reading lynx.

In doing Media Studies for not even a month, I have noticed the rampant objectification going on in the media. People starve themselves and pack into gyms so they can look how Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger tell them to look. It sends out a horrible message that women are merely used as 'tools' to market their unrelated product. And like all 'tools', they have their place. They're used to sell their unrelated product, and when not needed, they're put away and saved for later, probably when they're needed to sell another antiperspirant brand.

We can see in the background that everything is 50s-style. The retro radio, the retro oven, the retro decoration, it all links back to the 50s or early 60s. This was a time when women stayed in the kitchen, did the house jobs, and the men were successful, $1400 suit-wearing, 9-to-5 office job-types with a possible drinking habit. Either this advert is contradicting the modern woman with the old-fashioned, kitchen-dwelling women of yore, or it's setting gender conventions and expectations back another 50 years. With the obvious sexualisation of said woman, I'd go with the latter.

A textual analysis for this is important. It's not just a sexy lady on an advert, it symbolizes something more. "Can she make you lose control" for example, placed directly about "Full Control" which is what Lynx is selling. This woman is the temptation, the antagonist in this certain situation. We all have urges of sorts. Be it a societal urge or a sexual urge. What this advertisement is selling is full control over your urges, as well as a simple product. This woman is the one that will break the control. It's also hinting that by using Lynx, you will attract a woman like this. False, of course, but impressionable teenage boys is a huge market that Lynx is willing to exploit purely for their bottom line (money).

Adverts like these don't anger me as much as they depress me. Is this really the way of the ad industry? To prey off our most basic instincts, heightening our expectations and further pushing societal pressure on the unconventional? Or is this merely a common case of me looking too deeply into things? Possibly that.

lucozade and lara croft.

At the beginning of the lesson, we discussed the 4 different viewpoints on the media, and how it can affect the consumer. This topic sparked from a recent story about a man who was stabbed and robbed of his copy of the newly released and highly popular Grand Theft Auto 5. This certainly caused a debate around certain news sources about violence in video games reflecting violence in real life. This story was reported after merely 3 weeks after the series was blamed once again for inspiring an 8 year old to shoot his grandmother in the back of the head. The series (and violent video games in general) is a hot topic when coming to real life violence; gamers read it, politicians read it, scared, conservative housewives read it, etc. There are many reasons that break down why video games don't have an impact on real life violence, but the topic crops up anyway. As a gamer, I feel insulted when someone criticizes our medium as a 'way for kids to waste time' or a 'dangerous drug'. These days, video games are as legitimate an art-form as film or television or literature. Phil Fish describes gaming as "The ultimate art-form. The ultimate medium. It's the sum total of every expressive medium of all time - made interactive." It's a shame that most people don't see that as much as I do. Anyway - LARA CROFT.

After defending gaming in a lengthy paragraph, we turn to a Two-Dimensional character from a mediocre game endorsing a soft drink that I don't really like. But this isn't up to personal taste; the ad-execs at Lucozade certainly know (or at least knew) what they were doing when putting the fictional Lara Croft at the head of their marketing stunt. Despite me disliking Lara Croft (her being the benchmark of video game objectification of women and her 'tomb raiding' without justification or any use for her relics) she was a popular face at the time, with 2 feature films about the character a few years down the line. Of course the main demographic for video games (at the time) and fans of Lara Croft are primarily male. I'm just speaking for myself here, but I see more men drinking Lucozade and all of its spin-offs consumed by men than women. Marketing Lucozade for men isn't a bad thing - if your audience is mainly male anyway, you might as well appeal to them more aggressively - but it does leave out a large demographic.

This advert was unique at the time for being computer animated. Most adverts you see today have some use of CGI or otherwise computer-altered images, but in 1999 this was a relatively new innovation. It's certainly a risk to take, as 30 seconds of 3D animation and rendering can take quite some time, but the fact that it was so new and fresh at the time made up for all its flaws and foibles. Of course it promotes Lucozade in an exceedingly positive light: you're stuck, drink Lucozade, problem solved, etc. But it does so in a unique way. Faced with live threatening situations (fictional, of course), drinking a Lucozade will get you out of it.

I'm not a fan of the character or the drink, but what Lucozade did here was clever. I don't think I've seen a fictional game character be the face of a marketing ploy before. It makes a lot of sense though; she's just like a regular celebrity, but she doesn't say or do stupid things in public, and she's a fantastic stunt actor.

'Share a Coke' analysis.

This is the recent 'Share a Coke' advert, launching Coca Cola's new marketing campaign of putting names on Coke bottles. It's an original idea that can potentially generate a lot of revenue. The advert itself is quite basic, with a handful of people talking about who they would share a Coke with. This particular advert, unlike Hilltop, portrays the people as real people, not just singing robots holding a coke. These are real people with personalities and accents and reliability. Most of us can relate to having an annoying sibling, but you still love them. We can relate to having a really good friend that we would like to 'Share a Coke' with.

Instead of these people giving scripted, by-the-book, robotic responses, they seem like real people you would normally see on the street or in school. They have imperfections and character traits and all the squishy stuff that makes a human, well, human. Instead of this being in the form of text, like a 'This person feels strongly about this person' type deal, they're actual people expressing their opinions in a manner they would ordinarily use to speak to their friends or peers. This is in effort to make Coca Cola seem like a more relatable, approachable and friendly corporation, and not the massive, conglomerate, globalized corporation it actually is.

The aesthetic of the advert is youthful, as if Coca Cola are part of the young age fueled by hashtags and selfies. Sure, it keeps the old colour scheme of Coca Cola (see the red and white background), but the people are young, they talk like young people the song ('Tongue Tied' by Grouplove) is a relatively new song, the fashion is recent, hell, almost everything about the advert is youthful, and it all serves one purpose: to make Coca Cola seem more in touch with the young audience. I mostly see teenagers or generally younger people drinking Coke, and if the company was out of touch with that audience, then surely that audience wouldn't drink Coke anymore. Whereas other companies and corporations aren't in tune with what the younger generation (I'm looking at you, Newspaper industry), Coca Cola is thriving off of this generation because of this advert and their entire marketing technique. They incorporate modern art styles and more efficient, less-expensive ways of reaching a large audience, either through hashtags or YouTube.

The idea of putting a name on a Coke bottle looks promising. I often see people fishing through Coke stands, trying to find their name or their friends name, attracting a larger audience of people who enjoy the novelty of having their own name on a Coke. Coca Cola is a huge company, too huge, incredibly huge, and to have your name on a bottle containing the most consumed soft drinks in the world, gives you a feeling that you are special and are noticed by this Multi-national corporation. People fish through many a Coke bottle to find their name, and post a picture of their personalized bottle on Facebook or Instagram or social network of choice.

The best part about this campaign is how simple it is. A name is simple. We can all remember the names of our friends. How much does a Coke label cost to make anyway? Maybe a little more that your standard Coke label, but compare that to the amount of revenue Coca Cola have made through this marketing campaign, and the cost of an individual label is insignificant. With this marketing campaign, Coca Cola feel less like a huge, conglomerate corporation, and they feel more personal.

Coke is a really clever company, and so far they're doing really well with this campaign. A few bad press incidents or a PR nightmare won't be enough to destroy Coca Cola at this point. They're too successful and too clever to lose any kind of popularity at this point. Incidentally, I want a coke now.

shot types and cinematography.

This is the opening, establishing shot of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. This close up shot establishes that this man is the main character of the film, but then the camera proceeds to zoom out from the close up, revealing the room that Alex (the main character) resides in, whilst still keeping Alex at the centre of it all. This symbolises Alex as being the centre of the world of A Clockwork Orange, despite the fact that it's hard to see him when the camera fully zooms out.

This is a two shot from the opening of The Social Network. Previously in the scene, the camera alternated between Mark Zuckerberg and Erica Albright via over-the-shoulder shots, hinting at a disconnection between the two.The camera only does the two shot twice in the entire scene, when they stopped talking. Most of the shots in the movie depict Mark Zuckerberg in a separate shot from everyone else, also hinting that he's disconnected from everyone else.

This is a wide-angle shot from Indie Game: The Movie. This shows, via a wide angle shot, the environment in which the game developers live. They live surrounded by posters and photos and references and computers and technology etc. They live in a little room, designing a game that will one day sell millions. A huge conclusion starts with a small, pop culture-filled room. 

This is an extreme close-up shot from Dead Space 2. Despite being a game, shots still take effect, and angles take a huge effect on the game as a whole. For instance, first person shooters like Call of Duty or Portal have their entire game played through the viewpoint of the main character. Third person games like Dead Space or Spec Ops: The Line have their game take place from the third-person perspective, having the game camera set over the characters shoulder. This is used for either gameplay or artistic purposes. This is a close up shot of the main characters mask. Because the game is survival horror, most of the scares rely on claustrophobia, which is expressed through this shot. We are so close to the main characters face, it's uncomfortable, inciting claustrophobia, which is one of the main themes of the game.

Of course there is a multitude of shots you can use for a game or a movie, but these are just a few shots you can use which are most often used in movies or games.  

the first lesson of media.

I opened up this blog for the primary purpose of my Media Studies coursework. This is where I document what we did in class, certain homework assignments and some other optional stuff. This is my second blog, my first blog being here, where I write essays about games and suchlike game related topics, so naturally I have some experience with Blogger and its in's and out's. I generally enjoy subjects like English and Tech because I like to write. It's something I enjoy doing in my spare time, and it's a good way to express my opinions to a large crowd. My other blog is nearing 600 pageviews, which isn't loads, but it's a start. My spare time mainly consists of watching movies (in which I have seen hundreds and can name every Academy Award for Best Picture since 1959 off by heart) and playing video games (in which I am trying to develop one. Or at least trying).

In the lesson today, we were told what out first piece of coursework was going to be, and it's advertisement. We looked at an advert for Listerine in the textbook, and analysed what gave that advert its persuasive qualities. It had a woman, holding a cloth in which she would cry into, looking all weak and pathetic, mainly because she doesn't have a husband. This plays off sexist gender conventions that all women should aspire to be a fine wife to a successful husband, and that turning 30 is something to be ashamed of. In order for Edna to get the perfect husband, she needs to use Listerine to solve her halitosis and be the ideal female. Here we can see that these gender conventions have been engraved in society through the media. Your televisions and your advertisements all say that women should be a certain way, and that all women will be incomplete without Mr. Right.  And that you will be a certain way and you will meet Mr. Right if you give our company some money. It's odd to see how society and genders can be so affected just because some companies want a bit of money.

Despite taking approximately a billion years to load, we also watched another advertisement, promoting both Coke Zero and James Bond. It was obviously targeted at men, due to the gratuitous amounts of skinny-waisted, large-breasted women dancing around the place, and due to the amount of violence and car chases going on at the same time. It was an exercise in seeing how many bored, teenage boys you can appeal to at the same time, by having the most stereotypical and generic interests as possible. 'Hey, what do bored, teenage boys like?' 'Girls! Violence! Car chases! Carbonated, low-calorie drinks!' Those Ad Execs must have been very proud of their painfully obvious discovery.

I'm not demeaning the advertisement industry as a whole, just these two adverts in particular. I'm not saying they don't work, because they do, but it doesn't send a very positive message about gender conventions. But hell, that's just my opinion.