3000 Word Essay – Controversial Advertising
Controversial advertising can be intentional, but more often than not, the controversy formed through a company’s advertising is actually unintentional and accidental. In this essay, I shall be addressing different forms of controversial advertising and exploring theories behind them with the aim of discussing the concept of controversial advertising and concluding as to whether or not it’s a good way of publicising a company’s products.
It is difficult to define whether having controversy in an advertisement will bring a company success, or give it a bad name. Whilst a controversial advert may catch the eye of the general public and inevitably cause the product to be known virtually everywhere and at an alarmingly fast rate, it could also discolour a company’s reputation if it’s not handled and dealt with correctly.
According to a study on what makes an advert controversial; several factors need to be taken into consideration when assessing whether something is controversial or not. For example, the target market; what may be acceptable in one country, may be blasphemy in another.
“Evidence can be found in the multinational companies, which seldom keep the same advertising strategy over several regions, even if they are advertising the same product”.
(http://conferences.arts.usyd.edu.au/vie ... troversial advertisements)
Religion, culture and general opinion also are important factors when interpreting whether something is controversial or not. For example, whilst some cultures are more accepting of sexual innuendo’s, there are others that illegalise the promotion of sex in media and therefore promoting a campaign where a product is used or implied in an sexual manner would be controversial one country, and not in the other.
For example, whilst in the UK, the Crazy Frog campaign was generally accepted as a playful, funny and purposefully entertaining advertisement, it was reported that it
“Received 298 complaints from Belgian viewers when aired on Belgian TV due to the frog apparently having genitalia”
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4943500.stm)
Furthermore, the KFC Mouths Full TV advert angered parents as over 1,000 people complained that
“Showing people eating with their mouths full is rude and aided in the degrading of children’s manners”.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/ma ... ing.uknews)
As KFC responded and many will agree, it was not KFC’s intention to encourage children to eat with their mouth full but to show the size of their new burger; this highlights how viewer interpretation is key in noting what is a controversy and what isn’t.
In addition to target market interpretation, false advertising is another form of controversial advertising. This is where a company makes statements in a deliberate manner to generate consumer interest and therefore, gain revenue. This is controversial on the basis that there is an understanding that company’s should advertise their products honestly and therefore in not doing this, company’s run the risk of creating humour, shock and or outrage.
That noted; it is clear that controversial advertising has both its benefits and pitfalls; firms may generate interest but be forced to pay fines (both monetary and non-monetary) for creating campaigns that influence society in a negative manner.
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the
“Study of sign processes, or signification and communication, signs and symbols”,
And is usually divided into three branches: Semantics, syntactics and pragmatics.
(http://www.hum.au.dk/semiotics/docs2/pd ... iotics.pdf)
Theorists such as David Chandler note that semiotics unveils a richness of interpretation beyond the objective meaning, but to the subject, essentially appreciating the connotation of the subject at hand as well as the denotation. Semiotics notes that
“Signs do not just 'convey' meanings, but constitute a medium in which meanings are constructed…helping us to realise that meaning is not passively absorbed but arises only in the active process of interpretation”
(http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem10.html)
In relation to printed advertisements, William Leiss and his colleagues note
“The semiological approach... suggests that the meaning of an ad does not float on the surface just waiting to be internalized by the viewer, but is built up out of the ways that different signs are organized and related to each other, both within the ad and through external references to wider belief systems. More specifically, for advertising to create meaning, the reader or the viewer has to do some 'work'. Because the meaning is not lying there on the page, one has to make an effort to grasp it”.
Critical Analysis.
I am now going to do a critical analysis of Eminem’s (real name Marshall Mathers) Relapse advertising and promotional campaign, paying particular attention to the connotations and the denotations of the adverts in the context of it being controversial.
First of all, Eminem has always been the epitome of controversy.
“His Texas Chainsaw Massacre act, which often kicks off his live shows, typifies his knack for headline grabbing. His musical career has gone from strength to strength, winning three Grammy awards in 2001. But he has been banned from Sheffield University students' union, and was condemned by gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell as homophobic. When he toured in Ontario, Canada, some politicians tried to ban him from the province, saying his lyrics promoted violence against women.”
The controversial subject matter of his songs led to accusations of him being a misogynist and his own mother launched a ten million dollar lawsuit against him for using the following lyrics
"My mom smokes more dope than I do".
On the hit ‘My Name Is’ - a track which also sees him
“Wonder which Spice Girl he wants to impregnate".
But he rejected his mother's offer to settle the lawsuit against him for two million dollars.
Julie Bindel, founder of the action group ‘Justice for Women’ and a researcher at the child and women abuse department at North London University, was not impressed either.
"He is misogynist scum who will influence some women and men".
She told the Sunday Times on 4 February 2001.
"Rather than censor him, though, I wish someone who took offence at his lyrics would leave him in a coma."
Despite his critics, Eminem cleared possibly the biggest hurdle of all by overcoming the "Vanilla Ice syndrome" to become a white rapper respected in the black -dominated world of Hip Hop. His single ‘The Real Slim Shady’ and album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ have proved huge hits on both sides of the Atlantic. It seems that as long as Eminem is in the spotlight, he will attract both fame and criticism - a sure fire way to keep his career on a high.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1154442.stm)
Below is an image of a freebie drug canister with sugar-flavoured sweets enclosed inside of which are meant to represent prescription drugs that would normally be given to an individual for mental or physical healthcare over the counter or through a doctor. It is arguably his most controversial piece of advertisement to date.
Eminem’s latest album “Relapse” is heavily drug influenced and contains many drug references throughout, so this kind of advertisement plan/image makes perfect sense due to the fact it relates directly to the album itself, but it’s not without it’s usual and expected controversy.
The canisters have, what appears to be very professional and life-like prescription stickers stuck onto them. On these stickers, you can see the ‘prescription’ of which given to him.
“Take 1 tablet daily at 3am”
This is a very odd time to take a prescript drug, which highlights the anti social and odd nature of the music that Eminem produces. The prescription is addressed to Eminem’s legal name “Marshall Mathers” highlighting that the rapper has personal health and social problems, the drugs are not addressed to his music alias, they are addressed to the ‘real’ him.
There is a backward ‘E’ in the album named “Relapse” and it is evident on this drug canister also, this highlights the odd, illiterate nature of Eminem and it clashes with how prescriptive drugs are meant to be. (They should always be printed in proper English)
This piece of marketing connotes overdose and unsafe, dangerous illegal use of substances given to him in a legal manner. The ‘drug tablets’ themselves are yellow with denotes sickness and nausea.
However, if I was to analyse it alternatively and look at it from a different angle or perspective then the whole idea of the drug filled prescription canisters could be viewed in an entirely different way.
Drugs are addictive; perhaps the message the Eminem is trying to get across is that his music is addictive to it’s listeners, much like drugs are addictive to drug addicts and drug abusers, or possibly Eminem is trying to signify that he is addicted to making music for his fans and for his own satisfaction.
Eminem’s real life used to be very drug involved. He grew up with a drug addicted Mother who would plant drugs in Eminem’s food as a child. Eminem blames his Mother for his own drug addiction problems, so Eminem fans may understand the format to his album’s promotion. Eminem could also be trying to connect to his listeners, perhaps many of his fans can relate to Eminem due to the fact that they’ve had similar drug addiction problems in their own lives.
Or perhaps this is normal, every day life for Eminem. He may see no controversy at all in his song lyrics or his promotional campaigns; perhaps he is ‘out of the box’ naturally. An individual can often see things very differently to other individuals, especially if their childhood was as traumatic as Eminem’s.
Fame could perhaps have partaken a major role in his controversial actions; it is the norm for people to use controversy to reach fame nowadays.
Another way of looking at this is that prescribed pills are normally there to cure you, to help you in one way or another. Perhaps Eminem is trying to show that his music is good for it’s listeners, as in his music is what you need to help you and make you feel better or make you feel good again.
Conclusion.
There is a saying that states; “there is no such thing as bad publicity” and I have to agree with that saying entirely. I conclude that controversial advertising is a sure-fire way of getting your name into the papers and thrown into the faces of the public. You’ve just got to look at some of the big names to realise that it works. Eminem, Lady Gaga and Pink Floyd, are all individual celebrities/groups who have catapulted to fame through their controversy, whether it be using profane language on live television, dressing in the most ridiculous outfits or making songs about rape and murdering people.
