Generation Like Response- 3

Today, we live in the age of social media, everything around us revolves around social media. Youtube allows us to access information, latest news and even catch up on the lives of various Youtube stars. In today’s world, everyone is interconnected, just one’s actions on social media can be traced, and each action enables those Youtube stars to appeal to a specific audience. In the documentary Generation Like, the message explained by the teenagers is that social media empowers one, the likes acquired by one can simply be understood as the same as financial currency, likes are the financial currency of the social media world. This empowers youngsters and enables them to feel confident about themselves. When it comes to the Youtube world, stars create videos either comedic or not to appeal to a specific audience, videos range between anywhere from video games to social experiments, some stars acquire more than a million subscribers with stars like KSI having over 10 million subscribers, this means that he has touched 10 million people in the world with his videos. This really is astonishing, as this allows a Youtube star to create particular pieces/ videos to appeal to his/her target audience. Gaining subscribers, views and likes empowers one as they can reach a number of people and touch their lives in a positive way. Youtube is frequented generally by teenagers, and often times it is noticeable that Youtube stars provide motivation as well as encouragement for their viewers. It is understood that many teenagers look at these Youtube stars as role models for various reasons and thus the content produced by them enables the audience to connect with the star. Moreover, Youtube stars have the freedom of choice as to what types of content to create and thus enables them to get their desired message across. Youtube allows stars to create unique content which would appeal to an audience and the returns from creating such content is massive, not only in terms of likes and subscribers, but also in terms of financial gain. Furthermore, Youtube stars are empowered as they receive fame and financial recognition for their content which is very inspiring, thus making them create more and maybe progress into various other themes of content.

Stereotypes in mass media

Throughout our lives we encounter various advertisements promoting general beliefs, these beliefs are the beliefs of a general society. Advertisers often utilise models as a representation of a “perfect” human being, thus engraving into society that is the way to go. Moreover, by doing this advertisers undermine and weaken certain individuals as well as groups. The Mountain Dew advert watched in class is an example of stereotyping in advertisements, the advertisement contained various stereotypes which were harmful to society. Furthermore, the advertisement was racist not only because all of the jail inmates were African American, but each of them were likened to a goat, thus giving many people the impression that the advertisers likened animal features with African American men. It is common to find the media leaving a stain in one’s ideologies, by portraying something as right or more beautiful it causes an imprint in society’s minds. Since mass media is encountered on a daily basis, what we see is what we believe and that is morally incorrect.

Print ad analysis

The advertisement targets American citizens who are looking to develop a career, generally young people and further states the lifestyle benefits one is able to reap after gaining this experience. The advertisement is aimed at all middle class young American citizens, it further aims at inviting people who are looking to develop a career in business. The advertisement utilises persuasive techniques to draw the audience into the advert. A positive response from the American public is being tried to achieve. The advertisers utilise the army as a method to draw young citizens attention, the historical significance of the army is somewhat ignored and the values it promotes is disregarded to an extent. Generally, the public associate the army with patriotism and a method to give back to your country, however in this case, it is a complete turnaround, the army is giving back to the citizens, this is understood as in the advertisement it is clearly stated “the best place to start a business career, isn't always in business. Furthermore, among various families it is made a tradition to serve in the army, this advertisement may also suit them as they are able to gain business experience while fulfilling a family tradition. The values communicated throughout the advertisement is that of prosperity and being successful, the advertiser utilises language as a tool to grasp the reader’s attention, allowing the reader to feel important as their lives will improve drastically with the aid of the army. Moreover, the advertiser feels the need to certify their judgements by constantly stating that by joining the army, one is able to reap the benefits of a successful career in the future. The advertiser also might be trying to promote patriotism and nationalism in the hearts and minds of young American citizens.

Nike advertisement "Risk Everything"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv09DRd4lsM

This advert is driven by a common theme and sport, football is the main focus of the advert and the aim is to persuade people to risk everything. The intended audience is specific to an extent, for example it can range from anyone who is an avid football fan to just a mere fan of the Nike company. Throughout this advert, ethos, pathos and logos are present as huge footballing stars have been used to make the advert not only more interesting, but also to show that the products on offer at Nike are credible and proven quality. In this advert, very little speaking is done, however, Nike use various footballing stars such as; Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic etc. to promote their name and add a sense of credibility to their products. When the audience finds that these quality stars are promoting something, they are generally enticed and encouraged to spend on that company’s products. Nike uses ethos effectively here, as seeing these big names are a very effective persuasion method which is likely to increase sales. Furthermore, the use of various camera angles as well as different stunts being done by the footballers enables the audience to understand that time and effort was spent in preparing this advert, this portrays to the audience commitment to their jobs and might increase the chance of the audience being persuaded to spend on their products. Moreover, it is already understood globally that Nike is a huge company and if they can attract huge footballing names and offer them contracts, then it might be fairly easy for them to attract their target audience. The Nike advert is a group of boys playing football, and as they would say a footballer’s name, they would turn into that particular footballer, the advert incorporates humor as well as mystery, Nike uses various techniques to incorporate mystery and to get their message “Risk everything” across, in once instance particularly,  a penalty is awarded and a boy steps up to take the penalty ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, the crowd goes silent and thus portrays the message “Risk everything”. Moreover, logos is used throughout the advert to persuade the intended audience, Nike once again utilizes various stars to demonstrate that if they have something so should you, this is an effective persuasion method especially to those who look up to these stars. Nike uses ethos, pathos and logos to persuade the audience as well as convey their message of “Risk everything”.

Advertisement Pitch

What main appeals did you use in your pitch? Why did you decide they would be the most effective?

What were some specific persuasive techniques you used (include examples) why did you believe these would be effective?

How did an awareness of audience and context influence your overall approach to this activity?

Explain the use of some of the images you included. Why did you feel they would be effective?

Comment on the effectiveness of your presentation. How will this activity inform how you prepare for your FOA?

Our advertisement was carefully considered and we utilised various persuasive techniques  which helped us further enhance the message of our advertisement. The techniques we used were association, celebrities and intensity. The sole purpose for using these techniques were because as a group we found them to be the most persuasive. Association was used to convey to the audience that by drinking this specific drink, they are able to belong to an exclusive group, while using a celebrity to advertise the product had a similar intended purpose, people look up upon celebrities and especially a celebrity like KSI who is really well renowned especially by our target audience, and the intensity of a football match was used to show that the energy drink helps in various tough situations. At first, we were expecting an advertising pitch without a context, that obviously would have made it easier for us as we could have chosen a context. However, knowing that the UAE was our context, we aimed at specifically targeting teenagers and thus used KSI as the celebrity to promote our product, teenagers all over the UAE have taken a liking to the British YouTube sensation which made it easier for us to convey our message as well as draw in our clients. Images were not widely used throughout the presentation, nevertheless an image of KSI was used purely because we felt that perhaps our clients were not aware of who he was, the image of KSI used was striking as well as showed that KSI will definitely help promote sales, it is evident that words KSI uses in his videos are used by many teenagers. The main purpose of our advertisement was to effectively sell our pitch to the client, however, I feel in certain areas we lacked as stuttering was common which may have meant that we were not necessarily comfortable with the advertisement method. However, we used the techniques and appeals wisely and took our context and target audience into account, which may have helped gain a more positive response from our clients. This activity was useful on various fronts, and further enabled me to understand the FOA further as well as realize what is expected in an effective FOA presentation. Moreover, by viewing and understanding the approach of others to this particular task was very helpful and will also be vital in enabling me to prepare an effective and informative FOA.