Advertising sells… (just think how much Chanel have invested in this ad.) But what does Keira Knightly and some conveniently positioned menswear tell us about the perfume? What is this advert selling – answers, as sophisticated as you like on a post-it on the board. Keira needs to cover up.

The advert creates an image of a beautiful, desirable woman and the idea of a glamorous, exciting, sexually charged lifestyle. It implies that by buying the perfume we associate ourselves with these qualities – it will make us exotic and desirable and our lives decadent and exciting. It also assumes that glamour, decadence and sexual intrigue are things we all agree are positive. Advertising sells dreams, it reinforces ideology and ultimately it shifts product.

Approach Advertisers use a psychological approach. They promise by implication to make us richer, more beautiful, more powerful…

Don Draper Sells the Dream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus As you watch this clip note down what it tell us about how advertisers exert power over consumers. How do advertisers create a relationship with consumers? What is assumed about our common values? What persuasive techniques do they use?

Fairclough – Synthetic Personalisation Advertising is a prime example of ideology at work behind texts – ie) there is a set of ideas behind every advert and the advert creates the assumption that you share them. The advert deliberately creates a relationship between the text producer and the consumer The advert will create an image and also an implied image of the potential consumer. The reader is positioned as the potential consumer. The reader is encouraged to buy in to the advertiser’s created world – a world in which the reader wants to buy the product.

Building Dreams – A Powerful Tool Advertising often creates a projected world that the reader / consumer is invited to become a part of. (Dyer, 1982) Decide what sort of projected world your advert is creating. (if it is a charity advert it might be a world in which people care and you can make a difference) What values does it assume you share? How does the copywriter use language to create this world.

Fairclough’s Synthetic Personalisation A three-part con trick Stage 1 = build a relationship between reader and advert. Use imperatives to talk directly to them Use personal pronouns. (Me to you, not faceless organisation to millions of readers.) Lexical choices such as informal language, ingroup slang can suggest closeness Imply that the advert understands ‘you’ the consumer personally. (all 20 million of you)

Fairclough’s Stage 2 – building the image The advert creates an image of the product being sold – projects a world the consumer is invited to become part of. To do this it will draw on member’s resources – the background information readers bring to texts. language choices, images, models, celebrities will be used to help build up this image.

Fairclough’s Stage 3 – Building the Consumer The advert builds the assumption that the reader agrees with the ideologies presented (set of ideas, idealised lifestyle etc) Eg) you are cool like us, you belong in this world, you are a caring person who wants to be part of building a better world etc. The reader is being positioned as the ideal consumer.

Analyze this ad using Fairclough’s 3-part model Imagine flipping from your music to your life and back again. At last a music phone that reflects both sides of your personality. Dual-faced with a music player on one side and a phone on the other, it has a 2 mega-pixel camera and comes with a 1GB memory card allowing you to store up to 230 songs. All in a super-slim 9.4mm frame. It’s something special which ever way you look at it.

Draw a cartoon to illustrate Fairclough’s model of synthetic personalisation

Research Task In your group decide on one particular area of advertising that you would like to research further. Eg. Charity adverts, phone adverts, car adverts, perfume adverts etc. For homework each of you should bring in at least one advert from your chosen category that you find interesting for come reason.