Advertising: Introduction to Advertising

  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.

• Todorov – Equilibrium
• Propp – Familiar character types
• Barthes – Enigma and action codes
• Levi-Strauss – Binary opposition

The advert uses Levi- - Strauss's: Binary Opposition to categories those who either "love" or "hate" Marmite. As in the modern age the product has become a socially controversial topic, the brand uses this to it's advantage to therefore market the product and subsequently connect with their target audience. 

The advert also uses Propps' Character types to connect with their audience and with this new founded way of marketing their product, can therefore make significant profit. One character type that is used is the false hero with the pregnant couple, the elderly couple and the mother and daughter. Although the way the characters are used is meant to be satirical, the advertisment uses that character consistently to portray those who have been deceived or the deceiver. A classic representation of the false hero.  

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

The advert persuade their target audience to agree with a point of view ie. Are you a lover or a hater? They also use the emotional appeal of the feeling towards their product to their advantage as everyone has strong feelings towards their opposities - the pregnant woman carrying the baby of a hater

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

He says that "All publicity works on anxiety" and that advertising offers us an improved version of ourselves, whether we are male or female.

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

The buyer is meant to imagine themselves transformed by the product, as it's supposed to offer them an image of themselves made glamorous by the product or opportunity. They expect this transformation to then make them an object of envy for others. This is what Psychologists call referencing. The persuasive techniques used for this are normally buying a product or service, the bandwagon, expert opinion ect.

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

In the "End Marmite Neglect" advert , it parodies television documentaries, where officers are followed around with a camera as they get calls to respond to a case of animal neglect. However the advert uses this concept to highlight the "neglect" of their product. One prominent persuasive technique that is used is the repetition of the product name. 

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

Popular culture - a set of beliefs, values, actions, objects, or goods and practises that are popular at any given point in time in society. This normally refers to art, literature, fashion, dance, film, TV, magazines etc. 

High Culture - the subset of experiences that shapes those in the highest class of society. This normally refers to those who apart of the elite in society, often those with political power(in the olden and modern day).

Marmite plays on this pop culture aspect through the "lover or "hater" set of beliefs.

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

Postmodern consumers are simultaneously aware that they are being exploited, yet also prepared to play the game – if it brings them a sense of superiority and social cache.

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

Postmodern advertising plays with reality and fiction, blending the two together. The #Marmiteneglect campaign is rooted in the ‘reality’ that jars of Marmite often remain unused

in the backs of cupboards (as identified by consumer data from market research). This ‘real-life concern’ is then positioned within a narrative of social neglect, and exploits the conventions of misery-memoirs, as read in ‘true stories’ such as A Child Called It.