Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Flashcards
What was the Super. Human. advertisement made to promote?
2020 Paralympic Games.
Who devised and created the advert?
Channel 4’s in-house creative agency 4Creative.
Who produced the advert?
Serial Pictures.
Somesuch.
Is the advert part of a bigger campaign?
Yes.
Part of a bigger campaign including posters and social media.
What does the advert explore?
The sacrifices made
and the trials endured by Paralympic athletes
in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic
Games.
What is a key aim of charity advertisements, and those designed to raise awareness of issues and events? What does this mean the adverts have to be?
To have an
immediate impact upon the audience to make
them take notice.
Need to be more memorable and hard-hitting
The procedures of these types of advertisements are aware of compassion fatigue. What will this mean for the advert?
Will often aim to make
advertisements that offer a different perspective
on the issue or event, usually one that is more
positive and upbeat.
How is the procedures aim to avoid compassion fatigue in its audiences evident in the advert?
Use of audio codes.
The choice of the soundtrack of So You Want
to be a Boxer from Bugsy Malone effectively
communicates the struggles of the disabled
athletes whilst giving the advertisement a
positive feel.
The more typical conventions, for example a voice-over and dramatic music, appear at the start of the advertisement, but change to the alarm and the realities of daily life.
Advertisements have a limited amount of time to
convey their message and so rely on technical
codes and editing to do this rapidly. How can this be seen in the advert? What is an example?
Uses close-up shots of expressions to engage the audience and to portray aspects of disability in a non-victim way, emphasising that this is part of their lives.
For example, a range
of shots are used to convey the strength and
determination Ellie Simmonds, cutting between an establishing shot showing her alone in the pool, a close-up of her putting on her swimming goggles, a low angle shot creating power and an extreme close-up of her eyes connoting concentration.
What is slow motion used to show in the advert? What effect does this have?
The cycling track crash.
This is combined with muting the sound for a more dramatic
effect.
What is an example of where the iconography and settings are related to
the athlete and the sport in the advert?
Ellie Simmonds putting on her goggles in the pool.
The iconography and settings relating to the athlete and sport are juxtaposed with what? What does this suggest?
Domestic scenes of everyday life as a disabled person.
Suggests the normality
of their situation.
What do the gesture codes in the advert communicate?
Frustration, competition and celebration, visually highlighting the result of their hard work.
Who does the narrative follow the lives of?
The Paralympians and their battles through training.
What is an example in the advert that shows the
clash between sport and family? What does this establish?
Where the athlete is trying to sing “Happy Birthday” to his daughter on a mobile
phone whilst training on a bike.
Further establishes the athletes as real people.
Why does the advert use humour? Where is there evidence of this?
To convey information.
The image of the hamster on the wheel and the “puke bucket” are
recognisable visual signifiers of struggle.
How can semiotics be applied to adverts?
As advertisements have to communicate
meaning rapidly, they use recognisable codes
and conventions that signify messages for
audiences to decode.
What is an example of semiotics in the Super. Human. advert?
Clothing is used to rapidly place the athletes within their sport.
For example, the track cyclist’s clothing or the swimming costumes contrast with the athletes in their everyday life, such as the hospital clothing when the woman is giving
birth.
These signs serve to
illustrate aspects of the lives of the people and
creates realism.
Levi-Strauss explored how texts are constructed using binary
oppositions. What is an example of this in the advert?
The images of gruelling training regimes are contrasted with the celebratory images at the end of the advertisement when success is achieved.
What did Lynsey Atkin, 4Creative’s Executive Creative Director say about the advert in relation to Channel 4’s two previous advertisement campaigns for the Paralympics?
“Following the
last two Paralympics adverts was no small task –
they exploded attitudes around disability …..Yet we
spotted an opportunity to present Paralympians in a
way they hadn’t been shown before – by pointing a camera at the realities of their lives.”
Where is an example of a conceptual binary opposition in the advert?
The on-screen graphic “To be a Paralympian
there’s got to be something wrong with you” creates a conceptual binary opposition
between audience perception of Paralympic
athletes and the reality.
The language in the advert doesn’t match up with the positive images being shown.
It is this
opposition that the audience is encouraged to
reflect upon.
What decisions were made when creating the advert in relation to “Super” and “Human”?
To emphasise the
“Human” rather than the “Super”.
To juxtapose the images of the training regime with those of the everyday lives of the athletes, with the intention of making them relatable to audiences.
Dominant groups in society largely control what is produced. What does the advert aim to do?
Address the marginalisation of
certain social groups, in this case, those with
disabilities.
Its aim, reflecting the ideology and ethos of Channel 4, is to give a voice to those who are not usually represented positively in other areas of the media.
What did YouGov find about how the advert changed attitudes?
65% of viewers felt that the coverage of the Paralympics had a positive impact on their
perceptions of disabled people.
82% of viewers
agreed disabled athletes were as talented as
able-bodied athletes.
What type of representation does the advert avoid? What does it focus on instead?
Avoids negative
stereotypical representations of Paralympians as
victims to be pitied, or heroes, “superhumans”,
to be viewed in awe.
The representation focuses on both genders and gives a different view of the world of disability to that of “having something wrong
with you”.
What is an example of how the representations in the advert are created through media language?
Close-up shots of the
athletes and their challenges during training and their home lives create positive representations
of ordinary people who eat their breakfast, give birth, and play the drums, with whom the audience can positively associate.
According to Hall, meanings are communicated
through signs. Where can this be seen in the advert?
Expressions of endurance
and struggle are easily recognisable and understood.
How can Gauntlett’s theory of identity be applied to the advert?
In addressing an under-represented social group,
the advert gives visible recognition to those
with disabilities and allows disabled people to see
themselves represented positively in the media.
Super. Human. offers audiences a more diverse and inclusive range of identities and broadens general understanding of what it means to be disabled as an
athlete and in everyday life.
Who is the target audience for the advert?
Relatively broad demographic.
Channel 4 viewers who largely fall into the 16–34 age bracket.
Fans of sport.
Those who desire to see more inclusive representations of social groups.
How will the use of personalisation in the advert help to reach audiences?
Super.Human. deals with real, human stories focusing on the day-to-day struggles of being an athlete in training and disabled.
The individual narratives are constructed to
encourage the audience to identify with the
athletes and their lives.
How do the technical codes in the advert help to reach audiences?
Gives the audience access to views they may be unfamiliar with, such as the attaching of a prosthetic blade, all of which hold their attention. The editing cuts between the athletes’ gruelling routines and clips of cartoon moments,
lightens and engages the audience through humour.
How do the audio codes in the advert help to reach audiences?
The soundtrack is a recognisable song from the
musical Bugsy Malone, So You Want To Be
a Boxer.
The choice of this upbeat, song grabs the audience’s attention with its connotations of struggle and hard work paying
off.
Older audiences will be familiar with the
film from which it is taken.
What evidence is there that the advert was successful in reaching its audiences?
Channel 4’s Paralympic coverage was viewed by 20 million people, a third of the UK population.
22% were 16-34 years of age.
The marketing campaign reached 81% of the UK population.
How may regular audiences of Channel 4 view the advert?
They may be familiar
with the approach taken by the broadcaster when
promoting the Paralympics as the other two
campaigns were successes in their own right.
Who is Alex Brooker? What did he say about Channel 4’s Paralympic adverts?
Co-presenter of The Last Leg.
Has disabilities.
“For me, waiting
for the Channel 4 Paralympics advert every
four years is like waiting for the John Lewis
Christmas advert.”
Why may the advert make some audiences uncomfortable?
Uses shock tactics to
make audiences aware of the issues facing
disabled people in their sport as well as in
their everyday lives.
For example, time lapse
photography is used to show a bruise developing.
What may the advert challenge audiences to do?
To examine how they may use outdated language
to categorise disabled people by the on-screen
slogan at the end of the advertisement “To be a
Paralympian there’s got to be something wrong
with you”.
What in the advert encourages an audience to accept the intended meaning of the advert?
(Stuart Hall)
The upbeat soundtrack, use of personalisation
and positive representations of the event and
the athletes as both “Super” and “Human”.
Why may some audiences adopt the negotiated position when watching the advert?
(Stuart Hall)
They may feel more distanced
from the sporting theme of the event.
However, this audience may be more open to the positive approach of the advert and examine their
misconceptions about disabled people and their
lives more generally.
Where may oppositional responses to the advert come from?
(Stuart Hall)
Those who are not supporters of Channel 4 and its ethos of a giving voice to those who are underrepresented.
They may be older, not regular viewers of Channel 4 or not interested in sport of any kind.
