50 Cent Reebok Advert

50 cent Reebok Advert




To begin with, this Reebok advert starring 50 cent a well known celebrity in the music business brought up controversial issues and various messages which portrayed it to be too violent.

Various techniques were used to create this advert however overall it represented negativity due to the setting, the non diegetic and diegetic sound and mostly the lighting.

The way 50 cent was shown was from a low angle shot looking up to give him power and superiority. This gives us as an audience a message that he represents a strong powerful character hence Reebok used him to create this. Close up shot was used to give us detail to his facial expressions which were quite serious with a straight face. This also relates to his firmness of his character. Another close up of the shoe hanging from a telephone line represents a rundown urban area where you could connote that most of the violent actions occur in those types of places.

This type of setting is reflected also through the non diegetic sound of the police frequencies which creates a more fragile area to where violence is the norm in this type of setting. The use of sound and setting is very important to express the glamorised violence which has been achieved. Another aspect to enhance this is the dark dull lighting. The effect of this creates a mysterious and scary scene; it could also represent the darkness where the majority of violence occurs.

Paying particular attention to the diegetic sound which is mainly 50 cent counting from 1 to 9. In my opinion this relates to the same number of time he got shot and still surviving. In this advert he is shown to be invincible and a strong character against violence which glamorises it even more. The clothes which 50 cent is wearing are baggy, branded and a typical stereotype of a ‘gangster’. You could connote that this group is known for violence and represent a ‘hard’ figure against other social groups.

By looking at the setting and 50 cent, you could gather that it attracts mainly young black men because stereotypically you could connote that most violence comes from this type of social group which is a dominant ideology. This is quite a small audience so potentially, Reebok are addressing to mostly young men. This ensures they push the boundaries of advertising and create more variety to get teenagers interested the most.

In my opinion, Reebok produced a purposely non ASA recommendation for an advert to get more publicity. If this advert was released and watched by various people and then banned which would then spread over many websites, more people would be interested into why it was banned. This creates more interest for the advert which would hopefully link to the product actually being sold. It is a chain reaction of events to create mass publicity.

Lastly, the ASA banned this advert because it represented negativity, violence and no real meaning to their product that they were trying to sell. In my opinion Reebok only made this advert to create publicity and get their brand name more across different audiences to attract them to their future products.