draft for essay

A comparison of how women are represented in fragrance advertisements from the 1920’s, 1980’s and 2012

 

I have chosen to compare three advertisements that span nine decades: Babani of Paris Elizabeth Arden (print 1920s), The Senchal Woman (print 1980s) and Encounter Calvin Klein (moving image 2012).

The three advertisements provide very different representations of women: Babani presents the idea of a woman as an exotic, mysterious and distinctive creature, whilst The Senchal Woman is depicted as being powerful, independent and assertive above all.  By contrast, the woman in the Calvin Klein TV ad Encounter is the passive object of the man’s desire, the prize of a successful man.

 

Babani Elizabeth Arden (1920s, print)

 

The representation of the woman in this advert is exotic because of the clothing she is wearing.  She is holding what looks like an exotic bird.  The perfume bottle is in an arch that looks like it is from a foreign country such as India perhaps.  The name Babani of Paris is named after Babani which was a fashion house in the French capital Paris.  The woman is looking away from the viewer of the advert and is looking confident whilst looking at a bird.

 

The clothes she is wearing cover her legs and there are no sleeves on the top part.  The clothes she is wearing look exotic and from a country maybe India or a country from Asia.  The clothes in this advert are very different to the ones in the second one I choose because in this advert she is showing a lot of her body with the clothes she is wearing. 

 

The slogan “chooses for you the rare fragrances of Babani” is suggesting that the fragrance could be exotic, rare and from a different country perhaps one from somewhere in Asia.  Saying that it chooses for you could mean that it is trying to say that it is different for every person, trying to make it seem that it would be specific only to do with them.

 

I believe that this perfume advert is trying to say that if you wear this perfume you can look, act and be as confident as the exotic looking women in the advert.  This is something that women in those times would have wanted to be so that they felt better than other women.  I believe that the target audience for this one is women because it has a woman in the picture and because it is a fragrance advert not an advert for a man’s product such as cologne or deodorant.  Also because the fashion house Babani was a store that sold women’s clothing.

 

The senchal woman (1980)

 

In this picture the women is centralised and is standing in front of the Empire state building.  Which is where a lot of powerful people work and live.  So the advert could be trying to make the link that she is powerful.  Like the first advert she is looking away from the person looking at the advert.  The perfume bottle is to the right of the advert while as in the first one it is on the left.

 

The woman is looking confidently in to the distance.  Maybe at something or maybe at someone.  The slogan “she’s not going to marry the boy next door” gives the impression that this women is self reliant and doesn’t need a man to be successful.  The clothes she is wearing suggests that she might be wealthy to afford clothes like that.  The clothes are different from the first ones because in this one it covers her arms and her legs are being shown.  While as in the first one the clothes cover her legs and show her arms.  This one is also made out of animal fur while as the first one looks like it was made out of cloth.

 

The type of shot that they used for this advert in movie terms would be called a hero shot.  Where you see the main person by themselves and you can see all of them and that is what they have done here.  I think that it is trying to say that the woman in the advert doesn’t need a man to help her become someone that she can do it on her own.

 

This perfume advert I believe is trying to say if you wear this perfume you can be self reliant and not need to marry the first man you see to become somebody. Also it could be trying to say that if you where it you could be like a women who is rich and powerful.  I am guessing that the target audience for this advert is women because of the title The Senchal Woman and because in the picture it is a woman.

 

 

Calvin Kleain encounter (2012)

 

Encounter http://www.encountercalvinklein.com

masculine. intriguing. seductive.

Encounter Calvin Klein redefines modern, unapologetic masculinity. A distinctive sensual woody fragrance, Encounter combines an addictive blend of freshness, warm cognac and sensual woods.

 

Unlike the other two adverts this one features a man in it.  The woman in this advert is represented as a kind of prize for the man.  The whole advert is much like a Bond film in the way the man is driving then at the very end he gets the woman as you can see in the picture above.  This advert unlike other moving image ones does not use celebrity endorsement and uses two people that people would only know from the Calvin Klein adverts.

 

The first main shot we see of the women is her looking out of a rain covered window as if looking and waiting for someone.  The first main shot we see of the man is at the beginning when we see him driving in his car towards the house on a cliff with the women in it. The next one we see of the women is just after the man has arrived and gone in the house, we see the bottom of her dress, her legs and her high hells. 

 

They used the name encounter for this advert and fragrance because the advert has two people who meet one another in an encounter.  The advert could be trying to say that if you use this fragrance then you can encounter someone that you like, or perhaps someone that is extravagant and exciting.  Someone who is worth a drive over a small cliff road to a small house.

 

The advert shows the man as being quite powerful and masculine.  Saying to the target audience that could be men that if you where this perfume you be can as powerful and masculine as the man in the advert.  The woman in the advert is being represented as a seductive force to get the man to come to her if this was a perfume which was directed at women I would say that it was trying to persuade them that if they bought the perfume they could be seductive and get every man they wanted.

 

This advert show that women as maybe wanting a man, while as in the second one it is saying that she doesn’t need or want a man to make her successful.  The advert is different from both of the other adverts because this one shows that love attraction between a man and a woman.  While as in the first one it just has a woman standing and the second one is saying the complete opposite of this one by saying you can be reliant by yourself.

The advert is quite dark and gloomy for the first few seconds of it but then it gets a little lighter as the man finds the women in the house.  With the music it uses the lighting of the advert, the rain and the setting makes the advert work really well and would make you stop and look at it say if you where fast forwarding through adverts on the TV.

The woman in this advert compared to the women in the other two seems to be more longing.  Unlike the other two adverts this women seems to want a man in her life where as the other two seem to be more stable without a man in their lives.  The clothes the woman wears in this advert are different to the ones in the first two adverts because in this advert she is more revealing of her figure while as in the first two the women have more of their body covered

Sherlock Holmes

The genre of this film is historical action and adventure.  The film is in the historical genre because it is based in Victorian London.  The film creates the spectacle of the world of Victorian London in 1891 through its location shots of an old London, all the buildings are old buildings that are still up in London.  Another way that I could tell it was Victorian London was from the fact that the streets of London where light by gas lamps.  A third way of telling that it is Victorian London is that the police and Watson are in a carriage being pulled by horses instead of in fast cars which would be in films based now.  The shot of Saint Paul's cathedral anchors the location as London because it is a monument that I would automatically make me think of London

The camerawork shows that the scene contains speed and motion because the carriages are moving quickly being pulled by the horse's and there is a quickly moving London behind Holmes to show that he is trying to get somewhere fast.  One of the shots that is used is showing how bumpy it is inside one of the carriages because the camera is jumping up and down and juddering, it is probably being held in someones hands instead of a tripod because if it was on a tripod it would be still where as in someones hands it will move with them.

Now on to the editing of this extract.  In this extract from the film we see in to Holmes' thoughts where he is thinking about how to take down one of the men working for the villain of the film.  It is done in slow mo so we can see every last detail of what he does then it is also shown in real time so we can see how he does it. 

The sound at the beginning of the extract is another way of telling that it is based in Victorian London because there is the sound of horse shoes on cobblestone and the sound of wooden wheels turning and rolling over cobblestone roads.  The music in the extract is quite fast this helps build up the tension when Holmes is running.  It probably makes the audience think will he get there in time to rescue the girl and stop lord blackwood or will the Lord succeed.

Robin Hood

The 2010 film Robin Hood is definetly an action and adventure film because within the first nine minutes of it there is already a fight scene.  The action scene in this film is typical for the time period it is set but not for films that are based now or in the future because in this scene they are using medieval weapons such as swords, crossbows, bows and arrows and battering rams.  Instead of films based now where people would probably use more deadly and bigger weapons such as guns and tanks.

In this extract from the film the hero is also met, Robin Hood.  He is the typical hero in this first part of the film a man who fights for the good, right and a man who would risk his life for the inocent.  Him fighting for the good and right is shown by him battleing under the command of the King of England.  Then he shows that he is a man willing to risk his life for the inocent is when I'm guessing a friend gets caught in the gate of the French castle and he runs forwards through the volley of arrows being shot at him to get him down to saftey.

A second man who could be called the hero is King Richard.  In this extract from the film he is the hero because he is leading the English army in to battle and to victory and unlike cowardly generals he is at the front of his troops.  But later in the film he could be called the bad guy because in the text which appears in the extract it says how he is plundering his way to Britain.

This first scene I belive trys to makes the audience feel as if they could trust Robin even thought they know later that he is seen as the bad guy in the eyes of the law he is still a trustworthy man.

Austin powers

The part of the Austin power film Gold member we had to watch was the first four minutes of where the film has gotten Tom Cruise to play Austin Powers in a spoof film opening for a film about Austin Powers directed by Steven Spielberg.  All ready in the first four minutes the film has combat scenes in it with a helicopter chasing after a woman on a motorbike and Tom Cruise shooting the helicopter with machine guns.  Those first four minutes also have speed and motion in them because there is a fast car, a helicopter and a motorbike.  All chasing after one another.

It kind of has a stereotypical secret agent a man who can get the girl straight away but saying that it then it doesn't show stereotypical secret agent by the secret agent being Austin Powers a crazy hippy from the 60's.  In my mind a stereotypical secret agent is not a man wearing glasses, an all blue outfit which is a coat and trousers and weird looking cufflinks.  No I see a man wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a black bow tie.  But I guess that is what makes Austin Powers so different.

Also meet in the first four minutes is a stereotypical bad guy wearing a grey suit and holding a cat.  In my mind that is what I picture when I think of a stereotypical bad guy.  Someone wearing a suit which is grey or white and holding an animal.