Sur la sémiotique de l’odorat à travers l’image publicitaire. Le cas du parfum

The advertising image whose object of reference is a perfume pertains to a semiotic programme that goes beyond strictly visual perception: the image of the objects built mentally, by triggering several analysers simultaneously, under the effect of synaesthesia. How can one experience the smell of a perfume (except for the cases when the advertising image is accompanied by sample vials or, as regards magazines meant especially for women, by pages scented with various fragrances), given the fact that our “figurative universe” (Bachelard) grants more prominence to the visual representation of an advertising object (i.e. a perfume)? The advertisementfor a perfume becomes a perceptual space that ensures the association between sensation (perception) and signification (the sensory world gains meaning in and through the process of signification).