Social Media and Advertising

How has social media helped evolve the role of the audience in commercial advertisement? Is this a negative thing? 

Social media is rapidly increasing its involvement in our lives and this is particularly true for the youth. Through this immersion, the audience begins to play a larger role in the advertising field. It is now as though the consumer is part of the marketing campaign where they broadcast the product on a personal level. This further blurs the line between marketer and consumer, where the consumer becomes a marketer in their own right. Here, it is important to highlight the importance of personal contribution to commercial advertising. Through the consumer’s personal creations in the form of comments, pictures or videos, they give the company a further advantage. This form of advertisement allows every user to become an endorser in a way. In turn, this allows the company to seem credible and gives them a free form of advertising. Although the individual advertising actions are on a small scale, this is what ultimately adds up to create the company’s overall image. This use of personal advertising is what creates the overall fan base and helps to spread the word about the product. For example, fans of movies that create images about the movie will help spread their artworks while simultaneously expanding the movie’s fan base and financial potential. This can be both negative and positive; depending on the view we examine it from. For the company, it is an effective method of advertising that allows exponential increase. It is a great passage for gaining money and for continuing projects. However if we look to the people who are being essentially used for this we realize the negative impacts. The lives of consumers are being constantly tracked and used for research purposes. Often times, people who have set out to simply create an image for themselves inevitably end up in endorsement deals. This is regarded as the way to make money off of your talents or persona and is often greatly wanted by people. However this impacts their lives in which they become part of a product rather than a true identity. Although it may not be realized initially, this shapes them as a person in a negative way. And therefore, the overall impact of this movement in advertising is negative to the people it affects the most, the audience.

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The Other Side of "Empowering" Music

Recently topping musical charts from iTunes to Billboard is Meghan Trainor's first single "All About that Base". The song aims to empower woman who feel badly about having larger sizes and to allow them to think of their body as beautiful. However there are quite a number of issues with Trainor’s message, which makes her miss the very point she was aiming for. In her attempt to encourage woman to love their bodies, she targets a specific body type and in turn attacks other body types. Therefore, instead of allowing woman to love their bodies it simply turns the ideal body into a different shape. It goes from the typically wanted skinny body, to the curvy body. This does not distract from the idea of being unhappy with your body but rather shifts it. In the music video, girls of similar body shape surround Trainor and they are all embracing this body type, a seemingly positive message. However, another woman with a thin body is portrayed and excluded. This makes woman of that body shape unhappy and therefore it is not empowering, but rather still a reflection of negativity. She also refers to men as a prime reason for loving your body, where she says that men prefer larger sizes. This makes the female think that she should love her larger body because a man will appreciate it, rather than it being beautiful no matter what. For the female with a smaller size, it will make her feel negative about her own body because it is not what the man will like. Going back to the idea of the embracing your larger body, the music video portrays woman who are slightly larger than the stereotypical, “size 2”, ideal body without reference to truly larger bodies. This exclusion, along with the attacking of the skinny girl, makes what should be an empowering song more specific and less positive. Further, the song encourages that a woman should love herself as a result of her beautiful body. It does not make any reference to intellect, achievements and interests. This focus on body shape, and especially since it is a particular one, is not any more empowering than body shaming. Overall, the music video is a fairly simple one that strays from empowerment. It does not depict the women in any sense of accomplishment or achievement that can empower them. Instead, it focuses on highlighting a body type and justifying loving it with the idea of masculine attention. Although the song and video set out with a great goal, it misses the mark more than anything.

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Written Task 2

This Coca Cola advertisement from India depicts a man and woman in a romantic relationship laughing and drinking Coca Cola. They are clearly very happy and relaxed and the viewer can infer that they are in a good relationship. The slogan also encourages this idea with the words “happiness” and “open happiness”. When viewing this ad, the observer will usually interpret a happy relationship however this can differ. When comparing two points of view, one may be about making connections between the product and the relationship and the other may be about understanding the happiness depicted but not within the aforementioned connections.

One viewer may depict the product in correlation with the successful look of the relationship. They may perceive it as a way to get to this level of happiness in their own relationships and life. By looking at the product and emotions as connected, they will think that the first is used to achieve the latter. They may associate the product with the idea of happiness and this is exactly what the advertisement is attempting to achieve. Through the company’s use of movie starts in the ad, they allow the viewer to also connect the product to that life style. It may allow them to think of the product as an exclusive one that is used by celebrities, following an endorsement style appeal. This viewer may think this way a result of his or her own lifestyles and understandings. Things like culture, beliefs and experiences will construct these ideas for the viewer.

Another viewer may understand the commercial in a different sense, where there are no connections made. Perhaps as a result of their own lifestyle, culture and beliefs, they may not be inclined to think that a product should be connected to successful relationship. In turn, they may conclude that the depicted people are simply enjoying the product, however this is unrelated to how successful they are in their relationships. This viewer will understand that the product can bring happiness, however will perceive it as short-term enjoyment and unrelated to the rest of their lives. They will not make the connection that in order to have joy in your life and relationships you should use this product. Referring to the use of celebrities, this viewer may understand the endorsement however without thinking much into it. They may view the celebrities as something that catches their attention however not to make them think of the product as something connected to that lifestyle. 

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FOA Reflection

For my FOA, and perhaps for the first time in the DP program, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had always taken an interest in analysing the same thing from different countries. It amazed me how advertisements for the same product that I saw while travelling were so different to those at home. So, for my FOA I decided to examine advertisement from different regions. I decided to focus particularly on the different relationships that are valued in the countries. I chose to look at Coca Cola advertisements from Germany, India and the Middle East. The learning outcome I focused on the most was the way mass media uses language and image to inform or persuade. Since I was looking at advertisements, there were a lot of techniques of persuasion in order to sell the product. I examined how different advertisements attempt to inform or appeal to the consumer, within the context of their society. I did this by analysing the different marketing techniques and appeals that each advertisement uses. I focused on how these techniques differ or agree between the different ads. By comparing and contrasting these ideas, I could identify which was the most prominent and effective. Overall, I felt like the presentation was successful for my first attempt at such an assessment. I felt like my topic was well chosen and that I could discuss it in the needed depth. I felt very happy with the ads that I picked and the way that I could compare them. In terms of the actual presentation, I felt like I could have practiced more in order to be more confident while presenting. I often repeated some ideas as a result of worry and that might have made it less effective. However, overall I believe it can be considered a success with minor errors. By looking at the criteria, I notice strengths and weakness in the content of my presentation. In terms of the knowledge and understanding, I felt I was quite strong. However when it came to language, my chose ads were quite limited in their use of language however I attempted to make the best possible use of what I had. In general, it was organised and made sense in terms of diction. From completing this activity, I could see my strengths and weaknesses in an oral based assessment. Therefore I can work on the aspects that I found difficult and improve them for the next assessment. This includes practicing more beforehand in order to be more confident on the day of presentation. Also, I would focus on picking ads with more use of language so that I can discuss this more in depth. I would still focus on picking a strong topic, which I feel was a strong point of this assessment. To conclude, I will definitely be working harder on this task next time, however I still feel like I worked hard and I am proud of the effort I put in.

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