Studies that have sought to develop a semiological understanding of marketing imagery have
often been criticised for their subjectivity and tendency to provide the reader with multiple
explanations. The analysis of signs and symbols and the deconstruction of hidden meaning,
does not lend itself to methodologies that countenance sequence and order. Interpretation
cannot be reduced to a linear, staged process, instead, analysis should be an iterative
approach that acknowledges diversity and seeks understanding through multiple routes
(Holbrook 1989).
Those methodological approaches that aim to understand and explain the visual form
do not simply record and report "art as information". An individual's interaction with an
image serves to create additional interpretations and establish further meaning. By seeking to
deconstruct the unconscious, iconology accepts the elusive nature of artistic imagery and the