Gender Essay

Essay


Advertisements can often be heavily influenced by gender differences, patriarchy and objectification. Gender is defined as the masculinity or femininity of a person's character, often something a person is able to decide, differing from a person's which is the biological identification of someone whether that be male or female. Patriarchy is a society dominated by men which is often presented in advertisements. Objectification is to demean someone and see them as an object, usually done in a sexual manner. The first advertisement has been produced by Hugo Boss, a luxury brand that produces products for both men and women however tend to appeal more towards men. The second advertisement is by Beyoncé's in which Beyoncé herself is modeling for. This advertisement appeals directly to women.

The Hugo Boss advertisement is of a man facing the audience whilst a woman is positioned behind  the man seductively facing him. The camera shot is a medium close up, displaying the man from his head to his chest and for the woman, the face as her chest is covered by the man's shoulder, implying that the man is very dominant whereas the woman is submissive to the man which shows reinforces a sense of patriarchy. The costumes worn by the models consist of suits and dresses showing the audience the importance of status which is generated through wealth. The product itself is shown on the right side of the advertisement to show the audience what the product can do for them. The lighting is brighter in the centre of the advertisement and darker in the corners. This is to establish a sense of attention and how the fragrance has made the man and woman the centre of attention. The fragrance was named "The Scent" implying a sense of perfection and being the main choice for fragrances. In the advertisement both men and women are being objectified in a subtle manner as to the audience they can appear to be pleasing to view without blatantly sexualising them. The advertisement embraces the stereotype that men are dominant through the positioning of the models. The man is placed ahead of the the woman, identifying him as a leader whilst the woman is behind the man, establishing her as a follower however in this case it seems as though she is seduced by the man which also embraces objectification of men and women.

The fragrance by Beyoncé consists of Beyoncé being presented to the audience in hyper sexualised manner, holding on to neon poles. The advertisement uses a medium long shot to display Beyoncé's body to the audience. This initially appears to be extremely objectifying to women as it makes them out to be figures for men to gaze at. Beyoncé wears a revealing silk dress in the advertisement to make herself appear more glamorous, linking to the purpose of the product which makes the user's scent much more glamorous. The product is shown on the left side of the advertisement so that the audience are aware of what the producers are attempting to advertise. The lighting focuses primarily on Beyoncé with a glow of light coming from behind her, implying to the audience that the product will leave you glowing. There is also significantly more lighting on Beyoncé's breasts and hips which reinforce gender stereotypes being that women exist to serve men. The slogan however contrasts with the gender stereotypes and objectification in the advertisement as it reads "Feel The Power" suggesting that the advertisement and product were created with the intention of empowering women. This could be justified by implying that men fall prey to a woman's seduction, allowing women to discreetly manipulate and control men. The slogan contrasting with an initial interpretation of the advertisement indicates that the advertisement does not challenge patriarchy but rather takes advantage of it through the use of seduction and objectification. 

The two advertisements embrace gender stereotypes and take advantage of them within a consumerist society that the audience live in. The ideologies of the advertisements are still quite prevalent across the advertising industry as it is heavily influential and the controversy that it can create can be beneficial as it spreads the advertisements to the a larger audience group. Attempts to challenge gender stereotypes have been successful as the ASA & UN have banned certain advertisements due to their extreme gender stereotyping and objectification.

Distribution & Cross Media Advertising

	Strengths	Potential problems	Examples
Viral advertising	Can reach a large number of the audience in a short amount of time.	The advertisement may not go viral so the distributors have to carefully place	Evian had produced a viral advertisement called 'Evian Roller Babies'.
Native advertising	Discreetly persuades the audience without revealing the fact that it is an advertisement they are viewing.	Sometimes the audience may not see the disguised advert and the message may not be conveyed	Certain articles published on websites such as The Guardian or Forbes are often native advertisements such as the article promoting Fidelity on Forbes' website.
Targeted advertising	Directly targets the audience based on their preferences, usually making them successful	The audience are able to use ad blockers to avoid targeted advertising.	Advertisement in social media platforms such as Amazon having spaces on audiences' newsfeeds on Facebook.
Shoppables and Influencers	The audience are more likely to purchase products which influencers or celebrities own and wear.	This can cost the distributors much more money as they have to pay the influencers and celebrities and also provide them with the products, sometimes an abundance.	Celebrities sponsored by brands such as Puma sponsoring celebrities such as Rihanna, Kylie Jenner & The Weeknd.

Persil Avert Analysis

Textual Analysis Table

Textual Analysis Table- Moving Image

	Denotation / what can be seen	Connotation / what is the meaning? Representation
Camera- angle, size and movement	Multiple medium shots. Voice over shot Dolly shots	Medium shots establish the different celebrities doing their activities. Voice over shot keeps the advertisement consistent and displays a clear message to the audience, also showing the audience that the objective of the products are clear yet the multiple shots give it a variety.
Editing including any SFX	Iconic music throughout the entire advertisement. Combination of music and sound within the scenes.	Music can be recognized by the audience, allowing them to empathise throughout the advertisement, allowing them to feel nostalgia and giving them the impression that the products will give them a nostalgic feeling.
Sound- diegetic, non-diegetic, narration etc.	Non-diegetic sound for the music. Diegetic sound for the events happening within the shots.	This allows multiple shots to be included whilst playing the same song to convey the same message across the multiple settings.
Mise-en-scene: location, costume, props, lighting	Cast of celebrities, all wearing a variety of the brand's products. Multiple locations, celebrity homes, iconic locations, streets. Clothing worn by the celebrities are similar to outfits worn by average people such as the majority of the audience.	Convinces the audience that iconic people, possibly their favourite celebrities use the products, persuading the audience to purchase their products. Setting shows the audience that the products are compatible in any setting.

Developments In The Advertising Industry

The Guardian Article

The article posted on 'The Guardian discusses a significant change in the advertising industry, specifically how there has been a great decline in advertising views correlating to advertising success. The article mentions statistics and how institutions are reacting to the decline in marketing success.

The main challenge that advertising industries are facing is the audience's reluctance to actually view the advertisements that the industries are targeting towards them. The target audience have always managed to find a way to avoid viewing advertisements. An example of this is ad blockers that users install to block adverts from popping up so that they can view whatever content that they were originally trying to access. Another way the target audience has managed to view content without advertising to disrupt their experience is streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. These are subscription streaming services that the audience pay for to access a range of television shows and films. As the subscriptions are paid for, the streaming service have no need to generate revenue through advertisement. 

Advertising industries have somewhat managed to overcome ad blocking and avoidance of advertisement through native advertising which is when industries disguise their advertisement as the content that the audience is trying to access. Known examples include newsfeed articles on websites or social media. Although the content may appear to be interesting content, such as a top ten list or a miraculous story, it subtly promotes and advertises a product by disguising it as being part of the content or mentioning it within the article or list. An example of this could be a list of "7 of accessories everyone needs to own" and within that list the advertised product could be recommended or mentioned to the audience however not in a way that makes it seem obvious that they are being advertised to. Industries also use branded content to promote their brand and products. An event could be hosted by an institution and in throughout the event there would be constant branding. RedBull had paid for and hosted a fall from the edge of the Earth. Throughout the broadcast there is blatant branding to really put emphasis as to who is responsible for the hosting of the event. Although this method has slowly decreased in success, targeted advertising is still used to target a specific audience member by purchasing their information from other services they use, notably the free services. They then use this information to determine what the consumer may be interested in. Although the audience can often ignore this by installing ad blockers. 

Native adverts when closely observed can seem blatant and shameful. Often product placement in other media tends to be the most blatant advertising. Music videos are renowned for their over promotion of products that institutions have paid for the artists to advertise. Films and television shows also place products in a manner which seems natural and within the context however observant audience members can identify product placement in a scene. An example could be a a character drinking a soft drink which happens to be branded by a well known and well advertised brand. 

Although advertisement can be an annoyance and a way for greedy industries to grab consumers' money, advertisement is a significant part of economic growth for the world. As the mass audience live in a consumerist society, they crave products to consume. Most products need to be advertised in some form to be a successful selling product. However, if the audience keep neglecting advertisement then institutions will slowly begin to become less and less successful until they reach bankruptcy in which case the institution will cease to exist. If the institution are no longer active then they will no longer be able to supply products that consumers will demand. This will happen to multiple institutions until there are barely a handful of industries if not none left to respond to the audience's needs. This will cost society to halt global progress and may even revert the world back to an era before the industrial revolution. This of course can be avoided if audiences are willing to put up with advertisement which persuade consumers to purchase products, generating profit for industries to research, expand and advance their products and other projects that they may fund, some may very well being significant to global advancement.

Mercedes-Benz Advert Analysis

Mercedes-Benz Advert

The Mercedes-Benz advert was created and produced by Mercedes-Benz to promote their institution. The advert follows a boy who sneaks out of his house and travels to a police station claiming to be lost in order for the police officer to escort him home in his Mercedes-Benz. Towards the end of the advertisement, the audience can see the boy resting in the back seat of the car in a cozy & comfortable manner. This suggests to the audience that Mercedes-Benz create and produce warm and comfortable vehicles as implied by the setting of the advertisement.

The setting of the advertisement is a cold, likely winter night which supports the suggestion that Mercedes-Benz produce warm and comfortable vehicles. The cold setting is also implied by the costume worn by the boy. The boy is dressed in a winter coat, a wool hat, scarf and gloves. A frequent camera shot used throughout the advertisement is a long shot which is used to establish the setting and location of the set. In this case, it is a compilation of parking garages, trains and the front of a police station. There is also a shot reverse shot used when the boy confronts and speaks to the police officer. This may indicate to the audience that the boy and police officer have had previous encounters which is further indicated when the police officer responds to the boy's statement of being lost by saying "But this is gonna be the last time." The song played in the advertisement is mellow and soothing with soft lyrics to emphasise comfort and relaxation. The dialogue is diegetic as the characters can be seen projecting sound when speaking, identifying them as the source of sound, hence the dialogue being considered diegetic. The music however is non diegetic as the source of the music cannot be seen throughout the advertisement since it is an external source. Towards the end of the advertisement, there is a close up on the car remote which allows the audience to identify the product or product producers before they reveal themselves.

The Logo is shown to the audience towards the end of the advertisement. It is shown on the care key/remote and later the page consisting of the brand name, logo and slogan. The Mercedes logo is iconic and instantly recognizable to the audience. The slogan reads "Das Beste Oder Nichts" which translates to "The Best Or Nothing". This implies to the audience that Mercedes-Benz vehicles are the best option and that any other option does not compare and is considered "nothing". The advert also includes the institution's name to further emphasise the iconic reputation and image of their brand.

There is also a form of intertextuality imbedded into the advertisement. Although it is subtle, the first vehicle shown on the advertisement is a BMW which the boy walks past, subtly hinting at the boy's preference. It may be suggesting that the family own a BMW and the boy does dislikes the family's choice of car. A technique used throughout the advertisement is capturing the reactions of pedestrians who witness the boy travelling at night by himself. This shows the audience the lengths that others will go to for some time in a Mercedes-Benz.

Bovril Avert Analysis

Bovril Advert

The Bovril advertisement promotes Bovril and targets the traditional british person. The advert follows an adolescent boy who is affected by the cold weather. He then receives a some Bovril to warm himself up however he questions what Bovril is; the scene then cuts to an explanation of what Bovril is.

The Bovril advert is comprised of only 3 different shots, non of them static. The first shot is a long shot of the adolescent walking outside and away from the camera. This shot was included to establish a setting which is the cold outdoors. The next shot begins as a long shot however transitions into a medium shot. This was done to change the focus from the setting of the advertisement to the protagonist. The transition is not performed through the camera but rather the protagonist who gets closer to the camera until halted by a voice. The final shot is a long shot explaining the purpose of Bovril. The purpose of using a long shot was to show the audience the warmth experienced by the narrator as he is explaining Bovril indoors. This symbolises the impact Bovril can have on a consumer as they may feel room temperatures even when they are in the freezing outdoors. The third shot has the iconic song 'Happy' playing in the background to represent the mood which the audience can experience if they consume Bovril. The costume worn by the protagonist is a casual sweatshirt, jeans and trainers to establish a sense of normality to the audience so that they are able to empathise with the protagonist. A prop used in the advertisement was a backpack, suggesting to the audience that the protagonist is a student, further suggesting that Bovril can also be convenient and enjoyable for students. The product itself was used in the advertisement so that the audience know what the advertisement is trying to promote.

The Bovril logo is shown only on the product so that the audience does not make the assumption that the institution is desperate for sales but rather modest or rather, the institution is so well known that they do not need to over promote their products. The slogan used in the advertisement was "Don't Bother With Any Other", implying to the audience that nothing is as effective as Bovril and it would be wasteful to try other variants of the products that Bovril produced. Apart from the logo of the institution of the product, there is no text shown throughout the advertisement. This is to infer to the audience that the institution is straight to the point and that the products are fast and simple to use, assuring the audience that they're precious time will not be consumed,