Since the early 1960's Fairy Liquid have been a very prominant and popular household brand of washing up liquid. This may be due in part to their memorable advert campaigns. At the start of this advertising campaign, there was a clear storyline through the adverts, which was playing on the main selling point of the product, which was the "mild green" version of Fairy Liquid which boasted a safer chemical which helped to make the women's hands softer.With this, sexism was also very prominent in these adverts as no father was ever seen in the advert, and it was only the women who were seen in the kitchen, doing the cleaning up as that was the stereotype at the time. The main idea of these adverts was to sell the Fairy liquid product as something that women could use in the kitchen to make their hands softer and smoother whilst also doing the washing up, which again is a bad stereotype that is very much disregarded and looked down upon these days.
Moving into the 1970's adverts not much has changed with the tone and message of the adverts as they still aim to appeal to housewives, who at the time were burdened with the stereotype of being the only ones who do the washing up, so Fairy liquid wanted to appeal to that with the "softer suds" campaign to help women's hands become smoother and softer by using the product. These early Fairy liquid adverts could be applied to Tzvetan Todorov's theory that states narrative follows a five stage pattern. The story starts with an equilibrium, which is the happy family of the mother and daughter playing in the kitchen. The disruption then occurs when the mother realises that the dishes are dirty and they need cleaning. The problem in the narrative is that the mother doesn't have the Fairy liquid needed to clean it so the restoring order occurs when she retrieves the Fairy liquid from the daughter. As the dishes are cleaned, then the new equilibrium begins and peace is restored.
Looking at the 1980's Fairy liquid advert the style changed drastically from the style of the mother and daughter in the kitchen format, and instead took to film the advert in what looks like a boarding school for children. The kids are tasked with cleaning up the dishes with a normal supermarket washing up liquid, and seeing how many they can clean with the same amount as Fairy liquid. The advert shows quite clearly that you are able to clean double the number of dishes from using Fairy liquid. This was the start of marketing the product for different reasons other than helping women to get softer hands. This advert also removed the housewife stereotype of it only being women in the kitchen who can clean, and instead it was changed to multiple children, both boys and girls making a team effort to clean the dishes together, rather than letting a parent or adult do it. This also highlighted the safety of the product, as children were allowed to use it to clean.
The 1992 Fairy liquid advert went back to the mother and daughter in the kitchen format which shows that the stereotype of the housewife still exists, and possibly that Fairy had less popularity or airtime with the 1980's advert as it didn't feature their usual advert format, and therefore they reverted back to what they knew would sell, as it is their traditional advert campaign. Instead of the daughter playing with the bottle or doing arts and crafts in this advert, she is planning her future of opening up a shop, which when you compare it to the previous 1960's and 1970's adverts, is an interesting contrast. This sort of plan for a young girl's future was a lot different to the stereotype it would have been back in the 1960's.
Eventually these adverts developed to a point where the sexism, stereotyping and ethnicity were combatted. In 2000, Fairy released an advert campaign where instead of a white mum and her daughter, it was instead and black mother and her son. The son was playing with the Fairy Liquid bottle, and doing arts and crafts to make the bottle look like an animal. This immediately combated two stereotypes from the original adverts, which were that it needed to be a white family that were the main characters, but also that it needed to be a girl who was decorating the Fairy Liquid bottle.
This Fairy Liquid advert made for the 2015 campaign also battles the steroetypes in media. In this version, the dad is the main character shown to be washing up, rather than the focus being on a woman doing the washing up. Despite the man being the main character, the mum is still visible in the background washing up in some shots. This may still be considered sexist to some that Fairy felt the need to still throw in footage of a woman cleaning, but I think it was intended to be used for equality instead. Not only this but the son is also waiting to use the Fairy Liquid bottle to turn into a spaceship. This son counts down the days until the bottle is finally used up completely so he can play with it. The main idea of this Fairy advert campaign titled "Fairyconomy" was to boast that Fairy liquid lasts 50% compared to other supermarket brand washing up liquid as less liquid is needed to achieve the same effects when washing up the dishes, therefore the main aim and selling point of the product has changed over time. They have ditched the almost sexist idea that women were looking for to get softer hands from using a washing up product, and instead boast how long the bottle lasts. This advert could be linked to Vladimir Propp's theory that every narrative contains atleast one of a certain type of character like in fairytales. You could say that the "hero" in this narrative is the son as we are rooting for him and hoping he gets the "prize/princess" (the bottle to turn into a spaceship), and that the Dad is the "helper" that supports the hero by using the bottle every day until it is used up entirely, thus giving the "hero" his "prize".
It is important to differentiate between a narrative and a story. Stories are a sequence of events, and these events are known at the plot of the story, whereas a narrative is the way the plot (or the events) is put together and how it is presented to the audience that is viewing it. Any media text whether it be a work of fiction or non-fiction will have a narrative.
Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp was a Russian theorist and literary critic who looked at and analysed the narrative in fairy tales and Russian folklore during the 1920's and came to the conclusion that you could classify every character and their actions in the story into definitive roles and functions and it would affect their relationships with the other characters. In some stories, that suit Propp's theory, there is the possiblity of a character taking up more than one of those roles throughout the narrative. Here are a list of the roles:
1) The Hero or Victim - marries the princess/claims the prize, interacts with the donor 2) The Villain - fights the hero 3) The Dispatcher - the character that informs the hero of the villain's evil 4) The (magical) Helper - the character that helps the hero in his/her quest 5) The Princess or Prize - the reward for completing the quest, usually the hero then deserves her love for conquering the quest but unfair evil prevents them from marrying 6) Her Father - gives the quest to the hero, notifies the hero about the false hero 7) The Donor - prepares the hero for the quest by giving them some sort of (magical) object or weapon 8) The False Hero - attempts to steal the princess or prize, takes credit for hero's actions
A great example of a narrative that this theory would suit is Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In this story, the hero would be Luke Skywalker, the villain would be Darth Vader, the dispatcher would be R2-D2, the helper would be C3-PO, the princess would be Princess Leia, her father is unknown in this movie but (spoiler alert) it is Darth Vader, the donor would be Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi and finally the false hero would be Han Solo.
Tzvetan Todorov was a French-Bulgarian historian, philosopher and sociologist who created the narrative theory that every plot in film followed a set path or followed the same pattern in 5 steps. These steps are:
Tzvetan Todorov
1) Equilibrium - In the beginning of the story, the film starts off happy, things are in balance and the main characters are content and at peace 2) A Disruption - The story then leads on to a point where there is a disruption in the balance of the character's lives. This is usually something to distract them from their happiness 3) Realisation - It then leads to the part of the plot where the characters recognise and realise the situation, and the chaos it has the potential to cause 4) Restored Order - Eventually the characters will start to try and repair the problem initially created in the 2nd step in an attemp to restore the equilibrium 5) New Equilibrium - Finally, the story concludes where the problem has been resolved and the characters can go back to normality
Claude Lévi-Strausswas a French anthropologist and worked on the development of the theory of structuralism. He studied myths of tribal cultures and examined how stories unknowingly and unintentionally reflect the values, beliefs and myths of these various world cultures. In his research he expressed the idea of needing binary opposites for us to be able to understand certain words by first understanding the definition of the opposites of that word. For example, when we think of the idea of a villain, we immediately assume the presence of a hero to be the opposing force. Horror films need to touch upon good and evil, natural and unnatural, rational and irrational. Strauss stated that every story depends on a conflict between opposites. A few examples of some binary opposites might be:
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Light vs Dark Asleep vs Awake Good vs Evil Cowboys vs Indians Strong vs Weak The Law vs Outlaws
This theory however only usually applies in cartoons and fairy tales, where the idea of a hero and a villain fighting until the hero wins to save the day is a very generic and oversaturated idea.
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist who created his own narrative theory where he believed that one or more of the five codes he created would describe the meaning of a text, and that media texts have either a 'open' or 'closed' meaning. An 'open' meaning is when the message or meaning of the story is up for the audience to decide, usually when something is left on a cliffhanger. A 'closed' meaning is when the meaning of the story isn't up for debate and it has a singular and very plainly obvious meaning. These five narrative codes that he created are as so:
1) Symbolic Code - This code refers to the the symbols/symbolism created within the media text 2) Referential Code - This code refers to the media text's ability to reference other pieces of media or other external areas of knowledge 3) Semantic Code - This code refers to parts in the text that suggest that there are other meanings, or adds an extra layer of meaning to the literal meaning of the text 4) Enigma Code - This code refers to a mystery that is within the text, like when clues are dropped throughout the story but no definitive answer is ever provided 5) Action Code - This code adds action and suspense to the text
Bowling For Columbine is a documentary presenter by the famous American documentary filmmaker Michael Moore which explores America's gun laws and various acts of violence caused by guns being legal. The film aimed to explore at the possible reasons as to why the deadly Columbine Shooting occured and what Michael Moore believed is the main cause of shootings and violence in America.
Relation to the Reception Theory
Moore's desired readership from the audience would be the dominant or preferred viewer as he would want the viewers to agree with every point in made in the documentary completely, without any argument. The film attempts to convince viewers that the laws in America that allow people to buy guns for no designated reason is careless, dangerous and terrifying. Moore adopts a very condescending and sarcastic narration when talking about the gun laws, and attempts to suggest that instead of the main cause of gun violence in America being because of music, video games or movies that the actual cause of it is the excessive sensationalism caused by the media and the press.
Dominant response
For the example of a dominant response to this documentary, I have picked a clip where Moore interviews singer/songwriter Marilyn Manson about the recent Columbine shooting and how the media have taken to start attacking Manson and pinning the blame on him simply because the two teens involved in the shooting listened to his music. Manson willingly admits he can understand why they would pick him as a target to blame, as he states he is "the poster-boy for fear" and that he represents what "everyone is afraid of" because he acts how he wants and speaks his mind. Manson also speaks about the fact that the two biproducts of the shooting that became hot topics in media were "violence in entertainment" and "gun control" yet at the time of the shooting, the US were bombing countries overseas and suggested that maybe the President should be a bigger target to blame for gun violence in America as he seems so to advocate it with overseas wars. Manson suggests that the President has a much strong influence on the lives of people in America than he does and it seems crazy to blame one artists for simply speaking his mind in his music. A dominant viewer who enjoys being able to chose what entertainment they can enjoywouldwholly agree with this and say that we shouldn't be blaming violence in entertainment as the reason for shootings, but rather look deeper into other higher influences in people's lives such as their upbringing or the leader of their country.
For the negotiated response example, I looked at the clip from the beginning of the film where Moore enters a bank that are offering a free gun for everyone who signs up for an account with them. In this clip, Moore goes to the North County Bank in Michigan state and asks to sign up for an account there. He fills out a few forms and is told that they need to do a background check to ensure he is not a criminal. As soon as you're cleared of the background check they hand you a gun directly from the bank. The negotiated response to this clip would be that on one hand, it is crazy for a bank of all places to be handing out rifles to people simply just for creating an account with them, however they do complete the proper procedures to ensure they aren't handing rifles to known criminals. In this clip, Moore is handed to the gun almost instantly after filling out his information, yet a criminal background check would usually take weeks to complete, so it is very bias against gun laws in that sense, but it does have some truth to it. Another stance the negotiated viewer might take is the fact that Moore is attempting to make this bank out a lot worse than it actually is by completely editing out the fact it would take weeks to receive the gun officially.
For the oppositional response example, I picked the clip from Bowling For Columbine where Moore interviews James Nichols, who is the brother of Terry Nichols, a man who had an instrumental involvement in the Oklahoma City Bombing terrorist attack. In the interview, James talks about how he believes that it is his right as an American citizen to bear arms, and proceeds to show Moore that he owns a .44 Magnum which he hides under his pillow as his "sword" incase the "pen" fails in his "the pen is mighter than the sword" analogy. The oppositional response to this clip would be that the viewer completely disagrees with what Nichols is saying and that he shouldn't own a gun and hide it under his pillow as a back up just in case all else fails. The whole argument of needing a gun to protect yourselves from other people with guns just further exacerbates the issue as more and more people arm themselves. America shouldn't be pushing for everyone to own a gun for protection, but instead be pushing to resolve the bigger issue and end gun violence.
Mean World Syndrome is a term coined by George Gerbner that suggests that the media attempts to portray the world to be a much more violent and horrendous than it actually is. Moore plays upon this theory quite often throughout the documentary, aiming to use it as a way to convince viewers that the gun violence is a lot more prevelant than it actually is. Whilst there may still be violence occuring, and poor laws in place that allow for almost anyone to obtain a gun, there is still an order to it all and America thrives on gun trade as one of the largest profitable markets in their economy. Manson touches upon this Mean World Syndrome idea aswell in the interview as he states that the idea of blaming violence on the President because of the wars is "not the way the media wants to spin it and turn it into fear".
Moral Panic is the rise of fear being spread among a large group of people with a threat on their well-being, usually due to a story reported by the media. Media is often criticsed for blowing stories out of the water, and over-dramatising them for the sake of views, which is what causes the moral panic to arise and fear to break out. This fear is often treated with ignorance as people like to avoid responsibility and dealing with issues in front of them because it is easier to internalise and forget about problems.In the interview with Manson, he states that he would've sat down and actually listened to the Columbine shooters because it is something that no one else did. People like to avoid issues tofeel comfortable in their environment and stay inside this metaphorical bubble and pretend like the world around them isn't there. This is likely why Dylan and Eric were ignored before the went on to become terrorists. For example, both Dylan and Eric worked on a video project together for school where they acted out shooting and killing students in the hallway, yet this sort of behaviour was ignored and unlikely questioned. So much of their behaviour leading up to the event suggested signs of homicidal tendencies, yet no action was taken towards it.
At its core, the Uses and Gratificaitons Theory looks at the "what people can do with media" rather than "what the media can do for people". People will seek out what they desire in media, rather than let media dictate the things they enjoy. This suggests the presence of a very active audience, who voluntarily seek out their favourite shows, films, radio stations and literature to gain satisfaction. There are five main categories of human needs that people will seek out shown below:
Key Characteristics
- This theory assumes that the audience is very active, and will voluntarily seek out the types of media they desire - It is very contradictory to the Hypodermic Needle Theory as it suggests that instead of the audience is active, instead of passively taking in everything the media says - This theory was used to disprove the Hypodermic Needle Theory - When the needs of the audience are met, they get satisfaction from the media - The audience is not seen as a mindless, helpless victim of the media as they are solely responsible for picking the media that will fulfill their desires and suit their needs
Advantages
- It allows people to shape the media around their lives, using it when and where they desire - People have the options to seek out whatever media they wish, whether that be a romcom when they're sad or a horro film during Halloween - The audience is given a personality, and that is taken into consideration based on what media they consume - It focuses on individuals in an audience and works around their desires
Disadvantages
- This theory makes media out to seem much less important than it really is in our lives - Not every audience is active enough to seek out what they desire from the media - Media is just seen as a means to an end for most people; simply something to pass the time - The media doesn't seem nearly as important in this theory compared to others such as the Hypodermic Needle Theory - The theory never considers the sheer power of the media on a mass audience
Theorists
The theory which originated in 1940s works off of Abraham Maslow's theory of Needs and Motiviation which stated that people would voluntarily seek out activities that satisfy their needs based on their social heirarchy. The most prominent theorist of the Uses and Gratifications Theory was Herta Herzog who initially looked at the the reasons why people chose specific types of media and how it affected their lives. Other notable theorists include Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler and Michael Gurevitch. They worked collaboratively with other theorists during the 1970s to divide the basic human needs related to media as listed above.
Examples of this theory
An obvious example of this theory would be the decision you make when you go to the cinema. Some people may go to view a film that was made to dramatise a historical event, and that individual wishes to watch that film to gain more information about that historical event. Another individual may go to watch that film because they like the actors that star in it and want to support their career. Each person has a different reason or reasons to watch a film and this is exactly what is highlighted in the theory.
People like watching films or listening to music or watching TV that suit their desires at a given time. For example, an individual who wishes to listen to rock music may put on an album by Queen, or if they want to listen to some funk music they may put on an album made by Funkadelic. Another example might be the reasons for people reading the newspaper or watching the news. Most you would assume use it as a way to stay updated with current events, however some might use it to avoid boredom, if there is nothing else on TV to or watch, or if you're waiting for someone to arrive you may pick up a newspaper and read it. Others might use the news as a way of self-reassurance, knowing that they're secure in their lives.
Eventually these adverts developed to a point where the sexism, stereotyping and ethnicity were combatted. In 2000, Fairy released an advert campaign where instead of a white mum and her daughter, it was instead and black mother and her son. The son was playing with the Fairy Liquid bottle, and doing arts and crafts to make the bottle look like an animal. This immediately combated two stereotypes from the original adverts, which were that it needed to be a white family that were the main characters, but also that it needed to be a girl who was decorating the Fairy Liquid bottle.
