Introduction to advertising: blog tasks

 Introduction to advertising: blog tasks

Create a new blog post called 'Advertising: Introduction to advertising blog tasks'. Read ‘Marketing Marmite in the Postmodern age’ in MM54  (p62). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. You may also want to re-watch the Marmite Gene Project advert above.

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) How does the Marmite Gene Project advert use narrative? Apply some narrative theories here.

The advert uses narrative as they repeat the phrase "are you a lover? or a hater?". This shows the audience's that there are lots of opinions on the product and you would only know if you have tried it. 

2) What persuasive techniques are used by the Marmite advert?

The persuasive techniques used by the Marmite advert is emotional appeal as they designed to create a strong feeling and keep the audience entertained. They also used a slogan which is "love it or hate it"

3) Focusing specifically on the Media Magazine article, what does John Berger suggest about advertising in ‘Ways of Seeing’?

John Berger suggest that " we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more"he suggest that you will be richer buying the product even though you are spending more money as you have spent it on the product.

4) What is it psychologists refer to as referencing? Which persuasive techniques could you link this idea to?

'Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell. The image then makes him envious of himself as he might be. [...] 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.'
They refer lifestyles represented to them through the media that they find interesting. 

5) How has Marmite marketing used intertextuality? Which of the persuasive techniques we’ve learned can this be linked to?

Marmite marketing used intertextuality as they use the love it or hate it theme, which was first used in 2007 featuring the cartoon character Paddington bear where he chooses to eat a marmalade sandwich rather then a marmite sandwich, to show some might love it or others may hate it.

6) What is the difference between popular culture and high culture? How does Marmite play on this?

The difference between popular culture and high culture is that popular culture is that its accessible to all people and high culture is  mostly experienced by the higher classes of people.

7) Why does Marmite position the audience as ‘enlightened, superior, knowing insiders’?

This is because the business knows the audience wont fall for an advert using persuasive manipulation techniques so they used such world like  ‘enlightened, superior, knowing insiders’ to make them feel great however they are still falling for the manipulation, as they are still being convinced into buying the product.

8) What examples does the writer provide of why Marmite advertising is a good example of postmodernism?

The example the writer provides is that life is short, people will need to try marmite to know the realism as they even say it in the advertisement you would either love it or hate it.