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Essay / Period celebration: Helloflo's analysis of television advertising
The first period can be very stressful for some girls. As happened to Katie in HelloFlo's "First Moon Party" TV commercial, which advertises a menstruation starter kit. The story is about Katie, a girl who wants to get her period so much that she fakes it. Desperate to become a woman, she lies to her friends about her first period. Katie's mother, knowing she was lying, decided to teach her a lesson by throwing a menstruation-themed first party. This advertisement for a menstrual starter kit engages and allows viewers to accept the idea that menstruation is not a forbidden subject, and it also creates a feeling of desire in the minds of a target audience, persuading them to purchase the product. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The “First Moon Party” ad depicts menstruation as what it is, a natural process that all girls experience or will experience. Unfortunately, this topic is full of erroneous beliefs and misconceptions. Many people are not well informed and do not feel comfortable learning about menstruation. The ad depicts the lack of information in society and how men are generally misinformed. For example, Katie's mom's co-worker brings in a great pack of coffee filters and says he wasn't really sure what brand she liked. Additionally, two teenagers, who make up "the group", congratulate Katie on her birthday while stating "this is the weirdest birthday party ever". According to the article “Preparing Girls for Menstruation: A Recommendation from Adolescents,” written by psychology professor Elissa Koff and clinical psychologist Jill Rierdan, “girls who have been menstruating for one to three years needed to feel supported emotionally and be informed. They don't like to feel like menstruation is something abnormal and unhealthy, bad, scary or shameful. Most girls only talked about it with their mothers because they felt uncomfortable discussing it with their fathers. Other girls wished their fathers would be more supportive but quiet, and some girls thought fathers should not be included in the process (paragraph 1). Basically, the authors argue that some parents have difficulty talking about the subject with their children, that men are generally not involved, and that the subject is not dealt with normally during childhood. Therefore, the ad attempts to change society's perception by recognizing how girls experience puberty in real life, and it encourages openness to communication within families while considering new ideas. HelloFlo's advertisement applied different hidden meanings to convince the audience. It attempts to change their beliefs or ideas to achieve communication between parents and their children about the process of transition from childhood to adolescence. Every culture has a different way of approaching the subject with their children and some don't even talk about it openly. The advert aptly and satirically depicts how Katie does not communicate with her mother about her desire to become a woman and the anxiety of being compared to her other friends. It also shows how the mother waited too long to explain how some girls develop at different times and that it's okay to wait longer than others. To illustrate this, the mother found a stamp stained with “rubylicious” nail polish", and when she questioned Katie, she replied bluntly: "What do you think it is? I am on my ladies' days. Additionally, at the end of the advert, it depicts an older man holding a bottle of ketchup, upside down, assertively saying "sometimes you just gotta wait." While the audience watches the ad, they move to the paradigmatic level, that is, they replace the idea “we'll talk about it later” with a new idea, “so as not to wait too long, talk about it . The new idea fits into the same context because it fulfills the same function as the old idea. Thus, it is suggested that the Rules Starter Kit is the perfect tool that will help initiate “The Talk” earlier. Certainly, the "First Moon Party" ad describes how some cultures have celebrations related to the arrival of puberty, and in some of them, all members of the family are invited. This target audience is persuaded to purchase the product because they view the first menstruation festival as a cultural code closely related to members of these particular cultures. For example, the ad shows how Katie's friends and family (her mother, father and grandfather) participate in the celebration. So it persuades this target audience to buy the menstrual starter kit as a gift for the next celebration. This contrasts with other target audiences who will adapt to the cultural code announced in advertising. Despite the audience's beliefs, they will give the green light to the main idea because the humorous appeals will change their social values and morals. For example, the ad presents male individuals through unusual scenarios: Katie's grandfather shows up with a gift and great joy, and Katie's father emerges from the cake wearing a red morph suit representing the menstrual period. Therefore, it persuades men to form a new concept related to menstruation and be more supportive of their daughters or other women in their family. HelloFlow uses semiotics to create meaningful communication. As we already know, the advertisement is based on the theme of menstruation. Semiotics is used in the commercial field through elements with figurative meanings such as clothing, backgrounds, games and colors. For example, the connotation of the color red, which is present in almost every scene: red balloons and streamers, red bracelet, red dress, red chocolate fountain, red helmet and red morph suit, represents Katie's "new flow". . The images are well done and have a very strong connotative meaning, such as that of a woman wearing tampons as earrings and eating marshmallows covered in melted red chocolate. But also, he uses scenes with strong meaning where the denotation (the primary meaning) is very literal. For example, Katie got very frustrated during the party and admitted to her mother that she faked her period. She expected to be punished, but instead she receives a gift of a HelloFlo-branded period starter kit. Her mother says she already knew because “periods don’t have glitter in them.” Therefore, with the constant and repetitive display of the color red in addition to the product and brand presented at the end of the advertisement, the message remains in the mind of the viewer. The characters in the ad are seen as funny and real. . They persuade people to be open-minded about the subject. If people act the same way as the characters, they will feel "cool" or appropriate for that generation. Advertising uses scenes and expressions to allow viewers to enter into the thoughts and feelings of the characters. For example,",.”