Dolce and Gabanna is letting the viewers make a LOT of meaning.

This week we read about how no matter what the sender tries to encode in his message, it's always what the receivers decode that actually counts. Think about how many times you have said something that you meant one way, but it was interpreted in a completely different way by the person you were talking to...that's communication in a nutshell. I am intrigued by these new Dolce and Gabanna fragrance ads that are ALL over NYC right now. I'm sure everyone has seen them, but in case you haven't, the picture is above. In most of the ads, there is usually a bottle of perfume or cologne at the bottom, but it must have gotten cut off in this picture.

Essentially, the ad is saying that if you buy our fragrance, you can look like, and have, any one of these beautiful people. It is probably the oldest trick in the advertising book, but it's so effective and yet so simple. What's particularly fascinating to me is the strategic way the models are arranged, and I think it's a way to appeal to the broadest audience. There is the heterosexual couple in the upper right corner, the two girls together in the bottom left, and the unpaired men in the bottom right and upper left corners. Are the men trying to get in on what's happening next to them, or do they actually desire each other? There is so much mystery in this picture, that the viewer can legitimately create any scenario that works for them. Also, if you look closely, it's pretty obvious that these models are photoshopped together from separate images and not all in the same place.