Underline the key terms
Compare how audiences can respond to and interpret the representations in the WaterAid advert you have studied and the Barnardo's print advert you have been provided with
Knee jerk reaction
Both charity adverts use stereotypically vulnerable representations to create a sympathetic mode of address
Plan
MES
Binary oppositions
Editing
Postcolonial theory
Cultivation
Sound
Non-diegetic
Diegetic
Lighting
Polysemic
Lexis
Visual/audio codes
Stereotypical
Representation
Identity
CU
MS
Tracking shot
Establishing shot
Zimbabwe
High angle
Stuart hall
Van zoonen
Lexis
Graphics
Anchorage
Reinforce
Colour palette
Gauntlett
Pick and mix
Butler - gender performativity
Introduction
DAC - definition, argument, context
Representation is the way in which something is re-presented by the producer for the purpose of demonstrating their ideology. Audiences can interpret these representations in a variety of different ways depending on their own identity. Producers will typically use representations to minimise and maximise profit. In this essay I shall argue that charity adverts in particular use vulnerable and emotionally manipulative representations to garner sympathy from the audience, and to encourage them to donate money. In order to explore this idea, I shall refer to the ‘Claudia’ WaterAid advert, which provides an atypical representation, and the Barnardos advert, which presents a stereotypical representation.
Paragraphs
PEA - Point, evidence, argument
One way in which both adverts use stereotypically vulnerable representations is through….
Content
- Heavy use of key key lighting with lots of shadows in the Baranrdos advert constructs symbolic connotations of poverty and sadness, This is further anchored through the MES of cracks that run through the boy’s face, which emphasise the idea that he is poor and vulnerable. The MES of the key light on his face draws attention to his downtrodden facial expression, and the blackness of the background symbolically encoded ideas of innocence and victimhood through the binary constructed between light and dark.
- However, a complex representation of vulnerability is constructed in the wateraid advert. Claudia is a girl and is constructed in a feminine way throughout the advert. The use of slow paced tracking shots, in combination with the use of long takes constructs a stereotypical representation of femininity, which may be appealing to the target audience
- While she may be stereotypically feminine in some ways, XClaudia arguably presents an atypical representation of teenage girls which may appeal to the British Working class and middle aged target audience. Claudia’s atypical representation is constructed through a montage of extreme close up establishing shots that emphasise her lack of makeup and her hardworking feet. In combination with the MES of the bucket on her head, which not only polysemically encodes her hard work, but also constructs a stereotypical representation of African people. By being constructed as hardworking, a more sympathetic representation is constructed for the British audience, who may feel that their donation money is being spent on a worthy cause
- The highly engaging use of the diegetic sound of Claudia’s voice presents a soft, gentle and alluring mode of address to the target audience. Claudia is not only singing a British pop song from the early 90s, but is singing in reasonably clear English, which constructs a relatable and pleasing representation for the target audience to identify with. This is very similar to the stereotypically Irish representation of the young boy in the Barnardos
- A hyperreal representation of Africa is constructed through the stereotypical MES
- Through the generic representation of ‘Africa’, Claudia is consistently othered, and is represented through her difference to the stereotypical British representation a the start of the advert