Interpretation of Symbols in Tokopedia’s Advertisement “Start Family Kejar Jodoh”

Abstract

This study aims to identify and interpret the symbols contained in Tokopedia advertisement “Start Family Kejar Jodoh”. This study used a qualitative descriptive technique using the method analysis semiotic of John Fiske’s and postcolonial Edward Said. The results of this study indicate that the symbols in the advertisement have an implicit meaning about the existence of power relations in Orientalism Edward Said, namely: political power in the form of mental occupation, intellectual power which considers eastern people less intellectual and civilized, cultural power in the form of cultural imitation in appearance and lifestyle, as well as moral power that the characters who symbolize the West have the right to determine what is good and not good for the East to do.This constructs the dominance of the western nation over the eastern nation which led to the concept of hegemony, namely the concept of thinking which assumes that the western nation is better than the eastern nation. Keywords— semiotic, postcolonial, hegemony, Tokopedia