The Representation of Men in the Boddingtons and the John Smiths adverts.
Both the Boddingtons advert and the John Smiths advert were shown on ITV during the breaks and between television programmes. As a class, we viewed it during the break of the champions league semi-final football match between Chelsea and Monaco. I think this was purposely shown at this time as typically people who would be watching the football would predominantly be male, which would be the perfect target audience as mainly men aged between 18-50 would probably drink it.
The Boddingtons advert is promoting Boddingtons beer, and so its intended audience would be adults. The opening scene of the advert is set in a pub to start. It suggests that all men are alcoholics and are rather dumb and would go to any extent for a pint. This is implied in the advert when the men try in many various ways to smuggle their pints out of the pub but fail to do so three times before they actually succeed in smuggling out a measly half pint, but when they get back home their girlfriends are already sitting at the table with their pints of Boddingtons. There was Boddingtons in the house all along, in a new draught barrel in the locked fridge. The fact that the men are wearing suits gives the impression that they are quite affluent. The club that the scenes are set in is a very exclusive pub, this is shown by the presence of the bouncers and the expensive décor. This is also conveyed through the men and the clothes they wear. They are not dressed casually, they are wearing smart suits and have a gangster like appearance. Although the men seem good friends, when the first man is caught trying to smuggle the pints out in his coat pockets, they look/turn away as if they are ashamed or don’t know him. It is like they are turning their back on him because they care more about themselves and their reputations, and don’t even have the courage to support their friends, indicating that men are selfish, inconsiderate and cowards. The mise-en-scene is that of a typical British gangster film, this is used to attract the audience. The camera is used to create episodes of the advert, it shows them trying to smuggle out the beer and failing, and it cuts straight to the following scenes of them trying in other ways. The camera uses close up shots every time to try and keep the audience focused as it is very fast moving from scene to scene, which can be a little hard to follow and can be rather confusing. At each attempt to smuggle the beer out of the pub they were outwitted by the bouncers, eventually, managing to smuggle just half a pint between the four of them they arrived home to find their girlfriends already had the beer and they had been outsmarted yet again!
