Audience Pleasures - The Battle of the Christmas Adverts

MAN IN THE MOON 2015

MONTY THE PENGUIN 2014




So what are the gratifications offered by their latest offering, Buster the Boxer?

Watch the advert again and consider the questions below:

1) What audience gratifications / pleasures are offered by the John Lewis brand? Consider all three adverts from 2014-2016. How are they similar in the pleasures they offer? How are they different?
The john lewis brand offers several main gratifications/ pleasures, including identity and diversion. Since 2014 all of their adverts have had a certain element of relatablity that there customers and target audience can relate to. Allow for the identity gratification to be offered to the audience as the find themselves reflected in this media text. Furthermore, the adverts in general all have the diversion gratification as it seems that for an advert there is a large amount of detail put into the story etc. which allows for the audience to escape into the advert. However, the diversion gratification has been lost throughout the years on the john lewis adverts as the most recent ad campaign doesn't have such a strong story line compared to its predecessors, this may because people are no longer interested or because john lewis are trying for a new approach.


Now read the criticism about the new advert:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/sssgreater-manchester-news/john-lewis-2016-christmas-ad-12154739
The Manchester Evening News

https://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2016/nov/14/wildlife-charities-react-john-lewis-christmas-ad
The Guardian

2) What are the objections of some members of the audience? Do you agree or disagree with these viewpoints? Why?

The Battle of the Christmas Ads 2016

Many brands have jumped on the 'Christmas Ad' bandwagon in the past but 2016 seems to be the year where the advertising industry has really outdone itself, with many large industrial names fighting for recognition on social media through hash tags and the development of narrative arcs that involve the audience. Huge amounts of revenue have been spent on developing and making these adverts, including getting celebrity voice-overs; recording cover versions of new songs that can then be sold in connection with iTunes and downloaded on Spotify; producing merchandise connected to the ads and entering running times comparable with some short films. 

Watch the most popular 2016 offerings and then answer the questions below in a new blog post:

Sainsburys

Heathrow airport

Very.co.uk

Aldi

Marks & Spencers (tissues out!)



1) Which do you think is the most appealing and why? Try to use some of our audience theory in your answer. 
 Personally, i believe that the most appealing advert is the Marks And Spencer's campaign. Due to the fact that, what is portrayed is a feel good story line which utilises non-fictional characters - humans, which allows for the audience to become emotionally attached to the idea of giving during the Christmas season and therefore become attached to the message that marks and spencers is sending. This links to Gillian Dyer's theory on lines of appeal. As the advert is a form of communication and makes people that are connected to Christmas or cherish the feeling of love and family to feel apart of the advert more. The lines of appeal that this advert conveys are happy families, as the advert shows that the love that families have between each other will never fade away, the second line of appeal would be childhood as this advert shows the innocence of a child. 

2) Are there any audience pleasures that two or more of the adverts have in common? Choose two examples to illustrate your point. 
The audience pleasures that most of the adverts presents is the idea of giving. The Very advert is a lady giving gifts to everyone and receiving one back and also the Marks and Spencers advert is the young boy giving a gift back to his family members. The adverts also include audience pleasures such as family. For example, the Salisbury's advert is the father spending time with his family on Christmas and the Heathrow advert is the grandparents coming home for Christmas and being with the family.

3) Choose a different advert and identify the target audience for the advert. Answer in terms of demography and psychography. What tells you this?
The littlewoods christmas 2016 advert is a very family orientated advert with a trace of humour. In terms of demographics, the age group class would be seen as the consumers of the products shown in the video and the age bracket of 11-40. The advert has a middle class, typical family (mother, father children, and grandparents) which is the image that comes into ones mind when family and Christmas is mentioned. In terms of psychograpgics, the two families in the advert look as if they both live similar lifestyles with each of the family members mirroring the other family. Therefore they had similar attitudes and values. This tells us that Christmas is for everyone, every family no matter the shape or size.

4) Why do you think Christmas adverts, in particular, often use emotive language and narratives to appeal to a wide audience?5) Choose an advert with a narrative and, just for fun, apply one of our narrative theories to it. Why does a narrative have a place in an advert?     
Waitroses 2016 Christmas advert campaign tells the story of a robin's journey during Christmas time. The narrative theory that i am going to apply a this media text would be Todorov's theory of equilibrium. The beginning of the advert where the robin starts its journey and the girl is placing a mince pie out is the equilibrium of this story - as we assume that the mince pie is for the robin that it will arrive eat the mince pie and leave. However it s journey is diverted by many things including predators, bad weather, getting stepped on by a sailor etc this then becomes the adverts disequilibrium. After all the struggle, we see that it has been protected and it is finally able to continue its journey and it eventually finds its way to the girl's house and gets its mince pie - which is the new equilibrium. In my opinion, i think that narrative has a strong place in adverts as it grabs the audience's attention in a way that just showing them the products can't do and causes the audience to pay more attention which makes it more likely for them to purchase a product due to the memorable storyline

Audience Theory Blog Task

Audience theory: blog tasks

Hypodermic needle model

1) Read this Mail Online article about the effects of videogames. How does this article link to the hypodermic needle model?

The article links to the hypodermic needle model as it contains very subjective information about this topic. It also seems as if this newspaper is trying to give the point that video games have a negative effect on young people. As the hypodermic needle model suggests that the media injects information into the audience which could potentially be dangerous for them. The article seems to be injecting the idea that video games are bad for children which could be potentially dangerous for the video game market and put many companies out of business.

2) How does coverage of the Talk Talk hacking case link to the hypodermic needle model? Why might someone criticise this front page? 

This front page links to hypodermic needle model as the paper seems to be injecting the idea that it was the mothers fault and it was all down to bad parenting. They also link it to violent video games even though they have no solid proof that this was the cause, so it is more of an opinion then a statement which makes the newspaper bias. The criticism that the daily mail may receive from this is that they seem to not be presenting the facts clearly and leading the audience to believe something else. 

Two-step flow model

1) Summarise the two-step flow model. In your opinion, is the two-step flow theory still relevant today?
The two step flow theory is still relevant today in some aspects as in the media there is a certain group of institutions that have certain influences on certain topics and ideas in the media. This then goes onto to mediate how the audience reacts to certain ideas that are then presented in the media. As well as this, nowadays audiences are more consicious and make decisions according to how they believe they would like it to happen to them, which means they integrate their own ideas and social factors.

2) How does this YouTube blogger fit into the two-step flow model?

The youtube blogger 'total biscuit' fits into the two-step flow models as the opinion leader and he has a heavy influence of the audience, his viewers. Even though, his influence is only down to games he plays and reviews, it is still an influence and if he was too he would be able to influence audience ideas and views on other things possibly.

3) How this this Telegraph article on influential tweeters fit the two-step flow model?

 The article fits the two-step model because it shows us that Britain's public feel like they are most influenced by One Direction, a young music boy band. There are people on the list e.g. Richard Branson that have done more influential things than One Direction and contributed more to society, but because of their growing popularity among young people who use the app more then any other demographic and the fact that they themselves were teenagers when they rose to fame, it makes them more influential on this website.

4) Read this BBC profile of Jamal Edwards. How does Jamal Edwards link to the two-step flow model?

Jamal Edwards and the two-step flow model link well as we are told that he went from being an average teenager in a council estate to a multimillionaire and this runs as a message to the millions of viewers that he has. The fact that there have been several other similar channels set up in inspiration of SBTV shows this

Uses and Gratifications theory

1) For each of the four categories, write about one media text that fits that particular audience use or pleasure. Make sure you explain WHY it fits the category and use images or clips to illustrate your points.

Diversion: escape from everyday problems and routine - entertainment.-

For diversion, I chose the new film Assassins creed which is based on a successful video game. This is a good example of diversion because it is easy to get lost in the film and focus on something much more entertaining and engaging than your everyday life. Furthermore, because it is based on a game both people that haven't  played the game and people that have can get lost in the storyline and try and relate the storyline back to the game.

Personal Relationships: using the media for emotional and other interaction (e.g. developing affection for characters in TV)-

For the personal relationship category, i have chosen how i met your mother which i think is a show with many lovable and relatable characters.The main protagonist is a hopeless romantic who his friends see as too trusting. He also seems to be more ahead of his friends in his interest therefore they class him as the groups 'granddad'. The other protagonist include a classic couple that have been with each other since college and have just got engaged. They both always seem to know what they want and even what there friends want even if there friends dont know. As the audience you begin to feel the same way towards them. The final two protagonists include a modern independant women who is trying to pursue her career as a journalist but also trying to jugggle her love life and other challenges such as being infertile. As the audience throughout the series she turns from a stale female to a relatable part of the show that you love. Finally, the last protagonist is a humourous businessman who is afraid of commitment due to previous heatbreak but has unstable realationships with many women. However, on several occasions in the series he falls in love and matures in these relationships and becomes more then just a character to laugh at. 

Personal Identity: finding ourselves reflected in texts or learning behaviour and values from the media. Reality TV or documentary (Educating Yorkshire) are good examples.-
I chose the exclusive documentary series from channel 4 'secret life of 4 year olds' because there are many oppurtunites to learn about different behaviours in the children. As well as this, many parents would be able to identify there children from the children in the show which makes it more enjoyable and also allows for them to see how to deal with such situations.

Surveillance: Information useful for living (e.g. Weather, traffic news, holiday bargains etc.)-

For Surveillance, I have chosen  the documentary 'Wanted Down Under'  - This reality ducumentary series is popular among many ABC class families who are planning on migrating to Australia for jobs or lifestylets etc. It is seen as a less intimidating way of house hunting or learn about the culture and the life that they would be changing to. As well as this it is easy for the audience watching to find out more if they see something they like in the shoe as they have a whole website dedicated to the migrating process in australia.

Genre: Case Studies

Genre: Categorising texts and answer the following questions:

1) What example is provided of why visual iconography is so important?

The example that is used to show the importance of iconography, is the mis-en-scene of deep space which usually indicates the sci-fi genre.

2) What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

The examples provided include sitcoms and soap operas that all denote with a particular type of story line.

3) What is the difference between character representation in action movies and disaster movies?

In action films the protagonist are generally portrayed as lone wolfs and unconvential individuals who get the job done, james bond for example. In disaster movies, the protagonist is usually placed in a group of people where there individual skills help solve the bigger problem through collaboration.
 

4) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

According to bordwell, films can be categorised into several examples including,

• Period or country, e.g us films of the 1930s
• Director/Star e.g, Steven Speilberg films
• Technical Process, e.g Animation  
• Style, e.g, German Expressionism
• Audience, e.g. Family Films  

5) List three ways genre is used by audiences.
Audience use genre to enable them to tell whether they would enjoy the media text with there prior knowledge of the genre. It enables audiences to vaguely compare texts to one another. Finally, genre allows for the audience to prepare for the consumption of the media text and have certain expectations for it.
 6) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

Media producers use genre to attract audiences as most genres have a loyal fan base to some extent which means they already have a certain viewership due to previous media texts. Genres are also a template for media producers to follow to ensure that they're successful and avoid previous mistakes that others in the genre have mad. 
  7) What film genre is used as an example of how genres evolve? What films and conventions are mentioned?

The Gangster film genre is used to show how genres evolve. Scarface, reservoir dogs and the sopranos are the films mentioned for the evolution of gangster films as a genre.  

Superheroes: A Genre Case Study and answer the following questions:

1) List five films the fact sheet discusses with regards to the Superhero genre.

Scott pilgrim vs the world, spider man, guardians of the galaxy, x men franchise and the avengers.

2) What examples are provided of how the Superhero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world events of the last 70 years?

An example of the changing values in the superhero genre is in the x men franchise with the common theme of mutants being seen as outsiders. The x men that was released in 2000 was particularly effective as the feelings and prejudice towards non-white groups and discrimiination were an improving issue but still a hot topic. An example of changing ideologies in the superhero genre is from the 1995 batman film. In this film the ideology of a villain was challenged as there was a clear difference of villains comapared to ones form the 60s to the 90s. As well as this the general idea of good/bad was also being challenged.

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?

Schat'z theory of genre cycles can be applied to the superhero genre pretty well. The innovation of the superhero genre and its codes would have been in the 50s with the increased popularity of superman and other similar themed media texts being created. the 60s and 70s with the contiuned increase of popularity of superman would have been classical part of the cycle of the superhero genre. The late 00s would have been when the ideology and codes of the superhero genre would have become cliche and mocked. the deconstrotuction part of the cycle is in the present with the emergence of a new era of institutions like marvel and DC the superhero is rebuilding itself with new codes.


Daniel Chandler Genre Analysis

General
1) Why did you choose the text you are analysing?
I chose how i met your mother as i have just finished watching it and really enjoyed it.
2) In what context did you encounter it?
I had heard of how i met your mother many times before but never actually watched it until i got a netflix subscription and it was one of the shows  available 
3) What influence do you think this context might have had on your interpretation of the text?
There wasnt much influence to be honest, except that i had been told that the ending was disappointing which i agree with.
4) To what genre did you initially assign the text?
Romantic comedy sitcom
5) What is your experience of this genre?
quite cliche i had seen many parodys of sitcoms etc. which made me quite sceptical when watching it.
6) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?
The main themes in how i met your mother include
7) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?
the text contains typical themes throughout the series however it does subvert many traditional codes which leaves the audience in contain suspense.
8) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?
Usually quite cliche, and stereotypical to the romance genre.
9) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where)?
The generic labels of this text include, catchy theme tune, linear narratives and one liners.
10) What generic labels have others given the same text?
Others have given the same genric labels as i have and said the same things about stereotypes. 
11) Which conventions of the genre do you recognize in the text?
catchy theme tunes, one liners and limited cast are some of the few conventions that i recognise.
12) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?
How i met your mother stretches the conventions of its genre to a certain extent as it subverts the predictable cliche story line convention, as there is numerous times throughout the series where the plot is completely flipped. This probably what made the show so unique and successful.
13) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?
 The text departs from the conventions of the genre when it allows for the show to do something new or strengthen the story arch or character development.
14) Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?
catchy theme tune, this a convention used in most genres to a certain extent.
15) What familiar motifs or images are used?


not many.Mode of address
1) What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed at (and how typical was this of the genre)?
young adults and middle aged people. 18-30. which is very typical of the genre.
2) How does the text address you?
the text addresses you through the narrator telling the story to the children and it almost feels like we are the children learning about the narrators love life 
3) What sort of person does it assume you are?
the same as the characters. middle aged and going through major stages in there life
4) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?
not many.
5) What interests does it assume you have?
the same as the characters. socialising, going out love life etc.
Relationship to other texts
1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)?
there are many references to old films and hipster films that were popular in the 90s to relate to the character childhoods. also the mainstream titles that are referenced include star wars and star trek.
2) Generically, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
Friends
3) What key features are shared by these texts?
they both are about a group of friends and there love lives and how it effects them
4) What major differences do you notice between them
one is happening in the moment and the other is a re telling where the narrator can use hindsight which is appeals to the audience.