DESIGN CONTEXT BLOG
Develop an online portfolio of critical responses to lectures, seminars, set tasks and independent research activities. Use you Design Context Blog to document and evidence your engagement with, and understanding of contextual, theoretical and critical concepts and ideas that you have been introduced to during the course of the academic year. Your Blog should include; lecture notes, records of activities undertaken in seminars, a collection of short writing tasks completed in response to set tasks and activities. You should also provide notes and visual records of any self-initiates trips, stuio visits, galleries and research activities relevant to the development of critical understanding of the context of Graphic Design practice.
CRITICAL & CONTEXTUAL WRITING
Write a 3000 word essay in response to one of the set essay themes.
The essay should demonstrate that you have understood the nature of academic writing and importance of critical and analytical approaches to your chosen subject matter. Your essay should aim to include:
The selection of subject matter appropriate to your own interests that will allow you to critically analyse relevant source material
A logical structure that has an introduction, a developed argument that is supported by appropriate references to at least four different academic sources and a conclusion
A bibliography of at least 10 sources presented using the Harvard referencing system & the use of Harvard conventions within the main text of the essay when paraphrasing or quoting from other sources.
Essay Plan
Title
Despite strict advertising guidelines, how do agencies within the U.K. effectively communicate brand qualities within the alcohol industry.
Structure Plan
Intro sections
1 Paragraph
- Introduction to the essay including my reason for researching the topic and what I will be covered in the essay.
- Brief outline of advertising guidelines and the history including early examples of two case studies which show both sides of the story.
main body section
2400 words approx.
- An explanation of the cultural impacts that advertising on a population in any country.
- Explain semiology, meta-language, faucault etc.
- Unique and iconic adverts from within the history of alcohol branding and their characteristics such as use of typography, layout and colour which will explain how agencies do effectively communicate brand qualities.
- Alcohol advertising graphic design today case studies and how they use characteristics from early cases explained previously because they have learned lessons.
Conclusion
300 words approx
- Conclusion of how Graphic design plays a part of showing alcohol in the best possible light without breaking any laws with a short breakdown in which ways and why.
word
= needed?
word
= quote that needs correctly referenced
Despite strict advertising guidelines
on non-broadcast adverts, how do marketing agencies effectively communicate
brand qualities within the alcohol industry using semiotics and communication theory?
Introduction
This
essay will explore the creative use of semiotics and pictorial metaphor within
the alcohol advertising industry. Sets of guidelines which advertising agencies
must adhere to are issued by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and
cover many different industries in a section that is known as non-broadcast advertisements.
There are over
twenty areas of regulated promotable items such as tobacco and food which each
have individual aims, "Rules to prevent promotion of smoking via
ads for non-tobacco product" and "Rules relating to health and nutrition
claims in foodstuffs...".
The sector I share most synergy with is the area of alcoholic beverages which has guidelines described
as covering the "Social
responsibility rules for alcoholic drinks". ASA website
There
are eighteen separate strict rules for advertising alcohol specifically so that
“marketing communications should
not…imply, condone or encourage immoderate, irresponsible or anti-social
drinking”
p2 ASA resources. Alcohol
marketing aimed at people under the age of 18 is strictly prohibited but again
this term of “should not” is used. I believe that it is within these ASA rules that
marketing companies find grey areas whereby they can twist the language used.
The argument over whether the ASA goes too far into censoring our nation from
alcohol advertising can also be raised in this essay as we can find evidence of
advertising in other countries which are not bound by rules which are as
strict.
My own interests in this field
stem from a growing involvement in alcohol package design and copywriting,
which together can create a marketable product that can reach many consumers
rather than supply a niche audience.
Main copy.
(Discuss 18.5 and 18.14 of the
rules)
Dyer argues that an advert "promotes general ideas and
beliefs" Dyer p73 which is key to the sale of a product in the
mass media audience, it is how the advert does this that is the primary
concern. Dyer comments on “drawing
attention” p2 to specific areas of and advert which are its pre-determined
goals, these signifiers are what allows the viewer to follow a specific script.
The viewer is guided from seeing the advert through to being left with an
impression of the product. When looking at alcohol adverts, it seems that agencies must
suggest a lifestyle rather directly influencing a purchase through a specific
visual aid in order to sell a unit of stock.
“Promotional messages are typically
informed by strategic goals but the articulation or encoding of strategic goals
in messages is highly complex”. P161
Social Communication in advertising. Once an
alcohol advert is promoting its goods in this way, they become commodities and
we as the viewer immediately become part of the commodity culture which is outlined
by Sturken. “Advertising encourages consumers to think of commodities
as central means through which to convey their personalities" (Sturken et al 198). In
order to be successful, alcohol advertising must place the viewer in a world
surrounded by all of the associations that come from consuming the product, the
ASA must monitor what these associations are and how they would effect the commodity
culture within society as a whole.
In
depth studies of semiotics, myth theory and metaphor carried out by theorist
such as Lacan, Berger and others show us that imagery is the main way that a
viewer receives a particular message. However because the ASA has such strict
governing rules that seem to concentrate on the image based portrayal of
alcohol consumption, it is the body copy of an advert can effect the success of
coding and de-coding an adverts message. Higgins writes that “The essence of this business is putting
effective words and phrases down onto paper” p9 Writing in Advertising by D Higgins which can
be true of all advertising.
Product
associations can be seen in a short analysis of a Grolsch advert by Forceville.
“The Grolsch bottle in a Champagne bucket
with Ice therefore affects the subjects belief of the Grolsch drink being
suitable for times of celebration”. (p115 Forceville) The advert is
successful here in gaining a reputation within the higher classes who purchase
Champagne and also with the lower class target markets which like the ideology
of being of a higher class when drinking the Grolsch.
Leiss
et al. interprets modern advertising as mainly using a direct technique of “making few falsifiable claims, but invoking
many value judgments” p591
based on a quote from Ashman et al. “there
is a difference between false advertising and the advertising which maybe
considered as misleading upon the application of value judgments” p591. These value
judgments are placed in our minds as the individual, based on how we look and
perceive the messages thrust at us by the large billboards and glossy magazine
adverts. Ashman’s argument can be justified in its simplest form with a quote
from John Berger, arguably an icon in the interpretation in art and the media.
Berger opens his book, “The ways of
seeing” by saying that “seeing comes before words. “The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”. p7 ways of seeing. Many
decades into the study of viewing signs and messages that we receive everyday
as the individual has led to the study of semiotics and mythology.
Moving
on from this into a more detailed manner we can start to discuss semiotics as a
way of communication a language to a wide audience of which agencies can assume
they know a small about each one.
Bignell
uses an interesting way of explaining semiotics within adverts on page 32 of
“Media Semiotics” as an assumption that “any thing which seems to carry a meaning
for us in the ad is a sign”. Sassure’s thoughts of how we communicate with the
world around us carry this argument deeper into how the signs work, and
therefore a possible reason as to why advert agencies use the systems of
semiotics. “…how we are surrounded by and shaped by sign systems, leads to the
realization that consciousness and experience are built out of language” p7
To
understand the aim of adverts we must understand who they are aimed at and how
the communication intention works. The receiver of an advert is referred to in
the field of semiotic theory as the “individual”, whereas the “roles
constructed by dominant culture and ideological calues such as class, age,
gender and ethnicity.” is known as the “subject” D.Chandler p 187.
Saussure
is discussed at length by D.Chandler in Semiotics the basics whereby he reaches
conclusions about the subjects of adverts and how adverts must be received by
particular subjects, “…to understand an advertisement we would have to adopt
the identity of a consumer who desired the product” . However he qualifies that
statement with the fact that “some theorists argue that this position already
exisits within the structure and codes of the text. P187
It
is possible to apply these thoughts and theories when discussing two cases of
advertising which is in the media today. In order to understand how successful
an advert can be we can examine them using Roland Barthes “Three Messages”
system is which is outlined in “Visual Signs” (p73 ). The first message in Barthes system is the
linguistic message which is the text within the advert itself, the second
message “works on a level of connotation” which basically allows the advert to
imply…which we imply to mean…The third message in Barthes system is what is
described by Crow as the denotation of a particular part of an image, this is
“the non-coded iconic message” “Visual Signs” p74.
To
understand several theories used by the advertising industry, it is necessary
to discuss two adverts with have few similarities and many differences. Using
an advert by “Wild Cream of Africa” (Fig. 1) which has been banned by the ASA
and a campaign by Shiner Beer (Fig.2) we can compare and contrast their
qualities.
The
connotations in both adverts are similar, the viewer will have happiness and
success, this is present throughout each stage of the adverts dialogue. Each
advert contains a lifestyle that contains specific social groups which each
type of alcohol create.
The
aesthetic codes in the African
Cream have separate myths for two target genders. With the male target in mind
the advert connotes that the female is much more sinful and sexually
animalistic when she has drunk some Wild Africa Cream. The female target is
shown that attracting an athletic and successful male partner is much easier
when drinking the product, again connoting a wild animalistic desire and need. The
ASA ruled that the advert connoted that the drink “changed the womans mood and enhanced her
confidence” which breached ruling 56.8.
We
know that the target audience in both sexes is wealthy professionals in
nightclubs. The myth of sexual success is enforced by the connotations of the
body copy which reads “Everyone has a
little wild in them”. The ASA prohibited this advert from being printed
because the advert was believed to have directly “linked alcohol to seduction, sexual
activity or sexual success”.
The
transferal of meaning between the image and body copy is very literal, this
could be one of the main reasons why the ASA was able to pick up on the
connotations and semiotics in the advert and forced to act accordingly. Using
the words “wild side” along with leopard print and scratch marks link the
social situation with wild animalistic desire, urge or confidence. The
photography depicts a social scenario occurring in a nightclub, dark imagery
and suggestions of bar lights in the background means the viewer is lead to
believe that drinking the liquor when in this social situation will lead to
sexually success. Eggins
(Intro to systemic functional linguistics) discusses Saussure’s study of
paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes which can be applied to an advert when being
deconstructed. The syntagmatic axis “captures the relations between
signs” p190, the paradigmatic axis “captures the opposition between signs” p190. The syntagmatic
structure of the Wild cream advert shows the sequence of being in a nightclub,
drinking the liquor and finding a sexual partner, the paradigmatic structure of
the advert is relayed to the viewer by showing a large image of the product.
The paradigm of not choosing to drink the product would not place you in this
social situation of sexual success. For the transfer of encoding and decoding,
all be it a very obvious coding structure to be successful, the transfer
between the sender and receiver of the message within the advert must operate
under the same rules of communication. For the advert, or indeed any image
which is designed to convince, to work, there must be a standard agreement of understanding.
David Crow quotes in Visual Signs a proposition by Saussure that “All that is
necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people
that one thing will stand for another”. p18 “Visual Signs”. What Saussure means by this is
that signifiers for certain “things” must be agreed upon in order for a message
to be correctly coded and decoded. Adverts rely on this system of coding
adverts, which offer loaded connotations such as selling a deodorant, which is
shown as making you successful at being more sexually appealing by having
attractive women somewhere in the advert. This argument can be backed up by
Forceville’s analysis of the Grolch advert on p115 in “Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising”
whereby he discusses how “the addressee, having established that the metaphor
is Grolsch is Champagne” leads to the viewer understanding that champagne
directly connotes festivity.
The
poster campaign for Shiner Beer produced by
Jesse McGarrah is very successful in applying Barthes’s system.
McGarrah ensures that the viewer is part of a lifestyle which is depicted
through site workers and short quotes. “Seeing
comes before words, the child looks and recognizes before it can speak” (Berger, Ways of Seeing p1),
In his book ways of Seeing, Berger explores and discusses imagery in a way that
allows the viewer to appreciate the piece personally. “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe”
(Berger, Ways of Seeing
p8), he states, this is true of adverts whereby how a scenario within an
advert is perceived by the subject influences how successful the communication
is.
There
are four poster adverts for the campaign, however, when compared to the Wild
Cream adverts, each one much more has complexity to its message systems. This
is achieved through imagery that references emotions and text based dialogues that
communicate humor through sarcasm rather than sexual success through word
association. In Fig 2 a connotation of a hard working and dedicated employee is
achieved through rough photographical based imagery. The viewer receives a
coded message of quality through the employee experiencing enjoyment and
satisfaction in his role at the brewery. With job satisfaction comes quality of
work, the smile on the face when twinned with the quote implies a joke rather
than drunken happiness, however without the body copy, the viewer could be lead
to assume that happiness comes with drinking the product. The body copy plays
an important part in transferring the reader through stages one and two of Barthes
message system. The standardized western system of reading from top left to
bottom right of a page is used, so that the transferal of message from the
sender to the receiver is carried through this natural reading system.
The
employees signature connotes an authentic and quality touch to each bottle
produced, this is similar to the connotations of the Grolsch advert whereby
signature products are assumed to be of a high standard and quality which is
checked by officially appointed experts. Bignell describes in semiotics as a
model for communication “language is the
most fundamental and persuasive medium for human communication, semiotics takes
the way that language works as the model for all other media of communication”
pg6 Media Semiotics.
Conclusion
After
discussing at length the qualities of imagery, art and advertising Berger
writes “Capitalism survives by forcing
the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as
possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation. Today in the
developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what
is and what is not desirable” p154 berger. We can interpret this in relation to the advertising
industry itself as having a need for a consumer based cyclical society whereby
the mass public rely on being told what they should and should not like and
dislike. They are also told what they must be a part of, which essentially
becomes the base practice model for selling products which are not of high
standards. Because the public are “encouraged
to define themselves” (Vestergaard 1985, Language of
Advertising p6) through these adverts, companies are able to sell enough
to make a profit to keep advertising and keep the commodity cultures alive
which feed business growth. Knowing on a basic level how advertising agencies
create approvable adverts which are successful at communicating brand qualities
will not necessarily stop them being as effective in capturing the attention of
a viewer however, it is within the lifestyle that they sell that a small dream
world is born for the viewer to step into from their everyday life. This will
always appeal to the consumer, and therefore the larger companies can create a
sale.
Bibliography
(to
complete)
The
Wild Africa Cream liquer advert of 2010??
Please see the Pinterest board below for further research:
Web based links of Interest
http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2009/7/Wild-Cape-Liqueurs-Ltd/TF_ADJ_46478.aspx
http://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Hot-Topics/Alcohol.aspx
http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2009/7/Wild-Cape-Liqueurs-Ltd/TF_ADJ_46478.aspx
http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/alcohol%20ads/index.htm
Written texts of Interest
I discovered a new section of the Library today and got a few more books out to photocopy and find key texts to apply to my essay question.
http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/assets/files/Youth%20Policy/YAAC-Spring-Report-FINAL.pdf
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9408380/Ban-on-alcohol-adverts-should-be-considered-MPs.html
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/teesonphd/004c3.pdf
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/would%2Ban%2Balcohol%2Badvertising%2Bban%2Bwork/3336597.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/alcohol-adverts-target-teenagers-despite-strict-code-7758139.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18960770
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/19/mps-tighter-rules-alcohol-ads-1
http://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/~/media/Files/ASA/Reports/Alcohol%20Advertising%20Survey%202009.ashx
http://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/~/media/Files/ASA/Reports/ASAAlcoholEventReportNov08.ashx
http://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/Non-broadcast-HTML.aspx
"We deal with most types of ads but not all. If we can’t deal with your complaint ourselves, we will try to help you contact the right body
The types of ads we deal with include:
Magazine and newspaper advertisements
Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship)
Television Shopping Channels
Advertisements on the Internet, including:
banner and display ads
paid-for (sponsored) search
Marketing on companies’ own websites and in other space they control like social networking sites Twitter and Facebook
Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads
Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters)
Leaflets and brochures
Cinema commercials
Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally)
Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on)
Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear.
Before lodging a complaint with us, please read the issues we can’t help with. The list includes links to other bodies that might be able to help"
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