Once upon a time a story was set and told trough the written
word, kaleidoscopes of meticulously detailed language. Using various literary
devices such as imagery, expression, knowledge, insight and imagination to
create the places readers so fervently enjoyed. Recently however this figurative
space has been replaced with actual space through the humble image, setting the
stage for the photo driven world we now live in today.
Many social media
sites, sensing the changing culture, grew and adapted to fit the new use of
images to create place (DALZIELL & GENONI, 2013) in the virtual world
as well as unfortunately set standards. Facebook uses new and improving
technology to use real life places to fill the otherwise empty spaces between users
and give us with images (Kuttainen, 2015) . It has been found
these shared photos engage people drawing the eye towards something picturesque
or something distorted or disturbing. Most pictures found on the site are
either selfies or exotic locations we wish we could visit, and companies are
catching onto this. Many companies are using this newfound knowledge of human
need for place for ads targeted specifically to gender demographics (Kang, 1997) . It is really clear that there are definitively
cut gender barriers that are very similar to those of the 1950’s when they should be changing to fit modern society. Using definitions of female
and male such as soft, gentile, delicate, fragile and easily led, or violent,
strong, butch, demanding and chiselled for the boys (Darley &
Smith, 1995) ,
sites like Facebook are confining places for people as they begin to assimilate
whatever nonsense they are fed daily. Companies create images that fit those
key words to target specific genders such as the new shampoo ad campaign for
herbal essences just encourage this behaviour. Images that were once shared between friends
have taken a new meaning in advertising as although within the virtual world
they fill spaces in knowledge they now force us into place, a neat little tidy
slot which of course we don’t.
Bibliography
DALZIELL, T.,
& GENONI, P. (2013). Telling Stories. Clayton, Victoria: Monash
University Publishing.
Darley, W. K.,
& Smith, R. E. (1995). Gender Differences in Information Processing
Strategies: An Empirical Test of the Selectivity Model in Advertising
Response. Journal of Advertising, 41-56.
Kang, M.-E.
(1997). The portrayal of women’s images in magazine advertisements: Goffman’s
gender analysis revisited. Sex Roles A Journal of Research, 979-996.
Kuttainen, V.
(2015). Narrivive as Fundemental Oreinteering . Lecture 4 .
I agree completely with this statement due to the simple fact that as people are becoming more influenced by photography and photos telling a thousand words, companies, online and offline are becoming more bold and persuasive with the techniques they are using to draw in potential customers.
ReplyDeleteBecause customers are becoming savvier with the use of photos, companies are finding that specifically targeting one gender or another by the typical stereotypes, more and more customers are buying into the product. Whether it be a shampoo ad or a men’s deodorant ad, the companies are going to find a way to influence the viewers in a way that appeal to them.
With the use of imagery creating place there is going to be a steady increase in the amount of users or investors, just down to the fact that what imagery they are using is working. Social networking is just the start.