Signifier: New Era Hats
Signified: It shows that even famous comedians are die-hart fanatics about their respective baseball teams. When you see that flag you know it’s the official logo of New Era and that it’s the official cap of the MLB, NBA, NHL and the NFL. It also is the official cap of Chicago. It was a part of their campaign #NewEraRivals. Their motto is “Fly your own flag.”
Image: In the picture you see the serious faces on both Craig Robinson and Nick Offerman. They both mean business and that my team is the best. Both comedians are famous from their hit shows, ‘Parks & Recreation’ and the ‘Office’. Craig Robinson was in ‘Pineapple Express’, ‘Hot Tube Time Machine’ 1 &2, and a personal favorite ‘This is the End’. They came out with a few commercials where you see them argue whose team is better and who can sing better. It shows it doesn’t matter who you are we all are super fans for our teams famous or not.
Denotation: This is an ad for sporting merchandise, a hat store and manufacturer. The goal of this ad is to make rooting for your favorite teams a very human thing we all do even rich and famous people. The image is the two comedians wearing the hat showing Chicago pride. They compete in insulting each other’s team in the ad.
Connotation: New Era used to be just a maker of hats it was only recently that they opened up retail stores where they sold more than just hats. They sell belts, pants, shirts, backpacks, accessories as well. They compete with Mitchell and Ness for making their own hats but they also compete with Lidds, Champs and many other stores from sales of their own stuff, but also make a profit because they make their own hats. The whole point of having their own stores was to make all the profit. They went from being the official hat of a few sports leagues to really owning the whole monopoly of sports caps for all the leagues and their minor leagues/college. They also make special hat lines for specific athletes that aren’t just on sports teams as well.
Icon: Whenever you see that flag you know it’s the official logo of the New Era or when you see an athlete wearing a hat when playing baseball or on the sidelines or post game in football, basketball and hockey, it is going to be New Era. It has become a worldwide known logo as they make hats for soccer all over the world as well and having sites for different countries to buy hats.
Diachronic Analysis: New Era is trying to relate to all the fans out there. They also don’t over charge for their hats like the other companies or stores because they can make the direct profit. They have hats at all price ranges and types: one size fits all, adjustable and fitted. They started out like most companies did just making hats and then revolutionized the hat market. For awhile you would only see hats on baseball players or draft picks in the sports drafts or sidelines/post game but it wasn’t worldwide and no company had a real monopoly on it. Now every sports league in this world has hats for all the minor leagues and the college ranks. It’s not all about baseball having hats its every sport even the non team sports. They also make non sports hats with superheroes and cartoons on it in addition to the nice hats they make like fedoras and the other kind of hats. I am a consumer of this product so I am biased as I have so many hats from them and wish I had more because they are reasonably priced and a well made product. I did buy White Sox hats from them.
Codes: The social structure of this photo ad and commercial is to show as I stated before that it’s about showing us that anyone can be too much into their sports team that you will argue with anyone who disagrees with you. Also if your favorite actor/comedian is a fan of the same team it validates your being crazy as well because they are. It makes you closer to that famous person because you can share your sports fandom with them. You know when the team is in the big game that famous person will be rooting with you or when it’s a tragedy they will be crying as well. Also your famous athletes are wearing these hats of other sports teams, or the one they actually play for, or they have their own line like Marshawn Lynch who has a Beastmode hat they sell.
Ideology: The belief is that if you can wear the same hats your favorite athlete or team is wearing. That you can even have it in any color or design or style. You can wear the retro hats or the old teams that aren’t even around anymore as nostalgia like the Hartford Whalers hat or a Montreal Expos hat. This specific adds another element where besides wearing the same hats your favorite teams or athletes wear you can wear the same hat as your favorite actor/comedian. It is always about being relatable as I have said before that it shows it doesn’t matter who you are we all are super fans for our teams famous or not. If two famous comedians love their teams as much as I do then buying hats from New Era it gives me another reason to buy it.
Jingoisim: It appeals to all sports fans in us and it gives us another way to connect to our favorite teams and athletes. Every time there is some kind of apparel or sporting merchandise we all want to buy it to show your team support or the specific athlete. They have hats of all sizes and for men and women. They have youth hats besides the average hats they make and it doesn’t matter how old you are you can find a hat just for you. They have famous actors and athletes promoting it and you see that logo all over sports that it gets stuck in your head and you are saying ‘I want to buy a hat’. This is the place you go to or brand of hat you’ll probably get because you know they make the best and the most stuff and even famous people wear it.