Similarly, Paul Gilroy argued that certain groups in the UK, for example black people, travellers, queer people and women are routinely othered, or 'made different' by representations in media products.
You are going to look for issues in the three case study adverts: Tide, Super.Human and Kiss Of The Vampire.
Task 1 - problematising the case studies
Find the three above case studies on the blog. Copy and paste them in to your PowerPoint or whatever you are completing this work in. Then answer the following questions FOR ALL THREE Adverts. You can either write in bullet points or full sentences, but PLEASE use the textual analysis toolkit and use media words to back up your points.
For each advert...
- What issues are there with the representations?
- Who created this advert and why?
- What assumptions are being made about gender?
- What groups are being othered (made different) and how?
- Who benefits from these representations?
- How can it be 'fixed' and made less problematic?
Discussion - "Go woke and go broke"
This catchphrase, used by online culture warriors to describe a perceived tendency for producers to address 'progressive representations' at the expense of the perceived, pre-existing 'core' audience really demonstrates exactly how toxic the debate has become. 'Woke' signifiers' (the term now stretched beyond it's original meaning) can include representation of non-hegemonic lifestyles, ethnic minorities, queer themes and even a character having pink hair.
So why do some people get so angry about diverse representations in media products?
Task 2 - inclusive advertising
We've been quite negative for the first task. So how do we address these issues? How can producers construct an advert that is inclusive, but also that ensures profit?
Construct EITHER a cleaning product advertisement or the theatrical or teaser poster for a new horror film that addresses at least some of the following problematic issues:
- Othering
- Sexism
- Racism
- Ableism