My media product challenges conventions of real lipstick ads in several ways: 1) It portrays men using lipstick to reflect changing gender norms. 2) It avoids objectifying models and focuses on the lipstick itself rather than physical appearance. 3) It includes older women to challenge ads only targeting young women. 4) It uses different ethnicities to show lipstick's appropriateness and acceptance. 5) It challenges repetitive outfit/background conventions through consistent white outfits and color-coordinated backgrounds.

1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Rosie Jenkins

2. What is advertising?
Advertising takes many forms to
promote various mediums of
business products. Therefore it
ultimately acts as communication
between the manufacturer and the
consumer. Advertising can either be
audio or visual when marketing and
this employs an openly sponsored
message to promote or sell the
product to the target audience
which can be very broad. The
exterior of the advert acts as a
visual imagery of the product
attracting and appealing to the
audience to consume the product.
Poster Magazine ad TV adverts
Billboard Radio adverts
When researching about advertising, I had to take in what sells and what doesn’t. This allowed me to understand how
to portray my product and in which ways I am able to appeal to an audience. Advertising has many rules also such as
ASA and CAP – in reference to this, I had to understand what I could illuminate in this advert and what I couldn’t.
Following rules for my advert was difficult but this provided a guideline when creating my production.

3. The task in which I fulfilled included the making of two adverts, a tv sponsorship and a radio
advertisement. To begin or start, I had to create an idea for my advert I went along the lines of make up,
accessories etc. and decided on doing a gender neutral lipstick. This idea formed around the fact that
society has taken a step forward into accepting different norms and values for both genders – including
the idea that male individuals can also express themselves freely through makeup and it no longer only
revolves around the actions of female wearers. My adverts generally reflect and develop the conventions
of real media products – I was inspired and influenced by ‘Rimmel London’, ‘Sleek’ and different ‘Avon’
adverts as most I previously researched followed a talking heads and realistic form. I had to on go research
that would help form the basis for creating and idealising my Lipstick adverts and sponsorship. As
mentioned before, I aimed to create my product for both male and female and thus this led to me
researching different adverts that would portray men as involved as women. I think my product
challenged the codes and conventions of most Lipstick adverts as they don’t all consider different
ethnicities and different genders. Many lipstick adverts in which we as a modern audience watch will have
model like white women flaunting down a walk way with focus on their lips. I tried to reject this idea as I
didn’t want the whole advert to be focused on not the lipstick but the overall appearance of the
actor/actress – as this is a makeup product I genuinely don’t feel as if this is needed as this addresses the
idea that there is very strong opinions on the health and physique of women – not only portraying the
product as wanted but also objectifying the female through the illumination of her figure.

4. I have included screenshots from my advert 1 to portray the ways in
which I have challenged and developed the codes and conventions
of real media products – compared to other makeup adverts we
don’t see the actress/actor applying the lipstick onto the plain lips
first – instead we already see the lipstick on their lips, this doesn’t
prove to us the quality and promises the advert is illuminating
instead it avoids showing us the raw application of the lipstick. I
have also included a glitter background worked on a green screen
usually adverts will work on a moving background – initially in a
lighted studio that gives more of an unnatural feel.
The advert influences in which I took inspiration
for my first advert was that of the ‘Rimmel
London’ advert of which Rita Ora features within.
This advert used shots from a medium close up,
with a colour background of which I first created
however I changed the background wallpaper to
a more glitter effect. I created an idea board of
which I had different make up advert cut outs so
I could create ideas for my own advert.

5. In which ways does my product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of
real media products?
Throughout my production, I have aimed to use a realistic form as I am selling lipstick – by creating an advert in this
form I am attracting the audience in a realistic way and being truthful about the product I am advertising. In no way am
I fantasising the quality of the product nor lying to my target audience. My actors/actresses provided are the
embodiment of realism as they portray an everyday appearance to the audience – they are young people such as the
audience as well as women of an older generation who find comfort in lipstick and makeup as a whole. My advert
defies the codes and conventions of real media products as many modern make up adverts are aimed solely at young
women and do not portray the generation of older women. By including a woman of age, I am challenging the
conventions that would ideally be found in the realistic mannerism of already produced products. I have developed the
characteristics of female ‘expected’ to be in makeup adverts by using different ethnicities to show the appropriation
and acceptance that make up has. Make up makes different ethnicities come together, and despite what's going on in
modern society this empowers a lot of women and men. I tend to challenge the codes and conventions of expected
makeup adverts through the characters and mise-en-scene – this is shown through the continuous outfit being white
and the background being in correspondence to the colour of the lipstick, I think this challenges the usual advert as
there is a repetitive feel and a continuous action to reveal the house style within the advert instead of making each
character wear different colours and making the production seem less professional. I went along with the broad
statement of making the actors/actresses wear white as it connotes purity and when putting on the lipstick that gives
them that act of vibrancy that allows them to be whoever and whatever they want to be. It creates them a persona.

6. Cinematography within my advert
Before planning the angles and shots in which I would use for my advert – as I wasn’t that aware of how many
shots I could or would use, I had to research various makeup adverts. The above adverts from ‘Avon’ ‘Mark Lipstick’
and ‘Yves Saint Laurent’ allowed me to understand the shots I would need to use to appeal and portray my product
with. The simplicity of all three shots is that they are close ups or extreme close ups – and as this is conventional
with make up adverts, I aspired to create something similar however with my own twist upon the cinematography.
As seen in my recordings, I have used the above shots however have instructed my actors/actresses to move
forward towards the lens after applying the lipstick as this creates the shot to transform into a extreme close up..
From being a medium close up. The audience in which I could target through these shots would ideally be that of
‘C,D,E’ as lipstick can have a professionalism to it and also a creative side. The psychographics that would find
comfort within my lipstick will most likely be Explorers as they enjoy individualism and they value difference.

7. Applying sound or music to my production
Every advert has a music sound track that instinctively makes you recognise what advert is about to play, when
thinking of this I tried to create my own soundtrack on ‘Garage Band’ using the variety of loops given on the format.
However after listening to it – I didn’t think it was appropriate to my advert as when syncing both the recording and
the sound it appeared.. Almost both solo as they didn’t quite work together. After realising this, I listened to several
‘Rimmel London’ adverts and understood the upbeat, liveliness created behind various cosmetic adverts. After doing
so, I worked along side my music technician –Liam- as mentioned in the group roles. We worked on an upbeat sound
that fit perfectly to my recordings – by using this in every recording I was able to access a house style of continuity
that provided all my sequences to go along side each other and work as one production.
The final sound of which I produced to
work throughout all of my sequences.
I think it illustrates lipstick adverts
perfectly.
This is the first recording of sound
of which I created using the loops
provided on Garage Band,
however I didn’t think it worked
well.

8. Iconography portrayed within my adverts
Though out all my filming, I tried to instruct the actors/actresses to hold the lipstick in the frame to allow product
placement. In many makeup adverts, we see the characters applying the lipstick, foundation or eyeshadow with the
logo and product cover in shot. As I created my own product cover, I thought it would be helpful to show the model
using the product and allowing exploitation on the cover. In all the above images, we can see the iconography that I
have used in my TV sponsorship, my first advert and my second and also on the cover of my radio advertisement.
I think by doing this I have gained a professionalism in portraying and selling my product in the advert of which I am
producing.

9. Other than my TV adverts, I had to divide time and editing into making a TV sponsorship and a radio advert. This
was found as difficult as there aren’t many Lipstick radio advertisements – so therefore I had to imagine what it
would be like listening to a Lipstick advertisement in the car or on any form of radio. The type of research I done for
this was wandering across YouTube and various AMSR videos which are videos with heightened sounds. I looked
into lipstick AMSR videos and found different sounds such as lipstick openings or kissing sounds. This helped me to
develop an understanding of what a radio advert would sound like. As I have not come across any I thought in total,
I am challenging the entire codes and conventions of all radio adverts surrounding the cosmetic fields. Therefore I
recorded a few sounds to put together. However when creating my TV sponsorship, I had to think of a programme
that focused solely on the purpose of the mouth of which I decided on ‘the voice’ shown in the creation and
production below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoa2FpbPdqc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJgLr8L_DIg

10. The question is how in which ways did my product develop,
challenge or use codes and conventions of existing products –
throughout this power point I have shown different ways in
which my product challenges conventions. Overall I think I have
benefited from my research as this has been the manufacturer
and foundation for my products. Each individual product portray
in their own way the way they have challenged codes and
conventions. Each slide plays a significant role in showing the
media products and how they each perform the way they are
supposed to.