Using, developing and challenging conventions of a

BILLBOARD

Two Step Flow Model

The primary audience of Leicstyle would be the opinion leaders to start the two step flow model. They will create their own opinion on the magazine through the main product itself and the marketing campaign behind it, including the billboard, and due to the audience being upper classed, they have more power and opportunity to share their opinions, as well as being active in formulating them. Marx would argue with this statement saying that in sharing the ideologies of the magazine about success and luxury, they aren't being ‘wise’, they are just promoting and lifestyle which benefits them. From this, they will promote the magazine through the use of word of mouth due to it actively accessing the audience to social interaction. From this, other secondary audience members would link themselves to the opinion leaders views and interpretations of the brand itself and the genre. This is massively beneficial because it attracts the upper class people to read the magazine and the attraction of living a more healthy and worthy lifestyle which links to the audiences aspirational audience profile, thus creating a larger brand identity. The opinion leaders will achieve the social interaction sense of the magazine and pass the ideologies on to the passive audience.

Hegemony

Hegemony can be applied to my billboard to the product creating representations that appeal to my audience of the ideal and perfect lifestyle that everyone wants to achieve. There is a dominant ideology coming from my magazine and its campaign that enforces the ‘perfect lifestyle’ that families are trying to achieve, specifically from my primary A-B income bracket females who are stereotypically stay at home mothers who look after themselves and their family. Through this, women do not question the distraction of being encouraged to stay at home. However, this could be a negative to the magazine due to it creating a representation of a reality that isn’t actually real. The content is quite personal and singular, for example going to get your nails done or a yoga class, they are things you do for yourself which will appeal to the audience as they will want to achieve escapism and freedom when reading the magazine.

Culture Industry

I can apply the Culture Industry theory to my billboard due to the billboard being used as a marketing technique to sell the magazine. The image used is bold and the audience are able to associate themselves with it due to it being Old John which is a well known landmark in Leicestershire to most citizens. It will stand out due to the billboards being placed in commercial areas such as traffic cross roads in Loughborough, people will notice it more and see the beauty in the image which will lure them into buying the magazine. They will notice the billboard due to the image rather than the more important problems like the division of power in society. As well as this, the image used on the billboard represents traditionalism, rather than challenges it which is closer to the audiences ‘true needs’, according to Adorno.

Mulvey’s Male Gaze

The concept of Mulvey’s male gaze is how an audience view someone presented. It can be looked at in three ways, how men look at women, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women. My billboard can have this theory applied massively to it due to there being a female model doing a yoga pose just off centre of the image. The primary audience are attracted to the billboard as they aspire to look like the model and become that flexible, which will make them want to purchase the magazine, this is the model being in the female gaze. On the other hand, I actively challenge the male gaze due to using a silhouette of the woman, which desexualises her. The women is also in the male gaze with the secondary audience of the male, they will see the magazine advertised on the billboard poster and stereotypically find the women yoga model attractive due to her being flexible, which may want the wives of the husbands to buy the magazine so the female can read and aspire to please the male.