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| The Diesel Go With The Flaw advertising campaign features models with noticeable 'flaws', for example bushy eyebrows, eyebags, braces and so on. However despite the camera lingering on these 'flaws', each and every model is unequivocally hegemonically stereotypically attractive. Arguably the positive ideological perspective is somewhat diminished if the message is 'you can be whoever you want no matter what you look like... as long as you are tall and skinny" |
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How does media language construct the ideological perspective of the producer?
- Montage of wide angled establishing shots demonstrates the quintessential American setting
- Several CU shots of women's bodies, intimate mode of address
- Use of a dark, dull and desaturated colour palette, which resembles an old film shot on film
- MES of analogue film studio presents a nostalgic and backwards looking mode of address
- Urban, run down and stereotypically ugly setting, stereotypically associated with working class lifestyles
- Rebellion against authority - encoded through the MES of the prison setting, further reinforced through costume such as leather jackets
- Outcasts and outsiders
- Mise en scene of clothing is used in an atypical and non-conventional way
- Upbeat and sophisticated nature of the soundtrack contrasts with the working class and run down characters featured in the advert.
- Contrapuntal - where one element, for example the soundtrack 'goes against' another element, for example the visuals. Eg: The use of contrapuntal sound positions the audience in a highly confusing mode of address
- Use of low key lighting creates a dark, depressing and edgy atmosphere
- Editing: makes heavy use of cross cutting, cutting from one location to another, drawing in the audience, with a range of exciting locations
- A binary opposition is formed through the juxtaposition between the high key natural lighting of the bridge and the grungy, low key, harsh lighting of the jail scene
- Representation of gender highly atypical/subversive throughout the advert, for example the short, boyish haircuts of many of the female models
- Positioning of women in a jail setting creates a binary opposition
- Stereotypical use of leather and denim to connote criminality and intertextual reference to crime drama, further anchored by the prison setting
- Cross cutting from film being constructed to shots of models in various environments which anchors the audience
- Vintage style, vintage film. Vintage here connotes quality, classic nature, style, edginess and non-conformity
- Revealing costume clearly sexualises woman in caravan, with CU shot of her buttocks, reinforcing notion of the male gaze. Connotation that that Diesel clothes make the audience sexually attractive.
- Lexis of 'successful living' clearly anchors the message that to be successful, one must be sexually attractive
- Go with the flaw/go with the flow, a subversion of a common idiom
Bonus: analysing the John Lewis Christmas advert 2020
- Shift from animation style to animation style is connotative of a celebration of difference and diversity
- MES of the repeating motif of hearts throughout the advert is connotative of love and good vibes
- Calm relaxing choice of soundtrack with only subtle atmospheric sounds
- Editing: although the style of animation shifts wildly, there is continuity between each shot, for example a pan is continued from one section to another, making the advert as satisfying and easy to watch as possible
- Many animation styles are old fashioned and nostalgic, indicating an attempt to target an older audience
- John Lewis is a stereotypical middle class and middle aged pursuing brand
- Cyclical narrative: loops back to start
- Ideology: Christmas itself is an ideology that can and should be spread through buying products: a capitalist ideology
- Community, spreading love from person to person
- High levels of ethnic diversity, with potential promoting equality and diversity
- Specific references to certain religions, for example Islam, highly inclusive
- Wide range of social classes, eg elderly black man with Christmas cracker lives in stereotypically working class household