COMM 2411 (Communication and Social Relations) – Assessment Task 3 [ADVERTISING]
The A-Team 1
COMM 2411 (Communication and Social Relations) – Assessment Task 3 Draft Discipline: Advertising Kit Harvey (s3285863), Chris Soderstrom (s3233655), Timothy Cheok (s3176484) and Winnie Loo (s 3266349) Thursday (9.30-11.30am Tute). Attention: Matthew Loads. Artefact One: “Neighbours” tour offer window advertisement:
This is a window advertisement located on Flinders Street close to the corner of Spencer Street, its message is communicated using chalk on a blackboard. This implies that it may be communicating a limited time offer. In Ad Worlds, Myers adopts the definition of advertising used by Guy Cook: “the promotion of good or services for sale through impersonal media” (Cook, 1992, see Myers, 1999). This artefact, as a sandwich board in a window, fits well within this definition because promotion by this means requires no social interaction. In Advertising in America, Ulanoff reveals that the first ever advertising was done “out-of-doors” via media including posters, billboards and outdoor displays – outdoor media. The fold-out, standing blackboard/sandwich board is one of the simplest types of outdoor display still commonly used today – typically seen on footpaths. The Bunyip Tours advertisement is one of the aforementioned fold-out blackboards, however it is not positioned on the footpath and instead sits in a sparse and somewhat gloomy window display. This is possibly due to council regulations that do not permit 2
the blackboard to be located on the footpath near a busy corner with lots of pedestrian traffic. Myers states that outdoor media advertisements are designed to have “visual impact” to make them memorable and enticing to potential customers (Myers, 1999). Bunyip Tours have used several different colours of chalk and also included craft stars and their own business logo in an attempt to make the advertisement as eye-catching as possible when viewed from the street. However, unless a passer by stopped to read the Bunyip Tours Blackboard, they are unlikely to take in much information from it. It is also unlikely that the sign will be visible to people on the opposite side of Flinders Street due to distance and traffic in between. These flaws reflect Myers‟ beliefs that signboards are usually only “seen briefly”, and often “…from a distance”. The word “FREE” appears in very large block letters to give it emphasis, while all other text on the blackboard is written in comparatively smaller size. The word „FREE‟ acts as a communication „code‟. It infers value to people that view the advertisement. This can, in turn, have a positive affect for Bunyip Tours as the advertiser, as it acts as point of enticement, encouraging people to make use of their tour service. In Persuasion in Advertising, O‟Shaughnessy and O‟Shaughnessy concern themselves with the content of advertisements and the psychological concepts applied by advertisers to achieve effective persuasion. They describe the “principle of reciprocity” (O‟Shaughnessy and O‟Shaughnessy, 2004), a notion that can be described using the common saying: “You scratch my back and I‟ll scratch yours” - an extra incentive is offered to customers to purchase goods or utilise services. Bunyip Tours offer customers a “FREE Neighbours Tour or Night” when two full day tours are purchased, as a bonus for customers. Ulanoff outlines that a distinguishing feature of outdoor advertising is that “it is seen by the observer on foot, or, at greater speed, in a vehicle”(Ulanoff, 1979). The tour office where this advertisement is located is in close proximity to back-packers‟ hostels. Bunyip Tours are counting on passers by noticing the sign, particularly those that are tourists. This particular “Neighbours” Tour is likely to be attractive to Melbourne‟s visitors, some of whom will be staying in the nearby hostels. Neighbours itself is a long running, quintessentially Melbourne TV institution that is famously broadcasted in England and other countries. The TV show is a unique aspect of Melbourne that many tourists will be hoping to learn more about.
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Artefact Two: Royal Exhibition Building brochure:
The Royal Exhibition Building brochure is a valuable artefact for illustrating ways that advertisers can engage their audiences. The building is shown as a place of importance through the use of the colour purple in the brochure. This observation links to Medieval Europe, where blue dyes were rare and expensive; only the wealthy or aristocracy could afford them. The piece is a testimony to the building's importance in Australia's identity throughout history. Also, the structure is illustrated as a showpiece for all times through its representation in the artefact's images. One particular image shows the Royal Exhibition Building lit-up at nighttime with Melbourne's skyline visible in the background. Advertisers assert that the building is, and always will be, the showpiece and soul of urban Melbourne. The large dome of the Exhibition Building is strikingly similar to others in the world. Riddett, an architectural historian, says the building's architect, Joseph Reed, drew on parameters of Filippo Brunelleschi's great exemplar at Florence Cathedral and the Crystal Palace in London (Riddett, 2000). This emphasises the notion that Melbourne is a world city; it shares connectivity with other cities in the world. The Royal Exhibition Building isn't the only Melbourne structure sharing similarities with buildings around the world. Other examples include: Princess Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, London; Russell Street Police Station and the Empire State Building, New York; the SBS Building, Federation Square and Berlin's Jewish War Museum. The building is promoted as nationally significant in the brochure, noted as the location of Australia's first Federal Parliament in 1901. Emphasis is placed on the event to promote it as not only a defining moment in Melbourne's history, but 4
Australia's (Lennon, 2006). Federation aside, the Royal Exhibition Building has been the scene of several other defining moments in the nation's history: it was used as a fever hospital in 1919 to cope with the deadly influenza virus; housed a collection of war memorabilia after the First World War; it was used for temporary troop accommodation in 1940; and it was a major migrant reception centre from 1949 to 1962. The building's importance was verified when it was heritage listed in 2004, becoming Australia's first man-made structure to acquire such recognition. From an advertising perspective, the listing bolsters promoters' claims of the building's significance and ensures it will be maintained in the future. The building is a reminder of the Exhibition movement of the late 19th century. It was conceived in the tradition of large, open-plan exhibition buildings typical of the international exhibition movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It remains one of the few intact examples of its kind in the world. In the brochure, the building is advertised as a place where people can step back in time and imagine the city over a century ago. The gold rush helped fund lavish celebrations putting Australia on the map - particularly with the Victorian Exhibition of 1861, which served as a preliminary exhibition for a London one in 1862. It was a scene of limitless possibilities, lavish and decadent celebrations. Contrary to common beliefs, the Exhibitions of 1880 and 1888 were enormous financial failures (Morrison, 1995), though, their worth in heightening Victoria's status as a part of Britain's everexpanding global empire is undeniable.
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Artefact Three: Green Day graffiti advertisement:
The American rock band Green Day is well known internationally. They have won countless awards and many of their albums have hit „Platinum‟ status. When they first announced their 2009 Australian tour it is not surprising that fans were excited. This artefact is a graffiti artwork showing the cover art from their latest album, „21st Century Breakdown‟. This may show the passion that one street artist has for the band. However, with street art now being used for other reasons than to just communicate the ideas of the artist, the question is: is this the work of a fan or an advertiser? The fast pace of modern life affects the way people consume advertising. People have less time to sit in front of their television sets and watch advertisements, or they simply skip ads using new TV technologies, such as „Tivo‟. These pressures have forced advertisers to find new advertising media, such as creative outdoor advertising. In his book Advertising, MacRury contends that outdoor advertising often gains a larger audience that first assumed. Those that catch only a glimpse of an advertisement can often absorb the message unconsciously (MacRury, 2009). Therefore, graffiti advertisements like those used by Green Day, can gain significant „bonus‟ exposure, which advertisers now believe they can count on. Today, many see graffiti as an act of vandalism on private or public property, however there are people who think otherwise. Christine Dew, in her book Uncommissioned art: The A-Z of Australian Graffiti‟, states that a mixture of art and culture in one place helps the city to stay lively (Dew, 2007). It can be argued that such art is the act of an artist who wants to „speak out‟ and be „heard‟ through their artistic impressions. A city that is clean and free of any form of street art may be perceived as being plain and boring. The presence of graffiti art in a city can make it appear vibrant and attractive. Viewing the famous street and laneway graffiti in Melbourne is a popular tourist activity. 6
A shift has occurred in recent years. Graffiti artists no longer use their artworks just to communicate their own opinions and ideas. Some artists favour a more „profit minded‟ approach – people now not only commission graffiti art for private enjoyment, but also for use as an effective advertising medium. In Heitor Alvelos‟ book, Cultural Criminology Unleashed, (Alvelos, 2004) he describes the impact graffiti art has had on advertising companies, many of which see such art as a potential medium for advertising their client‟s messages. Popular music acts such as Daft Punk, Robert Miles and Massive Attack have also used graffiti as a form of advertising their new releases. These advertisements have ranged from a simple image, to a lyric and, like Green Day, the front cover of a recently released album. This form of advertising depends on a target audience deciphering the meaning of the message. Fans are very likely to know when a piece of art is being used to promote their favourite artist‟s music. However, to those that remain unsure about the message and its purpose, graffiti advertising may appear no different to the everyday pieces. A city with empty spaces can draw attention to the litany of infamous „tags‟ common in many urban environments. Tags are the often illegible, „messy‟ marks left by those in a hurry to avoid being caught desecrating another‟s property. These empty spaces are being used, more and more, as locations for graffiti promotion.
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Artefact Four: Moomba Festival balloon advertisement:
This artefact is a balloon advertisement promoting the 2010 Moomba Festival, which was held between the 5th and 8th of March this year. Many replications of the artefact were distributed to spectators at the Moomba Festival Parade, which is held annually from 11am on the Victorian Labour Day public holiday. The Moomba Festival, also known as the Melbourne Moomba Waterfest, is one of Melbourne‟s many wellknown and heavily advertised festivals. The festival, originally dubbed the “Melbourne Autumn Festival” by the Melbourne City Council, was officially founded in 1955. A host of events take place during the Moomba festival, the most popular being the aforementioned Parade, which consists mostly of themed floats traveling down Swanston Street. This advertisement, uses large font printed on brightly coloured balloons, which were handed to spectators at the Moomba Festival Parade to promote the festival and to inform those who had not yet heard about it. In Semiotics of the media: state of the art, projects and perspectives, Rozik asserts that pictorial advertising is a form of iconic communication, because most products and their qualities are embodied by easily recognizable printed images, printed labels included (Rozik, 1997). He reveals that most advertisers believe pictorial advertising is more effective and persuasive than verbal advertising, as one is more able to recall pictures or designs in the mind, than words. The colour, design and font of an advertisement play important roles in conveying a message to a designated audience. The “Moomba Festival” font and the placement of words depicted on the balloon are the standard font and design used in every advertisement about the Moomba Festival across different forms of visual media. Beasley and Danesi state that creating an image for a product is like giving it a character and personality so that consumers can differentiate it from the others (Beasley and Danesi, 2002). In this case, a similar logo was used so that consumers and tourists could differentiate the festival from the various other festivals that 8
Melbourne stages, such as the Melbourne Comedy Festival, which also has its own unique logo. Events like the Moomba Festival aid in branding the city of Melbourne – an example of place branding, which, according to Donald and Gammack, is a „rational and emotional engagement with place, aesthetics and everyday life‟ (Donald &Gammack, 2007). The functions of place branding have evolved from being used only to fuel a city‟s tourism industry to brand evolution in a nation state. Donald and Gammack also state that brand image is moulded not just by „marketing programs that make strong, positive and memorable associations‟, but also via word of mouth and by identification with particular events, people, or places. Because Moomba is an annual festival, it has come to form part of Melbourne‟s brand image, helping to boost Melbourne‟s reputation as “The Event City” – one of the main ways the city is advertised to the rest of the world.
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References: 1. Ulanoff, S.M PhD 1979, “Outdoor Advertising” (pp. 378-394) from Advertising in America: An Introduction to Persuasive Communication, Hastings House Publishers, New York, USA. 2. Myers, G 1999, “What do ads do?” (pp. 3-16), “The Media Mix” (pp. 75-94) and “Glossary of Keywords” (pp. 216) from Ad Worlds: Brands, Media, Audiences, Arnold Publishers, London, UK simultaneously with Oxford University Press, New York, USA. 3. O‟Shaughnessy, J and O‟Shaughnessy, N.J 2004, “What Facilitates Persuasion and What Inhibits It?” (pp. 1-25) and “Persuasive Advertising Appeals, 1” (pp. 55-93) from Persuasion in Advertising, Routledge, London, UK simultaneously with Routledge, New York, USA. 4. Riddett, R (2000). Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building – A case for World Heritage Significance. Historical Environment, v.14 No. 5, pp. 75-78 5. Morrison, I (1995). The Accompaniments of European Civilisation: Melbourne Exhibitions 1854-1888. La Trobe Library Journal, v.14, No. 56 pp. 6-11. 6. Lennon, J (2006) Gothic silence or postmodern deconstruction? Presenting the values based stories of heritage of national significance. Historic environment, Vol. 19, No. 2 7. MacRury, I 2009, „Chapter 3: Marketing, media and communication‟, Advertising, Routledge, Great Britain, pp.104-105. 8. Alvelos, H 2004, „Chapter 15: The desert of imagination in the city of signs: cultural implications of sponsored transgression and branded graffiti‟, in Ferrell J, Hayward K, Morrison W & Presdee, M (eds.), Cultural Criminology Unleashed, 1st edition, The GlassHouse Press, United Kingdom, pp. 181-191, retrieved on 18 April 2010, <http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MkcaQb_8dJUC&oi=fnd&pg=P A181&dq=graffiti+as+advertisement&ots=1Y863xAVL1&sig=6ZqbYxdX8DCo_E1UEVNFF5veY#v=onepage&q=graffiti%20as%20advertisement&f=false> 9. Dew, C 2007, „C=City‟, Uncommissioned art: an A-Z of Australian graffiti, The Mengunyah Press, Australia, pp. 43-50. 10. Beasley, R & Danesi, M 2002, “Positioning and image-creation” (pp. 11-13) from Persuasive signs: the semiotics of advertising, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin, Germany 11. Donald, S & Gammack, J 2007, “Branding the City” (pp. 45-61) from Tourism and the branded city: film and identity on the Pacific Rim, Aldershot, England; Burlington 10
12. Rozik, E 1997, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pictorial metaphor in commercial advertisingâ&#x20AC;? (pp. 159-174) from Semiotics of the media: state of the art, projects, and perspectives, Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin, Germany
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COMM2411 – Communication and Social Relations
Assessment Task#3, Semester 1, 2010 Map of Revisions GROUP NAMES & STUDENT NUMBERS: 1. Kit Harvey (s3285863) 3. Timothy Cheok Vee Ming (s3176484)
2. Chris Soderstrom (s3233655) 4. Winnie Loo (s3266349)
Referee Comments KEY TUTOR FEEDBACK (on WRITTEN ASSESSMENT TASK #1)
RESPONSE/ACTION
Artefact#1
Descriptions and references worked well.
Kept all references and built upon descriptions.
The authority of references should have been more explicitly discussed.
Authority of references was considered to be unnecessary information for the third assessment task due to word limit.
Artefact#2
Expand on finer details of the Royal Exhibition Building brochure itself.
Deeper analysis of brochure‟s colour (purple) and images from advertising perspective; heightens interest and intrigue surrounding the building by suggesting its importance.
Be more specific in presentation of larger arguments.
Provided closer detailing of ideas presented in the brochure, also supporting reference information, and their intended effect on the reader.
Replaced Stewart with MacRury (2009), which is geared more towards outdoor advertising.
Replaced these references with Beasley & Danesi 2002, Donald & Gammack 2007 and Rozik 1997.
Artefact#3
Stewart 2008 reference is not scholarly
Artefact#4
Good artefact descriptions. Strong discussion of object, but references (Alomes 1985, Arcodia & Whitford 2007 & Moomba Festival 2010) do not relate to correct field of study.
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KEY VERBAL FEEDBACK FROM TUTOR (IN CLASS WORKSHOP AND/OR PRESENTATION) Everyone: Combine references at the end, rather than at the end of each piece. Refrain from explaining the context of referenced information.
Combined the 12 references at the end of the document. Avoided contextual information in 500 word pieces.
Artefact#1
Add a little more communications theory.
Added a sentence addressing how the word “FREE” acts as a communication code.
Through editing of all artefact descriptions, the final result is more cohesive.
Adjusted and edited the tone of description.
Altered a few sentences to include second scholarly reference.
Discussed the role of the word „FREE‟ as a code.
Artefact#2
Work on providing a more level tone throughout artefact descriptions.
Artefact#3
Tone of the draft was a bit different
Artefact#4
Need to relate second scholarly reference more effectively to the artefact.
PEER FEEDBACK Artefact#1
Add a bit more communications theory regarding „principle of reciprocity‟ (similar to tutor feedback).
Artefact#2
Instead of just stating elements and ideas present in the brochure, explore the intended affects on the audience.
Explored ideas from brochure and explained them from an audience perspective.
What events throughout history support the idea of the building‟s significance?
Used evidence from the references to support the significance of the building in the nation's identity.
Changed artefact to one that displays graffiti advertising more explicitly.
Artefact#3
Suggestions to change my artefact as it did not reflect strongly on advertising.
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Artefact#4 ď&#x201A;ˇ
Discuss the features of the balloon and their possible intended affect on an audience.
ď&#x201A;ˇ
Added a few sentences covering the features and their affects.
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