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 20th
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/
