Chosen AdAdvertising Agency: PC&V Communications, Philippines
About our presentation:
My team explores on how the target audience will see the ads, in what it the ads effective in targeting their consumers using theories and models of communications and how we as students interpret the images from an outside perspective considering that we are not based in Philippines.
Models Used to Interpret
1. Elaboration Likelihood model explain why the ad uses humor, it is most suitable for products that require low involvement.
2. Peire’s Theory – iconic, indexical, and symbolic to infer meanings and messages
Symbolic:
Guests and baby - celebration of newborn (image)
Trans fat -bad for health (caption)
Iconic
People-Philipinoes
Indexical
Chair stuck to her butt -she is too fat
When ties in with the caption, it means that she should eat Nagaraya nuts
3. Tropes
Metonymy
Trans fats and cholesterols signify over weight
(Commonly associated)
Synecdoche
The woman’s butt is too big denotes her as being overall too fat and needs a solution
( butt refers to fat body and butt is part of the body)
4. Connotations and Denotations
In this ad, both connotations and denotations derived into the end message that the woman is too fat that she is stuck with the chair, thus she should go for lower fat intake, which is to eat Nagaraya nuts.
How Target Audience Decode the Message
First, the target audiences are really based in Philippines, those who are fat or think they are obese and als0o people who are obsess with the ideal image of slim. The used of Philippinoes in the ads is the right choice as audience could relate with the people in the print. It is also a realistic depiction of a gathering of a celebration of the new born. Audience can infer this from their cultural background as Philippines is known for their warm and celebration of festivals. Nothing absurd is inserted in the print, even when the chair is stuck; it is something that could really happen, not surrealistic e.g people flying in the sky. The use of ordinary people also allows audience to relate themselves as being in her shoes or even in that scene (especially with the availability of the white space in the front of the image).
Fat being not desired by people is an almost universal thing, in Philippines and in Singapore. The image of ideal beauty is so common that little kids could tell you who is fat and who is not. Trans fats and cholesterol whether one has taken chemistry or not know what when the level is too high, it is bad for health and it is commonly associated with fat people. These are the most common terms used in slimming products and fats free products.
Also mentioned in our presentation, the use of humor on this topic, could have two extreme effects, some may be offended and see it as a mockery to fat people, while others will accept it as just for laugh. This depends on how seriously people view adds, their psychological state, like self-esteem, self satisfaction and their cultural background.
References are also made to the everyday life, be it the audience or us. Fat people are pressured by society to lose weight and to fit in. The ad pokes fun at embarrassing situations E.g the fat lady in the chair, the fat guy falling asleep in front of the TV and the butt crack. People are pressure to be in ideal shape. Beautiful people also have a fear of growing out of shape and losing their beauty. Ad speaks to them because it’s catching their weak point.
Other supporting ads:
Advertising Agency: Salles Chemistri, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Slogan: Forget about it. Men's preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt
Peers' Work
I felt that many of the groups speak more about how they interpret the ads rather than how the targeted audience will interpret the ads. Really a lot of effort put in the theories portion. I am commenting on the below based on my memory because not everyone has put up their blog yet. I shall expand on this section once I check on others’ works.
Paul and Mei mei's ad was well chosen, although not many of us are familiar with gambling, but we are still able to infer the meanings from the ads, the use of polka cards and chips are something familiar to use as audiences of mass media, we see these in movies, the image of Les Vegas is also shaped by movies (for those who has never been there). I love what Paul and Mei mei code the “Death of the author and the birth of the reader”. Really when an author of a book finished his/her job, it is published and from that instances, the author will not have the ability to change anything in the book, the author is not there to explain to the reader exactly how he should read it.
For paintings, once the artist finished a painting, he died and the painting became famous and there is this ‘great rush’ to interpret his works, many interpretations but who knows which is the correct one, after all correct or not is not important, there should be freedom of how one should interpret the work based on one’s cultural experience. Paul and Meimei where did u get this code from? I thought Paul and Meimei did a great job, very detailed, analytical documentation of theories and how it is applied to human interpretation of images.
Gaze-Adding on to what Mr Reddy taught in class this week
Manet (1863) Luncheon on the Grass
Manet (1863) Olympia
At the first glance on the ad they presented, people may immediately think that the woman is subservient to the man and dependent on him. From Goffman’s (1979) analysis it be inferred as that because of how she is seated, bending towards to the man. However, the gaze tells other wise. The gaze is looking directly at the camera, a strong and confirming look. From here, the man is the pleasure; there is a change in gender role here. This also reminds me of Manet’s Olympia (1863). In the painting the woman is staring confidently at the viewer, as if insulted or threatened by her look, there was an uproar against this painting at that time. Likewise in the Luncheon on the Glass (1863), Manet again challenge the idea of gaze, that man now becomes the subject of the woman’s gaze. The nudes in his painting seem to challenge the viewer, “Are you looking at me, I know you are looking at me.”
I thought if Mike and Zhen Qin read up on Manet, they would have draw lots of interesting insights from his master works. Erm…. and also I still don’t understand why you mentioned Siva Natarajar. In Hinduism, Siva is equated to destruction. Natarajar is an aspect of Siva; it is the Lord of dance and music. So Siva Natarajar embraces creation, destruction and preservation. The unique thing about it is that it seems to be always in movement. It is said the “the figure never really stand and sit, they stand and sit in movement,” TK Sabapathy (2006-2007). So I really find it hard to relate a religious sculpture to this fashion ad. =)
On Second Thought
Look at the paintings by Manet and look again at the ads above from my presentation, don't you think their image of beauty is the same? So why look at them as fat people? Answer: exactly! It is our cultural experiences, social norms and influences that internalised in us that fat is unpretty. ( Of course they are some exceptions, some may still think they are pretty).
(*updated)Self Assessment:
I am giving my group 100/100 because we need answer to what Mr Reddy is loooking for, applying the concepts of semiotics at the same time using other models and defining how the target audience will look at the ads and how effective they are. We also make use of examples of other ads to support the one we used. The issue we presented is soming familiar to the class, thus when we present the slides, they could understand and able to relate it to their own societal standards and environment.
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