As Media

Task 1

In this advert for the Salvation Army I think the class, race and sexuality is being aimed at is actually any class, race and sexuality. I think this because the situation of domestic abuse happens everywhere in the world and could happen to anyone no matter what class they are in, no matter what race they are or whatever their sexuality is. However I do think that the age of this advertisement is slightly more restricted (teenagers/adults) because this advert is using its advertising from the power of the internet. This is because there was a massive online debate on whether the dress that the woman is wearing in the photo was either ‘black and blue’ or ‘white and gold’. Therefore they have cleverly used their marketing techniques, a popular online trend to make people aware of a serious social issue. This is how advertisements become effective because they usually are related to the situations of the modern times.

I think that the representation of this advertisement is very realistic because it does in fact happen so much that most people don’t even notice it, hence why the headline is ‘why is it so hard to see black and blue’.

I think that they have represented the individual in the way they have because stereotypically and statistically more women are abused than men, although there are still large numbers of men who are abused too. Therefore because the most common gender to be abused is women there is a woman in the advertisement. I don’t think that she is specifically represented as either positive or negative I think that it’s more to do with the situation and the headline. Therefore I think that for the Salvation Army the reaction to the advertisement was really positive because they were raising a large amount of awareness to their charity and what they do whereas it is also highlighting a negative situation.

I think that the main use of representation being created is through body language, language and clothing. This is because the body language of the woman is in a model pose as if she is okay and how she would be normally, but in reality he levels show she’s low down on the floor covered in bruises.

Task 2

1) Demographics

Demographics is what is used to break down and identify a specific thing, for instance if you wanted to find out someone’s  reasons for doing something you would use a method called CRASH, which stands for Class, Race/Religion, Age, Sexuality and Handicap. This then allows you to understand someone’s background and link to reason why they are like they are.

2) Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-scene is everything within a shot; it is the whole of the background usually. For example it is the specific colours used within a shot e.g. Red, White and Blue are a popular choice in American films because they establish that they are in America and additionally they can have many other connotations; like the fact that America is considered to have a corrupt society.