Research: Advertising and Branding

Q) How is America and American teenage life represented in the adverts?

A) In the first Levi’s advert American teenage life is represented as fun and exciting. The bright lights contrast with the night time sky creating a beautiful and perfect party scene. Lots of young people are shown to be there too in the shots which produces an idealised image of teen life in America. The girl is seen to be attracted to the guy across the floor due to them both not being heavily influenced by their phones - which implies that most teenagers are obsessed with technology-, and as the advert goes on they become closer until they finally kiss and fall into the pool. This series of shots create an idealism that you will find love in America and that when you are young you are free and able to express yourself. The mies-en-scene of these shots also allow the audience to be immersed in the atmosphere. The girl is dressed in a casual yet edgy styled outfit with simplistic makeup, implying to the audience that teenagers don't all wear a lot of makeup or go all out on their outfits in order to look attractive. The guy is also shown in a casual outfit which matches her style. This advert targets mainly a girl teen audience as it focuses on her falling in love with a guy, which links back to old sex stereotypes of that women should find a man to marry.

In the second advert lots of people from different ethnicities join together to dance and have good time together. Everyone smiles and enjoys themselves throughout the outfit implying to the audience that no matter who you are or where you come from you should be accepted and treated correctly without any hate. In todays modern world there is still a lot of bad stereotypes and representation of age, sex, race and religion, and what this advert tries to do is send a message to the world that we shouldn't stereotype. Many people who don't live in America would view this advert and think that America is accepting of all people, which creates a friendly atmosphere for the audience. At the end of the advert they use many tag lines including all of the different representations they accept and hope to unite, this ends the advert nicely obtaining their main objective of uniting.

Q) Why/how might this representation be seductive or attractive to teenagers living in Britain?

A) Both of these adverts attract the British teenage audience as they want to be able to have fun with lots of people their age. The first Levi’s advert attracts them by idealising relationships and that if they were to be in America and leave their phones for a while they would be able to mingle with new people and find someone for them. While in the second advert many different people from different backgrounds come together to be one and enjoy themselves. This seduces teenagers in Britain that if they was to experience life in America they would be appreciated and accepted for whoever they are. This advert attracts to every teenager as they all want to be accepted for who they are and they may not feel welcome where they live. Although this is giving the audience a positive outcome of American life it is only an ideal image of what it could be. This misleads British teens into thinking that everything is perfect and that the ‘American Dream’ is real.

Q) Do you think adverts like this erode cultural differences? Give reasons for your answers.

A) Personally I feel that yes these adverts do erode cultural differences to some extent. With the second advert it defiantly erodes cultural differences as lots of people from different ethnicities come together and enjoy each others company through dance. This implies to the audience that we should aim to accept everyone no matter what their sexuality, race, sex or religion is. This also reminds the audience that we are all human and we shouldn't stereotype people which destroys the negativity around cultural assumptions. However in the first advert they mainly focus on two white people getting together in a heterosexual relationship. This doesn't expand to all people meaning it doesn't erode any cultural differences. Instead it still enforces the idea that all women should find a boyfriend in order to be happy and succeed in a modern way, influencing teenagers around the world that this is the normal. Overall I feel that company's like Levi's are trying to erode cultural differences however they could try harder to create more adverts like the second advert. 

The first Levi's advert 
The second Levi's advert

Research of Institutions carried on: Bauer Media

Research of Institutions 2: Bauer Media

Homepage:

The use of cross media codes to allows the website to introduce the audience to a slidely. This grabs the audience’s attention by the use of the bright technical codes while also introducing niche topics to a mass audience to gain more popularity.

Although slidely doesn’t stop changing this banner is consistent, advertising their success of the institution to the mass audience.

Alongside the slidely there is another banner, which presents more information to the audience about the chosen media companies. These are such as ‘empire’ and ‘magic’. In this they also advertise companies such as “The academy” and “absolute radio” which appeals to a niche audience.

Links:

On the website there are many links which makes it easy for the audience to navigate around the site. This allows for a mass audience to occur with its simple navigation as well as a broad selection of information. The colour scheme of the site relies on deep blues and whites which link into the colour scheme of the logo, which is easily recognisable.

Technological convergence:

At the bottom of the homepage there is also a twitter link that you as an audience can interact with for Bauer Medias twitter page. This allows for a branch to occur reaching out to a larger audience who may be interested in the institution of Bauer Media. There are also links to job options in which you can work for the institution as well as a help link to help you find an audience for your own company if you have one.

Genre of texts:

Most of the texts are based around the genre of entertainment however within the categories (such as music and radio) there are sub genres which appeal to different target audiences. Kerrang and Heat are good examples as one appeals to a younger target audience who like the punk rock genre of music, while the other appeals to a woman based "group c" audience who like to read up on celebrity’s gossip.

Audience

Bauer media covers a mass audience with niche topics, mostly appealing to the younger audience. As Curran and Seaton once said “Newspapers and magazines respond to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in business”, Bauer does this by appealing to a mass target audience including loads of individual magazine brands with different topics to gain more popularity. 

The History of The Big Issue

The history of the big issue from AbbieTutty

Textual Analysis of a Magazine Cover

"Bird Watching"

Audience

This magazine came out in August 2012, which is a part of a monthly line for a niche audience. The target audience for this niche topic is most likely middle aged men and over who are part of the Group C class. This is due to the stereotype of that the hobby of bird watching is only for old men. The magazine captures the target audience by using technical codes such as a bright colour pallet with complimentary text colour. This technical code allows the audience to know exactly what type of magazine it is before they even red the text. It also supports the text by adding more depth. All codes have a denotation and a connotation, in this instance the denotation of this cover is to grab the audiences attention by using vibrant colours while the connotation is to tell the reader that this is a bird watching magazine and that it is a rare bird the audience may be interested in.  The main colour used (green) creates an inviting, friendly feel while the bird with the vibrant blue and reds creates a beautiful contrast for the audience, drawing them into the cover. The way the background has been blurred allows the bird to be the centre of attention, straight away telling the audience that this is a nature magazine. 

Mise-en-scène

The magazine cover uses a prop, the branch, to assist the center focus of the shot, the bird. The prop makes it clear what the main focus of the cover is, the bird, as well as providing context to the shot. It also makes the shot seem more natural in a way that the audience has just stumbled across this bird sitting on a branch in a tree. The atmosphere generated is peaceful due to the off guard photo of the bird as well as the positioning of the bird. This links into Barthes theory of Semiotics "the audience look for signs to help them interpret the narrative". In this case the signs are how the bird is positioned and the colours.

The use of the medium long shot gives the audience an idea of what type of birds they would be looking into if they bought the magazine. This creates an effect much like how an ellipsis would intrigue an audience to read on to find out more detail. The framing of the bird in the center also makes the target audiences eyes draw there attention into the middle of the cover, much like when a person creates eye contact for a magazine cover to draw the audience in. This is a convention which is used throughout the “Bird Watching” magazine series. The way the bird looks as well seems to be quite tropical which raises the thought in readers minds where the twitchers found the bird. This also links into how the magazine cover grabs the audiences attention.
The expression the bird conveys through the photo is peaceful. The birds mouth is open and tilted back implying that the bird has just called out to the same kind as them, communicating about something that as an audience could find out about if they read the magazine. 

The lighting used is soft daylight which compliments the birds vibrant feathers as well as making the background look kind and inviting. This also creates a daytime scene for the cover possibly suggesting that this issue contains bird which aren't nocturnal. 

Main Body

The masthead remains a convention with a bold white text covering the top of the cover. Underneath the masthead there is a catchy selling line “Attract-Find-Identify-Enjoy” which gives the target audience a quick summary of how the magazine is structured providing them the details they need in order to decide whether or not to buy it. 

The lexis used in the main cover line “bird of many colours” relates to the main focus image and suggests that this a one of a kind bird. The deixis used of “the” in “one for the life list” also implies to the target audience that this isn't a topic they want to miss out on, intriguing them to buy the magazine. This main cover line has a textual colour of yellow which grabs the audiences attention from the other white cover lines and works nicely with the vibrant bird pictured next to it. The way the bird is positioned looking to the text makes the audience look towards the main cover line as well.

The language used is informal and not vulgar compared to how a gossip magazine would portray their articles. The cover lines are mostly statements as in “Eastern birds that go west to nest” and “identify birds by family” which interests the target audience into reading on further.

The cover also includes another convention further exploring the idea of selling the magazine to the niche target audience “In every issue… 4 hotspots near you” this suggests that the audience cant find all the information they provide to you anywhere else, almost like they restricting the audience from purchasing this information from another brand or online. The use of the lexis “near” also implies that this is a magazine most likely centered around the countryside in Britain, even though it suggests that you can find rare birds all over the world from the use of the vibrant bird on the front page.

The use of the contrasting blue and red banner (the same colours as the bird) at the top pulls the audiences attention away from the main image. These are used to bring forth more information to the target audience without overloading the page with cover lines. The page numbers are added by the side of them as well in order to create a simple and easy experience for the consumer.

The representation of this magazine cover shows a middle class countryside portrayal of middle aged men. This stereotype stems from how the upper class thought that people from the countryside had no intelligence or worthy hobbies and therefore spent their time doing nothing important. Sadly this stereotype carries on today with the majority of the target audience still being countryside men and women.

Overall this magazine cover is coherent and pieced together wonderfully with the use of cinematography, positioning and textual design.