Introduction to Advertising

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) How does the Marmite Gene Project advert use narrative? Apply some narrative theories here.

The Marmite Gene Project advert uses narrative to play into the idea that it is a controversial product, utilising Levi-Strauss' binary opposition through the slogan 'You love it or you hate it' to push the identity of the brand in the cultural zeitgeist and also in this case as an action code (Barthes) to prompt audiences to go to Marmite's website and take part in a study with a Gene Test Kit. 

2) What persuasive techniques are used by the Marmite advert?

The most obvious persuasive technique used is the slogan of 'love it or hate it'. It also uses emotional appeal by tying Marmite back to the consumers' identity.

3) Focusing specifically on the Media Magazine article, what does John Berger suggest about advertising in ‘Ways of Seeing’?

John Berger, in his seminal book Ways of Seeing, suggested that "All publicity works on anxiety". Advertising seeks to make us dissatisfied with our present selves and promotes the idea that we can buy our way to a better life. 

"Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell. The image then makes him envious of himself as he might be. [...] The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others."

4) What is it psychologists refer to as referencing? Which persuasive techniques could you link this idea to?

We refer, either knowingly or subconsciously, to lifestyles represented to us (through the media or in real life) that we find attractive. We create a vision of ourselves living this idealised lifestyle, and then behave in ways that help us to realise this vision. 

5) How has Marmite marketing used intertextuality? Which of the persuasive techniques we’ve learned can this be linked to?

In 2007 an 18-month, £3m campaign featured the 1970s cartoon character Paddington Bear. These adverts continued the ‘love it or hate it’ theme, but also incorporated nostalgic elements that appeal to the family member with responsibility for getting the grocery shopping done. Paddington Bear is shown trading his well-known marmalade sandwiches for Marmite sandwiches. He is shown enjoying the taste, while others are repelled by it. The ads are designed to encourage more people to use the spread in sandwiches.

6) What is the difference between popular culture and high culture? How does Marmite play on this?

Popular culture can be defined as a subculture that is shared by everyone or the mass of the society, whereas high culture can be defined as a subculture that is shared by the upper class of the society. Royal Warrants of Appointment are acknowledgements to those companies that provide goods or services to the British royal family; since 1840, this approval has been used to promote products, with a warrant entitling them to use the strapline ‘By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen’ alongside the royal crest. Unilever has spoofed this approach, with the Ma’amite series of advertisements, typifying the irreverent nature of their product – breadsticks form a crown and the Queen’s corgi dogs replace the lion and unicorn. The motto ‘One either loves it or hates it’ is a delightful comic conjoining of the familiar product slogan and the Queen’s idiosyncratic speech.

7) Why does Marmite position the audience as ‘enlightened, superior, knowing insiders’?

Postmodern audiences arguably understand that they are being manipulated by marketing. They understand the conventions that are being deployed and satirised. Postmodern consumers are simultaneously aware that they are being exploited, yet also prepared to play the game. Postmodern consumers get the joke and, in doing so, they themselves may become promotional agents of the product through word-of mouth.

8) What examples does the writer provide of why Marmite advertising is a good example of postmodernism?

Postmodern advertising, like the postmodern humour of programmes like Life Is Short, may transgress boundaries of taste in order to make audiences question notions of what is real and of value in society and so in the advertisements this is shown through the #Marmite neglect, Marmite’s 2003 ad featuring Zippy from the children’s television programme Rainbow, Unilever’s campaigns admit that not everyone will want to buy their product. Companies normally try to maximise their potential consumer-audiences, so to admit that this is a targeted niche product might seem to be against conventional advertising wisdom.