ADVERTISING MARKETING ALEVEL Media Studies TIDE SET TEXT

ADVERTISING & MARKETING A-LEVEL Media Studies TIDE (SET TEXT) – COMMERCIAL PRINT ADVERTS – MEDIA LANGUAGE (L 2)

STARTER ACTIVITY ON PAPER: List down the contextual factors influencing the construction of the Tide advert Discuss and Feedback DATE AND TITLE ALL WRITTEN WORK

FOCUS: ADVERTISING & MARKETING COMPONENT 1: MEDIA PRODUCTS, INDUSTRIES AND AUDIENCE (SECTION A) COMPONENT 1: MEDIA PRODUCTS, INDUSTRIES AND AUDIENCE (SECTION B) COMPONENT 2: MEDIA FORMS AND PRODUCTS IN DEPTH COMPONENT 3: CROSS-MEDIA PRODUCTION CONCEPT MEDIA LANGUAGE REPRESENTATION AUDIENCE MEDIA INDUSTRIES THEORISTS ROLAND BARTHES – SEMIOTICS STEVE NEALE – GENRE TODOROV – NARRATOLOGY BAUDRILLARD – POSTMODERNISM LEVI-STRAUSS – STRUCTURALISM GILROY – POSTCOLONIAL BELL HOOKS – FEMINISM VAN ZOONEN – FEMINISM BUTLER – GENDER PERFORMATIVITY GAUNTLETT – IDENTITY HALL – REPRESENTATION GERBNER – CULTIVATION SHIRKY – END OF AUDIENCE JENKINS – FANDOM BANDURA – MEDIA EFFECTS HALL – RECEPTION LIVINGSTONE/LUNT – REGULATION CURRAN/SEATON – POWER INDUSTRIES HESMONDHALGH – CULTURAL INDUSTRIES

SET TEXT Tide – Commercial Print Advert

KEY INFORMATIO N Product: Tide Format: Commercial Print Advert Date: 1950’s Company: Procter & Gamble Agency: DMB&B

ANALYSING ADVERTS Who is the target audience? What is the message of the advert? How do the codes and conventions contribute to this message? How does this advert appeal to its target audience? How has this advert represented social groups? Why have the producers represented social groups in this way? What are some of the contexts that have influenced this advertising campaign?

MEDIA LANGUAGE Tide – Commercial Print Advert

MEDIA LANGUAGE In order to help understand the intended meaning of the product, you must first use the codes of media language to analyse the main image. 1. SYMBOLIC 2. WRITTEN/AUDIO 3. TECHNICAL Lighting & Colour Slogans Camera Angles Positioning Typeface/Fonts Setting & Locations Headlines Framing (ELS, MLS, MS, CU, BCU ECU) Facial Expressions & Body Language -NVC Captions Editing & Cropping Objects Style Key Signifiers/Images Choice/Emphasis of words Clothing, Hair/Make Up Sound/Music Juxtaposition (2 separate signs that together make contrasting meaning)

MEDIA LANGUAGE IMAGERY STARTING POINTS: The Hermeneutic Code? ? The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of a story that is not fully explained and hence, is a mystery to the reader. The Proairetic Code? The Proairetic Code refers to any possible action or event that indicates something else is going to happen. The Semantic Code? The Semantic Code refers to connotation within the story that gives deeper meaning over the basic denotative meaning. The Symbolic Code? Similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. The Cultural Code? This Cultural Code refers to anything that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation for truth.

MEDIA LANGUAGE IMAGERY • Z-line and a rough rule of thirds can be applied to its composition.

MEDIA LANGUAGE IMAGERY • • Hearts indicate the symbolic code of love There is semantic code of hugging Enigma codes connected to ‘What Women Want? . . . Which is? Cultural codes of domesticated Caucasian women happily hanging out washing.

MEDIA LANGUAGE COLOUR STARTING POINTS: The Hermeneutic Code? ? The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of a story that is not fully explained and hence, is a mystery to the reader. The Proairetic Code? The Proairetic Code refers to any possible action or event that indicates something else is going to happen. The Semantic Code? The Semantic Code refers to connotation within the story that gives deeper meaning over the basic denotative meaning. The Symbolic Code? Similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. The Cultural Code? This Cultural Code refers to anything that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation for truth.

MEDIA LANGUAGE COLOUR • Bright, primary colours connote the positive associations the producers want the audience to make with the product. • The green grass connotes health and growth, creating an emotional response from the audience in how they relate the product to happiness.

MEDIA LANGUAGE ANCHORAGE STARTING POINTS: The Hermeneutic Code? ? The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of a story that is not fully explained and hence, is a mystery to the reader. The Proairetic Code? The Proairetic Code refers to any possible action or event that indicates something else is going to happen. The Semantic Code? The Semantic Code refers to connotation within the story that gives deeper meaning over the basic denotative meaning. The Symbolic Code? Similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. The Cultural Code? This Cultural Code refers to anything that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation for truth.

MEDIA LANGUAGE ANCHORAGE • Headings, subheadings and slogans are written in sans-serif font, connoting a friendly and informal mode of address – WHY? • This is reinforced with the comic strip style image in the bottom right-hand corner with two women ‘talking’ about the product using informal lexis (“sudsing whizz”). • The more ‘technical’ details of the product are written in a serif font, connoting the more ‘serious’ or ‘factual’ information that the ‘ 1, 2, 3’ bullet point list includes.

MEDIA LANGUAGE ANCHORAGE Use of ‘hyperbole’ (hi-per-ber-lee) and ‘superlative’ (su-per-lative) HYPERBOLE = EXAGGERATION as a rhetorical device SUPERLATIVE = HIGH QUALITY as an adjective of measurement LIST AS MANY AS YOU CAN FIND! ?

MEDIA LANGUAGE ANCHORAGE Use of ‘hyperbole’ (hi-per-ber-lee) and ‘superlative’ (su-per-lative) HYPERBOLE = EXAGGERATION as a rhetorical device SUPERLATIVE = HIGH QUALITY as an adjective of measurement LIST AS MANY AS YOU CAN FIND! Miracle World’s cleanest wash World’s whitest wash Cleanest Whitest Brightest Connotations of Superiority

APPLYING THEORY?

THEORY Roland Barthes Semiotics theory: Suspense is created through the enigma of “what women want” (Barthes’ Hermeneutic Code) and emphasized by the tensionbuilding use of multiple exclamation marks (Barthes’ Proairetic Code). Barthes’ Semantic Code could be applied to the use of hearts above the main image. The hearts and the woman’s gesture codes have connotations of love and relationships. It’s connoted that this is “what women want” (in addition to clean laundry!). TASK Construct two paragraphs in which you make a POINT about how the text constructs meaning through any of Barthes five semiotic codes.

THEORY Roland Barthes Semiotics theory: Hyperbole and superlatives (“Miracle”, “World’s cleanest wash!”, “World’s whitest wash!”) as well as tripling (“No other…”) are used to oppose the connoted superior cleaning power of Tide to its competitors. This Symbolic Code (Barthes) was clearly successful as Procter and Gamble’s competitor products were rapidly overtaken, making Tide the brand leader by the mid-1950 s. TASK Construct two paragraphs in which you make a POINT about how the text constructs meaning through any of Barthes five semiotic codes.

THEORY Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of Structuralism: In this text, “Tide gets clothes cleaner than any other washday product you can buy!” and “There’s nothing like Procter and Gamble’s Tide”, reinforces the conceptual binary opposition between Tide and its commercial rivals. TASK Construct two paragraphs in which you make a POINT about how the text constructs meaning using Binary opposites.

THEORY Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of Structuralism: It’s also “unlike soap, ” gets laundry “whiter…than any soap or washing product known” and is “truly safe” – all of which connotes that other, inferior products do not offer what Tide does. TASK Construct two paragraphs in which you make a POINT about how the text constructs meaning using Binary opposites.

5 MIN PLENARY TASK Write a short paragraph analysing the codes and conventions of media language in the Tide print advert. REMEMBER! ON YOUR OWNWORK & IN SILENCE TAKE NOTE OF ANY HOMEWORK/PREP