A Tiny Realisation

After writing few blog posts about denotations, connotations and myth, I have realised connotation is different. Different culture tends to understand signs and meanings differently. 

For example the colour of Red.

The Chinese culture and the Western culture seems to connote different meaning for Red. For Chinese red represents happiness and joy. Besides that, Chinese often use red because it brings good luck to them. As for the Westerners, red includes anger, aggressive, violent and some other negative meanings. Although red is just a colour, however it brings different meaning to different cultures.

Same goes to the three commercials that I've chosen to discuss. If each of the commercial did not put on air during the festive season, we might interprete the commercials differently. The festive seasons will act as signs for different culture to interprete it. We Malaysians has different races and each of us understands each other's festive seasons. We understand during those days we will have our reunion with our family to celebrate the festive season. Therefore, by airing the commercial during the festive seasons such as Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and Hari Deepavali, we will understand the connotation brought by the commercial as reunion and appreciation of our family. However, if the commercials are broadcasted during a normal day, they will convey a different message to us.



Gehrmann, V. 2013. Symbolism of Colours - Chinese Customs. [online] Available at: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Chinese_Customs/colours.htm [Accessed: 1 Aug 2013].

Incredibleart.org. 1994. Symbolism of Color: Using Color for Meaning. [online] Available at: http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm [Accessed: 1 Aug 2013].

Nobody's child

This post will dissect the 2008 Petronas Chinese New Year commercial by using denotation, connotation and myth. Based on my understanding of the commercial, the denotation, connotation and myth of the commercial are interpreted as the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqDdhloTLM4

Denotation: The denotation of this commercial starts with a primary school boy who attended his drawing class. In that class, students are required to draw a piece of drawing based on their understanding of the title of "Reunion Dinner". During the class, while every students are busy drawing their own "Reunion Dinner", Tan Thiam Hock is doing nothing and wandering around ended up getting yelled at by the teacher. In the end, when the school hour has ended, everyone went home with their family happily. Later that, Thiam Hock sat down at the bus stop for quite some time and in the end an Indian lady came to pick him up. He gave the Indian lady a hug and they both walk back to an orphanage.

Connotation: The connotation for this commercial is to tell the audiences Tan Thiam Hock do not have a family, therefore he did not know how does a family reunion dinner looks like. He could not imagine/ illustrate the situation of a "Reunion Dinner", so he could not draw it out and ended up wandering around in the class.

Wings of a Man

This post will dissect the 2008 Petronas Hari Deepavali commercial by using denotation, connotation and myth. Based on my understanding of the commercial, the denotation, connotation and myth of the commercial are interpreted as the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znUqBcL4Nv8

Denotation: The commercial starts with an Indian man who works as a cleaner in an aeronautics training academy. His son Mahesh as a small child wants an aeroplane which caused him to work hard in order to succeed his son's dream by buying books for him to study. After time passes, Mahesh grown into a young adult. He was given confidence by a dad of his friend. However his dad is still working hard and don't allow his son to pick him up earlier. Years go by, Mahesh father has passed away but Mahesh has succeeded his dream to be a pilot with the help of his father.

Connotation: They connotes message of how great a father can be, how much he had sacrifice and worked hard even though just as a cleaner in order to succeed his son's dream. They also showed as a son/daughter, we probably would not notice what our parents have done behind in order to help us to success in our life. Parents are the greatest in our life.

Mak Ok Tak

This post will dissect the 2008 Petronas Hari Raya Aidilfitri commercial by using denotation, connotation and myth. Based on my understanding of the commercial, the denotation, connotation and myth of the commercial are interpreted as the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgaC8Wcj5os

Denotation: The commercial starts with a young man named Man who just came back to his home from other state (Pahang) to celebrate Hari Raya with his mother. However, right after he greets his mother, there isn't much conversation going on between him and his mother. Then he wanted to continue on his work project but there's no internet at home. Later that night, his mum cooked his favourite dish for him but Man leaves the house before eating his dinner to use the internet in order to finish his work. While Man is doing his work in a hotel, he met an uncle who stays at the hotel waiting for his son to be discharged from the hospital after having an operation. The uncle then tells how worried he is when he couldn't see and hear from his son. After that small conversation, Man decided to go home to accompany his mother.

Connotation: This commercial connotation is about the realisation of the words said by the old man by Man. Every words said by the old man suddenly caused Man to realise it reflects similarly to what his mother would felt while he was outstation working, worried and uneasy. And yet Man is still doing the same thing even though he is back at home - making his mother, whom he had just meet just a while ago worrying about him leaving to the town and continues working.

Denotation, Connotation and Myth

After having tutorial session with my tutor, he gave me feedback on the advertisements I've chose, they are more suitable to be dissected and analysed by using the deno, conno and myth. Therefore, in this post I will discuss about the meaning of these three keywords.

Denotation is defined as the surface, the more obvious meaning of the context. Denotation are usually the first layer of understanding of the audiences. It is more descriptive and is interpreted on what we see.

Connotation is defined as a second layer of meaning of the context. A layer which tells the meaning behind the context and it is much related to socio-culture as for different culture might have different interpretation on the context itself. It is based on the understanding of the context rather than what we see on the surface.

Myth is being defined to signifies meaning in a broader way. The third layer of meaning, a layer which tells the problem/meaning of the reasons of the connotation. It has to thought in a further way to understand what it signifies.

Here's an example of the denotation, connotation and myth.

Denotation: A lung-shaped forest is being destroyed.

Connotation: Non-stop deforestration will cause pollution which will  cause harm to our respriratory system. Therefore, we must stop deforestration in order to have healthy air and clean environment.

Myth: Humans creates pollution and sacrifices their own health in the exchange of wealth.

redd-monitor.org. 2008. Conservation International shock advert adds to confusion about REDD. [online] Available at: http://www.redd-monitor.org/2008/10/25/conservation-international-shock-advert-adds-to-confusion-about-redd/ [Accessed: 23 July 2013].

Users.aber.ac.uk. n.d.. Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth. [online] Available at: http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/S4B/sem06.html [Accessed: 25 July 2013].

Petronas's 2008 Print Advertisements

Media language is the message told through a different medium, be it television, radio or the internet. Media language usually convey the message/ meaning through signs and symbols. However, there are different media languages, just the same as humans we have different language and also different dialect too.

Therefore in the essay besides discussing about different language as in background of different races and culture, I will also do a comparison on two different media language on the same advertisements - the film/commercial language vs the advertisement language

Although 3 of these advertisement is the from the same commercial from what I've posted in the previous posts, however they show different signs, symbols and message. In the coming posts I will discuss about the comparison between this two media languages and also the three multiple language of the commercials.

Media.edusites.co.uk. 2009. MediaEdu - Media Studies Resources. [online] Available at: http://media.edusites.co.uk/article/understanding-media-language/ [Accessed: 23 July 2013].

Petronas Commercials

The advertisement of a local brand I choose to discuss is Petronas. Petronas is a national oil company of Malaysia own by the government of Malaysia. Although it is a petroleum company, however their big advertisements were never about their product nor petroleum. Petronas's famous advertisements are usually advertising touching real-life glimpses of ordinary Malaysian's life.

I have chose 3 Petronas advertisements (video) to discuss and compare. This 3 advertisements are advertised in different big festive celebration of the 3 big races in Malaysia, which are the Chinese, Malay and Indian. Instead of being literal comparing the commercials with purely just language, I compare them in a different context as languages are closely tied with culture, with different languages it tells a different background story and culture of a certain races. 

2003 Petronas's Commercial

Chinese New Year - Nobody's Child

Synopsis: Tan Thiam Hook, the main character of the commercial is an orphan. His class was given a task to draw their own "Reunion Dinner" according to their understanding. However, Tan Thiam Hook failed to do so and being yelled by his teacher.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri - Mak Ok Tak

Synopsis: Man as the main character who just came back to his hometown from his work at Pahang to celebrate Raya. His mother prepared a lot of things for his homecoming such as new cloths and home dishes. However Man is too busy for his work, he left the house to the town to search for internet before even having dinner with his mother that night. He then meets an old man in the town who came to visit his son that just finished his operation, letting Man know how a dad feels when he left his son alone. Man then realised the feeling might be the same for his mother and he went back to meet her mother instead of doing his work.

Hari Deepavali - Wings of a Man
Synopsis: A story of an Indian dad who works hard to fund his child even his job is a low-pay job. He worked hard to fund his son to study and in the end the son succeeded his own dream to be a pilot even though his father has passed.












Instead of advertising the product of Petronas, they advertise more on the life of Malaysians. Probably this is another way of advertising their brand?



Petronas.com.my. 2011. PETRONAS. [online] Available at: http://www.petronas.com.my/media-relations/advertisements/Pages/prints-ads.aspx [Accessed: 29 July 2013].

Petronas.com.my. 2011. PETRONAS. [online] Available at: http://www.petronas.com.my/about-us/Pages/corporate-profile.aspx [Accessed: 29 July 2013].

YouTube. 2008. PETRONAS CHINESE NEW YEAR 2008 AD, REUNION DINNER. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqDdhloTLM4 [Accessed: 29 July 2013].

YouTube. 2008. Iklan Petronas Raya 2008 (enjoyvids.blogspot.com). [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgaC8Wcj5os [Accessed: 29 July 2013].

YouTube. 2008. Cool Petronas (Deepavali 2008). [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znUqBcL4Nv8 [Accessed: 29 July 2013].