personalities. This book is a must for anyone who has ever wondered what advertisements are _really_ selling.

Kent Worcester