Everything portrayed by any form of media usually uses Semiotics in order for the viewer to relate to the subject in one form or another. This approach works very well with advertisments across the media spectrum, as it is what separates the market in general into different target audiences due to the different relationships that each member of the audience to the product shares with the subjects included within the advertisments.
Ray ban want to portray themselves as retro and out side of the box, which they obviously want to achieve as their unique selling point to ever- so-large market of sunglasses cunsumors.
The semiotics picked out from this image are as follow:
1) Being "Outside of the Box".
As their unique selling point is aimed at those "wild oats" lurking out there, looking for those glasses that will see them easily obtain that rock 'n' roll image shown, the advert ovbiosly had to promote this image through firsty, its content.
Somehow, within the chaos that floats around the primary optical point of the image, a passionate kiss is shared between a very late sixties looking couple within the mist of madness of a riot which is situated around them.
The couple are composed within the very middle of the image, and as the riot seems to be separated around them, your eye as a viewer is directed straight towards that moment of absoloute magic, the kind of fairytale kiss every girl is told is the "dream kiss" from a young age through Disney princess' and knights in shining armour, who is this case has slayed a dragon in a pair of Ray Bans.
This works towards two audiences now; Men and Women.
Men that see this image will believe the glasses show them to have caught the Ray Ban look of being "outside of the box", carefree, confident and thriving with passion. Women will look at this ad and see there post modern knight, (who most of the time will be a little more disappointing than the hunk in the advert) or themselves wanting to obtain that different look.
2) Retrospective Era
Looking away from the content of the photograph, the physicallity of the image is old, tattered and grainy. The photograph is shot on colour film, which was introduced to the public in the late 60's by Kodak, and the fashion sense within the picture is very much late sixties-esque.
The fact that it is shot on film, allowing all of the film grain, motion blur, and texture to thrive supports the retro look. It makes the image a lot more personal also due to the extra post production time needed in developing the film and printing the image. Furthermore, I believe the grain obtains more beauty than any modern ISO changing Digital SLR cameras could capture. If this image was taken on a Canon 7D, it would have a completly different feeling to the image and a lot of the retro look about the picture would've been lost, as well as most of it's beauty.
3) Typography
NEVER HIDE -
This is situated in the bottom right corner of the picture, which is the darkest part of the image therefore the last place on the photograph that your eyes will look at. After you've seen what they want you to see, they brand you with the Ray Ban burn..... NEVER HIDE.
There is nearly a complete absense of language in this photograph but it says so much through semiotics, because everything has a story behind it.
The only thing you'll be sad to know about this picture is that it was staged, but a consolation is that it was inspired by a real photograph taken by photojournalist Rich Lam during the Vancouver riots in June 2011.
References:
2) http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/ray-ban-sunglasses-kiss-15075455/resizes/2000/ - ray ban advert picture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/17/vancouver-riot-kiss-photograph-mystery - vancouver kiss picture
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