This is an advertisement for DKNY (Donna Karan New York), a company that makes money by selling fashion items to both men and women. The text induces the reader to accept that he is not so much involved in the perfume, but in the beauty of nature: "delicious gold". The phrase that makes up the text of this image is dominated by the image of a girl biting an apple. The word in the top left corner thanks those who by purchasing this perfume have helped the environment rather than the company. Let us now use the three types of reading proposed by Stuart Hall. A dominant reading is one that reads following the cues of the text, accepting the values that the text signifies. A dominant reading constructs an addressee position based on the evident meanings (denotations) that the text signifies. A dominant reading of the DKNY text would accept that DKNY is a positive institution, contributing to the well-being of society. This is supported by cultural codes in which the image of injured children being nursed back to health serves as a metonym for the restoration of health to society as a whole. If we were to replace the child with a young adult (switch test), the meaning would change because the paradigmatic values would be slightly different. Children signify (connote) innocence and hope for the future in a way that adults do not. A negotiated reading is one that overall agrees with the dominant reading and accepts the addressee's position, but negotiates with some aspects of it. For example, I might generally agree that it is a good thing for companies like DKNY to make a contribution to climate health, but I might disagree that DKNY perfume is a good perfume. An oppositional reading rejects the add..... .middle of paper ......describes the way in which children's health depends on complex medical and bureaucratic discourses and practices that require resources in many ways, through public funding and private. An oppositional reading does not necessarily condemn the text for not saying these things, but simply underlines how it precludes this possibility, thus oversimplifying the real social and institutional relationships on which the child's health is based. It could contribute to a more progressive way of thinking about charity, as part of the solution to managing children's health. This would also cast some suspicion on the link between private enterprise, gambling and state responsibility. Would he dare to imagine a different world, in which the possibilities suggested by the image, but closed in mythical expression, are explored and considered.
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