Tag Archives: advertising

PROJECT BRIEF 4 WEEK 9 UPDATE

For our project brief we are focusing on texts. We’ve decided to take on advertising as a form of text, and more specifically we will be creating a website relating to advertising used by Volkswagen.

Between the three of us this website will be broken down into:

  • Sponsorship (Promotional media (film/TV), Events, product placement)) – Chloe
  • Print Media (Magazine, newspaper) – Shannon
  • Television and Radio Commercials – Gabe

As a group we will discuss the influence of social media and the Internet on advertising, with a focus on facebook. Current and future trends of these methods will be discussed in a summary of sorts.

Each of the above sections will have a focus on:

  • The history
  • Importance and effectiveness (psychology)
  • Interpretation
  • Semiotics (Roland Barthes)
  • Which advertisements work best in different cultures
  • Creativity
  • Demographics of source targets
  • Culture targets

For the website, we would like to keep the aesthetic in line with that of the conventions of advertising. Therefore the layout will be:

  • Simple
  • Informative
  • Attractive
  • Clean
  • Easy to read

We want to emulate the style of Volkswagen advertisements and adapt this to the format of our website.

Before the next session, we plan to have more specific research relating to our delegated areas. As well as this, we will spend the next week or so finding Volkswagen advertisements that will aid in the construction of the website.

– Gabriel

APPROACHING MEDIA TEXTS

Gill Branston, besides having a pretty sweet name, analyses text in ‘Approaching Media Text’. As Branston says, “‘text’ originally referred to sacred writings, such as the Bible”, but more recently, a text has been described as “anything which is to be investigated” (2010 p11). From this we can assume that texts surround everyone in everyday life, and cannot be avoided.

Branston refers to the semiotic analysis approach established by Ferdinand de Saussure (and later used by Roland Barthes) as a primary method for understanding texts. Semiotics is defined as “the study of signs, or of the social production of meanings and pleasures by sign systems, or the study of how things come to have significance” (Branston 2010, p12). Texts are filled with a variety of signs, signifiers, signifieds, referents, connotations and denotations which create meaning. These terms suggest that whilst there are intended messages, all texts are highly interpretable across different demographics and cultures.

Branston links the study of texts to the Structuralism theory prominent in Psychology. This theory deals with audiences subconscious responses to texts and how they react to them in ways that they aren’t fully aware of. This is the genius of advertising, pinpointing target demographics, and convincing them to purchase a specific product, or instilling subconscious beliefs.

What Branston provides is a variety of methods used to understand different media texts. He quotes McKee as saying “textual analysis [is] an educated guess at some of the most likely interpretations that might be made of [a] text” (2011). This sentence reinforces the notion of texts being very ’roundabout’ in nature. Although information is presented to an audience in a specific way, there’s no guarantee that the intended audience will fully comprehend the desired message.

Just as a side note on the topic of subliminal marketing, advertising and blatant brainwashing, a friend of mine showed me this video:

Source

“TRUST THE US GOVERNMENT”

The message doesn’t shock me as much as it first did. But I think that’s just because Tony Abbott is running the country.

References:

  •  Branston. Gill, Stafford, Roy. The Media Student’s book, (p, 9-26, 31) 5th ed. New York, NY : Routledge 2010

– Gabriel

NOTICING NOTICING

It’s impossible to remember every little detail or experience down to its minute details. Memories get cloudy, and it might just be me, but it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish between dreams and drunken states… As cliché as it sounds though, it is easy to remember details when you know what you’re looking for. Learning how to mark and record memories is an interesting process. I was walking down the street recently (as ya do) with a friend and I was consciously paying more attention to people around me, to try and boost my awareness. When I told him I noticed a guy with very broad shoulders and leathery legs, he realised he needed to pay more attention to the ‘freaks’ as he called them. But this isn’t about the ‘freaks’ of Melbourne; it’s about the mediated content packed into Melbourne Central. Here’s a bit of stuff that we found on our travels:

  • Emergency exit sign
  • Security camera
  • Melbourne Central clock
  • Train timetables
  • Tony Abbot flyers
  • Posters:

posters

  • Rubbish/newspaper clippings
  • Piano surrounded by red velvet (red cord)
  • People using facebook everywhere
  • Radio/music in restaurants and shops
  • Train announcements
  • Background conversations
  • Mount Franklin bottle of water (advertising)
  • Coca Cola advertisement
  • Map of Melbourne Central (?)
  • RMIT drink bottle
  • Conversations with shop attendants
  • Film Art textbook
  • Aaaand Joe Hockey:

JOehockey

Yep, Joe Hockey