Media As Brands Essay Example For Students

Media As Brands Essay CW2 Media Audiences U0103755 Deadline 9th MayCan media texts be seen as brands that express identity? Discuss with reference to the following: FHM. In this essay I will firstly introduce the magazine iam discussing, and talk about ideas of representations and gender in their issues, and also how it in effect they market themselves as a brand that articulates identity. FHM magazine stands for For Him Magazine; its core target audience is males 25-35. The magazine is produced monthly at the cost of 3.40 per issue. FHM is now on global release as it publishes 27 different editions around the world in every continent, each with its own unique content. The UK version sells approximately 600,000 copies per month making it one of the most popular magazines in the country. For their company Emap under an umbrella of 58 magazines it is the most popular. (Figures from Emap website)Its content varies inside as it is essentially seen as a lifestyle magazine. Every month it has recurring themes of reviews and articles centrally focused around the opposite sex and hobbies the magazine assumes the audience has. A way we can look at the notion of identity is through representations given through the magazine. Since the magazines are aimed at men, we can assume that the magazine has underlying issues about gender. Therefore FHM would like to express itself through masculinity to create a meaningful link to its audience. In the following I will show how different men and women magazines are completely differe nt in content and identity. Contemporary ideas of masculinity and femininity will be different to those of previous generations. Current themes may be stereotypical but to study it using binary oppositions gives it greater meaning; men are seen as masculine, dominant, strong, aggressive, intelligent, rational, and active. Whilst women are the opposed, they are feminine, submissive, weak, intuitive, emotional and communicative. As well as theses factors men and women are also seen to like different things, men like cars, technology, getting drunk and having casual sex with strangers whilst women like shopping, make-up, social drinking with friends, and having committed relationships. However, it is also clear that these lists are not truly representative of what men and women are really like. You all probably know a woman who likes cars and can be aggressive or a man who doesnt drink and cries at weepy romantic comedies. These stereotypes exist, to a certain extent, because they are easier than getting to know e very man and women they would like to know. Advertisers are especially prone to using stereotypes to sell products for the same reason. They assume that all women or men are similar to make targeting audiences a simpler process. We can use advertising as a starting point when considering representations of gender in lifestyle magazines. By looking at some of the adverts it is clear to see how gender stereotypes are employed and maintained by advertisers. Using stereotypes of men and women, men should drink beer followed by spirit chasers whilst women lightly sip on wine. Following the notion that men are hard and women are soft it can be seen that the alcohol adverts in certain lifestyle magazines use this to advertise their products. In FHM, they feature an advert for Jack Daniels whiskey with the line the invite said bring a friend. The image features no people, just a close up of a bottle of Jack Daniels and a glass of ice. The friend in this case is an alcoholic drink. The adver t may be suggesting that men see alcohol as a replacement for real people, or that men prefer drinking to socialising. In comparison, the womens magazines focus on the potential for alcoholic drinks to bring people together and ease social interactions. Marie Claire feature an advert for the liqueur Disaronno which includes the tag line share the square and an image of an attractive man and women both holding the same glass tumbler, their fingers touching. This emphasises the idea that feminine gender roles require friendliness, closeness and the ability to communicate. A much clearer and less confused image of gender can be seen by looking at cigarette advertising in these magazines. Although women are apparently allowed to drink with the males they are certainly portrayed as not allowed smoking with them. FHM included a Marlboro adverts with the line Welcome to Marlboro country. The FHM adverts featured an image of a deserted, outdated petrol station in the middle of an expansive flat landscape. Like the Jack Daniels campaign, it shows masculinity to be about solitude. In direct comparison there are no adverts for cigarettes in any of the womens magazines I looked in. In fact, both Glamour and Cosmopolitan included adverts for Nicorette showing a woman in a bathroom attacking an oversized cigarette with her scales. This advert is clearly intended just for the female audience and focuses upon things seen as important to the target audience, namely their weight. Technology's Effect on the Acquisition of Knowledg EssayMy conclusion is that in order to successfully study gender generalisations need to be made about people who are all different individuals. In the case of gender in lifestyle magazines we can conclude that magazines target their audience correctly according to gender in order to appeal to a specific audience that is still varied enough to make high sales, to carry on its continued readership and to attract certain advertisers by being able to guarantees a certain type of reader. In doing this the magazines are using gender stereotypes but also perpetuating them. So are magazines creating or just merely representing identity? Recently FHM has also begun launching events where they are sponsors. A recent event took place at Oxford Circus Topman where they had a FHM day where they focused on getting better dressed. It was a promotional day where FHM itself confirmed their brand status. Since Topman is Europes biggest mens retail store, they hired it out for the duration of a whole day. They had many attractions as well as the clothes feature. They also had new technology testing, massaging, tasting of alcohol and everything else they magazine stands for. By doing this it influences peoples choices and decisions regarding their lifestyle, by doing so it alters peoples identity. So was this just an identity building process or did it happen because there was demand? I finish with a quote from Hermann Bausinger who talks about how the new media sphere has evolved, Technology has long since been integrated into the everyday. Tools themselves are distinguished by the fact that they rapidly take on the character of artificial limbs (1995: 537). Brands are now extensions of our bodies. Sources used:FHM January 2004 FHM March 2005Marie Claire January 2004Bausinger, H. (1995) Media, Technology and Daily Life. London: Edward Arnold. Hall, S. (1997) Cultural Representaions and Signifying Practices. London: SageHermes, J. (1995) Reading Womens Magazines. Cambridge: Polity Press