Advertising Deconstruction Assignment Blog

1) Why I picked the ad:

I picked this Starbucks ad (Starbucks slogan on the left side of the page: The world has a pause button) because I thought I could immediately understand what the advertisers were trying to communicate in the ad -- in terms of trying to persuade ad viewers to go to Starbucks -- with co-workers or friends -- and have a cup of coffee -- and some pastries -- because when you go to Starbucks, you are doing more than just having a cup of coffee.  The slogans in the photo ad on the lower right are: You & Starbucks // It’s bigger than coffee.

I drink coffee myself and know how good it can make you feel and lift you up when you need a lift -- to get work done.  I can also relate to the represented participants in terms of having a full or even heavy work load and needing to pause every once in a while for a caffeine and sugar fix (Starbucks slogan in the ad: "The world has a pause button").  The Starbucks ad is obviously communicating to the viewer that if you want to relax, enjoy yourself, relate and communicate with other people around you -- just as the represented participants are doing in this photo ad -- particularly your co-workers or friends -- go to Starbucks!  The ad does make a lot of claims (symbolically and pictorially) and uses the represented participants and Starbucks coffee and pastry objects to try to persuade the viewer that Starbucks is a great place to go to feel good (Starbucks slogans in the ad: "You & Starbucks"//"It's bigger than coffee").

2) Connections I made to the readings or videos:

As is pointed out in the Marshall McLuhan video, the medium is not neutral and has an effect on the individual.  The medium used by the communicator or advertiser is significant – even critical – by itself – in terms of what kind of effects it can have on the viewer -- in terms of getting him or her to think something or do something in response to given medium.  (The medium is the message).  According to McLuhan, the medium affects our thinking and how we actually perceive the message and the world around us -- and how we experience the world as well.  I know that experts study these concepts, but I would like to learn a lot more how media affects individuals viewing the particular medium.  I am sure every advertiser wants to know that as well – and spend big bucks doing just that!

The Starbucks photo ad is (obviously) trying to get the viewer to want to go to Starbucks and drink coffee and eat pastries.  The photo ad is utilizing various advertising techniques to persuade the viewer to do something or, at least, think something, namely, that Starbucks is a great place to pause and relax and have a cup of coffee.  The photo ad is trying to demonstrate to the viewer (through various symbols) that it is worth it to the represented participants (See, they are happy, smiling, and chatting!) to go to Starbucks and spend their hard-earned money to consume this product – and even do their work there as well.  These represented participants are cool.  Therefore, it will be worth it to the viewer to do exactly the same thing – because It’s You & Starbucks and It’s bigger than coffee!

In my opinion, the ad applied a number of principles discussed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006).  

These include:

1) the concept of salience because the most “salient” element in the Starbucks photo ad is a pair of hands and forearms that are alone visible of the represented participant (closest to the viewer) and that receive the greatest amount of light -- on the hands -- with the right hand securely gripping a cup of coffee -- as if it were the greatest thing a person could grip!).

2) The image above is an offer because the represented participants are offered to the viewer as items of information.  The represented participants are not looking at the viewer nor are they demanding anything of the viewer. (p. 119).  The image shown is a close-up.  The represented participants are depicted as close to the viewer (p. 124).  For example, person 1 (closest to us on the left) is at close personal distance (intimate relationship distance).  We could touch person 1 if we were there.

 3) The coffee cup objects also are shown at close distance – as if the viewer is engaged with these objects and as if the viewer were or could be eating the food and drinking the coffee (p. 127).  The coffee cup objects are represented as if within the viewer’s reach, but not as actually used (the coffee mugs are full).  The objects are represented at a slight upward angle but not a steep one.

 4) The image is subjective (not objective) because as Kress and van Leeuwen state: “the viewer can see what there is to see only from a particular [Starbucks] point of view" (p. 130).  The viewer (in the photo above) is “‘being subjected to something or someone’“(p. 131).

5) The photo ad above is from a frontal point of view (p. 135).  The image-producer (and the viewer) are involved with the represented participants (p. 136).  The picture is at eye-level (and so there does not appear to be power differences involved).  This could be the viewer sitting at this table interacting with these represented participants (or similar participants).

6) Applying the given and new (or left and right concept) to the Starbucks ad: the represented participants sit on the left side of the ad and feel better (the given).  (Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) state that “the left side is the side of the already given, something the reader is assumed to know already, as part of the culture...” (p. 180)).  So the underlying meaning of this ad is that it is already given that the represented participants (on the left side of the ad) who come to Starbucks will be happy and feel good, and that this message is something the viewer already knows or should know in our culture (Kress and Van Leeuwen, p. 181).  That the world has a pause button is a given and so is placed on the left side of the ad.\

7) The Starbucks photo ad (still applying Kress and Van Leeuwen) “makes significant use of the horizontal axis, positioning some of their elements left, and other, different ones right of centre” (p. 180-181).  It is not accidental that no one is sitting on the right side of the first table (closest to the viewer).  The reason is that (as Kress and Van Leeuwen point out), it is not yet determined that the viewer of the ad will come to Starbucks and sit at a table and have coffee (“new elements are placed on the right and “for something to be New means that it is presented as something which is not yet known, or perhaps not yet agreed upon by the viewer, hence as something to which the viewer must pay special attention” (p. 181)).  

So applying the New-right concept to the Starbucks ad, it is not yet known if the viewer of the ad will agree with the slogans placed in the lower right of the ad (You & Starbucks, and It’s bigger than coffee).  As Kress and Van Leeuwen further state: “Broadly speaking, the meaning of the New is therefore ‘problematic’, ‘contestable’, ‘the information “at issue” ‘, while the Given is presented as commonsensical, self-evident” (p. 181). So (in this ad) the right side of the table remains vacant (until the viewer decides to come to Starbucks and take a seat at the table and have his/her cup of coffee).  Interestingly, at the second table (towards the top right of the photo), we see a male (late 20s) (we can only see his face) sitting on the right, but the viewer does not or cannot see him drinking coffee).  Perhaps he is symbolic of the New person who has not yet made up his mind -- whether it is him & Starbucks.  Yet, he is sitting in Starbucks – and it could be only because he is with his friends – and he is looking at his friends – so “It’s bigger than coffee” (quoting the Starbucks slogan placed in the lower right) – meaning that the Starbucks experience transcends coffee!

3) What I learned from this activity:

I learned that even though I thought I knew what was going on in the photo ad, I still had to analyze and deconstruct it to see all the elements.  I am new at this so I am sure that there are other ad symbols that I missed.  I realize that everything (I mean everything) is positioned in the ad to convey a certain message.  The advertisers are using a language of symbols that I need to learn in order to fully deconstruct these advertisements and to understand the real underlying messages of visual media.  I also learned that a number of the concepts in Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) can be applied to this photo ad.

References

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The
       grammar of visual design. London and
       New York: Routledge.
 

Rudenko, A. (2011, March 9). Starbucks Added Green Tones to
       One of its UK Stores and Launched
       International ‘Anniversary’ Ad Campaign. Retrieved from 
       http://popsop.com/2011/03/starbucks-
       added-green-tones-to-one-of-its-uk-stores-and-launched-
       international-%E2%80%98anniversary
       %E2%80%99-ad-campaign/