ABSTRACT
The ideational meaning in the ad is created by the way the words and images come together to communicate what the ad is ‘about’. This advertisement and others in the same campaign provide dramatic illustrations of how words and pictures work together to make meaning, and specifically, how the meaning of a picture can be completely altered by adding a different caption. The effectiveness of these advertisements, however, does not just come from the contrasting captions, but from the ways words and images and layout are used together to express ideational, interpersonal, and textual meanings. Both the laptop, open with its screen facing the viewer, and the close-up of the baby, who gazes directly at the viewer, have the effect of involving the viewer in the advertisement, metaphorically putting the viewer in the position of being the owner of the laptop and the parent of the baby.
