Controlled assessment Burger King Advert

Controlled assessment Burger King Advert

Sound track:

The sound track used in the burger king advert is ‘I am man’ based on the song ‘I am a women’ by Helen Reddy. The original theme of the song was to represent women as being strong and independent. We see this through the quote ‘I am a women hear me roar’. This symbols women as being strong as something that roars is usually associated with a lion. This could have been done to show men that women are as strong as men and are as powerful. The fact that this song was written like this could show that it is a feminist song; it makes women feel superior as they are being represented as a lion when lions are usually used associated to men.

Burger King used the sound track by Helen Reddy as a guidance which they then changed to form their own song called ‘I am man’. The song was used to show men that there is nothing wrong with being traditional. We see this through the way the men behave and act in the advert. They are portrayed as lazy, careless men who do not care about other people’s opinion. We see this by the way the men behave; they seem to look like hungry animals that are desperate to hunt for meat, supporting the stereotypes of traditional men.

This could have been done to show men that it is perfectly fine to celebrate being a man. Alternatively it could also be used as a way of manipulating the men to think that by eating at burger king they are going to become a man, when actually the advert is being used to purposely exclude women and by doing so making them want to eat like a man as a way to prove to themselves and to show that they are as determined as men.

The men in this advert as mainstreamers, this is because they love to respond to big established brands in this case Burger King which they use for security. We see this through the way the men are so happy to be traditional. The women in this advert are seen as reformers as they want to change and want to be just like the men in the advert. We see this through the way the women are so determined to change as a way to prove the men that they are just as equal.  The advert would not appeal to feminists because when Helen Reddy wrote the original song about women being strong she was serious about what she was saying, however the fact that Burger King changed is and made their own version would be seen as disrespectful by feminists. Burger King wrote ’I am a man´ as a way to mock the original song.

Techniques used:

 The men in the advert are being shown as being strong after eating the burger. The technique being used here is a reward to the men for eating the burger. The advert uses this technique as a way for them to also receive the reward of gaining more customers which will lead to them gaining a better profit. The men that will go to Burger King will become strong and popular if they eat the burger featured in the advert. We see this in the advert by the amount of people featured in the advert making it almost seem as if they are all friends making the men who are going to buy there burger from burger king think that they will get the reward of having more friends.

 

Another technique used is humour; we see this through the way the men are behaving in the advert. They are being perceived as silly stupid men doing foolish things and behaving like animals.   By doing this the men are living up to the stereotypes of traditional men being childish and silly and exaggerating reality. We see this when the men in the advert are shown throwing a car off the roof and ripping their pants off.

 

The demographic group for this advert is those in E and C2. This advert would appeal to men who are unskilled and who rebel humour because it mocks others so they can laugh and make fun of them. The psychographic group it would appeal to are the aspirers as they want to have what others have and what others want. They also want to be popular so they can have friends just like the men featured in the Burger King advert were surrounded by a crowd of people. The men believe that by eating the burger they would gain popularity as their reward from the company for buying their product. Alternatively they may not think that buying the burger is of any use as it doesn’t make them designer or any sophisticated.

 

The advert is also aimed at mainstreamers as they don’t like change and stick to the rules. By buying the burger from Burger King and behaving like they are they are sticking to the stereotypes of being a traditional man.

Representation of women

In the advert the women, the cheerleaders and the glamorous assistants are seen as a reward for the men. They are dressed in body hugging cloths, feminine dresses, and short skirts as a way of showing off their figures. The stereotypes being shown are that women are eye candy for the men featured in the advert as they are weak, girly, feminine women who symbolise temptation for the men. The women are wearing the short skirts to tempt the men to want to get the burger. We see this in the advert by the way the man pulling the lorry is staring at the women holding the burger. For him it is as if she is he’s reward along with the burger. If the man is able to get to the burger then he is also able to get the women making him ‘a man’ whom the advert is advertises.

From this we are able to conclude that the women in the advert are represented marginally, they are not important and are only placed in the background only to support the men and to look weak. However the advert could still appeal to women because it makes them think that if they by the burger from burger king they would be able to attract certain men. On the other hand it would not appeal to feminists as the advert portrays women as weak which would be seen by feminists as disrespectful. The feminists would also find the idea that the advert would appeal to mainstreamer women as ironic. They would still want to buy the burger and change just to be what others expected them to be even though it portrays them as weak.

Lifestyle, Interests, costume

The men featured in the advert are wearing normal everyday clothing, for example shirts, builders clothing and jeans. This tells me that the men in the advert are from the social group D and C2. The men in the advert wear shirts but do not wear suits this could be because they have a skilled manual of partially skilled occupation that does require suits. For example they could be builders, office workers or plumbers.

The fact the men in the advert are dressed in such a way could show how careless and arrogant they are. They do not consider other people’s opinions and do not care what other may think of them. This could support the stereotype of what a traditional man likes to do. There is no healthy lifestyle being promoted in the advert because the men are eating like barbaric savage hunting for meat like a heard of ruthless ruffians. The men in the advert like to heat junk food, play women and act like uncivilised children supporting the stereotypes of what a traditional man likes to do.

The fact that the men in the advert are supporting the stereotypes of how a man is meant to behave shows me that the target audiences are mainstreamers. This is because they don’t like change and want to stick to what being a man is by eating the burger. The target audience could also be the strugglers because the men could be eating the junk food as a way of forgetting the struggles of life. I think that it was important for us to see the men in casual everyday clothing and working class clothing as a way of showing us that the men in the advert as just normal traditional men.

 

Social Class

The main man featured in the advert is wearing informal casual clothing compared to the rest of the people in the restaurant. We see this through the way the man in the restaurant has his sleeves rolled up and his top button undone. This tells me that the man must be from a working class background and the fact that he has his sleeves rolled up the way it is makes him seem as if he is ready to eat something messy. However, seeing the expression the man has on his face we are aware that the man is highly uncomfortable in the surrounding in which he is in, and the way he is dressed makes him look out of place as if he is an outcast.

The man features in the advert is given food that would normally be served to someone from a richer upper class background as the food is of a high quality and is very expensive. From his facial expression we are able to tell that the man in the advert is very unsatisfied and unhappy with the food that he is being served despite the fact that the food is a delicacy. From the way the man is seated on his chair we can see the anti-climax of the man as he was ready to eat something messy and manly but was instead served chick food.

The man’s face makes him look uncomfortable and unsatisfied with the food that he has been served. This tells me that the man does not feel comfortable in the surrounding that he is in because of the way he is dressed compared to the other people in the restaurant. For example where he is dressed in normal everyday clothing such as a shirt, the clothes of the waiters and everyone else in the restaurant is all formal. The man feel insecure in the environment that he is in and this could because he is from a different social class that would prefer cheap, meaty, fast food and wear shirts and jeans. I know this because of how unsatisfied and uncomfortable he looks in the advert, for one to be served food that is considered a delicacy and to not be satisfied tells me that he is not happy with that type of food.

Later on in the advert we see that man march to Burger king with all the other working class jobs presented from C2 and D. We see builder and office workers all marching together and from this I am able to tell that the main focus of the advert in those from working class background. There is a big difference between the facial expression of the man when he is the upper class restaurant and when he is in Burger King. From this I can tell that the man is from a working class back group and is in social class C2. We see this through the way he is dressed. The fact that all the men in the advert are all form the same social group and are all marching together to share their love for Burger King Shows that the advert is trying to appeal to other working class men.

The advert would appeal to mainstreamers as it shows that the men are sticking to the stereotypes of being a traditional man not caring about other people’s opinions. The men in the advert do not like change and like to stick to what a traditional man should be and do not like changing the rules. Mainstreamers would also like to buy the burger from Burger King to be able to get more friends. In the advert the men are all marching together which shows unity and friendship and mainstreamers would like this.