In-Lecture Exercise C

 

Signifier

A series of chopped up tomatoes stacked together in the shape of a ketchup bottle, along with a caption below.

Signified

By showing actual tomatoes in the form of a ketchup bottle, the advertisement suggests to viewers that Heinz ketchup is so fresh that despite the time taken in between picking tomatoes to processing them to make ketchup, before finally reaching customers, their ketchup is still as fresh as newly chopped tomatoes. 

It is also noteworthy that the tomato slices are not stacked perfectly. This gives them a sense of "realism", which could also highlight the naturalness of tomatoes used by Heinz.

Additionally, another way to interpret this advertisement could be that not only are the tomatoes fresh, Heinz is also responsible for growing the tomatoes used in their ketchups (since the tomatoes are labeled with "Heinz" stickers as opposed to being generic tomatoes).

The caption, “No One Grows Ketchup like Heinz” complements the image above, driving home the fact that Heinz ketchup is extremely fresh.

Finally, this is also an unconventional way to advertise ketchup - most advertisements would simply show an image of a bottle or at the most, ketchup along with a dish (e.g. fries/chicken). Heinz' way of communicating their products' qualities definitely catches one's attention as well.