Feel, discover and watch:
The television set in transition
T h e c h a n g i n g r o l e o f t h e t e l e v i s i o n s e t f r o m
d o m e s t i c t o t e c h n o l o g i c a l i n t h e N e t h e r l a n d s
i n t h e 2 1
s tc e n t u r y
Television and Cross-media Culture Master Thesis Stéphanie Blaauw, 5733855 Stephanie.blaauw@student.uva.nl First reader: dr. S.C. Sauer Second reader: dr. J.W. Kooijman
Word count: 17.331 June 27th 2014
Abstract
This research investigates in the discourses that surround the television set in the
Netherlands. Is the television set today advertised as domestic or as technological? And was does this implicate about the gendering of the television set? It is claimed that the television set in the 21st century is depicted as masculine, high class and technological in the United States nowadays. This is in opposition to the domestic, low cultural and feminine discourses that were dominant discourses with the introduction of television. This research investigates in the changing role of the television in the Netherlands through the analysis of several advertisements by six brands. The new television set is a marker of high culture, technology and masculinity but creates at the same time an ‘experience’. How is the television set
Keywords: Television set – domestic – technology – masculinity – togetherness -
Translation comic on cover:
”Girls! I’ve bought a LCD Full HD LED TV with LG Home Cinema System!” – “She has given up.”
Table of contents
FOREWORD 5
1. INTRODUCTION 7
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 9
Television as domestic 10
Television as low culture 12
Television as feminine 16
Domestic realm 17
How is the television set depicted as technological? 18
Technology is masculine 19 Situation today 21 2. METHODOLOGY 24 Discourse analysis 24 Semiotic analysis 25 Denotation/Connotation 26 3. ANALYSIS 28 Analysis Samsung 28 Analysis LG 33 Analysis Philips 36 Analysis Bose 38 Analysis Sharp 40
5. CONCLUSION 53
BIBLIOGRAPHY 57
Foreword
Figure 1: still from ‘bouncy balls’commercial for Sony Bravia LCD Television
My ultimate favourite commercial is the Sony Bravia ‘colour like no other’ commercial (figure 1). It is the one with all the bouncy balls in San Francisco, with José Gonzalez’ song Heartbeats playing. The commercial starts with the empty streets of San Francisco on a warm summer day. Slowly the first bright coloured balls bounce downhill, followed by many more. The bouncy balls bring colour into the city, bouncing in superslowmotion down the streets. With the slow, guitar music the whole commercial is drenched in a calm ánd exciting feeling. ‘In such campaigns, HDTV’s are represented as elite objects; as a result, our
potential and actual acquisition of them is meant to confirm our knowing and elite tastes’ (Newman and Levine, 108). Colours have always been a pillar of technical improvement. ‘Even back in the 70s and 80s, colour in ad imagery was a sign of new technology and new perception. [...] But over the last 10 years, the use of colour has become the signal of the benefits of new technology, of being able to see and experience the world as if you have actually discovered colour yourself’ (O’Reilly).
I loved the commercial when it came out, and I loved it even more when the ‘making of’ became available on YouTube. In this video the viewer gets to see that the balls are totally real and no CGI. My fascination with the commercial remained over the years. I
became a fan of José Gonzalez’ music, I’ve managed to get one of the real bouncy balls used in the commercial and, last but not least, I own a Sony Bravia television set.
The commercial is now 8 years old, so over the years I forgot about it a little. Sony made some more commercials with the same idea, about colour (remember the play-doh rabbits and the paint spraying on buildings?) emphasizing the sharpness of the Sony Bravia television sets. When reading Newman & Levine’s book Legitimizing TV I was reminded.
‘[...] [M]arketing discourses can also make more sophisticated appeals to upscale (or aspiring) consumers based on the aesthetic possibilities of the new sets. The national brand advertising for these TV’s regularly associates them with the art world, emphasizing striking, even poetic, visuals and evocative music’ (108).
They point out that this commercial was part of a bigger picture regarding television sets. Television sets are advertised more and more by emphasizing the technical advantages and properties instead of their purpose of showing television programmes. They are marketed as being high-tech, art and high class. In this thesis I will investigate how television sets today are marketed and what this means for the (gendered) discourses that surround the television set.
I would like to use this space to thank a few people who helped me through this thesis. At first this is dr. Sabrina Sauer, my supervisor, who has had a lot of patience with me and my writings. Ricardo Berentsen is thanked for his help with my English writing. In the personal sphere I want to thank my parents Ed and Saskia, who helped me out during the slightly long period of writing the thesis, by pushing me to get to work and giving me loads of moral and financial support. Finally I want to thank San for his help and ‘kicking my ass’ during this period.
1. Introduction
While reading Newman and Levine’s book ‘Legitimating Television’ it became clear that television has evolved from a popular, low culture medium, to a popular, both low and high culture medium. In their seventh chapter they talk about the influence of technology on the appreciation of the television set. By using high-definition technology, digitalized television images and the flat screen, to name a few, television is a more masculine medium (Newman and Levine, 100).They claim in the chapter that advertisements are aimed at men because of the references made to sports and to the technological characteristics of the television set.
While working in an electronics shop, I stumbled upon two sales magazines, one by LG Electronics, and another by Samsung. Both brands make a lot of different electronic devices. With the claims Newman and Levine make in their book still fresh in my mind I picked the two magazines up and took them home with me.
Two things I noticed right away: LG promoted their televisions by showing pictures of very big, light, modern apartments with amazing views and a big flat screen hanging at the wall. No people. Samsung, on the other hand, showed only people. Happy
(heterosexual) couples, canoodling together on the couch, watching, presumably, a television.
These are two totally different approaches to selling a television set. But most interestingly, both LG and Samsung did not show any television shows or a still from an actual television programme on the television they promoted. In the LG magazine, the television was an art object. It could have been replaced with high class (expensive) art and the picture of the apartment would look just as modern, bright and rich as before. In the Samsung magazine the focus is on the users and viewers of the technological devices only. People on couches, who are promoting being together (togetherness, remember that term!) by the television set.
The television set is subordinate to both the apartment itself, it’s a part of the high class lifestyle, it fits the high culture, modern way of living. The television is also subordinate to the closeness of people, it brings them together, but the television set is not the important part of the whole watching television activity. The important aspect is people being close together, showing their happy, loving and caring moments. The implication is that this might be caused by the television set, but the set itself seems to be not very important. The effect of television is more important here, according to this promotion by Samsung.
‘Togetherness’, a term coined by Lynn Spigel, deals with this idea around the television set that brings the family together. Samsung is promoting an old fashioned discourse on the television set, while LG carries out a modern, technological, high definition, art discourse. Just as Newman and Levine claim.
In this thesis I will look into advertisements for television sets. What discourses surround these ads? I will use print media advertisements due to the scarcity of television
2. Theoretical framework
The discourses that surround the television set have changed a lot since its introduction to the living room in the fifties. (Today the television set is still subject to change,not only technically, but also culturally.) The television set was at first approached as low culture, versus the cinema theatre as high culture. Because the quality of the cinema screen was better than that of the early television sets, the cultural value of the television was automatically lower than the cinematic experience.
On the one hand, television is depicted as a form of low culture, something that is bad for you. On the other hand, television is an important part of discourses on family, domesticity and leisure activities. Although this idea of television as negative, low culture and the opposite of intellectuality, since the image quality of the physical screen has improved, the discourse surrounding the ‘big monster’ has changed too, according to Newman and Levine.
They even claim, that the idea of the television as being ‘feminine’ has slowly moved to ‘masculine’. These ideas, of the television set as domestic, low culture and feminine in the 20th century versus the television set as bearer of quality, high culture and masculinity are the main ideas I will focus on. How did this change? Why did this change? And of course, what is the situation today, with the television set technologies even a step further than written about in their book and television in the age of convergence and digitalization?
So the question is:
To what extent has the representation of television shifted from ‘domestic’ to ‘technological’ and what is the consequence for the gendering of the television and the experience of television?
How is the television set depicted as domestic? How is the television set depicted as feminine?
- Looking in to domesticity, flow, low culture How is the television set depicted as masculine?
- Looking into technology aspects, the use of sports and being in control. More serious, masculine, technology has improved, why important? Society today: focused on technology?
How is the television set depicted as technological? - Are technical aspects emphasized or not? Why is technology seen as masculine?
Through my theoretical framework I give a closer look to these questions. By analysing the advertisements for television sets from different brands, I will research how and if the claims made by several theorists will apply for today’s advertisements for television sets and with that, for the television set as a whole. In the conclusion one will find the answer to these questions and the main question.
‘TV and the Internet are good because they keep stupid people from
spending too much time out in public’
Quote by : Douglas Coupland
Television as domestic
In the early days of television, the bunky object was depicted as bindingagentfor family members. The television set functioned like the hearth used to: it was the centre for the family in the living room; ‘television was the great family minstrel that promised to bring Mom, Dad, and the kids together’ (Spigel, 37). Cecelia Tichi also makes the reference to the hearth as central object in de the family room. The television set replaced this object and created a new dominance in the living room. Leisure and everyday life became also centered around the set.
In 1991 Lynn Spigel wrote her book Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Spigel claims that the television set has been represented in
advertisements as catalyst of “togetherness”. With “togetherness” Spigel uses a term by McCall’s magazine (a highly popular women’s magazine in the USA in the 20th century, with a peek of 8.6 million readers in 1960) coined in 1954. In that year the magazine’s new editor coined the ‘togetherness’ campaign alongside some other big changes to the magazine. ‘This strategy, to get men more involved in the household and women more involved in men’s activities was designed, in part, to attract more advertising as well as to boost circulation’ (Endres and Lueck, 221). It should be ‘The Era of Togetherness’ according to McCall’s Magazine. (Vaughn, 2). This coincided with the Golden Age of Television (starting roughly in the early fifties and lasting for a decade). The term ‘togetherness’ shows the importance of family unity, especially in the postwar period that Spigel talks about. The television set became a central object that redefined family relationships. ‘The introduction of the machine into the home meant that family members needed to come to terms with the presence of a communication medium that might transform older modes of family
interaction’ (Spigel, 37). The family ideal is portrayed often in these magazines like McCall’s and the television set is an important part of this ideal: preferably heterosexual parents with two or more children. ‘Each family was to be a perfect kingdom, with a working-hero
husband and domestic-nurturer wife. [...] Automation made the housewife's work easier. [...] Standards had definitely risen. Magazines and books now offered her detailed
instruction in decorating, cleaning, laundering, entertaining and meal planning’ (Vaughn, 2).1 At the same time, the television set divided the family by maintaining sexual and social divisions between family members. It distracts family members from the conversation, it is an individual activity and it creates disagreements between husband and wife on what to watch. This tension, between bringing the family together and prop up the separate gender roles (of course more concrete and familiar than today),created a tension that Spigel sees in different popular discourses on television and the family. Although the television set created a place for the family to come together, at the same time ‘patriarchal authority was undermined [and] television threatened to drive a wedge between family members’ (65); ‘Television not only competes with the father at home, but also disturbs the central values of patriarchal culture by replacing the old authorities with a new and degraded art form’ (ibid.). Television was a clear threat to high culture, patriarchy, masculinity and potentially
1 Read more about the social problems with this forced upon ideal of the postwar home in Susan Vaughn’s article ‘Welcome to the good old days; now back to reality’ in the LA Times of 1997.
dangerous for kids growing up. This is also noticeable in ideas about education, watching too much television is (in The Netherlands) still considered as bad for a child (Crone, p5).
‘My life is a movie and you just tivo’
From: The DJ got us fallin’ in love – Usher feat. Pitbull
Television as low culture
Marshall McLuhan theorized in the beginning of the 1960’s that cinema is ‘high definition’ (Newman and Levine, 100) and television was a less visual medium. The division between these two media has contributed to the different validation of the two as ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture. This can be seen in television studies also. Where film studies is dominated by terms as ‘gaze’ and the screen of cinema is often referred to as ‘the brain’ (for example by Patricia Pisters and her Deleuzian film-philosophical approach in her work, or Laura Mulvey and her famous ‘male gaze’ in film) television is dominated by terms as ‘glance’ and ‘flow’. Terms that indicate the triviality of television itself, the idea of the viewer as ‘couch potato’.
Though these ideas are out-dated and criticized, the notion of television as unimportant, low culture and low quality is still an issue.
According to Raymond Williams ‘technological determinism’ dictates a monocausal
relationship between the television set as technology and the supposed negative effects of the television. Technological determinism is a theory that a society’s technology determines the values of the culture of that society. It draws upon two beliefs: technology itself follows a predictable, independent and traceable path, regardless of society, politics (laws, rules, taxes) or cultural influence. And technological development changes society, it would be the determining factor of social change (Bos, 12). The latter implicates that in a
techno-mediated society, human beings have no or barely influence in that society, because technology determines the path. The technological determinism approach is often rejected by scholars who support social constructivism, a view oppositional to technological
determinism.
An example of how society and technology shape each other is the mobile telephone. Though in the very beginning of the transportable phones people found the
mobile phone odd and even ridiculous, because they could use the telephone in their homes. Nowadays, the mobile phone can do almost anything and it is more or less accepted that people use it all the time. The original phone invented by Alexander Bell was originally created for deaf people. It was later marketed for businessmen, but largely used by women for ‘women talk’ (Bos 23). The phone did not change, but society adapted it to its own needs. This way of looking at the adaptation of technology in society is a social constructivist way, where society and technology shape each other. This example also shows how women were initially excluded of high technical feats.
The television, on the other hand, was originally not depicted as technological, but as domestic, with a bonding (emotional and social) purpose (togetherness). The role and meaning of the television set should be looked at within the meaning of society and culture (social shaping or social constructivism). Social constructivism of technology, abbreviated to SCOT, is a term defined by Wiebe Bijker and Trevor Pinch in 1987 and derives from the idea that social groups and culture apply meaning to technology. Spigel and many others did research on television from a media-archeologic approximation. Media archaeology is not an official academic discipline, but is getting more and more attention and scholars who are teach and use media archaeology for their research. Media archaeology is a field of study where the focus is on the recurring elements of media and media use in history. Media archeology investigates in the social and cultural issues that repeatedly come back with the introduction of a new technology or a new media form. Archaeology suggests delving into the history, which is partly true. In Parikka's book What is Media Archaeolgy Jussi Parikka shows that there is no clear definition of this approach. Parikka explains how Michel Foucault was one of the first to explain how archaeology can be used for research and how he explains archaeology; ‘digging into the background reasons why a certain object, statement, discourse, or […] habit is able to be born and be picked up and sustain itself in a cultural situation’ (Parikka 6). Friedrich A. Kittler used Foucault’s ideas for media studies. He uses Foucaults method and more technical objects of study and explained how media technology should be read in a similar way; ‘focusing in particular on how it was created and made accessible in certain settings?’(Raw, 163). According to Parikka, media archaeology is a hybrid discipline (Strauven 63).
Erkki Huhtamo is also one of the founders of media archaeology in its present form. He describes how the media archaeological approach has two main goals: study the
recurring elements in the development of media culture and deepen how these are connoted with different media technologies such as the television set:
[…] first is the study of the cyclically recurring elements and motives underlying and guiding the development of media culture. Second is the "excavation" of the ways in which these discursive traditions and formulations have been "imprinted" on specific media machines and systems in different historical contexts, contributing to their identity in terms of socially and ideologically specific webs of signification. (Huhtamo, 5)
The focus of media archaeology is thus on the repeated elements and motives in the description of historical development, instead of the chronological way (Crone 13). Media archaeologists claim that media technology should be studied within the historical context, where the object (here the television set) and its form, function and meaning is being formed within a social and ideological network of meaning (ibid.). So media archaeologists, just like the social constructivists, resist technological determinism. Media archaeology comes from within media studies and is often used by media scholars. It is a undefined methodology or discipline. Media archaeologists aren’t clear and don’t agree on what media archaeology actually is, so most articles and books on the concept of media archaeology are about the debate what media archaeology is and how to define it.
SCOT derives from the field of Science and Technology studies, a different field of study than Media studies that derives from sociology, a social science. Though, both approaches decline technological determinism and both claim that (media) technology should be studied and explained by looking ‘within a social and ideological network of meaning’ (Crone 13) or by
‘understanding how that technology is embedded in its social context’ (Girard and Girard 259).
Spigel describes how the television set became a prominent technological object in the living room. Unlike the technological determinism tradition, Spigel describes the bonding qualities of the television and does not describe the technological object as destiny. How did television fit in the American culture of that time and how was it esteemed? Instead of looking at the technological object itself, the much more important part of these kind of
studies is looking at the discourses surrounding the phenomena ‘television’, also before its arrival.
Before television even existed, there were already loads of opinions about the ‘window to the world’. In the Netherlands it became very clear that television would be very influential, even more than radio. Because of this expected impact the medium would have on society, the medium was initially placed under the responsibility of the government. Crone sees here how the government took the role of ‘The Guardians’, a term by Cecelia Tichi that she uses for the parents in the case of the arrival of the television set in the American home. Tichi describes the ambiguous identity of the television in her book The Electronic Hearth. Also here it is clear that the television set is seen as an intruder in the peaceful place called the Home. Television and family have an ambiguous relationship, where children are The Innocents, parents are The Guardians and at the same time The Experts. The television itself can both be the Corruptor or the Illuminator. This ambivalence, the television set as embodiment of good as well as bad, is reflected in most studies on the beginning of the television era.
This is a common process when new technology presents itself, with every new medium; there is a fear for this novelty. The idea that technology is destiny and inescapable also creates a notion of ‘fear of technology.’ This fear is traditionally connected with
femininity, just as mass culture and passivity.
Spigel talks about the television set in the American suburbia in the post war era:
“While television was popularly represented as promoting family togetherness through the family-circle motif, unifying the family around the television instead of the hearth, it was also represented as posing problems for the middle-class ideals of the period, eliciting bad behavior in children, undermining patriarchal authority and underscoring the sexual and social division of space within the home.” (Sharp, 283)
But the television set has always been an ambiguous object. On the one hand it created a notion of togetherness and worked together with the dominant cultural values of that time. On the other hand, the television was an indicator of low culture, passiveness and laziness.
This idea, the television as bad and monstrous is something that comes back in different cultures and countries. In the Netherlands, the television set was in the beginning also referred to as ‘the monster’ (Crone 111). Still, the television set was a status symbol, not everyone could afford one. When there was a show, people would come together in the house of the television owner, dressed up as if they were going to the cinema or theatre.
Vincent Crone describes this aversion and at the same time fascination in his book The Vulnerable Viewer (in Dutch). He shows the ambiguous ideas on television. On the one hand, television is considered ‘bad’ for people, according to countless studies in the psychological sphere, investigating in the (mostly negative) effects of watching television2. But at the same time, the television set started out as a bearer of togetherness ánd high-class culture. This created automatically a sphere of togetherness. In the early days of Dutch television, it was part of the television experience to watch the few shows that existed, together with friends, family and neighbours.
‘When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having
close relationships’
Quote by: Andy Warhol
Television as feminine
Television and television studies have also been undervalued because of television’s connection to the feminine according to Andreas Huyssen. Because television was a
domestic object and a spreader of mass culture, the television set has been connected with femininity for a long time. Mass culture is ‘somehow associated with women while real, authentic culture remains the prerogative of men’ (Huyssen in Spigel 61). Television was a threat to masculinity. In his study about hi-fi sets and television sets in the same period, Keir Keightley claims that television and hi-fi sound systems are conceptualized by binary
oppositions: gender, taste and technology. Important here is the notion of who is in control. According to Keightley, the hi-fi set is especially a marker of taste because ‘the hi-fi fan
2 For examples, authors and research see Vincents Crones book De kwetsbare kijker (in Dutch) or Television
violence and its effects on young children by Betty Jo Simmons, Kelly Stalsworth and Heather Wentzel.
listened to personally-owned recordings that could be assembled into a home music library in the same way books – key markers of legitimated taste – could’ (Keightley 241). Although for this research the investigation in hi-fi sets is not further drawn upon, it is an interesting approach of the whole technology/gender/culture debate. Keightley claims that the hi-fi set has to be seen as the technological opposite of broadcast television. The idea of being in control, making an active choice is strongly connected with masculinity and the notion of the male as being the acting subject. Whereas television, with key-terms as flow, broadcasting and glance is a feminine medium. The viewer is passive and has no control whatsoever. To-be-controlled is associated with femininity, with the woman as object in opposition to the male subject. The Cartesian object/subject dualism places an object opposite of the acting subject. The object is the studied case, - the observed – and is studied by the subject, - the observer.
‘You don’t own a tv? What’s all your furniture pointed at?’
From: Joey Tribbiani in Friends episode ‘The one in Barbados part 1’
Domestic realm
The home, and especially the living room is to be believed a harmonious, peaceful and safe environment. This cultural embedded notion dates from 19th century where work and leisure time were divided according to ideals of middle class domesticity. The public sphere was a place of labour, of being productive, being active. It was a masculine sphere where (mostly) men worked hard. The home environment was one of consumption, relaxation and leisure (Spigel 73). Although this ideal is an American, middle class ideal projected on spatiality, it is not limited to the United States. Also in other countries such as the USSR and The Netherlands this division can be seen. Where in the USSR the fear for ‘byt’ (everyday home life) is a marker of how leisure time is seen as threatening and bad. In the
Netherlands, the arrival of the ‘window to the world’ was part of a different discussion; the technical part of television, the sets, was ready, but there wasn’t anything to air. Because the Netherlands was a very pillarized country, there were debates on what to air. In the meantime, the television sets didn’t sell because there was nothing to show and there was nothing to show, because nobody owned a television set.
Later, when more and more people owned a television, the questions about the negative effect of television popped up. Especially children were vulnerable viewers who had to be protected, such as Cecelia Tichi describes.
In opposition to cinema, the female viewer is acknowledged in television, while in cinema the aimed viewer was masculine. Women in film were mainly there for their ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’, a term famously coined by Laura Mulvey. This idea, of mass culture to be low culture and feminine is a dormant idea imprinted on mass culture throughout history. ‘It is indeed striking to observe how the political, psychological, and aesthetic discourse around the turn of the [20th] century consistently and obsessively genders mass culture and the masses as feminine, while high culture, whether traditional or modern, clearly remains the privileged realm of male activities’ (Huyssen, 3).
‘The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called
television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent’
Quote by: Steve Jobs
How is the television set depicted as technological?
Newman & Levine note a different trend in the 21st century. In the book Legitimating Television they describe in several chapters, how and why television cannot be seen as low culture anymore. In the sixth chapter ‘The Television Image and the Image of Television’ the authors explain how the improved technologies in television sets such as HD screens and flat screen tv’s, establish a new standard. That of the television as legitimated and pulled out of the cultural degradation. ‘By legitimating the television itself, flat-panel sets articulate a fresh identity for the medium, revising its class and gender associations by emphasizing affluence and masculinity. [...] [L]egitimation functions to reinscribe the same class and gender hierarchies that have worked historically to perpetuate television’s cultural
degradation’ (Newman and Levine 101). Newman and Levine claim that with the arrival of thinner, bigger television screens, the quality and validation of the medium itself improved. With High Definition television sets, the television became a more sophisticated medium, closer to the higher valued cinema screen. With the focus on the technological
television set has become a worthy object. Important to note is that this acceptance of television as a legitimate medium/platform/object, is based on the previously discussed discourses on television’s past academic, cultural, and industrial associations to juxtapose the current trends.
With the start of the 21st century (what Newman and Levine call the “convergence era”) the
television steps away from the association with mass culture and femininity.
In the chapter on the technological part of television Newman and Levine explain how these television sets are not only technologically improved, but how this improvement gains legitimacy. Through these clearer and bigger screens (High Definition) the television set is more appealing to masculine consumers they are the target group by television
manufacturers. With the focus on technological aspects of these television sets and their high definition and wider screens, the television sets are ‘represented as elite objects’ (108).
This is also shown in programming. With the arrival of wide screen television sets, slowly programs started to adapt to this new size that was associated with cinema screens. This starts with quality drama shows such as The Sopranos. The latest programs that change are reality shows, soap operas and daytime talkshows. Shows that are known for their quantity and inexpensive ways to make. ‘Forms of programming that occupy lower levels of the cultural hierarchy would be later to move to high-definition and, when they did, the move was typically framed as a form of newfound distinction. Reality TV, the most culturally degraded programming of the 2000s, was unsurprisingly slower than any other format of popular TV to be shot and aired in HD’(126). Daytime television and soap operas are
traditionally associated with housewives and low culture. This indicates how new technology and quality belong together, with the lowest quality programmes being the very last to switch to high definition and thus higher cultural value. Wide screen and high definition are qualities known for cinema for decades and with the adaptation of these markers of quality, television sets are associated with movie theatres (115).
Technology is masculine
Though the television set was a ‘feminine’ object, the distinction between consumer and producer is important here. Technology and femininity only existed in the domestic realm, women were the consumers. ‘Feminist technology studies highlighted not only how gender
can shape technology but also how the design and/or use of technologies can constitute gender identities and relations’ (Lohan and Faulkner 321). Cooking and cleaning was technology made easy approachable for women. Gender and technology cannot be taken apart from each other (Oldenziel, 2003, 436). ‘From the perspective of social construction, gender, like technology, is also regarded as a product of social construction’ (Lu and Liu, 2). Just like social constructivism goes against technological determinism, it obviously also opposites to biological determinism. That technology is the domain of masculinity is no surprise. But, although this relationship maybe is addressed as and seems natural, it is not. According to several studies, the relationship between technology and masculinity is culturally determined. ‘During the late nineteenth century, the rise of mechanical and civil engineering increasingly became markers of technology and created a male professional identity in which white, male engineers with educational qualifications and the promise of managerial positions have been conceived of elite with exclusive rights to technical expertise’ (Oldenziel, 1999, 25). In her much used and cited book ‘Making Technology Masculine’ which is about the industrial revolution Oldenziel describes how the relationship between masculinity and technology is established. She states that the male technophilia is learned by the upcoming consumer society.
With the focus on technology in advertising the HD television sets, the television is marketed as appealing to a masculine public. As stated before, technology is a cultural marker of masculinity. By emphasizing these properties of the product, the television set is advertised as being a masculine product.
To promote the new, technical, big, sleek, thin and bright television sets, the
television sets are advertised with sports, - which is claimed to be a ‘masculine’ genre within television genres – video games and movies (especially blockbuster action films). ‘It
naturalizes the link between HDTVs and the masculinized realms of feature films, hard-core gaming, and professional spectator sports, as if these are the inevitable and exclusive purposes of television’ (Newman and Levine 106). Thus, by advertising these new television sets with sports, film and video games, there is a distance created between the broadcasting status quo and the new televisual era, that Newman and Levine call the ‘convergence era’. At the same time, there is a distance created between masculine and feminine, by
emphasizing un-TV-like (107) uses of the new television set. These television sets are not promoted through broadcast tv shows such as talkshows, soap operas, sitcoms or cartoons
but with digital content such as video games or movies. Television is clearly no window to the world anymore, but an escapist screen in the living room.
Technology and spectacle are the two important main focus points of the HD and 3D television set advertisements. Spectacle is used to show how more spectacular a spectacle becomes with a new television. To emphasize this spectacular experience, sports (a spectacle event in itself) and movies (action movies, with a high spectacle content) and video games (high definition content and spectacular action and requires an active user of the television set) are used to emphasize these qualities that the new television has.
The technological determinism tradition which is discussed earlier is a way of thinking that also creates a notion of ‘fear of technology.’ Fear of technology is traditionally connected with femininity. By looking into advertisements for television sets a few years ago, Marusya Bociurkiw discovers that ‘contemporary narratives on digital technology echo older discourses on progress’ and with that she also notes that ‘anxieties about [this] technological change have frequently been accompanied by gendered anxieties and embodied representations’ (538). The cultural notion of technology being masculine and fear of technology being feminine is explained by several authors. ‘In a culture in which technical competence is an integral part of masculine gender identity’ (Newman and Levine 104) and ‘advances in technology are depicted as markers of masculinity’ (Borciukiw 540) technology is an important and significant part of the masculine ideal. This is important to notice, because television sets are often portrayed as technical tour.
‘
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then
there'd be peace
’
Quote by: John Lennon
Situation today
To investigate the discourse on the television set in the era of 3D and Smart TV, these theories and ideas on the higher cultural valuation of high tech objects and the relation with masculinity on the one hand and low culture, low tech and femininity on the other hand, will be used to look at advertisements of the latest television sets. Newman & Levine claim that the television set today broke with the traditional discourses on television, of television
as signifier of bad taste, low culture, femininity, big monster, binding agent in the family sphere and – at the same time – as family splitter.
Bociurkiw argues that digital television brings the family together again, while before the television set was an object that divided the living room area. This is the opposite of what Newman and Levine claim, that television sets of today aren’t advertised as bringer of togetherness, but as bringer of a technological spectacle. As high class object, with cinematic features, masculine qualities.
So, how can these different ideas on the television set be seen in contemporary advertisements and commercials for modern television sets? In their book Legitimating Television (2012) Newman and Levine write at the end of the chapter ‘The TV Image and the Image of TV’:
The quality of the content offered to maximize the potential of the new technology distinguishes television by seeming to improve on the possibilities and achievements of earlier times, opening TV up well beyond traditional forms of broadcasting into deeper convergence with movies and video games. Future developments in 3D and TV -internet convergence – such as televisions or peripheral devices bringing web apps and streaming video to living room sets – might nudge the image of the television further into a new identity intensifying and going beyond the developments we have seen so far (128).
Although the book is from 2011, the technological developments already overtake their conclusions. Smart TV and 3D TV are becoming more and more popular and improved. In retail, between 2010 and 2013 the share of these television sets has grown from just one 3D television in the stores to 40 different types. The same is true for Smart TV.
By analysing different advertisements in detail I will explore the intended role of the television set today. Are television sets advertised by exaggerating their technical aspects or on the togetherness that was the main focus point in the early days of television? Or are these 3D and Smart TV sets promoted in a totally different way?
Of course, at this moment, television is in a big transition. Television programmes are still broadcasted but they are also available any moment you want in numerous ways. Does this make television masculine? Or does this make technology feminine? Or maybe both? What do the new television technologies mean for the gendered division described above? Newman and Levine claim that television is masculinized. The fact that the television set is more technological, makes it more masculine. But then you look at the technological object as determination of cultural values and thus at the new television set as bringer of masculinity. The flat screen determines. But can’t it be the other way around? Isn’t it possible, that with new technologies such as 3D and Smart TV, technology is being
associated with the feminine, creating a new paradigm, where technology is made feminine, instead of technology is making an object masculine?
2. Methodology
In this thesis I will analyse advertisements for television sets. What do they promise? Which discourses surround the television set? To do so, I will follow in Spigel’s footsteps. Lynn Spigel looks in her book ‘Make room for TV’ at different social expressions to investigate how the introduction of the television changed domestic culture. She researched advertisements by television companies, ads by other companies that used recognizable television behaviour, women’s magazines and television shows from the fifties. It is based on visual analysis and content analysis.
This research is loosely based on Spigel’s research. But because the corpus is more delimited, the advertisements that will be used will be analyzed in more detail, using a discourse analysis, based on semiotic analysis.
The reason for looking advertisements is because at this moment the television set is going through some technological changes. With Ultra HD screens are much sharper than with Full HD and television sets are getting bigger, thinner and shaped differently3.
Televisions now come with internet access and can be used to use social media or connect between cell phone, tablet or laptop. Most tv’s that are sold nowadays, come with a 3D function. Although only film uses this technique for now, there is hope for the creation of 3D television. These features are relatively new. The only way to discover what is their cultural meaning is to look at the advertisements for these televisions, because the new
technologies are not common part of our culture yet. It is interesting to see how these television sets are placed within our culture and, of course, what are the consequences for gendering the television set. Will these new features be focused on men, women, both or else? What are the discourses on gender and technology in these ads?
Discourse analysis
I will analyse advertisements for television sets by using a discourse analysis. What is the discourse on gender and technology regarding to television sets? To find out, I will look at
3 Some brands have recently shown their television sets with bended screens, which make it possible to look at them from every angle without losing visual quality.
printed advertisements for television sets, building on the research by Spigel. I will use advertisements by various brands: Samsung, LG Electronics, Philips, Sony, Sharp and Bose. Samsung is the ultimate market leader on television sales worldwide, with LG as follow up (Chel, 2013) In the Netherlands Samsung is also the undisputed leader, with LG and Philips in second and third place (Chel, 2013). I will be looking into one advertisement per brand.
Print media is not the only focus of these brands to advertise, but within the television commercials the only television commercial that is aired lately in the Netherlands is one by Samsung that features the same elements as the advertisement by this brand that will be discussed further in this thesis. I do can say about this television commercial that it interestingly enough is mostly seen on Discovery Channel but not at the public broadcasting channels.
Of course I will look into which magazines are chosen to advertise in. This will reveal a little more Another Samsung advertisement features the World Championship Another Samsung advertisement features the World Championship Another Samsung advertisement features the World Championship about how the television sets are marketed. Interestingly enough these advertisements are rare to find in women’s magazines today. They can be found in living magazines, men’s magazines and computer science magazines.
Semiotic analysis
The semiotic analysis is the analysis of signs. Signs can be anything, anything that stands for something else. A sign represents something that is grounded in a culture and gets its meaning by the relation it has with other signs. The method is traced back to Saussure and Barthes, the latter stated the idea of signifier/signified, whereby the image one looks at is the signifier, that represents something else, the signified.
Within advertising, semiotics is very important and used on a daily basis. Advertisers use it to sell their product, by using images and texts that will signify that idea or feeling the advertiser sells. Williamson was the first to analyse advertisements by using semiotics on a close reading level. She did a semiotic analysis on advertisements in 1978 called ‘Decoding Advertisements, ideology and meaning in advertising.’ Here she does an in depth analysis of several (more than a hundred) ads in magazines. Judith Williamson sees advertisements as one of the most important cultural factors moulding and reflecting our everyday life
(Harvey). She sees advertisements as sign systems that operate on a denotative and connotative level (ibid.).
This is why I chose semiotics to look at advertisements. Ads use semiotics to get the message across. ‘Semiotics unravels the processes by which texts and images are
ideologically loaded’ (Stokes 123). The method is interpretive and depends on the researchers own cultural and social knowledge. When using semiotics, ideologies and discourses can be extracted from the text. By looking at signs this closely, discourses on the topic will evidently be more clear. Semiotics breaks down the object of analysis into smaller parts, which are connected to broader discourses (Stokes 123).
Denotation/Connotation
Within semiotics, the concept of denotation and connotation is important. These terms, introduced by Roland Barthes go one step beyond the signifier/signified concept. The denotation of a sign is what it actually is. For example, when you see a Mercedes Benz, the denotation is: car. The connotation for the Mercedes Benz is that it is an expensive car, so it stands for luxury and wealth.
Denotation
When doing semiotic analysis, at first one has to simply, describe what he or she sees. In this case, what can be seen in the advertisements? Details, such as colours, mise-en-scène and what is said about the advertised product all work together.
Although I will be researching the relationship between technology and gender, in the denotation fase in semiotics What do these advertisements say about the television set and gender?
I want to answer this question by answering these subquestions: • What do you see?
• Are there people in this advertisement? o What do they do?
o Are they men, women, children, families? o Are they together?
• Where is the television set placed? • What is said about the television set? • What semiotic elements can be seen? • What do they mean?
• What is the unique selling point the brand claims? • How is this point made?
Connotation
The denotative meaning is the explicit, descriptive meaning of a sign (Schreier 52). The connotative meaning is implicit and culturally ascribed. What is shown? And what is implied? ‘What an advertisement ‘says’ is merely what it claims to say; it is part of the deceptive mythology of advertising to believe that an advertisement is a simply a transparent vehicle for a ‘message’ behind it’ (Williamson 17).
The connotation of a sign lies in the cultural meaning that’s given by the reader of the sign. ‘When we consider advertising, news, an TV or film texts, it will become clear that linguistic, visual and other kinds of signs are not simply to denote something, but also to trigger a range of connotations attached to the sign’ (Bignell 16). Because the connotation of a sign exists of cultural meaning, Barthes explains that it is therefore ideological. The connotation of signs can only exist when the reader of the text (this can be every text) understand the ideology and is familiar with it. What do the connotations from the signs in the
3. Analysis
In this part, various advertisements will be analysed by the use of the methods described in the previous chapter. I have chosen five advertisements by five different brands that are advertised in mostly electronics magazines in 2013 and 2014. The brands are Samsung, Philips, LG, Sony, Sharp and Bose. These advertisements are chosen because they were the most seen advertisements throughout the research.
The advertisements are mostly found in the Turn On Magazine, the magazine that is published by Saturn (electronics store). The focus of Saturn and their magazine is on
technology. ‘Technology is super exciting’, writes the editor Sebastiaan Leemreize (1).’Technology excites your life and in this magazine you can read how’(1). The ads for Samsung, LG, Sharp and Philips were found in this magazine. Of course the fact that this magazine has the core focus on technology, already gives away that the television set is indeed strongly linked to technology. The advertisement for Bose is found in an art and lifestyle magazine called Tableau from 2012. The Sony ad is found in Talkies, which is a ‘luxurious lifestyle’ women’s magazine. These advertisements both come from a magazine with a primarily female target group. The Turn On Magazine is not explicitly targeted at men or women, but aims specifically at the technology fan.
Analysis Samsung
One of the latest printed advertisements of Samsung televisions is to promote UHD TV. Ultra High Definition Television. This ad features a large tv (it looks like 90 inches) and a little girl. The little girl is white, with long blond hair. She represents innocence, and is about to discover the world and all its beauty. She touches the television, which displays a gorilla. It is a close-up of the gorilla and I think this is the silverback, the alpha male of the group. The gorilla stretches his hand out in front of him. With the close-up shot, it looks like he is holding out his hand. This Figure 2: Samsung ad: UHD TV 2013
picture could both be moving or still. Although the television is not 3D, the advertisements suggests the same experience: that one can touch the image, that the image comes out of the screen. This is emphasized by the fact that the little girl touches the television, at the place of the index finger of the gorilla. They touch each other, they discover each other. That is also the tagline in this print: ‘Discover True Detail.’ The word discover is saying that this television has to be discovered. The word discover is connected with adventure (hence the touching of a gorilla) and unfamiliarity.
Discover
Discover, when looked up, means roughly three things:
1.to see, get knowledge of, learn of, find, or find out; gain sight or knowledge of (something previously unseen or unknown)
2.to notice or realize
3. Archaic. to make known; reveal; disclose.
So, discover, means there is something that is unknown or unfamiliar, but, by discovering it, it becomes familiar or known. This girl in the ad discovers both the gorilla, emphasizing the discovery by touching it. At the same time, the advertisement demonstrates how the gorilla is not a real gorilla but a image on a television set. But he appears so close, so realistic, that it has never been so close, so detailed seen before. Although the gorilla is seen as
dangerous, especially for the little girl, in this way, discovering through the television, it is totally safe for her to touch the gorilla and connect with him. With this technology, even things that cannot be seen or experienced in real life, are real and it creates an experience of reality.
Girl vs Gorilla
The gorilla represents danger and recognition at the same time. The gorilla is often used in film as an aggressive dangerous, monstrous ape. At the same time, it is an animal that represents masculinity in extreme ways. To place the gorilla, so large and close up in opposite of the little, white, blond girl creates an extreme opposition. The little girl doesn’t
know much yet, about both the beauty as the brutality of the world. The gorilla represents both: nature and beauty as well as danger and brutality. The gorilla symbolizes masculinity, dominance, fierceness and danger, but at the same time the relationship between gorilla’s and women is an often talked about subject. The duality of the gorilla, being both dangerous and human-like at the same time is an image created by popular culture and media (think about the King Kong movies, for instance). The relationship between the gorilla figure and the innocent (blond, white) woman is one that has been used in (popular) culture very often, of course the most famous example is King Kong where the brute ape takes the blond, beautiful woman to be his mate.
Of course, the gorilla represents wild life and nature. Most of the western civilians won’t see a gorilla in real life, outside of the zoo. The only way to discover this animal in its natural habitat is through media (books, film, television, photography etc.). The use of nature as object of discovering is used often in regard to advertising technological objects, for example cars. Through this piece of amazing technology, you will discover the non-discovered world. Normally you can’t see a gorilla this close, but thanks to the technology of the new Samsung television, you can. The emphasis on technological aspects of the
television set is shown, by the use of extreme non-technological images: a wild gorilla and a little girl. This friction between technological society on the one hand and the pristine of the little girl and the gorilla is what makes this commercial interesting. The technology is made unseen, because the girl isn’t aware of the television set but she only sees the gorilla. This same idea, that television brings the outside inside, unreachable world into your living room, is shown in the next advertisement by Philips.
Connecting
The little girl connects with the outside world. She even touches the television screen, which is quite odd because that screen is one of the few screens left that is not to ‘touch’, in oppose to tablets and smartphones, the other screens surrounding everyday life. But she does. She represents the new generation, being raised with touchscreens and the whole world approachable within just a swipe but she also represents the eagerness of learning, wanting to know. How? By using all senses. She really discovers. The image in this advertisement reminds us of children in the zoo, discovering wild animals (such as the gorilla) behind safety glass.
Technology, no domesticity
Technology is an ambiguous matter in this advertisement. The television set is indeed advertised by its technological advantages (sharper image due to the Ultra HD screen) and this is emphasized by the details that can be seen on the television screen. So although the technological innovation is emphasized, at the same time the technology is being used as just a tool to display the image. Through technology, the experience becomes ‘life like’ and ‘real’.
The emphasis in this advertisement is on technology, but even more on the effect of watching television. The television set creates a safe way to discover the world and the television is both connected to the public space as to the domestic space with the girl being the symbol of domesticity and of course femininity and the gorilla as masculinity and ‘outside’. The inside, however, has nothing to do with the living room or any form of the domestic realm. The television is hung on the wall like a piece of art in a museum. The connotation with high culture is made by this museum like portrayal of the television set.
Getting the television set out of the living room, out of the feminine realm takes the television set out of the discourse of a lower cultural status. The television set is presented outside the domestic sphere and by doing so, the position of the television set is no longer a domestic one but a high culture (technological) one.
Another Samsung advertisement features the World Championship of football. Here the television is placed inside a football stadium. The image of the inside of the stadium is also shown on the television, but on the television we see a football player in a full orange football outfit. The
accompanying text is also in orange and says: “The perfect form of watching the WC” (de Figure 3: Samsung ad: Curved UHD TV, 2014
volmaakte vorm van WK kijken). Here sports are used as marketing tool, which will be discussed in greater detail in the analysis of the Sharp advertisement.
What makes this advertisement still worth mentioning is the fact that the television set is taken out of the living room and put into a public place. This television is literally taken out of the domestic sphere, into the public sphere. Out of the feminine realm, into the masculine. The sports component enhances this, because of the strong relationship between sports and masculinity. But this sport event and the stadium also emphasize the
togetherness that watching sports implies. In a stadium, thousands of people watch the match together. This feeling of togetherness is very important for the experience of
watching sports. ‘Television sports thus not only sparks the attention of extraordinarily large groups of people, but it also makes its viewers feel part of a collective (a national
community)’ (Stauff 3).
The fact that the television set is a ‘curved’ one is also being emphasized by the roundness of the stadium. In this way, the television is not only strongly connected with sports and togetherness, the use of the stadium is also used to emphasize the new technology that is marketed here. So by taking the television set out of the domestic and into the sports realm, it is both masculine and feminine. Masculine because of the emphasis on technology, the public sphere where the television set is placed and the sports reference. Feminine because this sports event creates a feeling of togetherness, which is enhanced by the presence of the stadium.
Analysis LG
‘Nice upgrade’ (Lekkere upgrade)
In this advertisement by LG a man is seen in the left of the frame, carrying boxes with electronic devices. The man is wearing a suit and has his foot on a football. The advertisement is a convergence advertisement, with the focus on the various products LG creates. When buying this television set (a LG Premium TV) you will get a free smart TV (another television set? Yes another television set!) and a video games package, or you get a discount. The fact that one will get another television when buying a television set explains how the television set is not just the one in the living room anymore, although the advertisement does speak about the living room.
Man in suit
The man in the picture creates a very masculine sense to the advertisement. Not just because he is a man, but furthermore because of his
masculine aspects he is portraying. At first he is wearing a grey suit. The suit depicts a certain idea of seriousness, of being an adult (strongly connected with masculinity, in opposition to the childish feminine) and of being the one in control. The suit represents a sense of
sophistication, also because of its strong reference to being a businessman, with trendy red-fuchsia details, the colour of the brand LG. The seriousness is being broken by the football, which creates a ‘boyish’ young attitude. But this part also enhances the masculinity in the way that sports are being connected with masculinity (and in the Netherlands, football especially).
The guy is representing hegemonic masculinity through his fashionable and sophisticated look. Hegemonic masculinity, as described by R.W. Connell; ‘Hegemonic masculinity refers to the most honoured or desired masculinity in a society’ (qtd. In Tan 239). In the article ‘The Construction of Masculinity: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Advertisements’ by Yue Tan et. al. there several masculinities portrayed Figure 4: LG ad: Nice upgrade, 2014
in men’s lifestyle magazine advertisements. Based on the image of the ideal male in these magazines, Yuan and Shaw classified the portraying of the hegemonic male in seven categories (Tan 243). Although the research was done in Asia and the United States, the researchers point out that is a worldwide phenomenon; ’Even though the local countries’ cultures moderate the representation of masculinities, the global consumption market and its associated consumer culture are the primary determinants in representations of
masculinity in men’s lifestyle magazine ads’(Tan 237). In this particular ad by LG there is a combination of two, ‘Stern and Sophisticated’ and ‘Trendy and Cool’.
Refined and Sophisticated. With a confident and firm look, the model impresses the viewers as mature and reliable. He is dressed in formal attire (usually suits). He is a man of some age, with wrinkles upon his face. His gaze is focused. He is often a man with a successful career.
Trendy and Cool. Clothes and accessories in the latest fashion, the model is likely to stand in a provocative posture and displays a freedom-loving and rebellious temperament. His facial expression is either numb or aloof, thereby creating a sense of distance between him and his viewers. He often leers at people and assumes the attitude of indifference and scorn. (Tan 239)
This shows how the man in the advertisement is portraying a hegemonic masculinity in a way that is worldwide notable. The Refined and Sophisticated man is worldwide the most popular portraying of masculinity in advertisements, with Trendy and Cool as runner up. In their research, Tan et. al. conclude that the most popular representation of masculinity is the ‘Refined and Sophisticated’ type in Taiwanese, Chinese, and U.S. ads, ‘which emphasizes intelligence, the value of education as well as academic, financial, and occupational
achievement’(Tan 245). This advertisement by LG fits perfectly in the findings done by this researchers.
The man portrays also masculinity by his activeness. He is carrying the (heavy) boxes, he is the active subject. But at the same time, this man plays the role of being an object to be looked at. He does carry the boxes but he is also standing still, gazing in the distance, being an attractive object of desire. Just like Richard Gere stood on the film poster for American Gigolo (Schrader, 1980), a film about the man (instead of the woman) as object of desire.
No television set
This advertisement is the only one where the actual television set is not shown. The set is in one of the boxes the man carries, making the television set part of a bigger technological whole. The emphasis here is on the extra’s that come with the television set and not on the properties of the set itself. There is no explicit link to technology in the image or in the accompanying text. Nothing about 3D functions, Full HD, Ultra HD, Curved, LED, LCD or other technical qualities. This is a television that is not promoted by its technological properties. But the word ‘upgrade’ can be explained as a reference to technology. Upgrade is a term used commonly in computer sciences and actually means ‘to improve’ or ‘to modernise’. Here the word refers to the extra’s that come with the purchase of the LG Premium TV, extra’s that will upgrade the television set, or actually that will upgrade your television experience.
‘Upgrade your living room’
The accompanying text in this advertisement is the only one in the series in this thesis with an explicit link to the living room. The man is immediately connected to this idea of the living room, that will be upgraded, maybe even masculinized, by the television set and the
additional electronics. The slogan actually endorses the idea of the living room as having a lower status before the entrance of this entertainment package.
The ad uses sports to sell this television set, which is part of a larger trend in the selling and advertising of television sets. But the focus on the male consumer is even more emphasized by the extra video games package, because video games are, just like sports, one of the ways to masculinize television sets. This advertisement indeed ‘naturalizes the link between HDTVs and the masculinized realms of feature films, hard-core gaming, and professional spectator sports, as if these are the inevitable and exclusive purposes of television’ (Newman and Levine 106).
Analysis Philips
‘Again crowned for screen quality’ (Alweer bekroond om beeldkwaliteit)
Another advertisement is by Philips. The Dutch lamp manufacturer advertises with winning the price for best ultra HD television set. The television here is also, just like in the
advertisement by Samsung, placed in a grey, concrete looking area. It shows a part of our globe, photographed from space. Highlighting Philips key feature in television, Ambilight, a blue purple glow comes from behind this television set.
3D
Out of the television set flies a baseball/helmet kind of ball with a screen and pixelated blue ‘eyes’ in the visor. It flies around the earth portrait on the screen, out of the television, its path marked by purple stripes indicating the high speed the satellite ball is flying by. The images on screen literally come flying at you, in this way Philips shows that the screen is not just a television screen, but a 3D screen. The 3D function is often emphasized by the word ‘experience’ because with 3D, the images on screen really seem to make contact with the audience, like being in rollercoaster or other real experience.
There are no people in this advertisement. The television is advertised pure by its looks and technological advantages and is emphasizing its outstanding performance by comparing it with space (travel), satellites and being ‘out of this world’. The focus lies on the design of the television set here and not on the purpose. The television set is situated as a designer object. In an abstract, unclear space it is associated with art or design, not situated in the domestic realm. The television set is taken out of the (old fashioned?) living room situation and placed in a futuristic museum-like presentation. Hereby the television set is associated with high culture and high class, by emphasizing the technology and the role of escapism the television set plays. Important in this ad is the emphasis on the recently won price for best product in screen quality. The television is depicted as super slim, fast and bright. All the technological aspects create the ‘ultimate viewing experience’. Again, technology is the most important aspect that is focused on here. In the theoretical
framework masculinity and technology are shown to be strongly related in Western culture. So this implies that the strong focus on high culture and high technical innovation in this advertisement makes this television set ‘masculine.
Analysis Bose
‘According to Bose this is NOT a TV’ (Volgens Bose is dit GEEN TV)
According to this advertisement by Bose, the television set is ‘not a television’. It is much more than ‘just a television set’. With the high definition screen and the surround sound set, the television set is a movie theatre, brought into the living room. Important is the phrase ‘not a television.’ It implicates that a television is of lower quality than what Bose presents
here. The advertisement reassures you, don’t worry, this is not a
television set. It may look like one, but it’s not. It is much more, it is a whole experience brought into your living room. But this is a living room that is radiating sophistication, modernity and a well-stocked wallet. The cat creates a little bit of domesticity and breaks with the clean lines of the furniture. This clean lines and the absence of unnecessary stuff is
important because it refers to the text. It says: ‘No visible speakers’. The television set not depicted as
technological in this way, but the technological aspects of this television set are invisible. The friction between the technological, masculine television set and the domestic, feminine living room disappears by this technology that is not explicitly technological.
This advertisement shows how the cinema experience is still something the
television set aims at. This apparatus aims to get out of the label ‘television set’ because this implicates something lower than this is. It distances itself from television and everything this implicates. This object resonates with theatre. With high class, high quality, high fidelity and high definition. It has a higher status than television in every way, because of the better Figure 6: Bose. According to Bose this is NOT a TV, 2012
