Representation in advertising

 Hello again,

Right so today I am going to write about representation of different elements in the media. Representation is how people, events and idea's are portrayed to an audience, it is a version of truth constructed by the media industry and often revolves around stereotypes.

The main things often represented in the media are:

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality
• Class

There is usually a process which advertisers follow to creating these representations. Firstly depending on the product or company; demographics must be decided. Do they want the model of the advert to be upper class or working class? British or African? Middle aged or young adult? Gender? Setting?

Next they have to decide whether it will be a positive or negative representation of the type they are presenting. Will they be stereotypical (sticking to the audience's expectations) atypical (diverting their expectations) counter typical (a mixture of recognisable stereotypes and unusual atypical elements) or archetypal (a classic and original representation e.g. many vampires in adverts are shown with fangs and capes like Dracula.)

Lastly verisimilitude's

. This word frightened me at first but it's really not that bad. It is the way in which an advert or text creates an appearance of reality. There are a few different ways of doing this:

• Utopia- a perfect ideal world
• Dystopia- a scary and negative world, often futuristic (think The Hunger Games; near future America)
• Surrealism- An unusual unique version of reality (The capitol from The Hunger Games or that scary climate change adverts)
• Manipulated reality- elements of reality but often heightening the humour side (the haribo adverts with the adults talking like babies)
• Reality- straightforward everyday life (e.g. a city background)
• Animation- a more fun and youthful representation of life, and can be combined with any of the above types.

Ok now for an example to show this. I am also going to try and work in some theories to this analysation too.

So with this Dolce and Gabanna advert I'd say the demographics are 20-35 year old white males and female, middle class, urban city livers. I think the intention of this advert was to be a positive representation for both genders and the product but can be interpreted very differently. It is a counter-typical way of presenting these models as although it is very stereotypical to show young people with flirtatious body language in advertising, we don't often see four extremely strong and good looking men standing around a girl in very stylish and sexy clothes during the day time. 

The intention is clearly to show a utopia, an ideal world in which men can all pin down a gorgeous woman without question; trying to tell the audience their lives will be like this if they buy Dolce and Gabanna's product. This is a fantastic example of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory too; the idea that women are presented in media to please straight men. The advert employ's a 'sex sells' attitude through the mise-en-scene of the ad. Her costume is black, connoting danger and fear and erotic nature. Accompanied by the blue sky implying the perfect day. The body language of the model's is key too; one of the men has his arm pinning down the woman who has a sultry and somewhat distressed facial expression. This shows the intended sense of dominance the advert is trying to create. 

They are all cornering this beautiful woman because they can with this product, presenting her as a man would like. By degradation. While the other three men stand around either staring intensely at different parts of her body or attempting to look sexy by staring solemnly into the camera. The lighting of the frame is bright and connoting a sunny summers day, while their costume's dark implying their intentions are dark too. The camera angle (wide-shot) has been done to ensure you can see all of their bodies fully; this is to show off not only the woman's sex appeal and curves but to display the topless 'sexed up' men too. Showing us that although the advert is primarily sexualising women, the men are also being portrayed this way; despite the dominant body language.

Okay so that's all for now and I think next week I will write something about Advertising techniques. Have a good week sweetlings!