Who has control of the meaning in advertising?
Although designs and types of adverts may vary, all advertisements have the purpose to convince and appeal to their specific audience. In order to do so, the advertiser has to have, to a certain extent controlled the obvious, surface meaning and the deeper, hidden meaning in their advert. It is possible to argue that the same advert can be interpreted differently by people of various backgrounds and influenced by distinctive perspectives, but personally, I tend to believe that the most important message audiences can obtain from the advert is manipulated by its creator, rather than its reader.
What the audience can see from the advert is the base of their interpretation of the meaning. And of course, the image and lexical texts in the advert are not randomly chosen but selected by the advertiser for a reason. The image itself could have a self-explanatory or symbolic meaning that comes with it. Additionally, the text could help explain the image that does not have a meaning on its own. Even if the text does not explain in full detail the meaning of the advert, it would usually have an influence on the audience that leads them to think in a particular aspect and stop them from seeing the advert from an alternative aspect. Again, the whole purpose of advertising is to convince people and make them believe in what the advertiser wants them to believe, so a successful advertisement should be able to limit the information so the audience sees only the part that interests them to buy the concept or the product.
However, individual differences surely exist and have their influences on the interpretation of the advert. But I think the interpretation from the audience side would mostly make a minor difference in terms of the meaning of the advert. The audience can agree or disagree on the concept the advertiser intends to offer, but it does not change the meaning they read from the advert.
