This is the enormous poster up on the left wing of Paragon….
This is the smaller poster below the larger one at Paragon…
Unfortunately, there are a lot of trees blocking the way from across the street…
This week one of the many things we touched on under Mass Communication was Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The Medium is the Message’. I began to search online to better understand this phrase and took the challenge in finding something that would represent it.
The phrase coined by Marshell McLuhan means that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan proposes that media itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself. - Wikipedia
So I was in the bus passing Paragon on Friday afternoon and noticed this gigantic poster on the right of the Paragon building. I could see the words ‘GUCCI’ printed on the left hand corner of the poster and then tried to see if I could recognize the model on it. As it turns out, I could and it’s none other than Claire Deans who happens to be replacing Drew Barrymore as the spokesmodel for GUCCI’s fine jewelry line.
I believe that this advertisement’s medium is more important than it’s message. Because honestly, what message can this poster be saying as compared to what the medium is saying?
The message I get from this poster is that Claire Danes is the last endorsement of GUCCI and she is wearing the latest in GUCCI fine jewelry but that is it.
The medium is the shopping mall, Paragon & the poster. Having this enormous poster up on Paragon tells consumers that GUCCI has an outlet in the building and obviously that it is a high-fashion brand due to the size of the poster. It says, ‘This brand has enough money and is big enough to advertise on something so large‘. Everyone knows that a poster as big as this costs lots of money. But that is not all, everyone knows that Paragon is one of 3 shopping malls (ION & NGEE ANN CITY) that carries premium luxury brands. The message it sends, ‘GUCCI is still premium enough to be selling it’s goods in such a shopping mall’. If this poster was placed at Far East Plaza, it’s value is not as highly regarded as if it was placed at Paragon. Why? Consumers have the perception that Paragon is more high-end and Far East Plaza is meant for the average teenager and people who want a good deal in Orchard Road.
Luxury brands such as PRADA, GUCCI & CHANEL have to keep their advertisement as prominent as their brand. They can’t afford their brand to drop in status. Take for example, GUESS, over the years, they have dropped from expensive to affordable and in terms of status, it has lost it’s ground. People do not see GUESS as a brand worth ‘showing off’. They are no more, ‘the brand to have’. Thus, brands like GUCCI have to use mediums such as large posters and shopping malls like, Paragon to advertise their brand.
I believe in this advertisement, the medium is more important than the message because the medium is the message.
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October 28, 2009 at 3:21 pm |
Well… first off… i wanna say… THAT GIRL IS HOT heeheehee…oops got a pervy laugh in right there. Anyways. That being said i think what should be thought of are the mediums that are falling behind on quality advertising.
For example, i think it’s safe to say that mediacorp accepts any kind of advertising as long as it pays. Maybe it applies to all advertising I’m not sure. But things like allowing supermarkets and staple food item brands promote on their channels has probably lowered the value of the other advertisements broadcasted on the same network.
Which has kinda got them in a ditch. See right now companies that sell quality products would not wanna advertise with them as much since they will be placed together with lower-tiered products which isn’t very appealing at all for that matter. On the other hand, they can’t decline their current clients like those food item companies otherwise they lose the chance of revenue. Soooooo…. is mediacorp destined to only have lower quality advertising broadcasting? Could it be why local television series have low budgets?
Because for mediacorp to pull back old clients they probably would have to do things like charge cheaper or provide longer airtime for commercials. Which is pretty hard on profits but you know desperate times call for desperate measures. Btw I’M not saying that they no longer have quality advertising i’m saying its been very reduced. Companies could probably be only using the tv advertising as a form of notification e.g. new model of product or promotions.
Last but not least what about household names like Coca cola or McDonalds where their name itself is a form of advertising. I wonder… does their name count as a medium of advertising.
October 29, 2009 at 2:27 pm |
Hhahaha…. that’s just Claire Danes….
ok so you think the quality of commercials or ads have depreciated… I think ads produced in Singapore, are not very interesting and pretty much sucked. But I never knew the commercials in the past were any better. What commercials in the past were good?
October 29, 2009 at 3:35 pm |
I thought the M1 advertisements, or a few others (trying to think off my head) were pretty good. It is reaching out to the local population, of which not all possess the same linguistic skills or prior brand knowledge, through tried-and-tested means, which have appealed to majority previously. The advertisements are catered to reach out to the target audience, therefore I wouldn’t say it was bad, but probably not as classy or as polished as compared to international/overseas ad campaigns.
October 29, 2009 at 4:36 pm |
Personally, i would like to question the real message of this campaign. Is the message, that of
1. the endorsement of Claire Danes as the new spokesperson, and she was chosen because she represented the fine jewellery collection, or
2. Gucci has a new jewellery collection launch
(Gucci has not been so forward with its fine jewellery ads previously, and one reason why I can think of why Gucci is stepping up on the campaign, is because of the opening of Chanel’s fine jewellery stand-alone store.)
If the jewellery was more of the message than the endorsement, the medium of using a larger than life poster/billboard would have been appropriate and definitely bring the message across with simple showcase of the collection and the brand logo. The medium would then be the support.
However, I do think the message is the endorsement (though I am uncomfortable with the choice of Claire Danes because I don’t see how she can represent the brand, but anyway!) and it is through the medium and placement of the poster (Paragon Flagship store, opposite Takashimaya Ngee Ann City) that I believe the medium does not complement the message, instead it is the subtle message.
The use of the large-scale poster speaks of the advertising expenses Gucci is willing to fork out, amongst other competition fears and festive season. The underlying message could be that Gucci is taking the aggressive strategy this Spring, since Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and Chanel has always been the luxury brand advertisement forerunners in Singapore.