Into The Image world

So Where is The Author now?

I have chosen three adverts to discuss in this forum, two of which are of the same brand but only one is made by them.

The first image I have chosen is by Guinness and one of the two of Guinness I have chosen. This image I immediately thought of and their campaign to promote face to face conversations and to encourage pub goers to put down their phone, an issue that has been around for some time and one I have noticed myself, groups of people gathered and looking at their phones instead of each other. Something touched upon by Nathan Jurgenson in his book The Social Photo, where he references Sherry Turkle from her book Reclaiming Conversations: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, where he cites “Have we forgot what conversation is? What friendship is? (Turkle in The Social Photo, 2019:74)

Fig 1: Guinness, 2014, Switch to Pub Mode

The image consists of phone stacked up on each other, which the viewer can recognise the Guinness colours, with black cased phones representing the drink in the glass and white phones as the foam sitting on top. The pile is recognisable as a Guinness glass, which has become symbolic of the brand. The viewer can read this as a Guinness advert, but at first sight may not realise the image of phones until they look closer.

The text accompanying the image then explains all, sending a message to the viewer ‘Enjoy Responsibly. Phones Down, Please’. This image was also shared on their Instagram page, directly confronting the viewer on their phones.

Roland Barthes calls the use of text within an image anchorage, grounding the message to the image, so the viewer fully understands what is being said. “The text helps to identify purely and simply the elements of the scene and the scene itself” (Barthes in Visual Culture; the Reader (Rhetoric of the Image), Evans et al, 1999)

The second advert I have chosen is one from Hugo Boss. This I remember being advertised regularly on TV. The cool colours of blues, silvers and greys giving an executive and professional feel. The campaign they ran had a hashtag #ManOfToday, which was aimed to empower men and celebrate their successes, they chose the actor Chris Hemsworth as the ‘face’ of this campaign as an example of a man who is “dedicated to his craft, driven and successful” (Tai, 2017)

Fig 2: Andrew Prokos, BOSS Bottled Tonic, 2017

This made me think about John Berger’s thoughts in ‘Ways of Seeing’ on the spectator buyers, this from a female point of view, but I feel it is relevant to this Hugo Boss advert

“The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, as envy which will then justify her loving herself” (Berger, 2008:134)

Promoting the product to make the consumer feel better about themselves and to obtain a sense of achievement, in a way saying, you could also be like this.

“The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. Not with the way of life of society, but with his own within it. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better. It offers him an improved alternative to what he is” (Berger, 2008:142)

I feel this highlights the power that imaging, and typography have within advertising, and the main aim to sell products buy making them attractive and needed by the consumer. An almost psychological need to buy. James Fox discusses this Age of the Image: Seductive Dreams, a BBC Four programme, 2020, that people are attracted to products “not for practical reasons, but because they satisfied a profound psychological need” (Fox and Ryder, 2020)

My third image is at first look one from Guinness, but it not. This image was made in response to a challenge by UK based project called ‘One Minute Briefs’ which encouraged advertising talent to respond to ideas that have a social responsibility. The designer behind this image was Luke O’Reilly, the image is like that of Guinness’s Rugby image in 2019. With the black background and a cream sofa representing the foam at the top, Guinness’s logo underneath and the text ‘Stay at Home’ acting as the bottom of the glass, it is remarkably like one Guinness would themselves have made and was easily mistaken for one of theirs.

Fig 3: Luke O'Reilly, 2020, Stay At Home

The brief was reflecting the restrictions around COVID-19 and promoting a virtual pub named ‘The Staying Inn’. Guinness used this image themselves and celebrated O’Reilly’s design by sharing it on their own social media, Instagram account.

There is no mistaking the message with this image, and I did assume it was a Guinness made advert, using the current situation to encourage people to stay at home, but also promote their product at the same time.

Guinness also, in my opinion can be marked towards men and women and I feel this comes across in their adverts, clear and appealing to everyone.

“The photograph is used to qualify the product, to give it it’s “exchange value” by specifying what makes this one more attractive for consumption to the designated audience. So a small, thin phone might be pictured to connote “masculinity” if aimed at men, whereas the same phone will be made to connote “femininity” for women” (Bate, 2019:140)

References:

Books:

Bate, David. PHOTOGRAPHY: The Key Concepts. S.L., Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019.

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing : Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. 1972. London, British Broadcasting Corporation, 2008.

Evans, Jessica, et al. Visual Culture; the Reader (Rhetoric of the Image). London, Sage in association with the Open University, 1999, content.talisaspire.com/falmouth/bundles/5ee0b94b47e643232941fcd4. Accessed 13 Feb. 2021.

Jurgenson, Nathan. Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media. Verso Books, 2019.

TV:

Fox, James, and Ben Ryder. Age of the Image, Seductive Dreams. BBC, 17 Mar. 2020, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gg2h. Accessed 13 Feb. 2021.

Websites:

Griner, David. “It’s Not a Real Guinness Ad. But It Is a Perfect Guinness Ad.” ADWEEK, 23 Mar. 2020, www.adweek.com/creativity/its-not-a-real-guinness-ad-but-it-is-a-perfect-guinness-ad/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

“Guinness Unveils New Campaign ‘Switch to Pub Mode.’” Adworld, 7 Sept. 2018,

www.adworld.ie/2018/09/07/guinness-unveils-new-campaign-switch-to-pub-mode/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

March 2020, Kerrie Hughes 25. “The Genius Concept Guinness Ad We Don’t Want to Love (but Really Do).” Creative Bloq, 25 Mar. 2020, www.creativebloq.com/news/guinness-stay-at-home-ad. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

Tai, Charmaine. “Which Hugo Boss Man of Today Fragrance Should You Go For?” Robb Report Singapore, 18 Oct. 2017, www.robbreport.com.sg/hugo-boss-man-of-today-fragrance/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

Bibliography:

Turkle, Sherry. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. New York, New York, Penguin Books, 2016.

Figures

Fig 1: Guinness. “Switch to Pub Mode,” Insider, 2014, www.businessinsider.com/guinness-ad-phones-down-bottoms-up-2014-1?r=US&IR=T. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

Fig 2: Prokos, Andrew. “BOSS Bottled Tonic,” Andrew Prokos Photography, 2021, andrewprokos.com/news/hugo-boss-worldwide-ad-campaign-prokos/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

Fig 3: O’Reily, Luke. “Stay at Home,” Campaign Brief, 2020, campaignbrief.com/best-ad-of-the-day-guinness-stay-at-home-by-luke-oreilly/#:~:text=This%20Guinness%20poster%20was%20created,%E2%80%93%20%E2%80%9CStay%20at%20home%E2%80%9D.. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.