Semiotic Analysis – Fairy Liquid Adverts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO_vx96rSb4&nohtml5=False

This fairy liquid advert is from 1980 and this is when you would expect equality to be poor. Although in this advert it shows equality from the beginning. This is because you see both the boys and girls from school equally washing up their dinner plates. Although the presenter is a women which may be seen or known as typical. It shows the women walking around both the girls and boys at what looks like school lunch, this indicates to me that she is maybe the teacher or head of the school due to her authority to make the children wash up and the clothing she is wearing. She is wearing a knee length skirt along with a shirt a blazer, this also leads to be believe she has authority.

When the lady recommends to the children about cleaning up their dirty dishes the boys scream ‘no’ and ‘ohh’ indicating that they don’t want to do it, whereas the girls are already gathering and staking their plates ready to take them over to the sinks. This shows me that, the boys are not impressed at the fact they must do a ‘women’s’ task, whereas the girls simply get on with the task they have been assigned. This might be because, boys are lazier than women. Or these children may live in a household where the fathers do not to the housekeeping only the mothers do, due to the time that this was filmed (1980) when women use d to be well known as ‘house wife’s’ while father went to work. This was not always the case.

When panning over to the sink the boys stand one side and the girls stand the other this represents segregation as they could have had two groups of mixed girls and boys but instead the women get handed the fairy washing up liquid to test and the boy gets handed other brands. This also indicates favouritisms to me as know the girls and going to get to see how amazing fairy washing up liquid is and possibly want to go home and use this and show their parents. In comparison to this boys are going to go home and moan about how the other brands are no good and the girls won. Giving the fairy washing up liquid to the girls is slightly sexist as it will make them enjoy the washing up experience more than the boys due to how much easier it is and how much nicer it comes out. This means that girls will want to wash up again due to how simplistic it was whereas boys won’t. This almost feels as though the teacher has done this on purpose so it puts boys of washing up and entices girls to wash up.

Following on from this, while washing up the girls are all smiling and the boys are looking angry and frustrated. This is because the girls have the fairy washing up liquid which is easy and the plates are coming out perfect and clean. Although, the boys are having to wash their plates 2-3 times due to the grease not coming off the plates resulting in frustration for the boys.

Then once he washing up is done we are shown all the plates being set back out on the tables. And here we see the boys have done half of the amount of plates in comparison to girls. This indicates to me that this shows that women are better at washing up, resulting in more women wanting to do it than men.

So in my opinion, this advert does show that fairy liquid is clearly much better than the other brands, on the other hand if they had put the boys washing up with the fairy liquid and the girls with the other liquids then the advert would not come across so sexist but due to its nature and the way the genders have versed each other to see who is the best at washing up and typically the women have won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb7neUBxEhc 

This Fairy Liquid Advert is from 2015, Due to when it has been filmed you  expect the equality of men and women to be equal, whereas the one filmed in 1980 you would expect equality to be unfair. Although this advert does not specify the women doing the washing up.  You see this as the boy wants to play with the bottle but its lasting to long. While the boy is talking to what appears to be the father figure you see the male washing up. This shows that there is not any sexism in this advert where as there used to be in the 90’s as the women were pronoun to be ‘housewives’. Showing men washing up means that Fairy liquid have adapted to the 21st century by included men washing up as well as women as in the 21st century both men and women equally share the house work and work together to accomplish this. 

This means that, the Fairy Liquid Adverts new Unique Selling Point is going to be that Fairy Liquid lasts longer in comparison to other washing up liquids. Whereas, in the 1980’s advert there Unique Selling Point is going to be how Fairy Liquid has better chemicals resulting in a nicer clean. This shows that over the last 25 years Fairy Liquid has updated there unique selling point to keep up to date with there demographics wants and needs. 

Moving on from this, there is a little boy, mother and father. This indicates to me the ‘perfect family home’ which is not very common.  may be because they wanted to show a whole family  together washing up doing family activities together. Although, we do not often see the mother in this clip we simply see a blurred image of her face and her hands as she washes and drys. Not to forget, you get to see the father and son bonding over the breakfast table talking about how the boy wishes to make a  rocket out of the Fairy Liquid bottle. This also indicates to me that the Fairy Liquid bottle is also child safe. This is because, he can play with it meaning that it is child friendly. 

Theories

Passive or Active Consumption:

What are the key characteristics of this theory, explain in your own words how this theory works?

Passive: A passive audience is one that does not get involved and cannot change the future. For example, a passive television programme would be Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Eastenders. Programmes that have pre-written scripts weeks in advance and the passive audience will not be able to change the programme that is going to air weather they like it or not. Television is often seen as Passive. This is because, most programmes on television are non-vote or pre-written weeks in advance meaning that you cannot change what is going to happen.

Active: Active audience are much more independent when consuming information, An active audience will take the information and then come up with their own meaning for this information. This means that, people in the Active audiences are ironically more 'Active' they like to get involve and change the program if possible and example of this would be X-Factor. This is because, the audience is interactive with the programme, we can vote and change the 'script' as such by removing contestant from the programme and keeping contestants in the program. Another example of this would be 'Im a Celeb' and any other voting television programme that requires the audiences response to continue the show.

Hypodermic Needle Model:

What are the key characteristics of this theory, explain in your own words how this theory works?

A hypodermic needle model can also be known as, hypodermic-syringe model, transition belt model or magic bullet theory. A hypodermic needle model is known as something that can influence viewers to copy what they see. For example, when underage children see graphic images online they may then want to copy this or see more graphic images like this. This is known as the hypodermic needle effect.

The hypodermic needle effect applies in cinemas for example. It is known that when a mass audience watches a cinema the film is injecting information into the audience through the hypodermic needle effect.

Diagramme:

 

Reception study including responses:

What are they key characterises of this theory, explain in your own words how this theory works?

A reception theory can be in three different formats:

Dominant:

A domenant audience is someone who agrees entirely with what they see/read. This means that they go along with it and all it's information fully, agree and understand it. Not to forget, the audience is uncritical of the text that they have been shown and do not argue it in any way.

Negotiated:

A negotiated audience is someone who doesn't know what they think, they like parts of the production but also dis like parts of the production. This means that they are in the middle, they don't love what they have seen, they also argue some elements of it. Not to forget, the audience is slightly critical but not extremely critical of the text they have seen, they agree and disagree with certain elements.

Oppositional:

An oppositional audience is someone who does not like what they have just seen and are fully against it they may have their own arguments as to why but they dislike it a lot and the are very opposite to the domenant people. This means that, they are competitive critical of the text they have been shown and disagree with all of its content.


Here is a news article about a boy who has allegedly been killed by his PlayStation. This means that the PlayStation may have blown up or self destructed and caused the boy to die.

 If I was in the dominant audience my reply would be :
"Oh know, poor boy, I will never buy another PlayStation or anything similar as they are all bad and can put everyone at risk" this meant that, they have read the story and the information and believed every word. 

If i was a negotied audience I would say:
"This is horrible, but I'm sure not every PlayStation is like this, he must have been very in liked, although technology is dangerous". This shows that they are listening to what the message is saying but also having their own opinion on the situation.

Oppositional would say something like:
"Well, this is all lies, it's got to be his own fault a PlayStation will not just murder someone, he must have had too many plugs in or something to cause it" this shows they are very against everything they have read and do not choose to believe a word of it.

Uses and Gratification Theory:

What are they key characteristics of this theory, explain in your own words how this theory works?

This theory relies on their audience not being a passive audience, they need them to be a active audience and get involved by interpreting and integrating media into their lives. This theory focuses on the consumer (audience) rather than the message its self. This theory applies to mass audiences and therefor will affect more people. The uses and gratification theory goes by people relying on social media, this means that people rely on other people for entertainment, gossip and for general interest. This means that people use social media to interact with other people and gossip about other people.