Monday 28 March 2011
Ideas for Dissertation
The dreaded 6000 word dissertation is on the horizon and I think it is a good idea to start thinking of what subject matter I could write about. The following list is ideas for what the dissertation could be based upon;
-Use of Language within advertising and promotion to sell a product.(Research different languages used for different markets and how they differ, pretty similar to the essay I wrote about the Gazes in Advertising to sell a product)
-How recycling packaging and the eco-friendly morals are applied to cooperations and how effectively are they used?
-Look at how technologies are developing and how cooperations use the latest technologies to engage in new markets, globalization...
***On going post
-Use of Language within advertising and promotion to sell a product.(Research different languages used for different markets and how they differ, pretty similar to the essay I wrote about the Gazes in Advertising to sell a product)
-How recycling packaging and the eco-friendly morals are applied to cooperations and how effectively are they used?
-Look at how technologies are developing and how cooperations use the latest technologies to engage in new markets, globalization...
***On going post
Task 5 Extra
From the lecture on sustainability, I was pretty shocked when I learnt that the worlds media is dominated by six single Americans. The power they have to use media to put them in more powerful positions thean the governments is a scary thought. Power can be thought of as a new form of imperialism. The following list helped me answer task 5, when writing about George Ritzer's quote on "McDonaldisation". The idea of using this American Icon and lifestyle to appeal to the market importance, is a scary thought for the third world countries who may not know to much about America but this idea of market expansion gives them the idea of the American lifestyle, but can this idea of Ron McDonald actually reflect America or the lifestyle.
Market Importance
1. North America
2. Western Europe, Japan & Australia
3. India, Brazil, China and Eastern Europe
4. Rest of the world.
Market Importance
1. North America
2. Western Europe, Japan & Australia
3. India, Brazil, China and Eastern Europe
4. Rest of the world.
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Task 3: Final Essay
Paul Brandreth
CTS
Graphic Design Level 05
Submit a proposal for the 2,000 word essay element of the portfolio brief.
The Gaze
Above are two advertisements used for the essay
“One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relations of women to themselves.” Berger(1972: 47) The following essay is based around the quote from John Bergers book, Ways of Seeing and to find out the different gazes used within male/ female advertisements.
To make this a fair essay I’ve decided to use the two Versace advertisements above, one aimed to sell for the male audience and the other advert advertised for the female audience. By using the same company Versace, it makes it fair because they are both aimed at the same market and use the same advertising language. If I analysed two different companies advertising it would make it unfair as one company would aim its products at a different audience to the other using different language.
The first image above, Madonna for Versace uses a direct gaze, which the woman looks out of the frame as if she is looking straight at the audience. This gaze gives the viewer the thought that she is directly looking at them and draws in their attention. The delivery and use of the gaze advertises for a female audience to be this woman and be in her position but also aimed at the male audience using certain ways such as scopophilia and fetishistic to grab the males attention. The idea of the female gaze looking straight at the audience becomes a more sense of reality, that the model is connected with the audience. “Soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also been seen. The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visual world” Berger (1972/ 9) The importance of the quote for the eye to eye contact grabs the audience attention and the feeling of a perception of communication between the two.
However in the second image there are two gazes happening. First being the direct gaze from the male, and secondly the intra-dietetic gaze for the woman. The male positioning and contact with the audience gives a strong powerful, in-control male status. Referring to the opening quote of the essay Berger’s statement of “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” applies to this image, as although the male uses the direct gaze, the other gaze, which is just as powerful to the audience, is the intra-dietetic gaze from the woman seductively looks upon the male. The importance of the woman’s gaze and behavior towards the male gaze is important. “Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determined how she will be treated”(Berger 1972/ 46). The idea of the appearance in the second advertisement shows the woman after the male’s attention, this is important for the male audience to understand the females’ appearance so the product can be sold through the imagery used.
The use of the camera angles is important to capture what the audience needs to see the feel connected with the advert. “Publicity increasingly uses sexuality is never free in itself; it is a symbol for something presumed to be larger than it; the good life in which you can buy whatever you want. To be able to buy is the same thing as being sexually desirable… Usually it is the implicit message, If you are able to buy this product you will be loveable. If you cannot buy it, you will be less lovable.” Berger (1972/ 144) The idea of seeing the female models in the advertisements would work as if you bought the product you will feel loved, but if you didn’t buy the product, would you be less loveable? If you were to buy every product to feel lovable, you would need to either have a lot of money or select certain products, which makes the competition to sell the product difficult for different companies.
In both images of the advertisements they both use the females gazes for strong visual connections towards voyeuristic, and fetishistic scopophilic pleasure. "In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness" For the advertisements on the left the use of the female using Voyeuristic- scopophilic pleasure as presenting her actions to an audience using sexual connotations with the envelope. The second image uses the woman’s gaze also with voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia through her positioning towards the male in the advertisement.
The idea of using voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia techniques within advertising is a successful tool to sell a product. “Women have traditionally been exploited by some advertisers to sell products. And in the process, myths about women have been reinforced. Advertisers have sold us the myth that all women must be thin. Advertisers have sold American women the myth that the ideal woman is blond. Media campaigns have reinforced the myth communicated is that product use makes a woman sexy. The reality is that sex sells.” Toland (1997/ 226) This quote seems to be true within the advertisements above, however, in the Male advert the woman has dark hair, maybe this has changed since the book was written, although in the female advertisement the quote supports the woman, blond hair and slim. I think that whatever colour hair or body type the female model has depends on what kind of audience the advertisement is trying to connect to. However the idea of sex sells definitely supports the images of the advertisements above.
It seems that we buy these products to be loveable and be someone similar who appears in the advertisements. “Advertisements are selling us something else besides consumer good: in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods, are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves.” Williamson (1978 /13) I think the word “ourselves” is important from the quote. It seems that by looking at the advertisements above we buy the product and buy the thought that this advert belongs to us in the way that we are fitting towards the models actions.
So if women use voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia to sell a product what is the role of the male gaze? The male gaze helps women to become a commodity, which sells the product through the idea of becoming someone else, and being in the female gazes position. The idea for the male audience to reflect the male in the advertisements leads the audience to think about the woman from the advertisement looking at them. Back to the quote from the beginning of the essay “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” In this instance of the second advertisement it seems the male audience do glance to the male for the idea of being in his position and the woman gazing at the audience.
The appearance from the females selling product has to be influential and relate towards the female audience. However the appearance and glamour towards the male audience has to use sexual connotations. Mulvey (1989/ 29)”I was interested in the relationship between the image of the woman on the screen and the “masculinisation” of the spectator position, regardless of the actual sex (or possible deviance) of any real live movie-goer. In built patterns of pleasure and identification impose masculinity as a point of view; a point of view which is also manifest in the general use of masculinity third person.” The quote instructs the importance for the female model to sell to a masculine third person viewer, but through the male audience it then appeals and grabs the female audience to look after. Arguing for the quote “Men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at” it seems the quote is true in the way the advertising industry aim the products at a male audience and is a powerful point for why the role of the male and female gazes in the Versace adverts are delivered in the way they are.
Why is it the male, who is in charge and command of the situation and not the females? I believe the reason for “men act and women appear” Berger(1972: 47) is down to the social relationship between man and woman through generations where the male would be in charge and the woman to obey the male. “These early days of research into woman’s place in film history quickly established the fact that women had been excluded from the production and making of films, possibly in proportion to their notorious exploitation as sexual objects on screen” Mulvey (1989/113). This quote is used for the film industry but can be applied to advertisements and through the evolution between advertisements and films it seems the male directs and this is a reason for the idea “men act and woman appear”.
The way we (the audience) look at the advertisements have been thought of so we look around at the whole image to build a visual understanding of what is happening within the advert. “We never look at one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is present to us as we are.” Berger(1972/ 9) The gaze is so important in the relationship to the viewer to give the sense that they have eye to eye contact with the model.
To summarize the differences of the advertisements the quote from Berger, which I started with,“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. Determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relations of women to themselves”. This applies directly to the two Versace images I have used above. The male advertisements uses the males gazes as if he was the audience/ the male viewing the advert, and applies the thought used with voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia from the female model, to sell the product using the sex sells motto. However in the male advertisement the woman’s actions, behavior and glamour connect to a female audience “who gaze at other women” to want to be this woman in the advert.
In the female advertisement, the male is not present but the techniques, voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia actions from the female grabs the males attention using the direct gaze from the female model straight into the frame of the audience. So from both images the male looks at the male advertisement, by looking through the male gaze and acting as him to gaze at the female and in the female advertisement the male looks directly at the female. And the female audience looks at the glamour and voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia actions to relate to the model and want to be in her shoes.
I think that the roles of male and female models within advertising will continue to be aimed at a masculine third person viewer, as this seems how the roles have been through paintings, cinema and still images. Most people within the advertising industry stick to these techniques just to be able to sell a product, and the competition to sell causes the female gazes to use more voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia actions. From research into the male/female gazes within advertising, there are people who argue the way that the way women use certain techniques to sell a product is wrong, in the fact that it has to be the female using these certain techniques and not in the male gazes.
Reference:
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin
Burke. J. (2000) Vision, the Gaze, and the Function of the Senses in Celestina, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press
Mulvey, L. (1989) Visual and other pleasures, Hampshire :Palgrave
Mulvey, L. (1996) Fetishism and Curiosity, London : British Film Institute
Toland Frith, K. (1997) Undressing The Ad, New York : Peter Lang Publications
Williamson, J. (2002) Decoding Advertisements, London : Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
Freedman, B. (1991) Staging the Gaze, United State of America : Cornell University Press
Casetti, F. (1991) Inside The Gaze, Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Seppanen, J (2006) The power of the gaze, New York : Peter Lang Publishing
McGowan, T (2008) The Real Gaze, New York: State University of New York
Mirzoeff, N (1999) An introduction to visual culture, London : Routledge
Beckmann, J (2007) Single camera three-dimensional gaze determination, Texas: Texas A&M University
CTS
Graphic Design Level 05
Submit a proposal for the 2,000 word essay element of the portfolio brief.
The Gaze
Above are two advertisements used for the essay
“One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relations of women to themselves.” Berger(1972: 47) The following essay is based around the quote from John Bergers book, Ways of Seeing and to find out the different gazes used within male/ female advertisements.
To make this a fair essay I’ve decided to use the two Versace advertisements above, one aimed to sell for the male audience and the other advert advertised for the female audience. By using the same company Versace, it makes it fair because they are both aimed at the same market and use the same advertising language. If I analysed two different companies advertising it would make it unfair as one company would aim its products at a different audience to the other using different language.
The first image above, Madonna for Versace uses a direct gaze, which the woman looks out of the frame as if she is looking straight at the audience. This gaze gives the viewer the thought that she is directly looking at them and draws in their attention. The delivery and use of the gaze advertises for a female audience to be this woman and be in her position but also aimed at the male audience using certain ways such as scopophilia and fetishistic to grab the males attention. The idea of the female gaze looking straight at the audience becomes a more sense of reality, that the model is connected with the audience. “Soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also been seen. The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visual world” Berger (1972/ 9) The importance of the quote for the eye to eye contact grabs the audience attention and the feeling of a perception of communication between the two.
However in the second image there are two gazes happening. First being the direct gaze from the male, and secondly the intra-dietetic gaze for the woman. The male positioning and contact with the audience gives a strong powerful, in-control male status. Referring to the opening quote of the essay Berger’s statement of “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” applies to this image, as although the male uses the direct gaze, the other gaze, which is just as powerful to the audience, is the intra-dietetic gaze from the woman seductively looks upon the male. The importance of the woman’s gaze and behavior towards the male gaze is important. “Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determined how she will be treated”(Berger 1972/ 46). The idea of the appearance in the second advertisement shows the woman after the male’s attention, this is important for the male audience to understand the females’ appearance so the product can be sold through the imagery used.
The use of the camera angles is important to capture what the audience needs to see the feel connected with the advert. “Publicity increasingly uses sexuality is never free in itself; it is a symbol for something presumed to be larger than it; the good life in which you can buy whatever you want. To be able to buy is the same thing as being sexually desirable… Usually it is the implicit message, If you are able to buy this product you will be loveable. If you cannot buy it, you will be less lovable.” Berger (1972/ 144) The idea of seeing the female models in the advertisements would work as if you bought the product you will feel loved, but if you didn’t buy the product, would you be less loveable? If you were to buy every product to feel lovable, you would need to either have a lot of money or select certain products, which makes the competition to sell the product difficult for different companies.
In both images of the advertisements they both use the females gazes for strong visual connections towards voyeuristic, and fetishistic scopophilic pleasure. "In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness" For the advertisements on the left the use of the female using Voyeuristic- scopophilic pleasure as presenting her actions to an audience using sexual connotations with the envelope. The second image uses the woman’s gaze also with voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia through her positioning towards the male in the advertisement.
The idea of using voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia techniques within advertising is a successful tool to sell a product. “Women have traditionally been exploited by some advertisers to sell products. And in the process, myths about women have been reinforced. Advertisers have sold us the myth that all women must be thin. Advertisers have sold American women the myth that the ideal woman is blond. Media campaigns have reinforced the myth communicated is that product use makes a woman sexy. The reality is that sex sells.” Toland (1997/ 226) This quote seems to be true within the advertisements above, however, in the Male advert the woman has dark hair, maybe this has changed since the book was written, although in the female advertisement the quote supports the woman, blond hair and slim. I think that whatever colour hair or body type the female model has depends on what kind of audience the advertisement is trying to connect to. However the idea of sex sells definitely supports the images of the advertisements above.
It seems that we buy these products to be loveable and be someone similar who appears in the advertisements. “Advertisements are selling us something else besides consumer good: in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods, are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves.” Williamson (1978 /13) I think the word “ourselves” is important from the quote. It seems that by looking at the advertisements above we buy the product and buy the thought that this advert belongs to us in the way that we are fitting towards the models actions.
So if women use voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia to sell a product what is the role of the male gaze? The male gaze helps women to become a commodity, which sells the product through the idea of becoming someone else, and being in the female gazes position. The idea for the male audience to reflect the male in the advertisements leads the audience to think about the woman from the advertisement looking at them. Back to the quote from the beginning of the essay “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” In this instance of the second advertisement it seems the male audience do glance to the male for the idea of being in his position and the woman gazing at the audience.
The appearance from the females selling product has to be influential and relate towards the female audience. However the appearance and glamour towards the male audience has to use sexual connotations. Mulvey (1989/ 29)”I was interested in the relationship between the image of the woman on the screen and the “masculinisation” of the spectator position, regardless of the actual sex (or possible deviance) of any real live movie-goer. In built patterns of pleasure and identification impose masculinity as a point of view; a point of view which is also manifest in the general use of masculinity third person.” The quote instructs the importance for the female model to sell to a masculine third person viewer, but through the male audience it then appeals and grabs the female audience to look after. Arguing for the quote “Men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at” it seems the quote is true in the way the advertising industry aim the products at a male audience and is a powerful point for why the role of the male and female gazes in the Versace adverts are delivered in the way they are.
Why is it the male, who is in charge and command of the situation and not the females? I believe the reason for “men act and women appear” Berger(1972: 47) is down to the social relationship between man and woman through generations where the male would be in charge and the woman to obey the male. “These early days of research into woman’s place in film history quickly established the fact that women had been excluded from the production and making of films, possibly in proportion to their notorious exploitation as sexual objects on screen” Mulvey (1989/113). This quote is used for the film industry but can be applied to advertisements and through the evolution between advertisements and films it seems the male directs and this is a reason for the idea “men act and woman appear”.
The way we (the audience) look at the advertisements have been thought of so we look around at the whole image to build a visual understanding of what is happening within the advert. “We never look at one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is present to us as we are.” Berger(1972/ 9) The gaze is so important in the relationship to the viewer to give the sense that they have eye to eye contact with the model.
To summarize the differences of the advertisements the quote from Berger, which I started with,“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. Determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relations of women to themselves”. This applies directly to the two Versace images I have used above. The male advertisements uses the males gazes as if he was the audience/ the male viewing the advert, and applies the thought used with voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia from the female model, to sell the product using the sex sells motto. However in the male advertisement the woman’s actions, behavior and glamour connect to a female audience “who gaze at other women” to want to be this woman in the advert.
In the female advertisement, the male is not present but the techniques, voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia actions from the female grabs the males attention using the direct gaze from the female model straight into the frame of the audience. So from both images the male looks at the male advertisement, by looking through the male gaze and acting as him to gaze at the female and in the female advertisement the male looks directly at the female. And the female audience looks at the glamour and voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia actions to relate to the model and want to be in her shoes.
I think that the roles of male and female models within advertising will continue to be aimed at a masculine third person viewer, as this seems how the roles have been through paintings, cinema and still images. Most people within the advertising industry stick to these techniques just to be able to sell a product, and the competition to sell causes the female gazes to use more voyeuristic and fetishistic scopophilia actions. From research into the male/female gazes within advertising, there are people who argue the way that the way women use certain techniques to sell a product is wrong, in the fact that it has to be the female using these certain techniques and not in the male gazes.
Reference:
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin
Burke. J. (2000) Vision, the Gaze, and the Function of the Senses in Celestina, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press
Mulvey, L. (1989) Visual and other pleasures, Hampshire :Palgrave
Mulvey, L. (1996) Fetishism and Curiosity, London : British Film Institute
Toland Frith, K. (1997) Undressing The Ad, New York : Peter Lang Publications
Williamson, J. (2002) Decoding Advertisements, London : Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
Freedman, B. (1991) Staging the Gaze, United State of America : Cornell University Press
Casetti, F. (1991) Inside The Gaze, Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Seppanen, J (2006) The power of the gaze, New York : Peter Lang Publishing
McGowan, T (2008) The Real Gaze, New York: State University of New York
Mirzoeff, N (1999) An introduction to visual culture, London : Routledge
Beckmann, J (2007) Single camera three-dimensional gaze determination, Texas: Texas A&M University
Task 6
Look at the CTS blog that Garry Barker has been writing to complement the lecture programme this year. Write a short response to one of the posts on the blog. Use the ideas that Garry is discussing to mount a short critical evaluation of one piece of Graphic design that you have produced on Level 5.
Gary's post are interesting points and I have chosen to relate the post of the Dymo Tapes to my latest brief for YCN, which was to produce a new way to make money and engage a new audience within a music record label Warp.
The similarities from the Dymo tape to the Warp work produced is the idea of using something that already exists but applying them to a new method for the modern day, The Dymo tape was produced in the 70's and used for punks and people working in workshops. Today the Dymo has been reformed to apply to a younger audience by changing the method of delivery, for a safer, younger, modern item.
The Warp records have been producing music for 20 years now, and they currently have a website to purchase, listen to music but now aimed at tech-savvy young people, myself and Rob Green decided to make an app for mobile devices but keeping the same content as the original website. The idea of applying the new technology with a QR Code scan, to scan rewards found on Warp products opens up to a new market and a new concept but keeping the original content and functions of the website.
Gary's post are interesting points and I have chosen to relate the post of the Dymo Tapes to my latest brief for YCN, which was to produce a new way to make money and engage a new audience within a music record label Warp.
The similarities from the Dymo tape to the Warp work produced is the idea of using something that already exists but applying them to a new method for the modern day, The Dymo tape was produced in the 70's and used for punks and people working in workshops. Today the Dymo has been reformed to apply to a younger audience by changing the method of delivery, for a safer, younger, modern item.
The Warp records have been producing music for 20 years now, and they currently have a website to purchase, listen to music but now aimed at tech-savvy young people, myself and Rob Green decided to make an app for mobile devices but keeping the same content as the original website. The idea of applying the new technology with a QR Code scan, to scan rewards found on Warp products opens up to a new market and a new concept but keeping the original content and functions of the website.
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