Shibden Hall

In order to get primary research for my essay on the link between advertising and homosexual identity, I visited Shibden Hall in Halifax in order to learn more about Anne Lister.

I found it really intriguing because I hadn't previously known that Lister had written her diary entries in code which really reinforces the idea that homosexuality was severely frowned upon. I also learnt about the degrading term 'Gentleman Jack' when describing Lister which also shows how poorly homosexuals got treated.

I think it is interesting to compare how Lister got treated to how homosexuals are treated today. Whilst homosexuality is no longer illegal, there are still similar issues prominent today. For example, the term 'Gentleman Jack' refers to the stereotype that lesbians tend to be masculine/butch, and yet this stereotype is still thought by some people today. It shows how far we need to go in order to reach equality and diminish these hurtful images.

Panopticism

This was a really interesting lecture about the theory of how power works in society. The architectural structure is a metaphor for hierarchy, such as class, race and gender. Interestingly, later on, a prison was actually built based on this theory.

The theory is based around controlling people without using restraints and prison bars. The design is very interesting – people are put in cells where they can’t see anyone in the other cells. They can’t even see any wardens or guards – all they can see is a watch tower in the centre. Although they don’t know who is watching them, or if they are even being watched, they have to accept that there is the possibility that they are being watched all the time. This impacts them tremendously as it means they start to watch their own actions as they are more conscious of what they are doing. Therefore, it is suggested that no guards are even needed, because as long as the prisoners believe that there is the possibility of being watched, they will behave correctly. This surveillance can be linked to today’s social media, where the public and private line are blurred. Many advertising campaigns now use social media platforms, for example Facebook. Facebook is a strong link to Panopticism because just as the prisoners are on display to the guards, the guards are never seen. Our information is available to Facebook, but Facebook itself is invisible to us. This can be further linked to advertising as many adverts on the internet are targeted. If I was to search for a jacket on the internet, then Facebook would provide me with clothing adverts. The internet has a lot of information on us, but again, we have nothing on the Internet.

I thought the comparison with Ancient Greece was very interesting. The Ancient Greeks lived in a very communal society e.g.  everyone went to the theatre together. This doesn’t really happen in our modern society as everyone lives in separate homes. Therefore, Panopticism works best with modern societies, rather than Ancient Greece, as the theory makes it easier to influence people who isolate themselves.

Another link with advertising is the idea that the building structure makes it possible to observe symptoms of people without beds and clinics. This could be compared to market research in advertising, as people have to research and analyse people’s actions and opinions in order to market a product correctly. The groups that are being targeted don’t receive a lot of information from the researchers, however the researchers learn a lot from the groups.

I think Panopticism does link to my essay as it talks about how the individual is fabricated due to the state having so much power. This links with the individual as identity makes us what we are. However, we are born in power systems/social structure that limits our identities. Our identities have been unknowingly fabricated. As my essay is on homosexual identity in advertising, Panopticism is an interesting theory to discuss, because it can be argued that homosexuals have a limited identity in society which is reflected in advertising.

Zygmunt Bauman: Identity

In class we had a seminar on identity, looking at Zygmunt Bauman’s views on the subject.

Bauman believed that identity was fluid as it is for wearing and showing, not storing and keeping, due to its naturally changing state. Even if we wanted to, we can’t stick to one identity. I think this is a really interesting point as a lot of people are intolerant and ignorant of different identities, such as transgender people and gender fluid identities.

I also found Bauman’s point on the negative side of the increase in technological networks very insightful. Bauman argued that it replaces community, kinship, friends and intimacy. He said that we lose the ability to interact with real people, face-to-face. People can now plan conversations as there is no need to immediately reply. However, whilst I agree that face-to-face networks are more vital than online ones,  I think Bauman overlooked the positives of online networks. For example, if someone is on the train and they’re on the phone, most likely they are communicating with other people via social networks or text messaging. In this scenario, the person is being more social as without that technology, they wouldn’t be able to communicate with that person at all. This person may still see their friends face-to-face, but also online. If anything, it doesn’t replace community but widens the scope community can reach.           

The seminar linked with advertising as identity is constantly being affected by advertising, positively and negatively. For example, the ‘Other Stories’ advertising campaign impacted transgender identities positively as it only featured transgender models and all the directors/producers etc were transgender. This is a massive step forward in the LGBT movement and is the first campaign I have ever personally heard of that have done this.    

Bibliography:

 ‘Identity’ by Zygmunt Bauman: handout in class

‘Absolute advertising, ground zero advertising’

‘Simulcra and Simulation’ by Jean Baudrillard was a very insightful read, however there were some points that I found particularly intriguing.

‘ADVERTISING IS NO LONGER A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION OR OF INFORMATION’ –Jean Baudrillard

Baudrillard believes that advertising is superficial, with no depth to it and is easily forgotten. He argues that whilst people still believe in it/ have not accepted it as a routine, it is losing its effect due to ‘the languages of computer science’. He argues that due to the mass advertising that is present in every area of our society,  its effect is diminished.

Baudrillard uses Las Vegas as an example. Las Vegas is known for its advertising, with its billboards lighting up the city at night. He states that ‘advertising is not what brightens or decorates the walls, it is what effaces the walls, effaces the streets, the facades and all the architecture’. He claims that this advertising makes life staged and a hyper-reality (‘hyperreal euphoria’).

Bibliography:

‘Simulcra and Simulation’ by Jean Baudrillard: hand-out in class

Lecture 12: Representation

Culture can be used to describe the values of a group and Stuart Hall was particularly interested in how things are communicated in different cultures.

I found it really interesting how perspectives depend on culture, meaning that the way we perceive things is learned, not inherited, and therefore depends on what social group you belong to. For example, these two drawings of an elephant was perceived differently by particular cultural groups. The split elephant drawing was generally preferred by African children and adults.

International representation means there is a different underlying message. For example, this image shows someone drinking coke but the intention is to get people to buy coke. International representation is used a lot in advertising as the main function of advertising is to increase profits and get customers to buy the product/service.

Documental photography is a representational medium as it records the reconstruction of the everyday, e.g. Henri Cartier who was a 20^th Century street photographer. His work helped bring meaning back to France after the war, which shows photography isn’t just a mirror of life.

It is interesting to discuss how much truth black and white photography actually embodies. Whatever we photograph was lived in colour, not black and white. Black and white can often be seen as false/story/not as real, e.g. Holocaust pictures were not allowed to be produced in colour due to complaints that they were too ‘real’ (Yad Vashem museum).  According to Readex Research, when this advert for Airgas was run in colour, 33% of readers claimed to remember it, suggesting that colour has a positive impact in advertising. However, some may argue that black and white advertising, especially on television, makes it more serious, dramatic and memorable.

References:

-Lecture

-http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-at-cagny-kent-discusses-plan-to-revitalize-growth-in-2014

-http://www.simplypsychology.org/perceptual-set.html

-http://www.readexresearch.com/ad-effectiveness-color-2012/

Lecture 11: Persuasion and Propaganda

We operate with the notion that we have free will but decisions still mostly depend on persuasion. This is extremely prevalent within advertising as it is all about persuasion and manipulation. Whilst adverts do have to pass standards, and can’t lie, e.g. Lynx can’t explicitly say that their product will make girls fall in love with guys, they still can use persuasion techniques to make guys believe that. 

The Ancient Greeks believed in voting and achieving citizenship. In democratic and legal processes, they believed people should argue for themselves. In that era, Sophists were specialised in rhetoric (presenting a point of view in a persuasive way) and they would teach citizens how to argue persuasively.

Propaganda is biased/misleading information, often associated with psychological methods of influencing/persuasion. It often generates an emotional, not rational, response. This is true with adverts, which often use emotions to drive profits up. This is evident especially with Christmas adverts, with John Lewis becoming known for making emotional Christmas adverts. Maybe this is why the 2016 Christmas advert was so controversial/disappointing, because it didn’t make people emotional (cry).

Photography can both show the impact of propaganda and be used for propaganda, e.g. the Nazi rallies showing the masses of support they received could be used as propaganda as it could manipulate people into thinking it was the ‘right’ thing to do as so many people agreed with them.

Early research said adverts didn’t change how people thought, but rather changed choices. Moreover, they didn’t change what we thought but what we thought about. 

For mundane products, e.g. washing powder, it is interesting to note how adverts can change our perception on them. If someone chooses the most expensive object, it is because they think it is the best, if someone chooses the cheapest they do so because of value for money and if they choose the most well known, it is because they trust it. No one does actual research into the product. With further consideration, I can conclude that I only agree with this to a certain extent. This point implies that adverts don't have an impact on people's decisions with mundane products, and I disagree, as I think successful advertisements impact people on all products, no matter what they are. However, I do appreciate that with the example of washing powder, adverts don't tend to influence people more than the prices do, perhaps because of the poor quality of advertising that  tends to go with that product, i.e. the typical TV advert of someone, usually a woman, cleaning a surface.

I found it interesting that when these words are used in an advert, sales tend to increase (new, quick, easy, improved, now, suddenly, amazing, introducing). These all fit under the heuristic mechanism (a rule of thumb method for solving a problem). However, we should not dismiss the fact that even with that choice of vocabulary, if the idea behind the advert is not persuasive/creative enough, then sales will not automatically increase. 

There are two routes of persuasion:

1) peripheral: using heuristics, decision not supported by research

2) central: using research/careful thought

Out of these two routes, the first is generally the most popular, due to the fact that we are Cognitive Misers, which mean we don’t like to think about matters when we don’t have to. 

In the lecture we also discussed post truth politics, which is when emotions have a bigger impact than the objective facts. In ‘Propaganda’ (1928) Bernays says; “Propaganda is of no use to the politician unless he has something to say which the public, consciously or unconsciously, wants to hear.”

I completely agree with this point as I think people often want to scapegoat other people for their problems, and that’s why people like Donald Trump and Hitler were able to get into power, due to the silent voters.  

With images, it is often not the image itself that is propaganda but the context of which it is presented, e.g. the copy alongside it, the time it was published, where it was published etc. This is of course true with advertising, as if an advert has both copy and imagery, then both aspects are needed to persuade the customer. If the copy isn’t there, then the advert may not work, as the imagery may not make any sense. However, with some adverts, the imagery is all the advert needs. For example this Lego advert:

Although this Lego advert had the word ‘Imagine’ on it, I don’t think it was necessary as the image was so strong. 

We also looked at Jenny Holzers work, specifically her Truisms piece. I found it really insightful as when you look at all the statements written, on face value they seem like truths yet when you look further into them, we can see that they all contradict themselves. Perhaps with propaganda, although on the surface it may seem believable, if people actually studied it then we wouldn’t be so susceptible to it. Perhaps if customers therefore also took the time to study adverts, and see what persuasion techniques were being used, and replaced emotional response with rational response, adverts wouldn’t be nearly as effective. 

Lecture 10: Outside Collett Dickenson Pearce

CDP was an ad agency founded in London, 1960-2000. Their exhibition of creative advertising included work from people who weren’t in the agency, such as our lecturer Janine Sykes.

Janine began her initial research with Ron Collins, an alumni of LCA, who was a successful art director and co-founder of WCRS, alongside Robin Wight. She then moved on to study another LCA alumni, Colin Millward, who according to David Puttnam was the ‘most influential creative figure in post-war British adverts

At the back of some print ads, found at the ‘History of Advertising Trust’ archives, are forms they filled out, showing how the ad agency worked in its purely analogue form.

Something that I found really interesting in the lecture was the cigarette adverts, as we don’t tend to see cigarette adverts anymore, due to their controversial nature.  Just as now there are advertising restrictions (e.g. can’t advertising smoking at all), more legislation was being made then as well. So, advertisers marketed cigarettes in quite a surreal way. As Frank Lowe put it; ‘We had to do something nobody would understand, because if they don’t understand it they wont be able to object to it.’ I think it’s really interesting and innovative how they managed to find this creative solution to the problem. For example, the ‘Raining Cigarettes’ ad (1980), which was clearly influenced by surrealist artist Magritte. It is interesting to see how cigarette advertisement had changed due to the new legislations. Whilst they used to be quite aspirational, with subtle art direction such as golden hues spread throughout the whole image, and decorative pieces on the table, it moved to being more bold and surreal. For example, in the ‘Flying Ducks’ (1977) advert, they were more creative/surreal by having the three ducks mirror the three cigarette packs, and having the bold saturated colour making the golden cigarette packs stand out more. Interestingly, there was no copy as it was a visual solution to the legislation.

CDP released many famous ads, including one depicting comedians Pete and Dud, to advertise a camera. I like the ad as it draws you in because its use of celebrities was not in an overly powerful way. It focuses on the camera, not on a celebrity story. I also like their other ad that featured two Labour Party rivals taking photos of each other, in a bid to get some good publicity, with the copy ‘they obviously felt like shooting each other’. I think the copy is witty and memorable due to the use of the homograph word of ‘shooting’.

The Vogue advertising is also quite clever, as it relates to fashion and the state of the economy simultaneously. The copy is witty as it suggests that people will have to be more ‘tight’ with the money due to the 1972 unemployment rate rising above one million. It’s interesting to see a fashion magazine take a political/economic stance, and it made me wonder if the cover even needed the imagery, or whether the copy would have been enough. I think the copy on its own does still work, but as it is a fashion magazine, the imagery of the belts on the woman fits better.

Janine also showed us her piece, called ‘A living room with an outsiders view’. I really liked her piece as it highlights that in the 1970s most adverts were shown on the TV, with no means of skipping the adverts. So in some retrospect, adverts were more forced onto people than in today’s society. In Janines piece, she had an ashtray and cigarette adverts on the walls, which shows that smoking in front of children/at home was more normalised, as were cigarettes ads. Just as society has shifted from realising the dangers of smoking, so has advertising. Now, most people try not to smoke in front of their children, and smoking adverts are banned.

The advert ‘Hand built by Robots’ for Fiat, although a successful campaign, did confuse me as in Italy there were protests about robots taking their jobs in the car industry, and the TV advert clearly shows that robots are making the cars. At first, I thought they were celebrating this fact which seemed very negative to me, however upon further discussion with Janine, I realised that they weren’t celebrating that issue, but were just showing how their cars are made in a very matter of fact way. Perhaps they were indicating that just as they don’t lie about who/what makes their products, they don’t lie about their quality either.