This study commenced from the curiosity in discovering the meaning people take trom ads Ads as a communication system are subject to the same weaknesses of any communication system, failure to understand what is said. Full understanding and acceptance of a communication is rare. A problem in communication is that the receiver fails to understand the message sent by the sender. The decoded message may only partially represent the encoded message. The fact that the encoded message in advertising is a dual process whereby the advertiser's intention is translated into a text by an advertising agency team can further exacerbate communication. The initial stages of the study were concerned with analysis of existing concepts and methods used to evaluate meaning in advertising. The main area of applied research related to the attitude towards the ad concept Critical evaluation of attitude to the ad shows the concern of the researcher with these methods. There was immediate recognition for developing an alternative approach to measure meaning in advertising. While there is interesting conceptual research on the meaning of brands, culture, symbolism, there were few applied studies showing how consumers take meaning from brands or ads. The subject area of semiotics was considered to be the most applicable for developing a system which would show consumer reading of ads Different advertising researchers have applied semiotics in different ways to the study of advertising. Few researchers have applied the methods of semiotics to consumer reading of ads. The majority of studies focus on the researchers interpretation of the ads and showed little uniformity in developing a system which would elicit consumer reading. It was believed that the development of such a system would provide an explanation of what the ad meant to the reader. This involved adapting methods used in semiotics to the study of meaning of signs, text and language so that they could be applied to consumer reading of ads. The system developed revolves around structuralism, semantics, pragmatics, and visual/non verbal signification. Each of the areas used made a significant contribution to the study of meaning in ads Structuralism shows how and if people transfer meanings from a symbolic system to the brand advertised. It highlights the significant meaning read in the ad Semantics illustrates the associations between existing product schemas and its match or mismatch with the associations that the receiver connected to the ad. Pragmatics demonstrates how the ad is read in relation to other ads for the same product category and how the ad relates to prior images that the readers has of the advertiser. Visual and non verbal signification gives the connotative and ideological reading of signs. Each of the semiotic areas applied to advertising may be used individually, but the use of all of the areas together in a single system shows the meaning taken from the ad. The system is greater than the sum of its parts Meaning taken from an ad is not confined to one aspect of the system, the semiotic areas should not be considered in isolation. The real significance of meaning is in understanding what was read from symbolic transference, association, comparison and connotative reading. The system shows not only what was read but how the ad was read.