COMN 3315 Online Video Presentation

8/2/2019 COMN 3315 Online Video Presentation

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Ethnic Representations in Advertising

This will be a presentation on ethnic advertising in the media using course concepts,and we will also deconstruct an ad using the tools Professor has provided plus JudithWilliamsons work on Decoding Advertisements.

OPENERS:- Whos perspective are most ethnic ads from?- Are these representations accurate?

Advertising has developed as a medium in which goods, services, and even people canbe sold in exchange for currency in the marketplace.

This is communicated through sounds, images, and carefully planned out strategiescreated by ad agencies

Advertising can play on our inner most desires for: love, belonging, self-esteem andmore

So what happens when such a powerful medium gets intertwined with race?

Modern media serves as a hub where meaning is made The ability to classify things such as race is learnt, because categories of race havebecome more of a social construction than a biological one Media provide us with a way to store and think about things (our cultural memory) that

are no longer accessible

MEANING & ABSENCE Often what and who we dont see in advertising speaks louder than what is seen

DISCOURSE A concept coined by theorist Foucault The history of certain truth show that they are products of power 1 truth may be beneficial to one group and not another(ie: Discourse of scientific racism from the 1870s)

ORIENTALISM a concept coined by Edward Said The west would categorize things of the east as other this originally began with other being Asian culture but later expanded to otherminorities

Chantelle Ennis-Charoo. Advertising & Society COMN 3315 . Online Video Presentation. March 2012.


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ESSENTIALISM & DIFFERENCE Like orientalism, this view sees people as nothing more than a set of characteristicsthat are unalterable, permanent it denied the complexity of a people or culture

the difference between ethnic groups then becomes an issue when it gets intertwinedwith power and hierarchy Regimes of Representation (which are dominant discourses) create these differentialrepresentations and fix them

Essentialism and stereotypes occur where there is already existing inequalities andworks to reproduce it

DECONSTRUCTING AN ADFerdinand # SaussureSign = signifier + signified

Levels of Signification 1. specific reference (literal) what we see2. way society typically regards3. the social myth, larger meta-narrative

Stage 1: Position on the page & to other things: Composition: Typography/Headlines: Relation to other stories?:

Stage 2: framing, structure of the narrative:

Stage 4: Lexical choices + thematic structure

Stage 5: Ideological and Discursive Matrix:

Directional Cues: manipulating your view to a target

Connection to a concept with a larger metanarrative as backdrop

Interchangeable product and feeling

- Z-DESIGN-the direction of eye flow on the page from start to finish



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Ethnic representation in advertising

Use ads as a basis bringing in theoretical concepts and the work of judith williamson toalso deconstruct the images

Advertising has developed as a medium in which goods, services and people can besold in exchange for currency in the marketplace

Advertisers do this through sounds, images and carefully planned strategies

Ads can play on our inner most desires: love, belonging, self-esteem, and more

So what happens when such a powerful medium gets intertwined with race?

APPENDIX:

McDonalds Happy Meal Barbie Ad- Meaning & Absence: who we dont see speaks louder than what is seen (no otherraces like Asian, Native,etc)- Dominant regimes of representation: white-anglo saxon pov (she is center) other racestake the backseat



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- white dominance created these differences and representations work to fix them

- Z-Design (starts with Hotwheels -> Barbie then to the car to the girls, then to happymeal logo directional cues- Composition: lightest to darkest

- Interchangeability with the happy meal and the feeling of being pretty

- social myth: white dominance vs other minorities



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COMN 3315 Online Video Presentation

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