OUGD501: Practical Research

For the practical I have expanded from posters on many subjects to a campaign about one subject, the innate human need of status. For this I will be producing a poster, magazine ad in a few different contexts and a film advertisement (using found footage of products that rely on status). In comparison to what I usually look at (women's issues and feminism) Ive decided to research into the use of innate needs in mens adverts to fully understand the forms of pressure that are put upon male audiences and how adverts feel they can target them. 

To begin I needed to start with looking at lost of pre existing adverts that use status as one of their main selling points these products include; cars, watches, expensive alcohol, male cologne/aftershave and gadgets.

Cologne:

Printed Ads

When it comes to perfume/aftershave/cologne adverts there seems to be a definitive 'look' that advertisers refuse to break. Black and white, stare at the camera, nice suit, draped token lady and product in the bottom right corner. They look practically identical which I think it funny, I'd never noticed how similar before I began comparing them. The status from these types of adverts come in the form of nice clothes, sex appeal and power. The strong stare at the audience almost says 'I'm better than you, you know it and product x is the reason why'.

TV Ads

So what are the cliches? They are all topless at some point or we get a flash of muscles. They all have a woman of desire that the cologne helps them get; a woman who is mesmerised and instantly turned on by his smell. People tend to crowd round them, they are all in black and white (though some exceptions add colour once the product is shown as the smell ads colour). They all have a random soundtrack, mostly music very little lyrics.

Watches:

Printed Ads

Like with the cologne all these images are very similar when you place them next to each other though there are changes to the aftershave ads. The men don't look at you, they look away, the product is the centred image (or at least the most eye catching thing and the man second. It states that this product makes the man, he doesn't not make the product, selling status through watches. In contrast a smell can't really be something you can photograph so instead they rely on the effects of the smell to sell the product rather than the product itself, it's nice to have colour back in the images though and a lack of draped women. 

TV Ads

In those ads when people are not getting naked, having threesomes and romping around they stare dramatically at the camera and pose with watches. In comparison to the printed adverts it seems the product is the least important factor. Instead the feeling, tone, music and people are the centre of attention with quick changing shots fitted to music, we only ever get glimpses of the product. This makes it mysterious, curious and something we want to see more of.  There are no gender specific watch adverts, it seems they include men and women as a whole and so rely on sex more than status to sell the product. Though in further analysis of mens adverts and tv commercials it seems sex for males is strongly linked to status and so I feel when I produce my campaign I can't mutually exclude the two.

Car Adverts:

Printed Ads

TV Ads