MARXISM THEORY Question one analysis

• Marx is seen as one of the most influential modern thinkers. He is known to be the founder of the modern study of history, sociology and economics. He has anger against capitalism as he feels it destroyed its own markets.

• Wages are at a minimum to make sure that maximum profit is ensured, but this means that people cant afford goods, so supply then becomes greater than demand. By making our clothes cheap we have made our audience feel the needs for the goods. This then is feeding money back into the system which the supports low wages by encouraging the market to buy a lot of cheap goods.

• We needed to make sure that we showed that the quality of the clothing were good quality and that the audience would look good in them. We did this by having close ups of the clothing to make sure that target market could see the high quality material. But also by that model looking happy in the clothes will make the audience want to buy them. We could argue that we are supporting marx and injecting a fetishism because we will then be focusing on the material worth to distract from the true state of oppression and the needs of creativity.

MATERIALISM

• We wanted our audience to be educated on the new items which are brand is selling. Our audience want to be able to interact and be distracted from their daily lives and troubles to see what is new on the media, this is why we are showing the new range of clothes. We then control the distribution of ideology which then controls the multitude. The close ups in our adverts are then distracting the audience. We can apply the uses and gratifications theory here of entertainment and information as we are keeping them entertained/distracted from their daily lives by giving them new information which they want to know about the brand.

AUDIENCES NEEDS

• The bright colors, quick cuts, high key lighting and the upbeat music in the day, night and sponsorship adverts connote this happiness and fun to the adverts. We want to make sure that we are distracting the audience from their day to day lives. And making them feel good about themselves. By having a large range of shots with bright colors and different style of adverts allowed us to be able to target a larger verity of our target market and allow them to connect with the model. Again we did this by having two different models with two different body type modeling the clothing.

AUDIENCES NEEDS

• Class controls the mode of production also controls the state. Political life is an illusion between the owners of the means of production. We decided to target our brand at the income bracket of C2-E. we will be having our brand on the TV and radio stations where they will be most likely to be watching/listening so channel fours sister company E4 and Capital FM. The owners of the means of production control the distribution of goods and ideology to the C2-E income bracket, and fools them into thinking they are getting a good deal for the amount of money they are paying for the clothes.

CLASS

• We need to make sure that we offered our clothing at cheap prices because we put the prices on screen. Workers are paid just enough to sustain a system which oppresses them, and fools them into believing it is a ‘common sense’ approach and then spending money on our products. By having the prices on screen it meant that it showed our audience directly who the clothes were for and the type of brand we are. We went against this is the sponsorship advert as we didn’t put the prices on screen and showed more evening outfits. This could have been seen as showing more expensive clothing and not telling the audience all they need to know about the brand. However, this may then lead a new target market towards our brand, e.g. income bracket B-C1. But as we know its sponsoring a program which has the same target market as us we will then know that they will be watching our advert.

• By having the prices appear on screen was a good way to help us tell our audience that the clothes are cheap without featuring a voice over which our target market doesn’t want. We wanted to make sure that our audience can see the low prices of the clothes because it will allow them to know what type of brand we are, which is a brand for students. The bright colors e.g. the shots in front of the blue door and the red phone box, allows us to distract the audience from their day to day lives. The target audience will then use our advert to be socially interact because of the low prices which we offer. We are offering our audience false needs which then distracts our audience from the real things which they should be doing better to change in society. We can apply Commodity fetishism which means that social relations and cultural experiences are objectified in terms of money. Which means that our market are delighted by something because of how much it cost.

DAY AND NIGHT ADVERT

• We went against Marxist in the sponsorship advert because we didn’t have the prices on screen, and as we are showing high quality clothing by the close up shots and quick cuts it then means we are advertising to our target audience. However, because we are then having it sponsoring Gossip Girl who has the same target market as us it will then allow us to be able to still let our target market know that we are for them. We feel as though we should have put some prices on screen because it will then allow the target market more information. By not including the prices on screen we then challenge Marxists idea the emphasis is put onto the free market and consumer good, so that the proletariat are part of the system as we aren't focusing on the process of buying and selling clothes.

SPONSORSHIP ADVERT

• Within our radio advert we made sure that we showed who our target market was and the prices of the clothing. We didn’t say the prices but we spoke about the clothes e.g. ‘is great for us UNI students who cant fund our shopping addiction’. By then saying “who cant fund…” allows the audience to connect with our brand because they have limited earnings. This links in with Marxists theory that people are working hard but aren't earning enough for the amount of work they are doing to be able to afford the luxury items that they want to. This then means that our market will work harder and then sustain the system which they work in .

RADIO ADVERT

• This is all about the idea that we think that we are well off and privileged but this is how the working class can develop its own hegemony as a strategy to control the State. Nevertheless, Gramsci stated that the only way to perform this labour class control is by taking into account the interests of other groups and social forces and finding ways of combining them with its own interests. We have done this by featuring the many different styles and of our target market as we are then taking note of their wants and needs. Whereas in our day and night adverts by having the cheap prices on screen we make our audience feel good because they can afford this high quality clothing. This means that we are then building up a network of alliances with the social minorities who will then feel like they are linked with our brand and only buy their clothes from us.

HEGEMONY