LESSON 28: STEREOTYPES IN ADVERTS

In lesson 27 we looked at the issue of issues - cause related adverts that had a clear aim in putting across a way of looking at the world, a desire to change how the audience thought about the particular issue, even to change audience behaviours.

We now need to consider a key element in adverts : the use of stereotypes.

Stereotypes are best defined as the giving of common attributes to a group or individual based on the behaviours of similar individuals or groups. Such actions may not always be negative - eg all people who wear glasses are intelligent. However, whilst serving the advertiser as a simple way to convey their messages about products or the users of their products, they often perpetuate a society's beliefs about the group being represented.

LESSON 28: CAUSE FOR CONCERN

We need to consider that not all advertising is 'bad'.  Adverts have a reason to exist - they create awareness of new products which we may genuinely desire and wish to buy. The issue where advertising comes into criticism is the extent to which such media products intentionally manipulate audiences by using techniques that play upon our vulnerabilities.

Some adverts have a different intention.  the political or propaganda advert that attempts to sell us a cause that requires our attention if not our help in terms of donations.

Such adverts employ the methods of their overtly commercial brethren to gain our attention in a crowded market and busy lives.

Provide a reading of this advert:

[1] in what ways does it employ 'commercial' ideas?

[2] Is it shocking? if so why/why not? [consider that some audiences might find it shocking]

[3] Can such shock tactics be justified - how/how not?

What about this advert from an American campaign?  Answer the same points as above

LESSON 27: TARGETING THE AUDIENCE

This lesson is a development of the ideas we began in lesson 25

We will focus on how audiences are identified and then constructed by media products and those responsible for marketing them

As a starter, let's look at an advert that will have its TV premiere at the end of this week on SKY TV

BECKHAM HAIG WHISKEY ADVERT

Directed by Guy Ritchie tells us this a heavyweight advert with serious friends being utilized.

We might wish to consider which Beckham is in use here - think back to our work earlier on polysemics and anchorage.  Beckham is already receiving some criticism about endorsing an alcohol brand, in fact he is more than endorsing it as it is his own label whiskey that Haig are marketing. Notice, he doesn't actually drink the product but is part of a scene of friendship in which alcohol platys a very distinctive role.

[1] What qualities of the brand are being marketed? How is this attempted? [think music; photography/cinematography].

[2] How is Beckham used in this ? [maybe consider how this compares to the Intimacy advert we looked at in lesson 23]

[3] Do you consider this to be an effective advert [for its target market]? Why/Why not?

LESSON 26: GETTING TO GRIPS

This lesson is important for consolidating the work on the brief for MEST2 and for starting the deeper theory work that will dominate lessons 30 onwards.

We will be exploring adverting.  We will begin this by first looking at what actually constitutes an advert, what is its intention?  We will then look at how this is undertaken, how the intention is realised. we will do this by starting with a look at who we are and how our complexities can be reduced to a series of categories that allow advertisers to manipulate us to their needs by creating some needs and desires for us.

LESSON 25: COURSEWORK BRIEF SELECTION

By now you have had time to select which brief it is you are going to spend the next 6 months developing.  

The briefs and the AQA guidance for these are on the MEST2 tab of this blog.

We now need you to indicate which brief and to start the research for your products.

A suggestion is that we first look at logos - how do media institutions logos represent who they are and their ideology

The logo must be:
[1] graphically interesting
[2] convey an image of the company's work [music; film etc]
[3] convey a sense of what the company are about - modern; quirky; etc

How, for example, do these logos reflect characteristics above? Are they effective?

Write 50 words on two of them [or any other logo] - describing their intentions and why you feel they are a good example for your own work. How do these convey aspects of the identity of their brand?

Write 100 words on two of these [or any other media institution such as a TV station, Film company, Magazine, Radio station, Music company] to match your chosen brief

LESSON 24: ADVERTS AS ARTIFACTS II

We looked in lesson 23 at some basic ideas of representation - how adverts were a litmus test of prevailing zeitgeist of a society. We analysed a series of adverts from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and tried to understand how each represented changes in those societies [marketing coke as a product associated with friendship rather than its qualities as a beverage; TWA as freedom rather than a plane ride; frozen food as guilt-free solution for busy mothers etc]

Now we need to put some of these into practice.  We have developed sufficient tools to analyse a text in terms of its construction [media forms; mise-en-scene; anchorage; polysemics], its contextual factors and now its social representations and ideologies - its zeitgeist.

The controversial product above is an advert for Dolce and Gabbana's recent campaign that aroused hostilities from groups who saw it as typical of media products that seek to confront audiences with images designed to shock and create an image for the brand of being edgy and challenging. D&G frequently utilise the idea of selling the sizzle not the sausage - the idea of the idealised fantasy lifestyle not the clothes.

The advert for Kraft salsa also is indicative of a sex sells approach to advertising that we have touched on already and might be said to be a useful example of Norman Douglas's observation of the ideals of a society being apparent in its advertising.

We now turn to the tab at the top of this blog  'MEST1 EXAM' for TASK 1.

LESSON 23: ADVERTS AS ARTEFACTS

This lesson is all about exploring adverts as artefacts - what do adverts tell us about the society and culture that created them.  Adverts are all about creating images of desire, a need, a wanting in their  audience for their product.

lesson objectives:

•        To introduce basic issues surrounding advertising

•        To develop capabilities of product analysis

•        To understand why the study of adverts is an important indicator of social and cultural issues

      Norman Douglas comment that you can tell the ideals of a nation from its adverts is a crucial one to understand - adverts represent what might be best defined as the pressing desires and needs of a society.  The things we hold to be most important to us.  For most advert breaks placed in front of us during the day this might be boiled down to 'good hair; compensation for perceived grievances; easy money; car insurance; beer; shopping.

      We watch - as a nation - 1.6 Billion TV adverts every day.  What other activity so preoccupies us as a nation?