P1: Media & Rep - Adverts

5/10/17 L/O: TO DEVELOP THE LANGUAGE OF MEDIA ANALYSIS

 
This is the cover of Time magazine, a media product that advertises celebrities to the world. Kanye is bigger than the name of the magazine which shows that the magazine are confident enough that people will know who they are without having to show the whole name, it also shows they may think the celebrity is more important to show off. This magazine cover looks as if it is aimed for an older audience as Kanye is making more of a serious face so if it was a younger audience then he probably would have not been so serious in his facial expressions.

Denotation- Elements that are unarguable, they are facts.
Connotation- Elements that are arguable, elements that are personal to the viewer.

A denotation of these two media products is that they have similar colour themes going on, they are both quite dark album covers with not many colours being shown. Another denotation is that both Kendrick and Adele look as if they are either concerned or worried about something but the difference is that Adele is facing forwards and Kendrick is facing away and not looking at the camera. A connotation of Adele's album cover is that i could think she is 25 as the name of her album is 25 and she looks like she could possibly be around that age. A denotation of Kendrick's album is that it says 'parental advisory' on it which could show that Kendrick's music is aimed at mostly older people as if they were younger it is advised that a parent is there with them, whereas Adele's album doesn't have 'parental advisory' on it so younger people can listen to it.



10/10/17 L/O: TO DEVELOP THE LANGUAGE OF MEDIA ANALYSIS



Denotation:

• She looks angry.
• Lots of things going on in the photo.
• Two doves and some flowers.
• Name of her and the album.
• It needs parental advisory.
• She is female.
• The writing says "P!nk" and "I'm not dead"

Connotation:

• The doves may represent peace.
• Because she looks angry it could mean her music is loud.
• Its an album cover.
• It is a picture of her.

Audience:

• Female.
• 15-40

Hypothesis- A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
Reading an image- The effect a media image has on audiences; what they are expected to understand from an image.
Analysis- Breakdown or an image or idea; why we believe something to be so.















I can tell that she looks worried as her eyebrows seem to go down a bit, her eyes are looking side ways and are slightly widened and her mouth is a tiny bit open as if she can't believe what is happening.



Hypothesis = The products constructed to market James Bond films are designed to offer a clear appeal to a wide global audience of young males aged 17-35.

I agree with the hypothesis because stereotypically males of that age range appeal to this poster as it has half naked females on it. It also may appeal to the males because it appears to have a male protagonist which connotes male dominance and males like it then they know a male is in power because stereotypically they do not agree with feminism and female power. I think the audience of this film isn't gonna be very large yet as it says on the film poster that this is the first James Bond film which means not many people are really going to know about the James Bond films.


17/10/17 L/O: TO EXPLORE THE IDEA OF SEMIOTICS AND HOW IT CAN BE APPLIED TO MEDIA ANALYSIS.


 
Denotation:

• There is a man and woman.
• There is a skull.
•  He has a gun.
• There are eyes in the skull so its like a mask.
• The poster says spectre and 007.
• The skull could mean death.

Connotation:

• The man is clearly more important as he is stood in front and is facing forward whereas the woman is not facing forward and is stood behind the man.
• It is a film poster.

Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols and their use of interpretation.

Ferdinand Saussure:

Saussure first put forward the idea that signs are compromised of two elements. The signifier and the signified. Signifier is the physical form, the thing that is being considered. The signified is what our culture has decided this form means.  

Roland Barthes:

His theory focuses on how signs and images represent different cultures and ideologies in different ways, these are established through denotation and connotations. He argued that some connotations are so widely held that they reach the level of myth. a myth in this context is where socially agreed symbolic association becomes so widely accepted it becomes iconic.

Charles Pierce:

Pierce focused on developing the idea that there were different levels of meaning that could be attached to signs and that these operated in different ways to audiences. He claimed there were three types of signs; Icon, Index & Symbol. Icon is a sign that physically resembles what it stands for ( a literal sign). index is a sign which implies some other object or event. Symbol is a sign with a conventional relation to the signified (a learned sign). 

There is a clear theme of pink as the background is pink and so is the bottle and there are even hints of pink on her cheeks to match the theme. Denotive: Woman, flowers, nudity. Conative: Woman is holding a strong gaze with the viewer while holding a flower to her eye connotes confidence and maybe a implication that the perfume smells of flowers. Icon: pretty flower, the flower indicates that the perfume will smell nice as flowers usually do. The pink could connote femininity as stereotypically females are associated with pink so it could be to emphasise how it is for females.














There is a metaphor. The city is on the key as it is trying to say the car can take you anywhere hence the writing 'the city is in your hands'. The blue may be showing that stereotypically males are associated with blue which could be saying that it is aimed at males as apparently males are better drivers.


19/10/17 L/O: TO APPLY SEMIOTIC THEORIES WHEN CREATING MEDIA PRODUCTS.

09/11/17 L/O: TO EXPLORE THE CONCEPT OF CONVENTIONS AND SUBVERSION.

Subverting - undermine the power and authority of an established system or institution.


Connotations:

• Its aimed at men since it says bachelor party which is men.

Denotations:

• One bottle with no label so it stands out.
• Green filter.
• Eight bottles.
• The drink is called Tuborg.

Conventions:

• Green
• Beer means fun.
• Condensation on the bottle to show that it is cold.

Audience:

• Men.
• 18+
• Men who drink alcohol.

Context:

• The word bachelor party may suggest that it is an American advert because in the UK it is called a stag do.
• It is a beer advert.

Cadbury gorilla advert 2007:

• What does the advert tell us about Cadbury's?

The advert tells us that cadburys is fun and don't just care about promoting the chocolate bar, they care about creating something that people will remember when they go to the shop and see the chocolate bar they will remember the gorilla playing the drums and then hopefully buy the chocolate since they remember the advert.

• What was the intention of the advert as it was so clearly different to typical confectionary adverts?

The intention of the advert was for people to remember it rather than in typical confectionary adverts where they just want to promote their product so people buy it.

• Who is it aimed at?

It is aimed at faimiles and children since there is a gorilla playing the drums so children are gonna be entertained by it and laugh at it.

• What does it mean?

• What impact does it have on you?

When I watch it, it makes me laugh and I like the fact it has a gorilla playing the drums because i think its very cool.

• It boosted sales for the brand by 10%- why?

The photographer was accused of photoshop because the guy who is dying looks like Jesus so that is why he was accused of photoshop. I can understand why this advert was banned because I think people would have been quite sensitive to the fact he photographed and man dying and his family being sad when this is a personal moment and a moment that should not be shared with the rest of the world, but instead Benetton used the photo and showed the world the private and personal moment.


14/11/17 L/O: TO EXPLORE SET ADVERTISING TEXTS AMD RESEARCH BRANDS.


new ad


Old spice 'smell like a man' shower gel.

Smell like a Man, Man is a television advertising campaign in the United States created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy for Old Spice. The campaign is also commonly referred to as The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, being the title of the campaign's initial 30-second commercial. The campaign was initially launched to market Old Spice's Red Zone After Hours Body Wash, but has subsequently been expanded to include other products following the success of the initial advertisements. The campaign targets female viewers, despite the product's target market being male, as the company determined that women frequently make purchasing decisions in respect of hygiene products even for male household.


Preferred- They want you to think that because the man is a NFL player that using this shower gel will make you manly or strong. Idea of masculinity. Appeal to younger males because they advert is not very serious.

Negotiated- I understand that it is advertising for an shower gel but if I don't like the smell then its not gonna be very effective.

Oppositional- Its just an shower gel that is aimed at the male gender. It could make you think its not a shower gel because you could think it was spices or something as there isn't much that indicates its a shower gel.


Main target audience was americans and couples since females buy most shower gels for men, it was launched on super bowl weekend and people in americans mostly know who he is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Your_Man_Could_Smell_Like

Lucozade Sport lauched £4m campaign to educate consumers about how the brand can help improve people's sports performance, with the help of brand ambassadors Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Preferred- They are using a football player so people that like football see there is a footballer on the advert and therefore want to buy it because they know that Gareth drinks it. They want you to think that if you drink Lucozade Sport it will enhance your performance in whatever sport you do.

Negotiated- I understand that it is advertising for drink but if I don't like the taste then its not gonna be very effective. It might enhance my performance but only on males. I don't know who Gareth Bale is so when I see it I don't understand that I will be better at sport since I don't know who he is.

Oppositional- Seeing Gareth Bale on the advert is not making me want to buy the drink any more than I already do. Seeing a footballer on it may make you think its only for if you do sport or having the word league on it may make you think its more for only if you do football. It has a male on it so you may think is only for males.

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/gareth-bale-fronts-4m-i-believe-lucozade-campaign/1193260















The main focus of the campaign is poster ads, although the adverts will also run on Facebook and through mobile messaging.


Each advert depicts an ordinary person in distress because they are facing a serious crisis, such as sudden job loss or mounting debt. They carry a headline which shares the desperation the person is feeling. The aim is for the combined impact of the headline and image to tap into the concerns of the people experiencing these problems, driving them to seek advice on Shelter’s website.


The poster campaign will initially launch in four towns which have been identified as hotspots for housing problems, and will run from 21 August for six weeks.

Preferred- They want us to see the sad faces on the poster and be sympathetic for them and therefore give money to the charity because we feel sorry for them. They want you to go for them to help. They are trying to show there is wide range of ways they can help you as they cover all aspects of homelessness and ways to prevent it.
Negotiated-
Oppositional- You could see the writing across their face and not read the rest and end up assuming its about something else.

Emotive language and they help people who are at risk of losing their homes and try and prevent it from happening rather than helping with its too late.

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2011/08/24/shelter-launches-new-advertising-campaign-amplify-drive-people-seek-advice-earlier

21/11/17 L/O: TO ANALYSE SET ADVERTISING TEXTS USING AUDIENCE THEORY.

Effects Model: Hypodermic syringe vs cultural effects model - The hypodermic syringe is a model that suggests that the audience passively accepts the message 'injected' into them by the mass media. this model believes that there is a direct correlation between the violent behaviour shown on TV, computer games etc and anti-social and criminal behaviour in real life. The cultural effects model is the thinking behind this theory centres on the long term effects of particular ideological representations on our beliefs and values. Media representations of beautiful women have been influential in giving both men and women a view of the 'ideal women'. This now extends to men.

Two step flow theory - the two step flow theory is "ideas often flow from radio and print to opinion leaders and from these to the less active sections of the population." the first step is mass media message reaches opinion leaders. The second step is the opinion leaders pass on their own interpretation as well as the actual content of the message to those whom they influence.

Uses & Gratification Theory - Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications theory suggests that media users contribute and have an active role in the media. The user has 4 simple needs, one is diversion ( the need to relax and escape), two is personal relationships (using the media to fulfil their personal relationships with friends, becoming part of a social group), three is personality identity(using media to find out more about yourselves) and four is surveillance (using the media to find out what is going on around us).

Reception Theory - The reception theory is understanding the early theory of reception of text. Uses of media content analyis (1970's to 90's) Phillips 1995. Negotiated reception. Expansion of theory from text to semiotic 1990's. The understanding of environment and context as components of reception(neuropsychology). Using reception models such as celebrity. Understanding of reception is changing because of neuroscience and the new brain sciences.

23/11/17 & 28/11/17 L/O: TO ANALYSE SET ADVERTISING TEXTS USING AUDIENCE THEORY AND MEDIA LANGUAGE.

Old spice: 
The target audience for this advert is couples since females tend to buy the shower gel quite often in the relationship so when Isaiah is saying that you can smell like him if you buy the shower gel then females are going to go out and get it for them. The age range could be around 20-35 years old. The target audience for this is also Americans since Isaiah is well known in America so if the advert was from the UK it wouldn't be as popular considering not as many people know him in the UK.
The star vehicle in the advert is Isaiah Mustafa and the connotations that the audience would take from Isaiah being used is that since he is a NFL player and they aired the advert at the Super bowl which is where fans of Isaiah will be as it is a NFL event so it is a good place to air it. The connotations the audience would take from Isaiah being used is that since he is a popular NFL player people think that using the shower gel will make them literally smell like him meaning that they will attract more people.
The advertising conventions that are used is having the colour of the font being the same as shower gel so it links those two together. The fact it is on a beach as well is really calming and relaxing for the audience to see as there isn't too much going on. The horse is also a good factor of the advert since females tend to like animals so when they see one in the advert they are drawn to it more.
The product is represented with an attractive and strong male so that appeals to the female target audience as they see Isaiah in the advert and are instantly drawn to the product.

Lucozade sport:
The target audience for this advert is male athletes because on the front of the advert there is Gareth Bale who is a footballer. I also think it is aimed at 15-35 year olds as they are more younger.
The star vehicle for this is Gareth Bale and the connotations the audience would take is that because he is sporty that drinking the drink will make them more sport or more energetic.
The advertising conventions are that the footballer is on the front making people think that this drink is more for athletic people. Also the blue and yellow on the advert link in with the blue and yellow on the lucozade sport bottle. In brands the colour blue has connotations associated with depth, stability, trust, loyalty and confidence. It also has strong connotations with health as lots of health apps and logos have the same colour of blue. Yellow has connotations of energy and intellect. Both of these colours have been used to reflect the product and how it will make you feel.The product is represented as a high level energy drink that gives sports people like Gareth Bale fueled up and hydrated so they can be better at their sports.
This advert includes an interesting heading/catch phrase/slogan. The purpose of this is to inform the audience of the benefits of the sports drink. 'In a different league' has connotations of being better or worse than something, in this case better. The last sports drink was good but this drink is in a different league. It is the biggest text on the page and is the one of the main selling and focus points of the advertisement.

Shelter:
The target audience for the Shelter adverts are mainly aimed at families that are in need or scared of losing their homes but also aimed at people who have money to donate. People they help are victims of loss of homes. In some cases they may be disorganised with few resources but in other cases their losses may be from bad luck, for example being made redundant. As the audience is so wide they could be many different categories of people which is expected as it is a charity and everyone has through different experiences. Shelter believes that everyone deserves the right to have a home and not be scared of losing it. They won't stop till everyone has a home.
There is no star vehicle in this advert as it is not really appropriate as not many celebrities would have ever have to deal with loss of home. I believe that Shelter wants to use normal everyday people in their adverts to show that losing your home is something that could happen to anyone at anytime. Having a celebrity as they focus of the campaign may make the audience have lack of hope as getting to be as high up as a celebrity is a very unrealistic goal. In terms of conventions three slogans have been used. This is going against the conventions as one normally used. Each slogan has been placed over each person in need. This has been done to show to the audience that every person has their own story and has been impacted by poverty in someway. The font used is in sans serif. This gives the advert an aspect of seriousness to the advert. It could also connote that the they are shouting their problems like 'but where will we live?' as is shows how desperate they are.
The close up shots of the normal looking people shows their expression very clearly to the audience. The expression of sadness need and being fed up of life in general, this will be relatable to the target audience. The secondary audience of people donating to the charity 
will make them feel sympathy and therefore want to donate to the charity.




05/12/17 L/O: TO EXPLORE THE CONCEPT OF REPRESENTATION AND THE USE OF STEREOTYPES IN ADVERTISING AND BRANDING.

I think media helps create our world. I think that in some ways it obviously will affect peoples lives if they are portrayed in a bad way but it also helps because if someone has a point they want to get across, media can very easily do that. I do think media is a very helpful part of society though.

Representation is a mixture of four things, such as:
1. The thing itself.
2. The opinions of the people doing the representation.
3. The reaction of the individual to representation.
4. The context of the society in which the representation is taking place.

Stereotypes

         Male:

• Strong
• Independent
• Agressive 
• Tough 
• Decisive 
• Blunt
• Emotionless
• Insensitive
• Sporty
• Messy

        Female:

• Weak
• Dependent
• Calm
• Indecisive
• Overdramatic
• Emotional
• Sensitive
• Domestic
• Tidy
• Clean
• Pretty
• Perfect all the time

The Old Spice gender stereotype is stereotyping males by implying that the spray will make you smell like Isaiah and then presenting him shirtless to show he is strong as he has a toned body saying that males have to be strong. The age stereotypes being represented in this advert is the stereotype of...  The racial stereotypes being represented in this advert is the stereotype of a funny black guy, another stereotype is that african americans are good at american football and he is a NFL player and this was show at the superbowl. He is also riding a white horse when a knight who is coming to save a female does that normally in films.

The Lucozade sport advert gender stereotype is stereotyping because the man is stood up and is looking directly towards the camera, making direct address with the audience, this shows that he is very dominant. The fact that he is a footballer and is a male is quite stereotypical as not just men play football and this could lead to a unrealistic expectation that women don't play football. The age stereotypes being represented in this advert is the stereotype of saying that younger people are better at sport. The racial stereotypes being represented in this advert is the stereotype of...


The Shelter advert gender stereotype is that there isn't one since the shelter advert is aimed at both genders as everyone can need help when homeless, not one specific gender.  The age stereotypes being represented in this advert is the stereotype of saying they are young adults... The racial stereotypes being represented in this advert is the stereotype of... 

7/12/17  L/O: TO ANALYSE THE REPRESENTATIONS WITHIN SET ADVERTISING TEXTS.

Age

Babies and infants stereotypes:

• Cute
• Crying a lot of the time
• Messy
• Simple

Children stereotypes:

• Hyperactive
• Loud
• Messy
• Hormonal
• Argumentative

Teenagers stereotypes:

• Lazy
• Unsociable 
• Slobs

Young adults stereotypes:

• Unreliable 
• Independent
• Smokers
• Intelligent
• Working for low wages
• Graduate students

Middle aged stereotypes:

• Married
• Have a family
• Stern
• Misunderstanding
• Depressed
• Worried
• Organised
• Securely employed

Elderly stereotypes:

• Grumpy
• Mature
• Smelly
• Rude
• Caring
• Lonely
• Kind
• Understanding
• Sad 
• Mentally slow
• Physically slow
• Dependent

12/12/17 L/O:ANALYSE THE REPRESENTATIONS WITHIN SET ADVERTISING TEXTS.

EXAM PRACTICE:

Explain how representations in advertising are chosen to help sell the product of brand. Refer to two of the adverts you have studied.

Representations in adverts are helpful in selling the product of the brand because they make the advert unique and different from others, the representations that they choose to involve in the certain advert won't be the same as the representations included in other adverts making it therefore stand out and promote their brand better, especially if its something quite memorable as then everyone will remember it, therefore making it more successful as an advert for the brand.

Representations in advertising are chosen to help sell the product of the brand because in the shelter advert it includes three sad looking people with emotive language wrote across the top. This helps promote the product of brand because people will see their faces and see how sad they are therefore making people feel bad for them meaning that the audience want to help out the company, which then proves their advert has worked. Another representation included in the shelter advert is that they have included two females in the advert which is because people tend to feel more sympathy towards females when they are in trouble or upset so putting two females as the face of the brand and only one male is a smart idea to draw more people in to the brand and to help out people in need. There is a clear theme of red writing used in this advert which could connote fear or danger, this could be used because they want to emphasise the fact that the people the shelter company help are defiantly in danger of losing their homes which is making them fearful or scared of what may happen to them if they are homeless. Using red as their font colour is also a clever idea as the background is quite dark so the red will really stand out against that which means it will catch peoples attention if they just quickly saw it they would want to read the whole thing, hopefully promoting the brand more.

In the Old spice advert representations are chosen to help sell the product of the brand by using a stereotypical male. Mostly because males are stereotypical muscular and strong, so when they are aiming their brand at males but mostly couples as the females will normally buy the shower gel for their partners so they have picked a famous NFL player that lots of Americans know and love and made the slogan of the brand "smell like a man, man" so when females see that that will instantly draw them in but then they also see the stereotypical man on the advert which makes them want to buy it more since they think their partner will be more like Isaiah if they buy that shower gel for them so then they buy it for them therefore the brand has been successful in their marketing idea. Red writing is also used in this but for a different reason, it could be used because the bottle is red but also because red can connote romance so when females see this it may make them more likely to buy it as stereotypically females like romance so thats what they may think when they see the colour red on the bottle and on the advert. The horse is also a good representation since females again stereotypically like animals so the horse may even persuade them to buy it even more.

9/1/18 L/O:TO REFLECT AND IMPROVE ON OUR EXAM MOCK.

• Write equally about my 2 or 3 texts.
• Clear and precise and balanced explanation of how representations are chosen to promote the advert.
• Better and more punctuation (not really long sentences).
• More detail.
• Audience theory, where relevant.
• Capital letters.
• Use full name or just their surname when referring to the celebrities in the adverts.
• Accurate terminology, make sure I know the names of all of the elements of the adverts.
• Target audience: Old Spice - Product Vs Advert.
• Analysis structure.

In order to improve on my exam mock answer I need to use more terminology and Include audience theory and make sure sure I include the target audience for each product.

23/04/19 L/O:TO REVIEW AND APPLY CONTEXT AND REPRESENTATION TO OLD SPICE ADVERT.







target audience is still the same - woman




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The product uses and subverts the conventional genre stereotypes of masculinity associated with adverts for such products and brands by using a fit and good looking man to promote the product, they also quite often show the model shirtless showing off his body, including abs and muscles.

The product has used the colour blue in the advert which connotes masculinity and freshness involved in the product as a way to advertise it more to males but also to females as females are their target audience because they want the females to buy it for their partners so they also trying to make it appeal to females, hence the shirtless toned body that they know woman will like.