5. What I have learnt about the representation of events, issues, individuals and social groups in television, radio or print adverts and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate meaning successfully.

From my research it has become apparent that a successful deodorant advert will appeal to people in a plethora of ways, one such way is through positive representations of events, issues, individuals and social groups.

One way in which adverts can use representation to sell a product is by reinforcing existing beliefs and stereotypes in order to give their advert certain aspirational qualities. An example of this is the Axe advert below.

This advert reinforces certain gender stereotypes in order to appeal to its target audience by being aspirational to them. The male model above is quite muscular and refined and also owns a blue, retro fifties-style car. These features are all things that the male half of the target audience would all want to be/have. Therefore, this connotes to the target audience that if they buy the male Axe deodorant they too can be all these things. Furthermore, the female model in this ad is made to appear attractive, especially to the male in the advert. this is done by giving her flawless skin, a very tight skirt and strapless top. This is effective as the females in the target audience would wish to appear attractive and desirable to members of the opposite gender. This implies that if they buy Axe deodorant, they will be exactly that.


However, it is also possible to appeal to the target audience by challenging representations and stereotypes. This is important as stereotypes are very sweeping and many feel that they are wrong and so challenging them appeals to that mindset.

This advert features two different homosexual couples, one gay couple in the bottom left and one lesbian couple in the bottom right. This will appeal to the youthful and open minded 16-25 year old target audience, especially if they themselves are gay or lesbian, as this advert represents their sexuality in a positive way and thus relates to them in a good way. Furthermore, the fact that youth is presented in a much more diverse way in general as opposed to only being objects to stand there and be attractive makes the CK2 brand seem much more down to earth and relatable, due to the less surreal representation of their age group.

I hope to use representation in my own campaign in order to make the TA feel included  by featuring models doing things that the target audience relate to and thus relate to the brand. I will do this by having 4 different adverts where the models are all doing things that the TA not only want to do/are doing, but are also not completely unrealistic- therefore capturing them.