All posts by Daniel Mendonca
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Statement of intent: nea Personal product
I intent my product to be seen in two different views and ideologies. First my advert will contain a modern approach set as a reactionary view of men, that all men wish to be manly and want to be strong and have muscles. It will be a target market of 18 – 45, young adult to older men who wish to be fit and stereotypically attractive to women. On the other hand, the second advert will be a radical view in the sense that the dominant signifier will be a female based in an earlier era such as the 60’s and the whole idea will be based around that woman can work out and be strong and muscular too.
In the first advert, it will be a sort of personal attack and a bit degrading in a sense, like modern advertising now. I will be using methods to subtly manipulate the target audience to believing that they need the protein powder to be fit and muscular as well as instilling a toxic ideology that all men want to be strong to also be stereotypically attractive to women. To generate more sales, the dominant signifier, a man will wear a fake muscular outfit with the idea that you don’t need to fake it, you can be it, by buying the “my protein” product. I’ve recently tired to portray this by using certain features in the advert such as a indexical sign that stands out to say something along the lines of “Build more muscle now!” and other symbols to try to steer the customer to buy the product and assure that this is what they want. The main object, being the protein will be held by the main subject in the ad who is also the dominant signifier, or instead placed in front of the flash lighting with soft boxes, it will create a professional image for the protein to created a signified field. It will attain a negative stereotype that all men want to be muscular, this follows the ideas of the score SCP that the man can get what he’s “always wanted”. The ad is trying to construct an identity amongst the market for everyone to fit and healthy and the only way to do so is to consume protein powder, it doesn’t promote exercise itself, just promotes the protein powder itself. There will be an anchorage with the indexical sign and tagline “It doesn’t have to be fake, it can be real” with the idea that the dominant signifier and the customer will be ashamed with their appearance and will want to be big and muscular. The image of the anchor will be the dominant signifier. The denotation of the ad will be to obviously generate more sales for my product as if it were a real product to be sold. I will be trying to professionally recreate and generate my own ideas for an advertisement with both radical and reactionary ideas. I will be bringing my own protein powder to be used in the ad as well as sporty clothing and something to substitute for the reactionary idea of men wanting to be strong. I followed the style model by following the ideas of the very muscular man pared with the protein in a syntagm to show that the protein powder helps the man become very strong. A health and fitness company would make my product in order to sell to the large market. This is directly related to the company in the style model “My Protein”.
On the other hand, we have the second ad that will be based on radical ideas. It will be a female, perhaps based in the 60’s/70’s, an era where woman were subjects to sexism and degrading advertising in a voyeuristic manner to take advantage of the male gaze to produce more sales. However, my ad will be a radical representation as the female will not be sexualised at all and will follow an idea that women can be strong and muscular too. This is a counter-stereotype to oppose ideas that women are below men and cannot do what men can do. I will do this by getting a female in non-sexualised clothing who looks serious and strong whilst holding the protein, the idea is that the female is very serious about the idea of fitness and becoming strong also, which is a clear radical idea, specifically in the era the ad will be held in, this all fits to be a syntagm. The audience of this advert will be women who wish to be strong and muscular also and to be respected and feared, to oppose to typical social constructs. In a sense the ad is a rebellion for women to break out of the sexist society of the era.
CSP 3: Score
Media language Analysis
Semiotic Analysis:
- The Dominant signifier is the male who has been placed above all the women. He is surrounded by a paradigm of women who clearly are holding the man in a higher status, they are beneath him both literally and metaphorically. There is a code where the man is holding a weapon and seems to be in a dangerous jungle like area, this holds meaning to the fact that the man is strong and supposed to be shown as attractive to women, saying if you use their product it will make you manly and irresistible to women. This is a reactionary view of the time as during the era of this advert it was normal for women to be discriminated and seen to be beneath men, hence the use of women holding the man above them. The anchorage of the phrase “Get what you’ve always wanted” followed by the image of the man being held above the women all under the theoretical spell of his masculine appeal.
Textual Analysis:
- They’re in a jungle type setting, which allows the females in the ad to wear their supposedly safari clothing, which is just clearly a over sexualised type outfit, to clearly be attractive to the presumed straight male that the ad is targeted at.
- A main male character, with a well cut clean shave, (to promote the product of course).
- The main heading “Get what you’ve always wanted” – Text that attracts the customers and the target market.
- 5 Female characters being used as a marketing strategy to appeal to the target market.
Representational Analysis:
- This ad is a clear representation of the Patriarchy, the women are clearly being used in this constructive reality where they are here only to serve to men, the ad is trying to create a collective identity that if men use their product they will “Get what they’ve always wanted”. Based on contextual ideas, this is all a tool used to generate more sales and produce more loyal costumers, which of course, is a main purpose of an advert.
- The text clearly follows some voyeuristic ideas, as well as the use of the male gaze, to once again, like mentioned before, appeal to the target market of the presumed straight male.
- This ad is an bold representation of body positivity values and the fair and equal representation of women during the time period. From my own knowledge, during this era women were discriminated against and were not treated anywhere near as equal to men. Men were considered protectors of women and that women were to do as they were told by their husbands. As men went out for work and earned the majority, if not all of the money for the family, the wife would stay home and take care of the kids and the home. I believe that therefore, the use of the women in this advert, represents this old ideology and tradition.
The narrative:
The narrative of this advert is that if the man in the advert was not using the score hair grooming product, he would not be worshiped and wouldn’t be attractive to women, that he would not be as manly. The main title and strap line of “Get what you’ve always wanted” directly points out to the audience of the advert and uses a subtle manipulation of the reader, that in fact YOU do want what is being shown in the ad, that YOU want Score grooming product. It implies that that all men want it, this is a toxic masculine idea which clearly creates some issues but yet, it’s what “you’ve always wanted”. It also follows ideas that men want to be better than everyone and want to be attractive to women, but it can only happen, the thing that they’ve “always wanted”, if they buy their product and shave using their grooming products.
Csp 4: Maybelline
- The use of a male star in the advert is a progressive field in the beauty area of advertising: In this advert they have used.
- The ad is trying to adhere to all gender, sexuality, race and social class. This can be seen as a strong social statement, but also as a clever marketing strategy to appeal to everyone, to obviously gain the biggest profit and return.
- The ad also does use a popular influencer as their male star, another marketing strategy and fits into 2-step flow model.
- Internet backlash that went down this week over ASOS’ choker necklaces for men;; As writer David Yi over at Allure put it, the backlash “promotes the dangerous sentiment that men are supposed to adhere to hypermasculine culture.
- A stat gathered from 26 Aug 2021 — In 2020, an estimated 4.48 million people used Maybelline eye make-up — This clearly shows that their very expensive advertising campaigns work very well.
- Maybelline have a very active social media status, they create a hashtag in the video to generate more sales of their product, a smart marketing strategy. They also have an active twitter account where they try to post relatable jokes to gain more interest into their company and their products.
- The posture in their video shows a transformation from the regular casual clothing and confidence to — after use of their product, it creates a constructed reality where they are now more glamorous and more confident, a total transformation.
- The target market are regular people with no specific high income needed, it is a relatively cheap product and like mentioned in the previous point, it transforms you — creating the idea that anyone can be glamourous if you buy Maybelline’s product.
- The product is also in a shining gold which is trying to symbolise it’s value as a marketing strategy.
My product model
- QUANTITIVE:
- – Social class: Of all class – Middle and upper, but targeted mainly at middle
- – Income: Stable/ upper amounts – they’re a premium price so are targeted at more stable and higher amounts of income of people
- – Education: A above average education. A good understanding of the human body and what certain protein products do for you and your training
- – Target consumer: Adults who are aiming to become more physically fit, as well as being targeted at body builders and people who also aim to gain and produce muscle mass and/or burn fat
- QUALITATIVE:
- – The aspirer: Motivated by esteem and status, they want to be viewed and watched by others through their hard work in training. The training creates esteem for the user.
- – The succeeder: They are motivated by control, control in their lifestyle and health. They possess high self-confidence and a heavy goal-orientation.
Uses and Gratifications
Research product 1: Nivea Shaving cream | Research product 2: Jimmy Choo Man After shave | My product: Protein powder | |
Understanding self | Helps you discover the facial hair look you’d like | Helps you discover what scent suits you best | Helps you understand your body’s needs and what you want your body to look like |
Enjoyment | Being clean shaven | Gaining enjoyment in smelling good for women | Enjoyment out of becoming more physically fit and strong, as well as looking more attractive to others |
Escapism | Escape issues and worry about self-improving and living a better healthy lifestyle | ||
Knowledge about the world | |||
Self confidence, self esteem | Confidence knowing you are nicely shaved or cut | Confidence in smelling good | Confidence in physical and mental well-being |
Strengthen connections with family and/or friends | Can be a widely excepted gift for family or friends with facial hair | Can be bought as a gift in many occasions for family and/or friends | Can be also bought as gift or you can help family or friends with heavy lifting or other hard tasks |
Any other category or theme | Gaining greater social gratitude and appreciation due to smelling better |
nivea men product model
ADVERTISING
– Clearly there is some voyeuristic, dominant signified ideas being portrayed in this advert. A massive over-sexualisation of the female gender.
– There is a clear constructed reality in the sense that using their body wash will attract these sexual desires in both genders.
– There is a male gaze feature here as the product is targeted towards men and the female is clearly being over-sexualised
– There could also be features of selective representation in the sense that it only represents and targets the views of the presumed straight male
– This is a negative stereotype towards woman that if men use AXE body wash they will instantaneously become sexually attracted to that man, creating dangerous and incorrect ideas about their representation
– This is a reactionary view of woman being used in this advert to produce more sales to their target audience of the presumed straight male
– The paradigm of the items of the body brush versus the whip shows a indexical sign of the objective of the advert to sexualise their product effectively
– This is a ideologist representation of male products being shown to be a signified show of how the products are used to attract women
- QUANTITIVE:
- – Social class: Commoner; targeted at lower social classes not particularly with any high social status.
- – Income: Lower; the price of the product is lower as it is targeted at the lower income civilians. Minimum wage and higher up until before premium incomes.
- – Education: No particular intelligence groups targeted. Basic understanding of hygiene.
- – Target consumer: Sexually active adults and/or any adult who are intrigued in voyeuristic ideas, specifically targeted at the presumed straight male.
- QUALITATIVE:
- – The mainstreamer; a regular person of common social class who buy products in an active consumer way. Relating to our male target consumer in a way that it is a cheap product and a basic need for most men, fitting into mainstreamer qualitative ideas, as well as targeting sexualised ideas.
Nivea men:
- Representational analysis: A reactionary view when regarding women, they are being used as a dominant ideology where woman are used as an incentive for men to buy their product.
- Semiotic analysis: The dominant signifier for this product is the male being shaven clean by the secondary signifier, the female where the product is being used appropriately to attract more sales at the target audience of the presumed straight male.
- Textual analysis: The iconic sign illustrated here is the Nivea men shaving cream, a dominant signified idea of men’s products massively attracting women
- QUANTITVE:
- – Social class: Commoner; targeted at lower social classes not particularly with any high social status.
- – Income: Lower; the price of the product is lower as it is targeted at the lower income civilians. Minimum wage and higher up until before premium incomes.
- – Education: No particular intelligence groups targeted. Basic understanding.
- – Target consumer: Adult males with facial hair or other body hair. Slight sexual characteristics with presumed straight male connotations.
- QUALITATIVE:
- – The mainstreamer: a regular person of common social class who buy products in an active consumer way – Relating to our male target consumer in a way that it is a cheap product and a basic need for most men, fitting into mainstreamer qualitative ideas.
audience theory
NOTES:
– Increase in audience research during WW2, propaganda used through a hypodermic model
– Hypodermic model (passive consumption): done as told through media and adverting… such as propaganda during WW2
– Passive consumption, very significant to advertising – the slow and instilled forced idea and/or belief into someone own theories through various media techniques
– Active consumption: The people engage in the media themselves, consciously, to then buy a product by choice, despite it may being an ill wise decision
– 2 step flow of communication: When the information for the media is the first step, and then the info goes to the main influencers to then be consumed by the masses through the influencers
– Lasswell’s Linear Model of Communication: Who (sender)…. Says What (message)…. Channel (medium)…. To Whom (receiver)…. The Effect (Feedback)
– In 1927 Harold Lasswell wrote Propaganda Technique in the World War which highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers . . . knocked them into submission’