Signs Address Somebody

Within an ideological “apparatus”, an individual is a subject. Ideologies are created “for” certain subjects; i.e. individuals or “agents, acting out freely” by particular people or institutions who have some reason to transfer meaning to subjects through belief systems using signs, symbols, signifiers and receivers. It is within the transference of such things where actual meaning occurs through the subject. It is within the transference through belief systems, and signs that continue the reproduction of such beliefs, reciprocating one set of values onto another set of values. A sign can only hold meaning, if it is meaningful to someone. “Therefore, all signs depend for their signifying process on the existence of specific, concrete, receivers, people for whom and in whose systems of belief, have meaning”. Ideology gains power through the process of people replacing significance within those signs. It is through the cycle of passing signifiers through signs to people or subjects; that the process maintains a constant. One may not continue survive without the other. Advertisers and marketing organizations use this transference of ideas to sell their products or continue a certain belief system that aids in the selling of their products. By turning products into signifiers, advertisements use signs that can be transferred in exchange for a plethora of meanings; but it is within the person where the meanings “autonomously” continue to flow. The space between “what means” and “what it means”, is the relationship between the sign and the receiver. The receiver is looked upon as being an active participant as an “active receiver” because a signs’ use is only created in the advertisements through the receiver. As an invisible force, ideology is created and continues on through the fact that we are active ‘within it’. We don’t perceive ourselves as receivers therefore we allow it to work through us. We continue the belief; with the idea of what is true never questioning it, and always allowing it to continue to be “true”. Ideology “is based on false assumptions”, of something that “need not be questioned”, because it is seen as already valid. Time and the acceptance of ideas over time also allows for ideology to continue on its path of blind acceptance. Advertisements use the blind acceptance of time in coercion with the idea of freedom to allow the subjects to believe they are free when choosing such products. The relationship between the ad and ourselves is a constant act, when creating ads, advertisers allow receivers to perceive ideas through a lack of content. Without showing actual purpose of the ad, subjects are “free” to choose meaning, the entire time being led to believe in something that isn’t even there. “Things ‘mean’ to us, and we give this meaning to the product, on the basis of an irrational mental leap invited by the form of the advertisement. By allowing its receivers to believe they are free, ensues the idea that its receivers have choices to freely choose how we “create” ourselves. We believe that by buying certain products we are freely choosing how we are to be perceived, who we are is created by what we buy. Currency’s value only becomes possible through an exchange. Prices are not fixed; but replaced as value through transference. What products are worth to the consumer, if the consumer chooses to buy such products are the justifications of prices. Just as currency is valued by its transference to one system to another, so are signs as they are set to replace something else. Many times advertisements use signifiers through transference of difference. Signifiers within ads usually hold significance outside the ad itself. “Ideas are maintained not in a vacuum of the abstract but through their active use: values exist not ‘in’ things but in their transference.” Signs are used to be associated with certain belief systems, by buying these products in connection to such signs one is buying into a certain belief system. Advertisers also use the ideology to brainwash the masses into buying their products. They turn on associations to through symbols, and connecting certain ideas with other ideas, such as, if you buy this car YOU will be as elegant and luxurious as this girl.