Saturday, January 1, 2011

MEST 4 Xmas Task #5

ESSAY PLAN

How effective is aspirational advertising such as '1 Million: Paco Rabanne' and perfume advertising in general, in influencing male consumer lifestyles, and why is this the case?

1. Introduction – Brief description of my independent study
My critical investigation is going to focus on how males influence audience lifestyles within advertisements eg. Lexus car advert etc. I will be investigating whether these adverts do/ don’t influence male consumer lifestyles, and whether things such as cultivation theory are used to make this possible.

Repetitive Advertising and the Consumer
“Advertising is in an odd position. Its extreme protagonists claim it has extraordinary powers and its severest critics believe them. Advertising is often effective. But it is not as powerful as is sometimes thought, nor is there any evidence that it actually works by any strong form of persuasion or manipulation.” (R, I)

2. Media representation of male stereotypes & masculinity in aspiration advertising
How it’s always the same stereotypical representation – therefore audience always seeing same thing.
"male charecters in an advertisment has the required authority & suggests the appropriate power is through visual apperance"

"strength suggested not only in terms of physic. But also in the suggestion of his influence and business sucess."

3. Marxism and Hegemony
There are hegemonic values – in way the mise en scene is used to represent higher class people eg. 1 million Paco Rabanne the clothing is smart suits, and props such expensive cars shown. As a result creating emphasis on how the elite are in power. I will also show evidence of how stereotypes are in power. (S, P, M, I)

"Elite nations are often focused upon, reinforcing their perceived importance, whilst many smaller and poorer countries and communities are ignored altogether. News is inherently ideological."

4. Metro sexual
In this paragraph I will look at how males in advertising and society are beginning to become more androgynous (males with feminine characteristics). Therefore, making it easier to relate with the audience especially aspirers who wish to be like the person in the advert. As there are similarities and so gratifications are gained for the consumer.

"A male character in an advertisement has the required authority & suggests the appropriate power is through visual appearance"

“strength suggested not only in terms of physic. But also in the suggestion of his influence and business success."

5. Cultivation theories and Copy cat theory
“Consumers encounter countless advertising images during the course of everyday life. Many of these images are idealized, representing life more as it is imagined than as it actually exists.”

Economics consequences of advertising
“advertising operates predominantly by changing consumer tastes” – when audiences view actors perusing there needs or wants in the adverts they automatically aspire to be like the character in the advert. Eg. 1 Million Paco Rabanne when he clicks his life gets better and better.
- make audiences copy what they see as they want it
- institutions are modelling actors into their perfect consumer – as they know audiences copy cat it (because of things such as the hypodermic needle and the way they consume the text) – therefore they know will copy the protagonist in the advert and make them want to become like that. (I, S)
“media images of celebrities teach kids to hate their bodies”
“entertainment specials focus on eating disorders, and celebrity plastic surgery... pressures mates to look like models”
“reason is that consumers grow up in particular cultures and become accustomed to that cultures values, belief in their advertising”

6. How aspirational adverts do not influence male consumer life styles – Pluralism
- Audiences are more intelligent that what producer may think, therefore repetition in what they see and ideologies used which may be believed to be very convincing within an advert does not mean everyone will interpret it in the way they wish.
- In this paragraph I will also be looking at ofcom and censorship of adverts which have affected consumers in a negative way (I, R, P)
“Most economists and or intellectuals have not liked advertisements that provide little information”
“we agree that many ads create wants without producing information, we do not agree that they change our tastes”

7. Conclusion
– Summary of my key points linking them back to the title of my independent study

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