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An Analysis of a Philadelphia 76ers Advertisement, circa 2023

#3194047
Rafael Onilla

VISA-3016-501
Dr. Elizabeth Cavaliere
February 13, 2024
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For this assignment, I will be analysing a billboard relating to basketball player Joel

Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. This billboard was made during the 2022-2023 NBA season

and was made in response to that year’s MVP race, with Joel Embiid being a frontrunner for the

award. In this analysis, I will be diving into this advertisement’s significance, and it’s influence

towards the viewers seeing it, and it’s overall effectiveness. I will be using a plethora of theories

and philosophies to further help me with this study, with particular emphasis being towards the

theories of Roland Barthes, and Umberto Eco.

This picture of the ad itself was located at Philadelphia Pennsylvania and was specifically

housed inside the baseball stadium that hosts that cities baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies,

with a rather obvious hint of the location being the large “Phillies” sign hanging above the left-

hand side of the massive rectangular billboard. The cream-colored billboard consists of two

parts, to the left of the billboard is an image of Joel Embiid, dressed up in a white dress shirt and

a blue overcoat, with a red bowtie. He is also seen wearing a dark blue headband with white stars

wrapped around it, and because of this, we also see his exposed afro fade haircut that helps add

to the overall height and size of the headshot. Because of the shape of the headshot, and the sheer

size of it, this leads to one’s eyes to gravitate towards Embiid when first seen, before

transitioning towards the text, effectively going from left to right. Embiid’s attire is reminiscent

of the outfit worn by the character Uncle Sam, who adorned this outfit on the famous 1917 US

Army ad by JM Flagg known as “I Want You!” Embiid is even gesturing towards the viewer in a

similar manner to Uncle Sam, by pointing his right index finger directly at the viewer and giving

off a rather serious facial expression, so as to “physically” tell the viewer to do something.

Essentially a forceful call to vote. On the right side of the billboard is a series of texts, the first is
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inside a red rectangular border and engraved in an equally colored and capitalized font. The text

reads “Joel Embiid for MVP” with the “for MVP” portion being sandwiched between two dark

blue stars, creating further emphasis on the award, thus allowing further intentionality and

importance towards the reason behind this call to action. Underneath in an equally capitalized

font, that is also colored in the same blue as the stars reads additional text saying, “Not up for

debate.” This text is effectively this billboards slogan, the saying associated with the agenda of

getting Joel Embiid an MVP award, whilst also being direct enough for viewers to remember and

follow towards that agenda. Two distinct insignias/logos are also placed just below the slogan,

though due to the camera angle and the size of these respective insignias/logos, I can’t discern

the specifics behind the pair. I can only assume that they could be associated with the city of

Philadelphia, or the Sixers organization. The color palette in this billboard is Red, White, Cream,

Brown, Black and Blue, distinctly reminiscent of the aforementioned “I Want You!” Poster,

which had a similar color palette, though it used that palette in different ways, most notably in

the skin color, hair color, and font color of the two advertisements.

Semiotically speaking, the signifier and signified are quite apparent in this ad. The

signified in this ad is an MVP calibre player, with the signifier being Joel Embiid, in name and

image. Going further, according to Roland Barthes, in his exploration into the relationship

between text and the photograph, he was able to discern three distinct messages, the linguistic,

the coded iconic, and the non-coded iconic. Firstly with the linguistic, It is quite clear that there

is a symbiotic relationship between text and photography in the Embiid ad, and thus I will be

using these messages to help break down this ad further. Starting with the linguistic, the slogan

and the text above the slogan make the message apparent as a clear call to action, or in this case a
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call to vote. The text is all capitalized, symbolizing a level of both importance, emphasis, and an

apparent vocal volume towards the viewer, as if the billboard is screaming towards the viewer

who should be MVP, and that no one else comes close, or to quote the ad itself, that there is no

debate. Roland further adds that there are two kinds of functions within these linguistic

messages, anchorage, and relay. The former is classified for its usage of specificity to anchor

meanings within in image, based on the text used within that image. The latter is classified for a

more open ended, free flowing approach between text and image. It is used to expand into other

ideas instead of limiting towards just a single, primary idea. When looking at this billboard, the

ad primarily uses anchorage. When combining the graphical and typographic boldness and

abrasiveness of the text -the colors being deep and rich, and the font being big, bold, and

capitalized – the resulting message is quite clear bold, abrasive, and expressive. You look at the

text and find that it defiantly wants you to select Embiid as MVP, that he is without question the

MVP of the league and that this matter shouldn’t be argued or talked about because he is the one.

This ad might be related to sports, yet the design of the message shrouded in messaging akin to a

political election. This ad after all is a call to vote which helps in that connection, yet it’s also a

parody of an advertisement that is associated with wartime propaganda, that being the JM Flaggs

1917 ad featuring Uncle Sam. You could even argue that this ad could be classified as

propaganda when you consider that Embiid had a season that was statistically inferior in various

aspects compared to other players that season, yet the ad linguistically doesn’t mention that. It

barely scratches the surface for why Embiid’s season was even MVP worthy in the first place, it

just tells the viewer that Embiid is the MVP. Thus, this gives the text a bold and brash exterior,

but carrying an almost forceful and delusional interior. Secondly is the coded iconic message,
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and this message can be easily identified by the attire Embiid wears, and the colors that Embiid

wears as well. The red, white, and blue reminiscent of both the colors of the Sixers themselves,

but also reminiscent of the American flag, made even more so by Embiid’s star-spangled

headband. This therefore gives a notion of americana, a sense of patriotism when seeing this ad.

The ad itself therefore wants to tell the viewer that perhaps another reason as to why there is no

debate, is because of the fact that this is not just the choice of sixer fans, or even Philadelphians,

but the choice of America as a whole. With that in mind, we look at the final message, the non-

coded iconic. In a literal sense, viewers will quickly catch on that this is a parody of JM Flaggs

“I Want You!” ad. The colors reminiscent of the American flag, the attire reminiscent of Uncle

Sam’s wardrobe, the text reminiscent of the text used in Flaggs advertisement, the gesturing, the

facial expressions, and even the cream-colored background are all reminiscent of what Flagg

used. It isn’t a full-on replication, but it is easy to guess what this ad is parodying. Considering

how both of these ads not only had a plethora of similarities between them, but were also

successful in their respective agendas, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another ad that parody’s

either the “I Want You!” ad, or another ad from history.

I also want to bring into this study, Umberto Eco’s a photograph. In it, Eco discusses the

ambiguous nature of the photograph, as well as the