give a brief summary of the super human advert
it is a video promoting the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics (trailer) which breaks conventions by showing the harsh reality of being a paralympian
what is the purpose of the advert
- To encourage people to watch the Paralympics
- To show that disabled people are only human (not separate from everyone else)
- To publicize the struggles of Paralympians, and how they don’t give up (motivating)
who is the target audience?
Disabled people with aspirations - able to see themselves represented positively in the media, and see what kind of things they can achieve
People who like sports, and usually watch the Olympics
16-34 year olds (channel 4’s target audience in general)
Channel 4 viewers
when were tokyo 2020 paralympics?
24 August - 5 September 2021
who created the advert?
4Creative
who are 4creative and what is significant about the work they produce?
Channel 4’s in house creative agency
produce risky, innovative, culturally potent work
who produced the advert?
serial pictures and somesuch (global production company)
what are the convetions of a charity advert?
- emotive language, rule of three, persuasive language
- direct address / collective pronouns
- sad, slow music
- facts/statistics (death, illness, poverty)
- goal (get people to donate)
- sympathetic photos/disturbing images
- dull colours (black and white)
- image heavy (image to text ratio) - short sentences/phrases
- images / phrases to gain sympathy
- anecdote
what makes this advert in particular stand out?
- ignores compassion fatigue and includes traumatic images and clips (verisimilitude)
- upbeat music (So You Want To Be A Boxer by Bugsy Malone) = perhaps doesn’t want sympathy, and dont want to be treated differently (however the actual lyrics convey a neg. message)
- constant subject change (fast paced editing) is needed as the video is so long
- use of celebrities = recognisable faces normalises their disabilities and reinforces the title of them being ‘human’ and just attached to their accomplishments (not being any different to anyone else just because they are disabled)
- the typical conventions (e.g. the voice-over and dramatic music)are used at the beginning but are quickly change to the sound of the alarm and the realities of daily life
- colourful
- underlying humour
- less statistics / facts
how was the adverts success shown?
- multi-award-winning Paralympic games film
- it helped sell out the event for the first time
- delivered channel 4 its biggest TV audience in 10 years and was named CAMPAIGN’S Campaign Of The Year
- credited as the benchmark for the way all other broadcasters cover the event
how does the advert avoid neg stereotypes?
Avoids representing those with disabilities as victims or spectacles by showing the harsh reality behind the paralympians’ training (hence the crack through ‘super’ at the end)
This appeals more to audiences as they are not affected by compassion fatigue and therefore are not overwhelmed by sympathy or guilt.
how does hall’s reception theory relate to the advert?
Dominated reading - people who like sport / watch olympics, people who watch channel 4, disabled people, aspiring paralympians / olympians, family members of the paralympians
Negotiated reading - those like the message/intent but don’t like sport, those who like sport but don’t watch channel 4 normally, those who watch channel 4 but don’t like sport, jornalists / broadcasters / commentators
Oppositional reading - people who don’t like sport, people who don’t watch/support channel 4, people who discriminate/ have prejudices against disabled people, people (with disabilities) who are offended by the advert, people above targeted age range (above 40)
how does gerbners cultivation theory relate to the advert?
- challenges the theory as, by giving a voice to a previously under-represented group, it makes people question their assumptions (created by previous neg stereotypes of disabled people in the media) and cause them to be more open to the pos representations presented in superhuman
changes the embedded stereotypes encoded into media products
how does levi strauss’ binary opposition theory relate to the advert
- dream vs. reality (dark vs. light)
- upbeat music vs. harsh lyrics/images
- animation vs real footage
- normal people struggles vs. athletes’/paralympians’ struggles
- childhood vs adulthood
- success vs failure
- conceptual opposition - ‘to be a paralympian there must be something wrong with you’ - perceived ideas about those with disbabilites compared to what they can actually achieve
how does hall’s representation theory relate to the advert?
There are often false, negative representations of those with disabilities, which is due to media companies being owned by dominant hegemonic groups which don’t include people with disabilities, however this advert challenges the theory as they subvert this negative representation
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