Color Conclusions



It is not the case that women never wear black and men never wear red in Japanese ads.

In the zippered handbag ad, described previously, the foreign woman wears a black dress.

And in a recent campaign for beer, packaged in bright red, the spokesman, gMr. Red Manh, sits in a vibrant red chair, backed by a red wall, wearing red pants and a red coat over his black shirt.

Proof that red is the color for men?

Well... perhaps not.

For, when he rhetorically asks the camera: gwhat makes red special?h his response is: gletfs call my daughterh.

As if women have particular insight into the color red

It is certain that the recurrence of red with women and black with men in Japanese TV advertising is the result of some force other than simple accident
Time and again these colors are invoked to serve a semiotic function.
Why?
Beyond mere denotation, color aims at expressing deeper meaning.
Whether the connotation is about:

  • gender,
  • sexuality,
  • product, or
  • social role

color is a major means of commercial communication in Japan



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