Reflection - Tennis Magazine Ad

Our magazine ad was constructed for the tennis company Babolat. It features the famous tennis player Maria Sharapova at the US open. This advertisement will appeal to all female audiences, upper to middle class, ages 12 -18, who live in both rural and urban areas. The ad technique we used was star power. Maria Sharapova is a role model for a lot of young women and females look up to her. She has good looks, fame and success which is what most teen girls want. This media contains value messages because it is telling girls that being famous and attractive is important to be successful. I believe star power is an effective ad technique for our demographic because young females will believe that if they buy things from this company, they could be like her.  The slogan we chose says “Love Means Nothing in Tennis”. This slogan has a double meaning as love signifies “0” in tennis. It also implies the stereotype that what all women are interested in is love. This slogan will connect to and empower teen girls to break the stereotype. Media constructs reality in this slogan because the slogan is portraying what life is like. In this case, the slogan is saying that women enjoy the idea of love and romance. The producers created this text for an audience and in the slogan we used rough war-like writing which is a code people associate that with being tough and we thought that would portray that type of feeling when the audience’s read the text.

When we were producing this media piece, we wanted to specifically target teen females, so we thought using an empowering female celebrity tennis player would be really effective. Some challenges with this piece of media is that it only targets one certain type of demographic (teen females). If we wanted to expand our target demographic to males and females, I wouldn’t use Maria Sharapova and I would use a more general person or thing.

Part B (Test Rewrite)

Part B

1)      The media creates a carefully constructed version of reality. What the media is saying about reality is that attractive white men drive expensive Cadillac cars. The slogan also says “Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit.” This would indicate that you can achieve those three things when you have an expensive car. In the AD, the men seem to be going to a formal party or dinner. This is implies that all attractive white men go to parties and get invited to expensive dinners. You can also see that there are two men in the car, which would imply that only men can afford to drive these cars.

2)      This media contains value messages. It is saying that it is important to be attractive and drive expensive cars. It is also saying that it’s important to have lots of money to be able to afford these expensive cars.  This ad promotes the good life implying that it is essential to go out, have fun and party.

Target Audience of Sports Ads

	Gender	Income	Age	Education	Rural/Urban	Overall description of target audiences
Ad # 1 (Nike Football Write the Future)	Males	-lower to middle class	14 - 40	-basic education(high school)	both	-males ages 14-40 -lower to middle class
AD # 2 (New Nike Golf Commercial)	Male	Wealthy	30 - 60	Well Educated (university)	Both	-middle aged –wealthy  -men
AD # 3 (Nike: Take it to the Next Level)	Male	Middle class	14 - 25	-high school educated	both	-young males -middle class because in this ad shows a youth male getting picked from a high school team and making it big
AD # 4 (Nike: Tennis)	Female	Upper Class	15 - 30	Educated	rural	-upper middle to upper class -white -females teen to young adults
AD # 5 (Nike Yoga)	Female	Upper middle	18-40	Educated	urban	-upper middle class -white -females aged 18-40
AD # 6 (Adidas running)	males	-all incomes	-20 to 40	No education requirements	urban	-middle class -white -males aged 20-40

Embrace your inner GLEEK!

Everyone has probably heard of the popular comedy/music television show glee, i mean, how could you not? They're everywhere! On school supplies, books, even on pillowcases! All around the world (but mostly in North America) people love them. But what does this current fad say about our society/culture? I think that people love glee not only because of the hit music they incorporate into their show, but also because they love the characters. The characters are outcasts, jocks, cheerleaders and typical "losers" that have all come together with the common interest of singing. These characters are relatable to the audience because anyone is or has been in one of their positions before. People are seeing characters that are exactly like them, glamorized on the big screen. Most of society these days love the idea of fame and this show communicates that anybody can be famous. As we discussed in our groups last class, one of the current fads was reality shows. This relates to the show glee because it also makes it seem so easy to become famous.

Glee is also a clear reflection of society’s fears. It shows that people these days are afraid of being a “loser” or an outcast, but Glee embraces those roles saying that it’s okay, which is why the show is so popular.

Lastly, even though Glee is set in a high school, it also in a way takes you into a fantasy world which provides an escape for people. On the show everyone is dancing and singing which defiantly doesn't happen at your typical high school. The audience can relate yet also escape through the songs.

It's no wonder that the show has become so popular. We discussed last class how a lot of shows were getting old because we had seen them before, but glee is an entirely new concept that’s new and exciting. Nominated for 19 emmy's and creating a whole new genre of comedy, it is defiantly the new craze. But with all these new trends and fads coming out, who knows how long this faze will last?