Reception theory

1) What are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings for the RBK 50 Cent advert?

Preferred:

50 cent is inspiring them to make their life better as 50 cent grew up in a rough neighbourhood and is now a successful rapper. This is encoded in the text via the quote in the top right had corner which suggests the reader to make the most of what they have now and work hard to improve their life.

Negotiated:

Although it is true that hard work can improve your life situation, it may be glorifying/exploiting people living the same type rough neighbourhoods that 50 cent grew up as they are selling their sports product to the underprivileged with connotations of success.

Oppositional:

RBK are exploiting people living in rough neighbourhoods by presenting 50 cent as a figurehead to them - 50 cent raps about his rough life often this demographic appeals especially to him - and they are also associating black people with these rough neighbourhoods. RBK are selling their sports product with the idea that they can be like 50 cent.

2) What are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings for the advert of your own choice that you analysed for last week's work?

Preferred:

Heinz makes the best ketchup in the world. The use of tomato slices is also a showcase of how their ketchup is made with 100% organic tomatoes.

Negotiated:

Heinz ketchup may be the best in the world but this advert displays their high ego and also shows off their dominance (almost a monopoly) over the ketchup market.

Oppositional:

Heinz ketchup is not the best and they are lying. Other brands of ketchup are much better - ketchup is also unhealthy because of its high fructose corn syrup content and the use of tomato slices to present the product as organic and, by connotation "healthy", it is misleading. This is especially evident as kids are a large chunk in the consumer market of ketchup.

3) How useful is Reception theory when analysing media products? 

I think that reception theory is very useful when analysing media products. This is because adverts can have different interpretations depending on the type of audience that is viewing the media product. Therefore, it is important to consider if audiences may have negative interpretations to a media product that may not be obvious to the creators of said product in order to avoid potential backlash. For example, the 50 cent advert may be seen as motivational in the eyes of the advert's designers, however consumers of the advert may see it as glorifying life in a rough neighbourhood. To avoid this, advert designers could run surveys on people who haven't seen the advert before and ask them what their interpretation is.