Blog #4

Audience demand, or rather the unguided power of the audience to determine what it will abide, allowed radio, and later other forms of mass media, to incorporate excessive advertising as a normal part of its system.

While the producers of media content of course have the direct control of the architecture of the media, they must be obedient and attentive to the tolerance of the audience to succeed economically. If the majority of the audience finds a feature of the media to be offensive, they will avoid it, and the media producer suffers. Therefore, the direct control of the producer is in reality secondary to the indirect control of the audience.

If the early radio audience of the 1920s were more careful and discriminate, there might be higher standards today to which advertisers would be required to conform to. Instead, the 1920s audience, in its haste to embrace the new medium, accepted the high percentage of airtime dedicated to selling products. This strengthened the American status of being a consumer nation.

Cultivation

            Through an understanding of the concepts of cultivation, we can find that the majority of beer advertisements are meant to convey that if one drinks, he or she is accepted.

            Cultivation is the theory that consistent messages over time create images of what reality is among audiences. When one considers where we view the majority of advertisement campaigns for beer, televised sporting events such as football, baseball, etc., the subtext of such ads becomes more obvious: real men drink beer. Beer campaigns often depict cool men doing cool things, or unpopular men becoming popular due to having beer. Having a beer makes you appeal to your friends and to women. The cultivation of these images creates an impression amongst the masses that beer makes you appealing and cementing such thought as reality.

       In the advertisement shown above, we have an example of cultivation through the reality it presents. Portrayed in the ad is a party of attractive young people conversing and drinking beer, however the most prominent visual in the ad is the large tank full of ice cold Budweiser. This is a prime example of the cool appeal that beer offers its patrons.

Blog Post #2

Hegemony helps me further understand this Pepsi ad through the concept of framing, as it is very deliberately (subtly be damned) trying to associate Coca Cola in my mind with bad or being undesirable. While there is no actual logo on the opposing can, we can tell through its design and red and white colors, that it is supposed to represent Pepsi’s main competition, Coca Cola. The ad, simply enough, portrays the two competing cans with straws in them, however while the Pepsi’s straw fits in perfectly, the Coca Cola’s straw has literally spouted arms, trying as hard as possible to stay away from entering the drink. These straws are intended to represent us, or better yet, suggest what we should be. We want to drink Pepsi because it is delicious. We want to stay away from Coke because it is so unpleasing that the straw wants nothing to do with it. If one was to dig even further, it could be said that while both drinks are shown with condensation, the Pepsi’s drips of water are far more noticeable and jump out at you as opposed to the drips on the Coke which seem to just blend in with the rest of the bland can. We are supposed to find the Pepsi more refreshing because of this. Even the little logo at the bottom right corner of the screen has the words “Joy” and “Pepsi” displayed prominently. Through specific designs in the framing (subtle or not) we are supposed to walk away from this ad desiring and recognizing the appeal of a refreshing Pepsi and being turned off by the idea of having to drink a Coca Cola. Boosting your image while taking down the competition; that’s business baby.