May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor...

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple years it's almost certain that you've heard of the Hunger Games franchise. Originally it began as a dystopian trilogy written by Suzanne Collins however, with the release of four movies so far the franchise has reached new heights. To summarize, the Hunger Games is based on the idea of an annual competition where kids, or tributes as they are called, are forced to kill each other for public entertainment purposes. In addition to this, the tributes are able to receive aid from "sponsors" throughout the games.

Now this idea of kids killing other kids may sound absurd and extreme but what many people don't realize is that this concept is already a part of our lives today. No of course kids aren't being forced to kill each other but this idea of kids competing against each other is nothing new. Nowadays teenagers are competing against each other in terms of how many likes their profile picture gets or how many Instagram followers they have. There's this constant need and desire to get more likes, followers, reblogs, etc... Kids are beginning to base their worth on this form of validation from others. There's this idea in their minds that success on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram equals success in real life. Therefore its interesting to see to what extent people will go to in order to gain this idea of success and popularity. For example, some people have resorted to spending actual money to increase the amount of followers they have on Instagram. This example perfectly demonstrates teenagers' need to be or at least appear to be successful in social media.

Also as seen in the Hunger Games, the importance of having people like you is highly emphasized in today's society. This idea that people liking you can be transformed into power is seen through the "sponsor" figures that provide the tributes with supplies when they are in the arena. In social media today this same idea is true and can most clearly be seen on YouTube. People on YouTube with many subscribers and high video view counts have a unique form of power. They are able to connect with a very large audience and in many cases this can be used to sell products or ideas.

As you can see we haven't quite reached the level of sending children into an arena to slaughter each other, but there's no denying that we live in a world where young people are constantly being pitted against each other through social media. 

Read More

A Critique of Little Mix's "Salute"

Little Mix, a recently famous all-girl group released their song "Salute" and its accompanying music video in 2014. The lyrics of the song quickly single out the sole audience with phrases like "Women all across the world listen up we're looking for recruits". So from the lyrics it is obvious that this song was meant to empower females and call them to arms in the war against gender inequality. However while the lyrics of the song may do a good job of inspiring this idea of female empowerment, the music video was found lacking in its portrayal of this message.

The video begins with a short scene for each member of Little Mix however instead of being shown in authoritative positions they are shown hiding behind objects or sprawled over objects such as chairs. The video is set in a construction yard of sorts with various construction equipment and abandoned/empty buildings. The next scene shows one of the members of Little Mix dancing with two men. However these men are on leashes of sorts which shows the dominance that she has over them. This song was very clear with its message about men "We don't need no man" however instead of just portraying both genders on equal terms they had to go a step further and show women as being in control of men.

There are many dance scenes in the video and it's important to note on the style of dance. The dancing shown in this video is very aggressive with lots of stomping and jerky movements. This aggressive behaviour goes along with the lyrics "If you're ready ladies, better keep steady ready, aim, shoot". These lyrics depict the struggle and fight against gender inequality and encourage women to join this fight "Sisters we are everywhere, warriors your country needs you".

While both the song and video are working to promote female empowerment, the video in some cases goes against this. Throughout the video we continuously see the members of Little Mix and the other women in the video wearing provocative clothing and in some cases they are even being portrayed in a seductive manner. Now why would a music video for a song with the sole audience of women need to portray women in this sexual/seductive manner? The answer of course is that there is no answer. There was no need for these women to be portrayed in this degrading manner and it's interesting to see how even in a music video for a song about female empowerment, women are still depicted in this manner. This depiction of women simply suggests then that the power women have is from their sexual allure and their ability to seduce men.

While the message derived from the lyrics of this song is encouraging to women it seems that the person producing this video was unsure about what female empowerment and gender equality actually looks like. 

Read More

FOA Reflection

I recently completed my first further oral activity which was based around the question of "What does advertising reveal to us about society?". The topic I chose to explore for my FOA was racism against African Americans in advertisements throughout history. To explore this topic I chose four different advertisements from varying time periods. The first advertisement I chose was a recent advertisement from computer technology company Intel. The second advertisement was from a recent Nivea advertising campaign. The third and fourth advertisements were both from many years ago, one being an ad for Cream of Wheat and the other advertising Aunt Jemima pancakes. My presentation analyzed the racist aspects of these four advertisements and proved that throughout the years racism against African Americans has remained a part of advertising.

            In my presentation I was able to meet the learning outcome of "Analyze how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts" through the analysis of my advertisements. For example I looked at how pre-existing stereotypes of the target audience may have an effect on the design of the advertisement.

            Overall I feel like my presentation was rushed and not as thorough as it could have been. While I was able to complete an accurate and detailed analysis of the advertisements prior to the presentation, I was unable to communicate all of my ideas in my actual presentation.  I feel like I was somewhat successful in my presentation however it was definitely not as successful as I would have hoped.

            While I feel like I performed decently in all the criteria, there were some criteria that I did better in than others. I felt I was weak in criteria D as I sometimes had trouble communicating my ideas in my presentation. I feel that in my initial analysis I was quite strong in criteria A and B however I feel that much of this analysis was not carried over into my actual presentation.

            From this further oral activity I learned that preparation truly is the key to a great presentation. For future presentations I will be sure to prepare more thoroughly than what i did for this presentation.

Read More

Written Task 2

       The advertisement I will be looking at for this task is a recent advertisement from computer technology company Intel. This ad is obviously directed at a specific audience due to the subtle racism that is present in the ad. From the scene in the ad it can be deduced that the target audience of this ad is white male business owners. If this advertisement was aimed at a different audience, such as an African American audience for example, it would be designed in a much different manner. The man in the image who is portrayed as the authority figure or the position of power would most likely not be a Caucasian but instead an African American. The reasoning behind this being that it would be easier for African American business owners to relate with the image and the scene being portrayed. People are more likely to look at an ad if they are able to identify with it.

      Something else that would also be different would be the portrayal of the six workers. In the original advertisement all of the workers appear to have identical features and be in identical positions/poses. However if this ad was being directed towards an African American audience there would most likely not be this generalization of the workers. They would all be given different features to make them unique from one another and to identify them as actual people instead of just the role of workers. Or better yet there would be some diversity among the workers for example there would also be some Caucasian workers instead of them all being African American. The original advertisement subtly hints at the idea of African Americans being inferior and therefore in that context it makes sense that they would be shown as the workers. However with African Americans as the target audience this inferior portrayal of their race as the sole working class would be heavily frowned upon and therefore not a smart marketing decision. It is clear that the audience of an advertisement plays a huge role in the actual design of the advertisement. Once the conscious decision of the target audience has been made then the smaller and more subtle aspects of the advertisements are shaped to suit that specific audience. 

Read More