Essay ( DO NOT GRADE TILL FRIDAY) PLEASE EVALUATE WITH ME DURING CLASS

 My advertisement features the actor Danny Devito advertising a shampoo made for men , currently Old Spice's customer base is made up of men between 28 to 45 years of age, in this advertisement Danny Devito walks down a street and is revealed to have gorgeous flowing hair which stuns bystanders.

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? 

My advertisement largely challenges the conventions associated with the "typical shampoo advertisement" ranging from the unusual casting choice and the fact that it is over-exaggerated to reflect how cheesy other shampoo advertisements. Firstly the decision to cast Danny DeVito would be unusual for a "conventional" or "ordinary" shampoo advertisement where others such as O'Real would rather cast Chris Hemsworth or other A Class models classified as "attractive". Danny DeVito despite having similar star status to Chris Hemsworth looks out of place in the shampoo advertisement as people generally do not see him as a "sex symbol" let alone as generally attractive. One way i decided to convey the idea that the advertisement was a satire to other conventional shampoo advertisements was by applying the Male Gaze Theory created by Laura Mulvey where other advertisements would have the camera lick models like Emily Ratajkowski, this advertisement will feature pans and slow motion of Danny DeVito in suggestive positions in the style of the "You're So Money Supermarket" advertisement, similarly people will also stare at Danny DeVito as he walks down the road.   

The choice to parody the movie Saturday Night Fever is also an unusual choice as it leaves little to no space for the product to be featured meanwhile other shampoo advertisements would have it shoved in front of our faces while a celebrity that would make people swoon explain its benefits or why he or she uses it, here the product and old spice's logo is not seen until the end.

Throughout the advertisement Danny DeVito represents how the audience ,namely Middle-aged males, might think of themselves or believe other people think of them, the fact that he is a male of old age allows them to easily project themselves, some may criticize the fact that he is far older than the target audience but his appearance despite being in his 70s is "youthful" enough for people to estimate his age at 50 which is still projectable and relatable for our audience, the fact that older men especially those who lack confidence and long for a time they had a 6 pack might over-exaggerate their physical appearance's flaws and thus see Danny DeVito who is far older than them as a fit representation of how they think of themselves.

 Stuart Hall's Representation Theory suggests that stereotypes allows us to easily identify certain traits and the audience will know a character's traits before they do anything, this is applied in the choice to dress Danny DeVito in a stained polo shirt and cargo pants ,a look associated with older men even playfully named the "Dad Outfit" allows viewers to see that Danny DeVito in this advertisement is similar to the middle aged men he represents, not only in age and gender but also in the fact that his outfit reflects a characteristic of that age demographic where they are known to be less stylish or cool, or prefer comfort over style, other characters such as the attractive bystanders will be dressed in leather jackets, cute sundresses, and mini skirts to which fits with the image of youth and general sex appeal of people in their 20s.  

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

My audience is the current customer base of Old Spice which are men aged 28 to 45, they are targeted by the Star Appeal of Danny DeVito which may bring them to view the advertisement as indicated by the theory of Demographics and Psychographics used to target audiences towards a piece of media. The Users and Gratification Theory also supports the presence of Danny DeVito where "personal identity" is fulfilled as these people in the 28 to 45 age group are likely to be familiar with his movies, voice roles, and cameos which spans from the 70s to the present day. A secondary audience namely a younger one is also pulled into the ad especially those at teen ages and below 28 as they watch it for the Star Appeal too and to fulfill the User and Gratification's "Personal Identity" as they share the same interests and could talk about it with other DeVito fans.People of this age who are active in Social media are also likely to be members of Danny DeVito's cult following whose presence grew in the internet started by Danny DeVito appreciation forums. 

The choice to start the shot with Danny DeVito's legs before revealing him out of anybody in a shampoo advertisement usually dominated by more gorgeous looking people, on top of that donning a lush and flowing hair will raise questions in the audience (hermeneutic code from Barthes' 5 narrative codes) on the origin of that hair which keeps them watching.The choice to dress him in a red polo was also also deliberately done to touch on "Fan-service" as Danny DeVito's character in Sunny in Philadelphia was known to wear a red shirt which Danny also fancied in iconic interviews or memes.

The advertisement appeals to the 28 to 45 year old men by addressing the confidence issues that is brought with aging and its associated ailments such as not being so stylish, baldness, or new wrinkles appearing on one's face, with such conditions they often compare themselves with younger people or themselves at a younger age which is represented by the attractive well dressed bystanders mesmerized by the scruffy Danny DeVito creating a Binary Opposite effect (Young vs Old) (Comfort vs Style) ( Attractive vs Un-attractive) which resonates with this age group which is most likely to suffer from a mid life crisis in part triggered by a poor self image, despite the many binary opposites the audience sees that Attractive VS  Un-attractive dominates the advertisement as other characters contrasts DeVito's physical appeal and outfit choice as bystanders are presented to be more gorgeous.

The two step flow theory suggests that having a Opinion leader which is Danny DeVito in this case makes notions easier to transfer to the audience watching or have them spread it, in this case Danny DeVito indicates that the usage of Old Spice will cover one's confidence issues or make one stylish again. This is reinforced with the help of camera angles and movements throughout the walking sequence where Danny DeVito is shown in a low angle which allow him to appear macho and dominating in comparison to the rest, meanwhile slow motion shots of his behind was used to subvert to the Male Gaze theory while presenting Danny DeVito is attractive as usually models with voluptuous bodies are subjected to such camera angles.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

At the beginning of the project i was a little startled and made the a fuss over the fact that i could not draw well nor had visual skills to envision what i had in mind, i utilized software tools such as "Udemy" where i applied for free hand drawing courses which despite being limited gave me the basis of drawing faces and environments while fixing their angles and proportions. The usage of Youtube channels have been a key factor too outside of online courses when improving my skills, a youtube video made by TedTalk titled "Anyone can draw" allowed me to pick a drawing style and adapt it to my preference that best suits a minimalist like me when putting visual concepts on paper meanwhile channels such as "Studio Binder" & "Learning About Movies" has improved my judgement in what type of camera angle and movement to use in order to create meaning or indicate something out of a scene.

The concept to cast an unattractive lead star in the advertisement already appeared in the beginning where i made the choice to cast "Nicholas Perry" more well known under the pseudonym "Nikocado Avocado" who has garnered hundreds of millions of views in his eponymous Youtube channel, the idea was to attract a younger audience for Old Spice whose audience is mostly middle aged by using the internet star.

Eventually i decided to resonate to the current audience of Old Spice by having Danny DeVito play the role where he would also create the Binary Effect of Old vs Young , a message that might be taken to heart by the audience. 

While making the final storyboard, some proposed scenes from the draft storyboard were emitted such as a "shower scene" in the beginning showcasing the product which then cuts to the Saturday Night Fever reference, this will split the ad in 2 parts while diverting attention thus was cut, instead starting from DeVito's legs and tilting up would allow for suspense to be created (hermeneutic code) on who is casted on the advertisement rather than have it instantly revealed.

A character labelled as a "jock" would was later changed to the "Leather jacket douche" character where both of them serve as an antagonists and are featured as their stereotype (Stuart Hall Representation Theory) to easily characterize them. The random people walking down the street with DeVito were changed to specifically be youthful and stylish people serving as a Binary Opposite to DeVito. 

Finally, a scene at the end was cut as it would prolong the advertisement while cutting it into 2 parts stealing the focus from DeVito, at the end there were supposed to be middle aged men who walked out of a building labelled "Old Spice Shampoo" with flowing and lush hair having the time of their lives.

Throughout the process of refining the advertisement, my software skills have evolved where i now am able to use photoshop to interpret a vision of a scene in my head which i use "Gimp-GNU Manipulation Image" for, if i had too much plans and visions i would organize them and evaluate them using a thought space format provided by Sane.com which allowed me to receive criticism, other places to receive ideas and criticism happen to be Quora.com which thought me to be able to contact people with relevant skills and to effectively propose a question to those people. 

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Throughout my project i have been able to utilize software tools in order to organize my thoughts and plans while using hardware to improve my visualizations on paper. "Canva.com" provided a slides format that allowed me to restructure entire scenes by moving shots based on the slides order while deleting the undesired ones quite easily which saved lots of time and resources as it has eliminated the need to make multiple storyboards to try out different pacing and scenes which liberated more time for me to make the storyboard.

Software was key to accumulating more information on how i wanted the advertisement to look like, a quick search through "Pinterest" was key to me designing Danny DeVito's outfit and hair as i am not the creative type to be able to visualize something out of thin air but rather need an exemplar to create a passable sketch.

Blogger.com was also responsible for the shape and pacing of the advertisement changing as the platform allowed me to display my work publicly to receive more constructive criticism , in terms of hardware a sketchbook certainly aided in my attempts to draw where i consumed multiple pages until i felt that i got a certain scene right. The usage of markers and ink were essential to making my scene clearer as having them in a different color to pencils made it clear what was in the advertisement or whether these signs were just made to help make the storyboard clearer.