Semiotic Analysis: JungKook Calvin Klein
By: Laura Stevenson
(Feature photo originally from Calvin Klein. Photographer Park Jong Ha.)
Underwear brand advertisements are notorious for having some questionable means of promotion. Specifically Calvin Klein, many of their ads feature skinny, fit models or celebrities for people to idolize and fawn over. Still images and short video campaigns are used to showcase these individuals society deems as the most attractive in order to make us believe we need to be like them. One of the ways we can be like them is by wearing the same underwear brand as them. We take one look at the ad and gather many meanings that help influence our decision within seconds. How is it that images, sounds, videos and other forms of contemporary media gain meaning? Why do we “read” cultural artifacts and are able to understand what they mean at all? We get meanings from signs within the presented image. Semiotics, or the science of signs, shows us how we read cultural artifacts and arrive at meanings. According to this science, cultural artifacts are just sign systems that rely on cultural codes, which are like mini signals to a culture.
In semiotic analysis, signs are made up of the signifiers and the signified as described by Ferdinand Saussure. Signs are the sound, image, overall thing being looked at. Signifier is the literal structure of the thing being looked at. The lines that make up the shapes, the colors employed, the type of sound, any words are all things in the signifier category. The “signified” are all the meanings and connotations associated with the sign. The relationship between the signified and the signifiers is arbitrary, which means that Saussure says that the meanings that signifiers hold are somehow learned. There are codes, structured associations, that we use to interpret signs in a particular way (Berger 4). The semiotic method has three levels to it: linguistic, literal and symbolic. The linguistic level is the literal text in the image that helps guide the viewer to the right interpretation, the anchor of the meaning. At the literal level are all the signifiers as the denotative aspects and at the symbolic level are all the signifieds as the connotative aspects. For example, let’s think of a heart emoji. Two red lines that are partially curved at the top and meet at two points would be signifiers. Associations of love, romance, and relationships would be signified as these are some meanings we give hearts. Thus, the sign of the heart emoji is used in the context of showing love. This is the basis of semiotic analysis, but as a theoretical framework it can be used to break down things we see in the media. Semiotic analysis can be employed to justify how signs and images in the media relay meaning to audiences and how specific cultural codes influence those meanings.
Video advertisements have plenty of signs that subtly slide meanings to its viewers. Currently, 4.1 million views have been bestowed upon Calvin Klein’s Spring 2023 Campaign video. The thirty-four second advertisement titled “Introducing Jung Kook” does exactly what it says: introduces international K-pop sensation Jeon Jung Kook as their newest brand ambassador. According to Saussure, we use signs to “read” people as well. Body language, gestures, and facial expressions are manipulated by actors to show audiences a certain feeling, value, or personality (Berger 15). With this in mind, one frame showcases Jung Kook standing center and shown from the waist up with his arms stretched out to both sides, eyes closed and Calvin Klein jean jacket open to reveal no shirt, CK underwear band on display and his prominent abs. At this exact moment, the linguistic level of the ad makes itself known when the line from the background music says “It’s good to be king” (Park). Jung Kook is the actor in this example and all these signifiers make up a confident, almost arrogant, posture. From this pose, the viewer gathers an “I’m the man” type of vibe as the signified meaning. This specific shot of Jungkook is the sign which conveys the meaning of Calvin Klein underwear makes a person confident. The meaning behind “I’m the man” comes from patriarchal views that dominate our society and the ideology that male identifying individuals are to be respected and admired. The campaign is manipulating the idolization of Jung Kook as “the man” to make him admirable, desirable, but also a figure that other men should strive to emulate. How does one do that? By simply buying Calvin Klein products. It’s a bit of a reach, but the ideology of what it means to be “the man” is perpetuated beyond this ad and reveals how society views masculinity by putting men on a pedestal. One would understand certain cultural codes, in this case pushing the patriarchy, since these codes are made up of ideologies, stereotypes, and other things that represent the culture that they’re a part of. These are codes we see in other forms of media and in our institutions, thus we’re able to recognize them in the ad campaign too.
Additionally, in the same advertisement, there’s another black and white frame of Jung Kook sitting on a couch. He’s visibly slouched, camera angle lower to the floor as his eyes peer down at it, hand draped between his legs and still wearing the CK denim jacket. His lips are pursed, one elbow is casually resting on the back of the couch (Park). From all these signifiers, one arrives at the posture to be signified as man spreading. The term “man spreading” is used in our society to refer to a style of sitting that men typically do to show a relaxed and carefree vibe. His gaze looking down at the camera is supposed to show a superiority complex. A “I’m better than you because I’m in Calvin Klein” type of look. This meaning comes across in those few seconds of the frame because our brains are reading the signs in the advertisement at a rapid pace. There are things about our culture that we pick up on rapidly and read without questioning because the narrative of what it means to be “the man” is so common and overused in underwear ads.
Furthermore, Calvin Klein’s Fall 2023 Campaign features Jung Kook in a similar denim on denim look. Jacket open, no shirt underneath, CK underwear ban peaking above the waist of his jeans but this time he’s wearing a black tie and his hair has grown out to a mid-neck length bob with bangs. “Jung Kook Finds Pleasure in the Music” features a scene where the K-pop idol is dancing and running around a multi-story parking garage with a vibrant blue old school car behind him (Van Lamsweerde). He has dark smokey eye make-up on and a lip piercing which signifies boldness and a dramatic affect. With the way Jung Kook is dressed and overall appears in this video, the signs are read as “sex sells”. The philosopher Stuart Hall warns that “simple visual signs appear to have achieved a ‘near-universality”. Certain cultural codes have reached profound naturalization meaning that visually when we see them there’s no questioning them because they’re so widely distributed and learned at an early age (Durham and Kellner 167). What does any of this have to do with Calvin Klein? The focus of the ad is not so much on Calvin Klein products themselves, the focus is on the main vocalist of BTS. He is being presented as the product by making him appear alluring and captivating, especially with how revealing this ad is. Calvin Klein being an American brand is quite telling, since from a global perspective Americans are viewed as more “progressive” and sex positive. Both Jung Kook’s spring and fall campaigns utilize the idol in a way that looks like they’re commodifying him and using him for profit (for lack of better words). This gives insight to how the popularity and fascination with celebrities is prominent in western culture, in Calvin Klein’s case the use of a South Korean idol to attract more people to buy their brand. Sexualization is the cultural code being reproduced by the brand and its being distributed in multiple ads.
To be frank, semiotic analysis and the methods it employs are useful for media studies because it exposes how images smuggle in ideologies to its viewer and why we give power to these signs. Calvin Klein perpetuating narratives of men being dominant figures, sexualizing the male body, and putting celebrities on a pedestal only normalizes this behavior in our society. As a member of American society, being able to recognize these meanings from the signs in the campaign video outs how we feel about men and celebrities In larger cultural discourses, the definition of what it means to be a man is always evolving, but its ad campaigns like these remind us what the original narrative is. It’s reifying the idea that a man should be assertive, sexual, slightly arrogant and cool. The signs in the video are given power in the form of views and shares on the ad, but also the profit the company has made since introducing Jung Kook as brand ambassador. The “perfect man” wears Calvins per say. Semiotics helps us recognize why we understand signs in the media as quickly as we do: it requires us to slow down the process of understanding what something means and why we’re influenced by them.
Originally written October 26, 2023
Works Cited
Berger, Arthur A. “Chapter 1 Semiotic Analysis.” Media Analysis Techniques, SAGE Publications Inc, S.l., 2018, pp. 3–49.
Durham and Kellner. Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks. Malden Etc., Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
Park, Jong Ha, director. Introducing Jung Kook | Calvin Klein Spring 2023. YouTube , Calvin Klein, 28 Mar. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDErLmbjSRM.
Van Lamsweerde, Inez and Vinoodh Matadin , directors. Jung Kook Finds Pleasure in the Music | Calvin Klein Fall 2023 Campaign. YouTube, Calvin Klein, 14 Aug. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v16ndKJiiMY.
