The walls on either side of the stairs are bright red in colour and appear glossy. At the top of the stairs there is the reflection of white light gleaming on the wall. Towards the bottom of the image it is difficult to make out the women's feet and the last couple of stairs as it is very dark. The opposite page is almost entirely red, what is to appear to be a continuation of the walls. In the centre in bold white writing is the name of the scent "Night", the maker or designer and a tag line as mentioned above. There are also two perfume "bottles", the one for him in black and the one for her in red, they also appear very glossy. Using Barthes theory the connotations of the image could be as follows: The strong influence of the colour red indicates, to our culture in this case, thoughts of lust, sex, passion and love, perhaps even devilish thoughts however not in a truly satanic sense. The other main colour to feature is black; this reinforces the name of "Night" and can indicate an aura of mystery, a darker side to human nature. The colours can be seen as symbolic but they also invoke feelings based on our cultural learning as Storey comments on analysing Barthes:.
Connotations are therefore not simply produced by the makers of the image but activated from an already existing cultural repertoire.
(Storey:2001:66).
It is culturally recognized and is natural that red be a colour that implies sex, as when women are sexually aroused the increase in blood flow to sensual areas such as the lips, nipples and inner labia will make them appear darker and redder in colour. Women have been wearing blusher and red lipstick for decades to imitate the flushed look that sex brings in order to attract men. The woman in this image is no exception, not only does she have the red lipstick but the dark smoky eyes and "bed head" hair. The fact that the woman is in a red dress is also significant when reading this image in terms of semiotics: when a woman is portrayed as the object of desire or centre of attention she is often seen as wearing a red dress.