INTRODUCTION TO ADVERTISING
Advertisements are messages promoting something which one organisation has paid another to carry |
Approx ‘adspend’ in the UK in2024 was 40.5 billion. A 10.6% increase since 2023 due to digital growth and increased investment around the ‘Euros’ and the General Election. |
Areas of advertising that declined in 2019: Direct mail (i.e. junk mail) – down 4.5% Regional newsbrands – down 11.7% Radio – down 2.8% In 2024 advertising on Twitter (X) and traditional media were all down. |
Areas of advertising that grew in 2019: Video-on-demand – up 16.7% Out-of-home digital (i.e. digital billboards and posters) – up 17.1% In 2024 online, TV and mobile advertising grew. |
FOUR THINGS an advert must do to be effective: get noticed, persuade the audience, be memorable, identify the product |
What might an ad persuade the audience to do?:
1. donate to charity
2. join an organisation
3. change our behaviour
4. vote for a political party |
TIDE - context and representation
Historical context 1950s
- post WW2 consumer boom
- new technologies
- designed to make domestic life easier
- washing machines became desirable products
- these needed new types of washing powder
During WW2 women assumed traditionally male roles, and after the war men returned to these jobs and women mainly returned to domestic jobs. the 1950s media wanted to encourage a return to pre-war gender roles. |
TIDE
- particularly made for machine cleaning
- proctor and gamble 1946
- brand leader
- DMB&B advertising agency
- print ads were supported by radio and tv creating brand identity |
Stuart Hall defintion of stereotype: representation that consists of a few simple characteristics or traits.
Stereotypes are widely held but fixed and oversimplified images/ideas and are constructed in media through a limited range of codes, repeated often. |
Gender stereotypes in adverts now are regulated by the Advertising Standards Agency - harmful gender stereotypes are not allowed |
Women in Tide advert are:
- all white
- dressed similarly
- similar hair and make up
- domestic/family oriented
- all very happy |
GAUNTLET: identity theory:
Media provides us with the tools we use to construct our identities.
In the past this tended to be singular, reductive images of gender identities.
Media representation is now more diverse
We are offered a range of identities and can pick and mix ideas to construct our identities |
TIDE media language
The tide advert has a lot of text, technological advancements needed to be explained in more detail in the 1950s |
Tide, in comparison to modern adverts, are more gendered, focusing on images with housewives and outdated ideas that laundry is a "woman's job" |
Connects clean clothes to status |
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Levi-strauss BINARY OPPOSITES |
- Strauss argued that we define our values through their opposites |
- Binary means there are two options |
- can be thought of as an idea or characteristic versus its opposite |
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Binary opposites in Tide |
Tide vs other brands - "tide gets clothes cleaner than any other washday product you can buy!" |
Tide vs soap - "no soap, no other suds" |
Tide vs dirt - "clean" repeated |
Tide vs dirty laundry - the add offers the "whitest" and "brightest" wash |
TIDE - other theories
GAUNTLET IDENTITY THEORY: Tide advert characters – familiar to 1950s female audience as representation of own lives Characters act as ‘role models’ for domestic perfection. Construction of ‘identity’. The depiction of the passive housewife throughout the twentieth century was increasingly being replaced by images of assertive women taking control of their lives, epitomised by the “girl power” endorsed by those such as the Spice Girls. |
GERBNER CULTIVATION THEORY: mainly studies the long-term impact of television on the audience, in a specific group of people: The longer it watches TV, the closer the audience's perception of reality is, to the content of the TV. |
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY BULMER AND KATZ: suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media. Bulmer and Katz believed that the user seeks out the media source that best fulfils their needs. |
bell hooks: Lighter skinned women are considered more desirable and fit better into the western ideology of beauty. Promotes the ‘oppositional gaze’ – The ‘housewife’ might be a symbol of sexist/patriarchal oppression. Ideology of ‘domination’ |
LIEBST VAN ZOONEN: The display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked being a core element of western patriarchal culture. Women as submissive and passive. Construction focuses on an ‘ideal’ shape. |
JUDITH BUTLER: Identity is ‘performed’ through the construction of what ‘gender’ is considered to be. Gender performativity is not a ‘singular’ act, but a repetition of what has gone before and a ritual |
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Kiss of the Vampire poster
KISS OF THE VAMPIRE context
Kiss of the Vampire was released in 1963 |
Early stages of second-wave feminism |
Made by the British studio Hammer - strongly associated with horror and monster movies |
Women as victims was a recognisable convention of monster movies in the 1960s |
Tendency to combine passive women with sexualised representations |
Most posters use images of passive female victims... |
... BUT ... Kiss of the Vampire also depicts a woman with connotations of power |
Similarity + difference (Neale genre theory) |
Cold war: Period of tension between Communist / East and Capitalist / West. Widespread feelings of fear and paranoia- of communist states, spies, double agents and nuclear war. |
‘Profumo Affair’: John Profumo – Secretary of State for War (age 46) and had an affair with a showgirl – Christine Keeler (age 19). She was also having ‘relations’ with a Russian (rumored to be a spy). Profumo lied about this in an investigation. Newspapers covered the story in great detail for months. Profumo confessed and resigned, but Keeler was blamed and shamed by the press |
Everyone in the audience would be aware of the Profumo affair The female vampire shares a similar ‘look’ to Christine Keeler |
‘Femme fatale’ stereotype |
The Kiss of the Vampire poster uses established objectified representations of women |
BUT ALSO representations that might challenge this |
KISS OF THE VAMPIRE representation
WOMAN ON THE LEFT: Slumped, lifeless – unconscious or even dead. Carried / supported by male character. Weak, vulnerable, victimised. Not an empowering representation of women. Head tipped back – exposes her neck. Tight silky dress. Exposed neck and upper chest. Both sexualised and passive / submissive |
WOMAN ON THE RIGHT: Far more active – captured in motion. The woman is in control of a lifeless male figure. She is being bitten – but presents resistance. Dress tightly fitted around the chest and exposing skin. Although her dress is looser than the other woman’s, it still shows her figure. |
MAN ON THE LEFT: he seems fearful – readable in his expression. Defensive gesture – shielding his body. |
Male fears of powerful women |
Men had always been more powerful than women, not this was being challenged |
They might identify with the male vampire – scared and defensive in proximity to the powerful woman |
Most likely to be drawn to the female vampire: Brighter colours. Sharper lines. She’s in front of the text – the male vampire is partially obscured by it |
The left hand side of the poster could be seen as the ‘old’ way – passive woman being controlled by a man |
The right hand side represents a challenge to this |
As the right hand side is more prominent, it could suggest the old way being ‘edged out’ |
HOWEVER... |
... Feminism was still ‘new’ and not widely recognised |
Audiences with more conservative views of gender get what they expect on the left hand side of the poster |
Younger, more progressive audiences might read a subtle social message into the poster |
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SUPER. HUMAN. context
Created to promote the 2020 Paralympic Games by Bradford Young, the Oscar nominated cinematographer and the first African American cinematographer to be nominated for an award in 2017 for his work on the film Arrival. |
Devised and created by Channel 4’s in house creative agency 4Creative and produced by Serial Pictures and Somesuch |
This trailer is the third campaign for the Paralympics undertaken by Channel 4 |
Explores the sacrifices made and the trials endured by Paralympic athletes in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. |
So You Wanna Be a Boxer (from the soundtrack to Bugsy Malone) |
So You Wanna Be a Boxer has a similarly positive message but also includes the idea of being determined to succeed when others might not believe in you |
SUPER. HUMAN. media language
Images focusing on mundane, every-day routine |
Images focused on personal life outside of sport |
But also hobbies, such as playing drums |
Direct mode of address: Athletes shown outside of the context of sport, showing their personalities |
Uses of video shot on a phone, authentic and immediate – a sense of the ‘real’ |
SUPER. HUMAN. representation
Medical model of disability: Established in Victorian era. Understood disability as a “problem” with the body that stopped it from performing to the norm |
Social model of disability: Established 1960s. Distinguishes between impairment and disability. People with impairments are only disabled if society fails to accommodate them |
The ad shows how much disabled people can achieve |
But something as small as a step (and an ignorant café owner) can stop them from accessing parts of life that others take for granted |
This is part of the broader awareness-raising purpose of the ad |
It is designed to advertise the Paralympic footage on Channel 4 |
But also to raise awareness around disability in general |
Media producers actively choose elements of media language … and place them alongside others to construct representations |
The advert has been careful to avoid stereotypes of disabled people |
3 common representations of disabled people: victim, villain, hero |
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Rather than construct disabled people as ‘other’, the producers emphasise shared experience by including footage of athletes in everyday situations such as waking up in the morning, eating breakfast and spending time with their families. |
The frequent use of close-ups and point-of-view shots support this by personalising the athletes and aligning the audience with them. |
The focus of the advert is on athletes striving to achieve at an elite level. Focusing on their commitment and the physical effects of their training prevents them from being stereotyped as ‘heroes’. |
There is diversity in terms of gender, race and ethnicity, as well as different kinds of disability being represented |
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Consider Gauntlet identity theory |
The way the advert focuses on what disabled people can do, rather than what they can’t |
The focus on aspects of disabled identity not often seen in media (such as the café sequence) |
This woman is wearing a bonnet - something black women sometimes wear to care for their hair |
Representation of natural black hair is still relatively uncommon |
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consider bell hooks theory |
Recognizes that social classifications (e.g., race, gender, sexual identity, class, etc.) are interconnected, and that ignoring their intersection creates oppression towards women and changes the experience of living as a woman in society |
SHOT example 1
This shot emphasises the distance the athlete has to travel carrying the heavy weight
Tracking shot
The soundtrack includes heavy his heavy, emphasising exertion
SHOT example 2
This exertion is sometimes so extreme the athletes are sick!
Soundtrack includes visceral gagging sounds
also clip showing bruise
Emphasising the pain and discomfort that comes with training at this level
SHOT example 3
THE ABOVE SHOT IS FROM A SEQUENCE - same action, different shirt
This part of the advert uses jump cuts
Combining two non-continuous shots
Same person, same scenario, same camera angle
But the change in clothes mean the shots can’t be continuous: time must have passed in between them
The effect here is to condense time
And communicate that this is a routine activity for this athlete
SHOT example 4
What connotations does this image have? (followed by athlete training)
Discipline
Order
Hard work
Routine
What meaning is created when it is combined with this image?
The athlete’s training regime requires a similar kind of dedication and discipline as being in the army
SHOT example 5
What connotations does this image have?
Pain!
Joyful once the baby is born – but the process is long and painful
What meaning is created when it is combined with this image?
The facial expression is very similar
Draws parallels between the pain of childbirth and the hard work of training
SUPER. HUMAN. - intellectual montage
Taking two images that each have their own meaning… |
... and combining them to create a different meaning |
The third meaning is a result of the combination of the two images |
Based on a film experiment by Lev Kuleshov |
Highlighted the power of editing in controlling audience’s perception of emotion and their own emotional responses |
CAFE SEQUENCE
This moment in the advert emphasises the social model of disability
There is no reason someone in a wheelchair cannot eat a fry-up in a café…
… unless the café hasn’t accounted for disabled customers and made the building accessible
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