ADVERTISING UNSEEN PRACTICE LESSON

ANALYSE HOW THE ADVERT CONVEYS VALUES, IDEAS ABD ATTITUDES ABOUT GENDER.

//Purpose - to sell Dove Men products.
//TA - young men, parents, husbands, woke

GENDER:
//Doing housework and parenting isn’t jsut for women, real men do this hard work now alongside them.
//We need to challenge the stereotypes of gender roles in the home, they shouldn’t be fixed.
//expectations for men in parenting are changing, the expectations of being a man and masculinity are changing.
//unconventional in its representation of classic roles in masculinity. Men can enjoy cooking and take on more ‘feminine’ roles around the house.
//Not designed to be sexual or have expectations surrounding appearances of models.
//This happens much more regularly, acceptance for change in society.
//Asking us to question what we think about masculinity.
//‘real man’ old phrase is made fun of in a way, real men are comfortable to do what they want and are comfortable in their role as a father. 
//men are evolving in terms of how they see themselves.

 

TECHNIQUES:
//Black and white colour scheme plays on this idea of old school ideologies surrounding masculinity. Perhaps to show how men have had the potential for this for a long time, but society has limited them.

//Shot type is a side view, not necessarily focused on the models face or body, it is more about what he is doing, not how good he looks doing it.
//Lack of a celebrity endorser enables audiences to see themselves within the text, there are no surreal expectations, everyone can be him, make dinner like he does.
//Kitchen setting suggests that it is no longer the woman’s domain, anyone can do whatever they want, a direct challenge to convention.pokes fun at d school cleaning adverts from the sixties with the kitchen being the biggest stereotype women’s purpose in the home.
//there’s more than one thing in the oven, he isn’t cooking for himself, he’s cooking for the family. This along with the wedding ring suggest that there is a spouse somewhere, he isn’t cooking because he has to, but because he wants to.
//Wearing an apron like a symbol of women in the house, defining gender roles. He’s also wearing work clothes and instead of coming home to dinner he has come in and make dinner.
//No direct address because this isn’t about the sexual appeal, he is focused on the food.

RECEPTION THEORY: 
//Positively - Mother’s, fathers
//Negatively - Grandparents, old people

Where most male-targeted fragrance companies establish stereotypically masculine conventions of setting, dove very much tries to create an overall homely tone. Though conventionally dark with the black and white, the colour scheme plays on an idea of old school ideologies surrounding masculinity in order to establish progressive views surrounding gender, particularly in relation to millennial men. The black and white serves as a device for showing how men have had the potential to break expectations for a long time, and a lot have, but now we understand that these things need to be celebrated, rather than hidden away.