How do cologne advertisements smell? - Some observations on iconicity in advertisements for men’s colognes

This paper deals with the semiotic phenomenon of iconicity and its relation to the communication of emotional concepts in cologne advertisements. As a matter of fact, scents have neuropsychological effects on memory processes and the processing of emotions in the human limbic system. I will point out that there also is a close sign-based relationship between iconic representations of emotional concepts and the corresponding emotional reactions in the viewer’s psyche, since iconic representations have a stronger capability to trigger off emotional reactions than symbolic or indexical ones have. By discussing three advertisements for men’s cologne from the Internet I argue that the efficiency in conveying emotional information increases according to an increasing degree of iconic sign qualities in the advertisements.