With my degree now behind me, I’ve been on the hunt for work in the media industry, where I can hopefully gain some solid experience to add to my CV and hopefully more content to add to my portfolio. Thankfully, I’ve been kept pretty busy lately, between shooting and editing videos at home and working abroad recently as an intern for 2 weeks with the Irish Fest in Milwaukee, I’ve managed to add to my body of work with new videos and gained new experience to add to my CV.
With plans to gain further internships over the next year, at home or abroad, followed by a year I hope to spend studying for my masters degree – I had been rewriting my CV recently and bringing it up to date with my current experience. I found it was quite long and being a written document, it was a little boring to read (Unless your into reading several pages of text about someone else ). So I decided to put together a condensed version of my CV that would fit on a single page and designed it to look a little more appealing visually.
Making it a single page, the idea was to make it easier to upload or attach as a single image online, which would make it less hassle for potential employers when communicating online. I decided to cut all the information needed from the pages of my old CV, down to the most important stuff – Name, contact details, main skills, most recent education and best experience to put forward. With just one page, its best just to put forward your strongest suits, everything else can be elaborated on later if time permits. I then put all this down in a flowing yet tight layout, punctuated with coloured headings, matching the rest of the colours used throughout – making it easily read in one glance.
To add a bit of flair to the whole thing, I then added some ‘go-faster’ stripes across the bottom to add some movement and additional pattern to the page. A faded film roll graphic was then added in the background to point out my main interest in video production, while my 8-bit style portrait logo (Im a bit of a retro-game and 8-bit music nerd ) and overall CV design leans to my experience and added interest in graphic design and art. Colour-wise, I opted for a red, white and black colour scheme as that has been my favorite colour combination lately when designing graphics. The black background may be too much for some people but I like the way it brings out the red and white.
Anyway, I keep changing it but this is the current incarnation of my CV which I am using in job and internship applications. Let me know what you think of it? What changes would you make? Do you hate the whole thing?…
Its been the best part of 2 months since I finished college in DkIT, coming out of it with a great honors degree in Communications in Creative Media, another step on my way to a good career in the media industry hopefully. My plan for now is to take a year to gather experience in the media industry through jobs or internships and adding to my portfolio of work with the hope of doing a masters in Film & Television Studies or possibly Post Production Editing (Depending on how my view on these two courses change during the year).
The Fantastic Four Interns at the IFC (Photo by Eileen Carpenter, Irish Fest)
My host family house – The Orlovsky household
My street in the morning (SUN!)
Irish Fest Centre.
Having completed my honors degree, I applied for a US internship with the colleges Atlantic Academy of the Arts, a department aimed at enhancing the educational experience of students in the colleges Creative Media and Music departments. After doing an interview for one of the few internship positions, I was lucky enough to be awarded with the 2 week internship with the Milwaukee Irish Fest, the worlds largest celebration of Irish music and culture. Least to say, I was extremely excited to be given this opportunity and couldn’t wait to get started! This was going to be a great chance to get direct experience on all the workings of a festival of this size, get to know some great people and hopefully add what I can to the festival experience.
Glimpse of the Milwaukee downtown skyline.
Irish Fest past posters.
After a long (8 hour) but cozy flight across the atlantic with Aer Lingus, I landed at Chicago’s O’Hare International airport at about 3.30 local time and whisked off to Milwaukee to meet my host family where I would be staying for the duration of my stay. Having a serious case of jet lag, I slept that night like a log!
Festival experience intern pack
The next day, we had a meeting at the IFC (Irish Fest Centre) where myself and the other 3 Festival Experience interns (Fiona, Grace and Aine) met all the host families as well as most of the Irish Fest board members including the Irish Fest President Donna Brady, Vice President Cathy Baker Ward and the Irish Fest founder Ed Ward. We had a great chat over some pizza and went over the schedule for the festival and received our official Irish Fest t-shirts and grounds passes.
My Irish Fest grounds pass
Judging by our fully mapped out schedule, this looks to be an exciting time ahead, with some experience to be had in a variety of different areas. Cant wait to get started!
Back in July this year (2012), with exams now behind us and with classes no longer an issue – myself and the rest of my fellow 4th year Creative Media students in DkIT were busily putting the finishing touches on projects which we had all labored over and put vast amounts of work into over the course of the academic year. Many of us had encountered setbacks over the year, which resulted in slow progress. While others had to start all over again, having invested weeks or sometimes months into their projects – now faced with starting again with less time than other groups. Yet we persisted, working harder as the year went on, often resulting in increased stress within groups and often heated words – which in retrospective we can now be looked back on jokingly.
Divided into groups of 2-4 members per project back in November 2011, each group was to develop a project from scratch – initially brainstorming ideas to come up with the physical project itself. This project could be anything, a product or game even, so long as it was an interactive media piece, backed up by solid research supporting its reasoning as a product. This project would then be developed and created with the final result then to be ready for display and interaction with the public at Dundalk Institute of Technology’s annual FIS exhibition the following June (2012).
Oraculum brainstorming – Early ideas being hammered out.
Oraculum design – Intro animation still.
Oraculum SFX – Fionn recording a flower during SFX recording.
Oraculum – Exhibition booth poster.
Oraculum character design – Alice sketch.
Oraculum team caricatures.
Forming our group back in November 2011 – Lynsey Toner (Project Manager & Animation), Elena Rimeikaite (Design), Fionn Larkin (Audio) and myself Eamonn Cahill (Narrative & Programming) – we created an interactive science-fiction narrative, set in the alternative future city of Europa, a place where a new technology called ‘Focus’ has split the society in two and where the evil corporation Oraculum controls the population with an iron fist. As an ‘interactive narrative’, the user follows the story of Europa citizen Alice Leporinum – an Oraculum employee who for the past year has been searching for her missing brother Albus, a former scientist for Oraculum. As a point & click adventure, the user interacts with on-screen graphics and animations, navigating along a unique path through the story, encountering mysterious characters and difficult puzzles/ mini-games along the way – ultimately ending in one of two possible endings.
Fionn painting the Oraculum booth.
Oraculum booth – Lynsey painting logo.
Oraculum booth – Painted circuits on walls.
Oraculum booth – Ready for equipment…
With a complicated narrative (eventually condensed down to what was eventually exhibited), a branching storyline (again, cut down), original soundtrack (composed by the talented Fionn Larkin), unique design (from the mind of Elena Rimeikaite) and superb animation (courtesy of our excellent PM Lynsey Toner) - Oraculum grew and grew as the year went on, becoming quite a large project to finish.
But we got there!
Oraculum booth – All programming bugs fixed!
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FIS 2012
Oraculum booth – Ready for exhibition…
Beginning of June 2012, and everyone in the Creative Media and Film & Video departments were hurriedly rushing around, setting up and decorating individual project booths while some were adding the finishing touches to their projects, fixing programming bugs and preparing equipment for booths. Everyone was busy getting their projects ready for what was to be the culmination of over 7 months work – ending with their projects going on show at DkIT’s annual FIS Exhibition, an event which attracts a large crowd of vistors from the public each year, as well as important figures from the media industry.
Veracity guys hard at work.
Cyldrum booth
Smart Kids booth
Miology Labs booth
Caligo booth – James ironing out programming bugs.
[Unfortunately only have pictures of a handful of projects on show at the exhibition... Sorry.]
In the Oraculum camp, with two days presenting our work to the public, describing how we came up with the idea for the project and explaining all the research behind the narrative and its meaning, as well as watching how people actually enjoyed and engaged with our project, then coming out saying how much they loved it – it all felt worth it. 7 months of hard work, late nights, heated debates over the projects direction and a building workload, suddenly felt justified. We got the project there in the end.
As always, looking back on the year, there was always room for improvement. Certain parts of the project could of been done better and we could of done with starting work on some parts of it a lot earlier. But then its easy to pick holes looking back on something. We created a totally original product, something which didn’t replicate or copy anything else. We worked together as a team, helping each other out when it got hard, understanding the need for criticism as well as approval in getting work done right. We worked hard on our respective areas, while ensuring it jelled together as one solid product. We got it done.
It took a heck of a long time getting there, but we had a great time doing it.
FIS Exhibition take down day
FIS 2012 – (Most of) 4th year Creative Media.
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Hopefully I can update this post sometime soon with an uploaded version of the Oraculum project so you can see for yourself what we managed to create in the end…
Oraculum is a 2D, point & click, exploration narrative set in the not too distant future in the troubled dystopian city of Europa. A radical vision of an alternative future, where society has split due to a new technological drug called Focus. In the city of Europa, the population is controlled by the mega corporation Oraculum, using the Focus drug to infiltrate their everyday lives.
Below the city, in the subterranean society of Lower Europa, a population of anti-Oraculum individuals who have rejected the artificial paradise of above, live in exile and poverty.
Focus drug propaganda
The player takes on the role of Alice Leporium, a lifelong member of Oraculum’s security service, the ESA, and a Focus drug user. A year ago, following a spate of strange behavior, Alice’s twin brother Albus mysteriously disappeared and was never seen again. With Alice suspicious of the corporations involvement in her brother’s disappearance, and a sudden call from a mysterious stranger – Alice must go in search of Albus through the strange subterranean world of lower Europa, unfolding the true nature of Oraculum and her new role in shaping the future of Europa…
What is Oraculum for?
Oraculum is a 4th year (Hons) Creative Media, end of year group project in Dundalk Institute of Technology – which will be on show at the DKiT’s FIS 2012 exhibition, 6th – 8th June 2012.
For my final CA as part of the Media, Discourse & Analysis module in college, I was required to work in a group with my fellow students Siobhan Gallagher and James Butterly, to work on a fictional news report/ broadcast based on a current topic in contemporary Ireland - which would display an assortment of the theories and topics covered in the module over the course of this semester. By doing this, we would present what we have learned from the module and put it into practice in a professional piece of media.
water shot
For the news report, we decided to cover the topic of the current water charges issue in Ireland – presenting a biased news report in favor of the charge, and implementing ‘scare tactics’ and specific imagery and language to intimidate viewers into complying with the proposed charge. We also wanted to include doctored vox pops (or talking head interviews) where we would speak to those in favor of the charge, and omit those who are not.
Vox pops – Elena Rimeikaite
Using a voice over (Our voice actor had to back out of the initial recording so I did the voice over), we implemented specific language and ‘buzz-words’ to put forward an ‘preferred meaning’ to the viewer, where we wanted them to comply with the charge and fear the possible consequences. See their peers and equals on screen, happily filling out registration forms, paying the charge and vocally approving the charge – we would subtly imply that everyone else is paying the charge – so the viewer should too. Shot angles were also carefully used in vox pops, where the camera ‘looks up’ to these ‘upstanding members of Irish society’ – making the viewer feel almost beneath them.
Water fountain
Informational statistics and figures were also used to get across to the viewer, the scale of those registering and paying the charge – while specifically omitting opposing figures which would show those who are opposing the charge. In addition, we also intentionally omitted footage covering opposition to the charge such as recent protests, as this would be in opposition to out ‘preferred meaning’ and lead the viewer to think otherwise.
DKiT – Carrolls building
To point out, many shots used in this pice were shot on location in DKiT (Such as vox pops and images of the campus). However, under fair use, we also used shots taken from Irish news broadcasts related to this report – mainly gathered from a number of broadcast videos provided on rte.ie. We do not claim to own these shots, but all footage was edited by ourselves. These additional shots complemented the report as a means of conveying the language of the report in a visual manner and suggesting the ‘preferred meaning’ to the viewer through instantly recognisable imagery (flowing water, happy faces, homes, known politicians). These worked in conjunction with the voiceover to get the report across to the viewer.
“I have to pay for water?” – Siobhan and James
Anyway, we put a good bit of work into it and are pretty happy with the end result. So heres the final video.
Enjoy!
For more info on the video such as early research and sources for video clips and statistics used, check out the production blog at
http://begrandlike.wordpress.com/
As the fourth estate within an democratic society, the media, or more specifically news media, serves the role of providers of information to the masses and are required to keep watch on the other estates of society such as government, religious institutions and the upper or ruling classes – by holding them accountable and being critically in their analysis of those societal institutions. As such, the media is expected to always be un-biased and present all sides of an issue or event to the viewing public, so we the audience may form our own opinion.
However, as we all know, this is rarely the case. The media as we know it today, is a collection of companies and corporations, many of which spanning several countries and including sub companies, sister groups and shareholders. Therefore many news groups within the media have their own agendas or shared interests, which reflects on the content they produce or topical stances they choose to cover a story from – inevitably portraying a specific side of a story to the public, which we then decipher and form the basis of our own opinion. As such, we can see how media groups may choose to portray a ‘preferred meaning‘ of something to us and exclude something which may be in opposition to their own shared interests. By choosing not to cover a story the media is therefore removing it from the shared consciousness of the viewing public. In addition, as educators and outlets of information to the public, news media may choose to put a specific slant or perspective on a story – thereby affecting the opinion of the viewing public.
Corporate news - Media bias
In order to see this biased approach to content in the media today, we will look at a recent news story and analyise it further.
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RTE News coverage of Occupy Dame Street camp removal
In early March 2012, the Irish protest group Occupy Dame Street had been an active protest group camping on Dublin’s financial street, Dame Street, since October 2011. At 3am in the morning on March 8th 2011, over a hundred an Garda Síochána moved on the peaceful protest camp – forcefully removing protestors, confiscating equipment and personal belongings, and demolishing the camps tents and shacks. For the best part of the camps presence on Dame Street, much of Irish news had rarely featured the protest in news broadcasts – evidently choosing not to do so. By choosing not to cover the progress or events on Dame Street during the protest, public awareness of the protest was kept at a minimum – often resulting in the physical camp becoming an public nuisance and eyesore, alien and removed from the public.
As with the camps foundation months earlier, the removal of the camp demanded news coverage. The physical absence of the camp from the viewing public had made it news-worthy and something which must be addressed to audiences.
RTE logo
RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), Irelands main semi-state public service provider, carefully balanced the coverage of this story by providing the opinions of those in favor of the camps removal and those who were against it. However, as we can see when we analysise RTE’s coverage – more coverage, content and airtime was given over to argue in favor of the camps removal. Much of this was presented to us as an un-biased story, seeing both sides of the story – but also incorporating specific keywords (Such as ‘health & safety fears‘) and language (Such as ‘necessary‘, ‘clean-up‘ and ‘welcomed‘) to highlight why this extreme action was needed, and should be condoned by the public.
Click on the link below to view RTE video broadcasts covering the removal of the Occupy Dame Street camp news story. Once there, scroll down and click on the third video thumbnail found beneath the main video window to view the video used in this article.
In this story, we see the use of footage showing us council trucks clearing heaps of debris – no where do we see the original standing tents and structures prior to to their demolition. Therefore, together with language such as ‘clean-up‘ and ‘health & safety risk‘ being used, we are given the suggestion that this site was a mess and a public danger which needed to be cleaned up for the good of public safety.
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Both party perspective
This report presents us with two interviews, one from participating protestors criticizing what has happened, and the other from a local restaurant owner blaming the Occupy Dame Street camp for the decline in his establishments customer numbers. The story introduces this second interview with a claim that local retailers welcome the removal of the camp and that customer takings are up 20% thanks to the absence of the camp from the street. This unfairly places the blame of customer decline on the camp and does not attempt to look at other possible reasons for decline. As the retailer interviewed also mentions a loss in employees over the period of the camp, we are also suggested that this protest was putting people out of jobs and therefore harmful to the countries economy at a time when jobs are hard to find. Also, by adding after the interviews that the protestors will continue to hold meetings and stage further protests on the site, paired with footage of protestors shouting, chanting and speaking on microphones – we get the sense that this group intends to continue to be an irritance to the public and make noise. It may also be pointed out that both interviews contrast in appearance quite differently. While the protestors (and footage of protestors prior to the interview) are seen in a very dark light, with lots of noise and activity – the retailer (and filler footage shown prior to it) are quite bright, colourful and peaceful. This more positive footage begins after the dark, negative-looking footage, with the words ‘After this mornings clean up…” – suggesting to us that it was the camp that was making the street look dark and depessing, while its removal has resulted in its improvement.
Occupy Dame Street camp (Prior to removal)
Current situation of news story
The last segment of the story consists of a reporter reporting from Dublin’s Pearse Street where she describes earlier events which took place that evening, where protestors moved to the street to protest in complaint to the camps removal. The reporter tells us that the protestors had ‘minor scuffles‘ with Gardai and that they caused ‘distruption to traffic‘. This paired with the close-up images of protestor groups filling camera shots (Which suggest large crowds of protestors to us – even if that may not be the case), shouting and chanting protestors, and a close-up image of Gardai struggling with something – suggest to us that this group of protestors on Pearse Street were very large in number, angry to the point of physically encountering peaceful Gardai, and a physical hinderance to the peaceful public around them.
In addition, the reporter uses language such as ‘minor injuries‘, ‘minor scuffles‘, and that the camp was ‘dismantled‘ rather than demolished or destroyed – so as to play down the protestors claims and right to be angry. She also goes on to suggest that Gardai were willing to give the protestors their belongings back so as they returned later peacefully, but that the protestors rejected this and wanted their belongings back ‘immediately‘. This suggests the idea that the protestors were unwilling to come to an agreement with the peaceful Gardai and that they were overreacting to what the Gardai had done.
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Example of biased reporting (In favor of protestors)
Click on the link below to see an example of the same news story, also covering the Occupy Dame Street camp removal, by Irish news agency IrishTimes.com. However this time covering it entirely from the perspective of the camps supporters and Occupy Dame Street participants:
Semiotics is the study of signs, sign processes and symbols used to communicate to us a specific meaning or message. This type of study can be applied to written word, print media, audio-visual media, body language; pretty much all forms of communication between humans. These signs often convey a message to us without us realizing it and as such are often used by the media to communicate specific messages, or ‘preferred meanings’ that they intend for us to decode.
“A sign is anything that can be used to tell a lie.” – Umberto Eco
As such, we use semiotics to analyze the use of signs in TV, radio, printed media such as posters and advertisements, street signs, music and online all content such as videos, images, articles and websites.
Here, we will analyze a contemporary advertisement print, going through different factors used in semiotic analysis:
Denotation & Connotation
Paradigmatic & Syntagmatic relationships
Myths & Narrative
Roles within advertising
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Old Spice – “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” advertising campaign
Here we have a print media advertisement from Old Spice’s (Mens body spray product) popular Old Spice man on a horse campaign. In the wider product campaign, video advertisements and print posters present the Old Spice man carrying out and associating himself with a number of random objects and activities often associated with being masculine or ‘manly’, thus playing on and suggesting a number of things we can associate the product with. Here, however, a simplistic print version of the campaign is used of the Old Spice man on a horse, holding a bottle of Old Spice, on a tropical beach, with a slogan saying “Smell like a man, man – Old Spice”. Simple as it is, this version still retains much of the wider campaigns message, while keeping the popular advertisements comical randomness that made it so popular.
OldSpiceAd_ImOnAHorse
Denotation & Connotation
Denotation is an item, which when seen by us, we immediately interpret. This can be a piece of text (such as this blog post) or an image or sound. Connotation is the meaning to which we arrive at having seen or heard the item denoted. This could be an image of a flower, which suggests to us connotations of beauty, sunshine, pleasant scents, etc. A sound may also suggest to us a specific feeling or mental image depending on the sound heard. Often, these connotations may differ from person to person as someone may relate an image or denotation to a specific life experience or feeling, while another may not.
In the case of this Old Spice advertisement, we have many strong connotations present. The topless man, clearly very fit with muscles on show; suggest masculinity, health, fitness, and female desirability. The mans pose, with hand on hip; suggests confidence in self and social outwardness (confidence with desirable partners being the most prominent in body fragrance advertising). The shirt loosely draped around the mans neck and hanging down his back as though a cape of some sort; may suggest heroism or the protective man as we associate capes with the ‘superhero’. The horse suggests to us a wild, rugged, rustic masculinity. However, as it is a pristinely white horse; this would suggest a conflicting sense of beauty, purity, cleanliness, honesty and positivity. This pure white is repeated again on the mans white trousers; suggesting he too is like the horse. The background setting of the beach, sea and tropical tree; suggests to us warmth, sun, sea air, relaxing atmosphere, no worries, holidays away, tropical/ exotic locations. All of this is set around the product almost in the dead centre of the advertisement. This suggests to us that all of this can be gained through this product, and with the Old Spice man holding it up to us suggestively; we get a sense that he approves or recommends this product to us. Additionally, we see diamonds pouring from the mans hand beneath the Old Spice bottle. This in itself suggests wealth, fortune and expensive jewelry; pouring as if from the product itself.
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Paradigmatic & Syntagmatic relationships
A paradigmatic relationship or paradigm, is a substitution of an image, piece of text or audio. For example in a previous blog post here, we spoke about the Marlboro Man used in an earlier Marlboro cigarettes advertising campaign. The Marlboro Man was an image used to substitute the preferred image or message intended to consumers of these cigarettes.
Syntagmatic relationships or syntagms, are the finished meaning we take from the paradigm. Again, in the case of the Marlboro Man paradigm, we take away a meaning from the image of a wild-west, rustic, masculine, hardworking, outdoors cowboy, out in vast landscapes with horses and cattle. Quite often without realizing it, we make these connections with these cultural meanings, thus playing on how we interpret the product being advertised and go on to associate with.
In the case of the Old Spice advertisement, we see the substitution of the paradigm of a topless man on a horse, on a beach. From this, we come to a finished meaning of a well-built, masculine, out-doors man. As he is on a horse, we connect it to a meaning of a rustic, cowboy type man; while the use of white again alters the finished meaning to something more pure, clean and honest. The mans clothes (or lack of there of) suggests a meaning of a stylish or contemporary man. The beach and tropical tree suggests a meaning of exotic and fresh scents, combined with a relaxed, warm and comfortable feeling. The diamonds pouring from the Old Spice mans hand/ the product itself suggest wealth or beautiful diamond jewelry (desired by women).
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Myths & Narrative
It was French literary theorist, philosopher and semiotician Roland Barthes, who developed the idea of the third level of signification; the myth. As we know with prior levels of signification; A signifier refers to any material thing that signifies, such as words on page, facial expressions, images, etc; while the signified is the concept any signifier refers to. Barthes’ third level, what he called ‘The Myth’, refers to our own individual life experiences, as well as societal and cultural values we have been taught; and thus, how we apply them to the signs we are presented with and decode. As each individual lives a uniquely different life to another, having experienced many different things that others have not, and having been brought up in a societal or cultural environment to other; Barthes suggests that each individual then applies these unique experiences and differences when decoding the information given, therefore suggesting that the resulting decoded meaning may be different to another individuals decoded meaning.
In the case of this Old Spice advertisement there are many elements used, which could be interpreted or decoded differently between two individuals. Taking the most obvious; the colour white used twice in the horse and in the mans trousers would suggest to many in western culture as meaning purity, peace, honesty or goodness (Often used in early western movies – the good guy would often wear a white hat, while the bad guy would wear a black hat). Through western media in films and television, as well as western literature; the colour white has become an automatic meaning for all things good and pure; cleverly used here to suggest to the targeted western audiences that the product is good, clean and pure. However, to an eastern audience, the colour white has a quite opposite meaning of coldness, death, misfortune or unhappiness in many eastern countries. Although clearly not intended for eastern audiences, this does show how its meaning could be decoded quite differently to an individual who has lived a different life experience or culture to another. In terms of individual experiences of individuals; the portrayal of a warm, sunny beach may nor appeal to someone who dislikes such an environment due to a bad experience or due to health reason such as allergies, travel sickness, etc. As such, while many may see the advertisement as an attractive and positive image of the ideal relaxing destination; another may see it as a negative location, due to to individually bad experiences associated with warm, sunny locations or coastal beaches.
In Katherine Frith‘s ‘Undressing The Ad‘ (1998), she states that there are 3 levels of meaning:
Surface Meaning – What we first see at a glance ‘on the surface’. Here in the Old Spice advertisement we see a man on a horse with a beach and sea in the background.
The advertisers intended meaning – In advertising, an image quite often is intended to do more than just show you something nice or entertain you, often they are intended to get a specific message across to you, or often ‘prove something to you’. This could mean anything from the product being of benefit to you, to you missing out on something. This Old Spice ad clearly has an intended meaning, intentionally made obvious so as to make it humorous (or a self parody of product advertisement such as this), therefore adding value to the product and making somewhat more popular for having done so. Here the intended message is that if you buy this, you will be confident, strong, handsome, more masculine like the Old Spice man in the image. The presence of the horse suggests that if you buy this, you will be wild and free. The tropical beach suggests that if you buy this product, you will be exotic, attractive, hot and relaxed. Combined, these intended meanings are intentionally obvious, bombarding the viewer, but once we get the humor suggested; we still come away from it with these same connotations.
Cultural or Ideological meaning – This meaning relies on the knowledge or awareness of the viewer. Similar to Barthes ‘Myth’, this meaning can only be decoded by the individual with the compatible life experiences or lived culture. Having shared in the life experiences or the cultural experiences that the image suggests; the individual successfully decodes the intended meaning. The portrayal of the well-built, masculine Old Spice man seen here, to many would suggest a meaning to us of the ‘perfect man’ to aspire to, or a desirable partner, this is due to a common taught culture of what healthy, athletic and masculine should look like. However, another individual who, due to life experiences or personal preferences, may not see the same suggested meaning, thus coming away from the image with a confused or negative meaning (thus the meaning fails in its intention). It is because the image relies on the more common and culturally accepted representation of the ‘perfect man’ or ‘what a fit and healthy man looks like’, rather than the possible alternative of what that image may mean to another individual, that this image is used.
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Roles within advertising
Quite often in advertising, we see men and women portrayed in a stereotypical manner; often due to what is being culturally accepted at that time. The portrayal of the stupid, housebound woman of advertisements in the 50s and 60s would not be acceptable today and would incite outrage from both genders, because attitudes (although still apparent in more subtle forms in advertisements today) are not culturally acceptable and thus a more equal attitude is encouraged. We do see however, portrayals of men or women in advertising as objects of desire or of negativity, due to they’re portrayal in a stereotypical way.
Women:
Mothers – A role required of women.
Strippers – A trope prevalent in pop culture, where the role of women as strippers for male entertainment is normalized.
Dolls – Women objectified as a lifeless, controlled toy/object.
Consumers – Inseparable from consumer goods and shopping. Feminism connected to consumerism.
Naggers – The trope of a complaining, overly talkative need for attention where linguistic violence is common.
Difficult – The weaker sex, controlled by men. Prone to personal, psychological or physical ailment.
Men:
Stronger sex
Cultured – Working or traveling outdoors.
Heros – Protectors of women. Dependent – women dependent on men.
Stupidity – Little emotion, simple ideas/knowledge, prone to stupid actions, does not think things through.
In the context of this Old Spice ad, we see the gender stereotypes of men played on intentionally. The Old Spice man is portrayed here as a strong and muscular man (‘The perfect man’). The tropical location and horse suggest he is cultured in the ways of horse riding and has travelled to exotic locations. As he does not need protection from the sun, seems relaxed and at ease in little clothing; it is suggested he travels to exotic locations quite often. With his stylish clothing, it is suggested he knows his fashion and wears stylish clothing over tacky t-shirts and shorts. His confident pose and cape-like shirt hanging over his back; suggests an element of subtle heroism and protective masculinity. Possibly added to by a supernatural-like talent for producing vast amounts of diamonds from his hands (also suggesting that he is wealthy due to this product). There may also be an element of stupidity here as the obvious random elements of a man on a horse for not particular reason suggests the Old Spice man is either eccentric, or a tad stupid in bringing a horse to the beach. As the advertisement does this randomness on purpose however; the stupidity is not entirely placed on the individual in the advertisement, but on the running theme/ setting of the advertisement campaign as a whole.
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If you would like to know more about the wider Old Spice ‘man on a horse’ advertisement campaign, which uses the humor of the random objects and settings to more effect, while also playing up to the role of the man in the advertisements intended message, heres one of the more popular videos from the campaign available on YouTube (Its quite funny):
Was beginning to get frustrated about how hard it was to find the blogs and websites of people i know so i decided to sort it out by slapping them all here in a nice tidy list. Its mostly just to make things easy for myself but if it helps out anyone else looking for some of these links then mores the better!
The following is a list of DkIT Creative Media student blogs and websites and their respective end of year projects. Also, their are a few Creative Media-related links thrown in. More links to be added…
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***If ive left out a link that you think should be here, feel free to post it in the comments below and i’ll add it to the list as soon as i can.***
). So I decided to put together a condensed version of my CV that would fit on a single page and designed it to look a little more appealing visually.
