Laura Mulvey : The Male Gaze theory + Diet Coke advert.

Summary:

The purpose of this advert is to remind the audience about the product and persuade to buy and in order to appeal to its audience the product has to appeal to their needs and desires.  In Coca Cola adverts the drink is usually presented as a thirst relive, social drink as well as lifestyle.

Diet Coke is specifically aimed at young women, aged 18-30, and in order to appeal to them the advert is trying to appeal to women’s interests and desires.

In this particular advert, the first frame is an establishing shot showing the audience that the action is taking place in park; warm colours and sun suggest to the audience that it is a warm day.

 In the next frame we see a group of five women drinking Diet Coke, in order to appeal to all women the audience can see that the group of women is made up of different ages and races

The next shot we get is an eye line match of one of the women spotting a “gardener” and telling about him to other women, this suggests that women are interested in him.

Then we see one of the women shaking up a can of coke and rolling it towards the man, we also get cross cuts between the can of drink and the man suggesting that the can is rolling to him.

So the guy takes his shirt of which results in women being surprised and shocked, whereas the guy just continues mowing the lawn

The male Gaze theory:

The male gaze(Laura Mulvey) theory suggests that women are sexualized in media texts, as it puts the audience into the prespective of hetrosexual man. Usually it happens through the use of cinematography, for exmple the camera might show off the curves of the womens body.

Mulvey also suggests that the purpose of female characters in media texts is to be an erotic object for characters within the narrative and to be an erotic object for the audience.

Feminists can view the theory in 3 ways; how men look at women, how wemen look at themselves and how women look at other women.

For example, it states can be viewed as men focus on sexual features of women and see her as an object. Men ill focus on curves and other parts of a female body and do not always value women as a human.

Also it can be argued that media texts make women feel negative about themselves when viewing other women as they pick faults with their own appearances and give them low self esteem. However they do not take into consideration post production and therefore they set themselves unrealistic role models.

When women look at other women they shape their own identity. They take elements of what like from other women to make themeslves look more desirable.

Diet Coke advert and The male gaze theory:

The diet coke advert challenges Mulvey’s theory, as the theory suggests that only females can be objectified, whereas this advert challenges this theory as the male character is objectified by the group of females.

This can be seen when we get a close up of one of the women seductivley bitting her lip while looking at the man which suggests her interest in him.

In this advert we also get unusual gender representation, as we get women mocking the man.

This is done because the target audience of the Diet coke are females and therefore in order to apeal to women, the advert is using man. It can also be argued that the man that is presented in the advert, is seen as a stereotype of the “perfect” man as he has a desirable by many body and good looking face, which is attractive for women, however can be preassuring for men as they will be looking at the adverts and settting themselves unrealistic goals and it can also affect their self esteem due to them thinking that all females arte attracted to men similar to the one in the advert.

The music that is used in the adverts also highlights the idea of the man being objectified. The track used called “I just want to make love to you” by Etta James, the song of the title suggests that the women are attracted to the male character in the advert and that they suxualize him, which contradicts Mulvey’s theory.  

The first two lines of the song also state “I don't want you to be no slave,

I don't want you to work all day” which again shows that women are sexuzlizing the man as futher lyrics say “But I want you to be true

And I just wanna make love to you” showing that they want the man to be with them all the time breaking the stereotype of the man being the one who works all day.

However Oliver Geyer (Diet Coke’s director) sated that this advert is not about the Diet coke man being an object. He stated that “it is about cultural change, women being equal to men”, he also says that “showcases female empowerment”. Which again contradicts Mulvey’s theory, where females are not suppoed to be the one in power and they are supposed to be the ones who are objectified.

However it can be argued that the amn enjoys the attention as he conforms to the womens wishes, which again contradicts with Mulve’s theory as she is stating that objectification leads to negativiy, whwreas it can be argued that in this case the women are boosting the self esteem of the male character in the advert.