THE INSTANDING 2
“BOLDNESS”, THE STEREOTYPICAL ATTRIBUTES OF THAI MEN THAT WERE INFLUENCED BY THAI ADVERTISING” 1
“Boldness”, the stereotypical attribute of Thai men that were influenced by Thai advertising. Napat Bhanubandh 59120500649 CMD 402 - 4TH YEAR SEMESTER 2/2017 COMMUNICATION DESIGN PROJECT [email protected] +66 80 924 1449 Advisor Puttha Sangkla BFA Communication Design School of Architecture and Design King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
INDEX ABSTRACT 2 KEYWORD 3 INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND 5 RESEARCH QUESTION 6 AIM 7 SIGNIFICANCE 9 INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK 27 METHODOLOGY 33 VISUAL DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 69 DISCOVERIES 75 BIBIOGRAPHY 77 1
ABSTRACT Nowadays, many Thai men who have attributes that are different from the 1 expectation of their society have received several negative effects and treatments. One factor that is responsible for the issue is the advertising media that only focusing on the effectiveness of their advertisements. It can be see that several male product advertisements use commercial actors as a persuasion tool to gain the attention of the consumers. They also portray \"boldness\" through both physically and emotionally way as a pattern that creates the stereotypical attributes of Thai men.
KEYWORDS Advertising media Boldness Societal expectation Negativities Introverted men Self-Esteem 2
INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND 3
This project begins with the observation I became more motivated to pursue this that that consumer's buying decisions study when I observed that many Thai can be influenced by persuasive men had to exhibit boldness for speeches that are related to their themselves, to be accepted in the genders. It is a fact that advertisers use society as \"the men,\" and negativity has the idea that men and women are continuously evoked. Thus, these issues different to develop stories, create might linger for the advertising media in conflicts, which bring diverse Thailand only focused on the perspectives to advertising (Bartel, effectiveness of their advertisements. 2014). One of the primary criterion for advertisements is \"entertainment\", as it 4 makes the advertisements more effective (Mandan, Hossein & Furuzandech, 2018). Then it leads me to the idea that the portrayal of \"boldness\" is the physical and emotional attributes that advertisers employ to entice consumers, resulting in the stereotyping of the masculine traits and making these traits become favorable in Thailand.
RESEARCH Thai men who do not comply with the QUESTION expectation of the society are receiving negative effects while Thai advertising media are emphasizing the stereotypical attribute of Thai men. 5
PROJECT This project aims to demonstrate the AIM aspect of male product advertising in Thailand that emphasizes \"boldness\" to be a stereotypical attribute of Thai men, which can influence the societal expectation of men in Thai society and creates negative effects on men whose attribute are not complying with the expectation, by creating a fictional narrative animation with 2D motion graphics. 6
SIGNIFICANCE 7
It is becoming apparent that many Thai This animation will narrate a fictional life men had to exhibit boldness for event of a man encountering the negative themselves, to be accepted in the effect of living in a society with stringent society as \"the men,\" and to avoid masculine standards. The audience will negativity or backlash. So far, negativity see the positives and negatives of both has continuously evoking, which ranged stereotypical aspects and individualist from labeling, oppression, and false aspects which do not comply with societal assumption on Thai men whose expectations. attributes are different from the societal expectation. Meanwhile, advertising media in Thailand are focusing on the effectiveness of their advertisements by portraying \"boldness\" as a stereotypical, standard characteristic of men in Thailand. 18
INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK 9
Every person learns about the norm of their gender since they were young, in connection with the gender attribute stereotypes in Thai society, with the inclusion of how advertising media influence the gender norms and expectation of men in Thai culture. According to the gender schema, a theory that was demonstrated by the psychologist named Sandra Bern in 1981, stating that \"culture in which children live makes them learn about male and female roles. Thus, they adapt their behavior to get along with the gender norms of the culture in which they live from the beginning stage of social development\" (Kendra Cherry, 2019). 10
\"Language of persuasion is the technique that advertisers use to persuade the audience to believe and make a purchasing decision of their product or services\" according to \"The language of persuasion\" (2007) by New Mexico Media Literacy Project (p.1). And another research, \"A Study On The Influences of Advertisement On Consumer Buying Behavior\" (2018) by Tashrifa Haider and Shadman Shakib, explains that \"advertisers sell images and lifestyles, in order to sell products and services\" (p.6). Thus, the social role and social image reflect that ads influence the lifestyle of each person, then people try to present themselves in a manner that their society accepts. They also demonstrate how entertainment becomes an essential criterion of advertisement that gives more potential to make consumers remember. 11
From these two research, I found that It is related to my opinion because many people tend to represent themselves in a way that accommodates the norm that is accepted by their society, which will help them to avoid conflicts or being judged by others. Advertisers use this point as a source of creating the persuasion languages, in order to sell their products. This demonstrates the relation to my project's idea because these are the factors that can affect the social expectation of genders. 12
Emotional ads have more potential to influence consumer intentions to buy a product. According to the article \"Thinking vs. Feeling: The Psychology of Advertising\" (2019) by Master of Science in Applied Psychology, The University of Southern California. They explained about the advertising campaign performance that reflects \"Emotional over Rational content.\" 13
There are some groups of people who get affected by offensive ads, including the group by genders. They can regard offensive ads about gender as a factor that leads to discrimination among people who do not complies. According to the research \"Impact of humor in advertising on consumer purchase decision\" (2013) by Anh Thuc Hoang. The theorist named Gruner (1997) makes an argument that all humor is base on the concept of \"winners\" and \"losers.\" The \"losers\" are associated with some group by gender, age, occupation, or race. These groups tend to be offended by the humor that targets the \"losers\" group (p.17). 14
Many people were subject to the social norm. It led them to behave in a way that complies with the social expectation of a particular social group, which is being supported by the interaction of people. The article \"What are Social Norms? How Are They Measured?\" by Gerry Mackie, Francesca Moneti, Holly Shakya, and Elaine Denny (2015) describe that \"Social norm\" is what people in a group believe to be normal in their own group. It is also a belief of typical or appropriate action (Paluck and Ball 2010), related with \"Social Expectations\" and maintained by the \"Social influence\" such as \"approval, disapproval, and belief in the legitimacy of others' expectations\" (p.7, p.10). This article leads me to research about \"gender norm.\" 15
I observe that many Thai men receive 16 negative effects from society, especially the people who do not follow the gender norm. This reflects that masculine standards are the unwritten, socially-constructed, and deeply embedded rule of how a man should be and should have. Moreover, it also leads to unequal treatments. The article \"SOCIAL NORMS AND GENDER RELATED HARMFUL PRACTICES\" by Baltimore, Maryland (2017) demonstrates that gender norms are social norms that explicitly define what is expected of men and women in a given group or society. \"It also shapes acceptable, appropriate actions for men and women in their particular group or society,\" to the point that they are embedded deep in people's sense of self, which can lead to unequal access to 1choices and freedom of men and women.
The repetition of contents in advertising media can influence social expectations. From the research article \"The Effects of 'Social Expectation' on the Development of Civil Society in Japan\" by Koichi Hasegawa, Chika Shinohara, and Jeffrey P. Broadbent (2007), \"Social expecta- tion\" is an internalized social norm for individuals and organizations, thus for society as a whole, about how people should do to conform with the general mood of a society. This reading also demonstrates the basic definition of the \"Social expectation\" and leads me to think about how advertisements can influence social expectations in men. 17
In Thai society, some men comply, and some men choose not to comply with societal expectations. However, men with introverted personalities tend to receive negative effects and treatments as other people were also describing them as quiet and awkward. The article \"How You Can Tell That You're an Introvert\" by Kendra Cherry (2019) talks about Introver-sion, a type of personality trait. The example sign of being an Introvert can be \"Enjoying Solitude, having a small group of friends.\" Introverts will feel distracted and unfocused if they receive too much stimulation. Therefore, they also focused more on their thoughts, rely on their rea-soning rather than focusing on the exter-nal source of stimulation, such as their social group or social norm. 18
Being an extrovert is like having an attribute that complies with societal expectations, but an introvert is an example of the people who do not comply. Therefore, I also think about the contexts that introverts can receive negative effects and unequal treatments from their society. \"A Different Kind of Discrimination - Columbia Library Journals\" by Anabelle Meyers (2019) demonstrates the discrimi-nation against the introverts that our so-ciety has been structured in such a way that it favors extroverts since the begin-ning of the industrial revolution. 19
Thus, it becomes more prevalent in the technological era. Nowadays, many societies also ask introverts to change themselves to have more extroverted qualities. It is discrimination and oppressive culture that harms introverts, and most people would not see this as discrimination. Thus, This is the way our contemporary culture has always been. 20
From my observation, Social-related fac- tors can also affect men's thoughts about oneself. \"Why Self-Esteem Is Important for Success.\" by Kendra Cherry (2019) explains that \"Self-esteem has an impor- tant role in oneself's motivation and suc- cess throughout life.\" (Cherry, 2019). 21
It is a person's overall sense of self-worth, 22 personal value, or how much a person appreciates and likes ownself. It can involve factors such as appraisal of own behaviors, appearance, beliefs, and emotions. This article describes the im- portance of self-esteem and how it can be influenced. 1
According to the observation of male product ads in Thailand, commercial actors are always portraying \"boldness\" through both physically and emotionally way. Meanwhile, many men are discour- aged from seeking positive traits that are perceived by society as unmanly. The article \"How do Media Images of Men Affect Our Lives?\" by Sam Femanio and Mark Nickerson (2015) describes that Men's stereotypes start from the begin- ning of life when a person learns the meaning of being a man from family and peers. Then these approved behaviors are being focused and supported by media messages such as taking the initi- ative, ability to think independently, and being brave. These standards can lead to discrimination against those who not follow them. 23
Consumer's self-esteem might be forced 24 in some way and affect buying behavior, including men too. The article \"Self-Es- teem Advertising\" by Jeffrey F. Durgee (2013) describes self-esteem advertising as a type of advertising that intends to alter consumer's attitudes and behavior toward products by stimulating positive feelings toward themselves. 1
In Thai society, there are stereotypes about men that can harm or create neg- ative effects on them. All of the stereo- types were related to The article \"Effects of advertising on self-esteem\" by DeShawna Hornbuckle (2008) describes that \"people are trying to imitate the images, which afflicts some kind of cul- tural trauma, which contributes to the disconnection that men and women feel and experience\" (Kilbourn,2008). Then people end up comparing themselves to the absolutely artificial images\". In addition, there are many arguments provided that clearly demonstrate the manipulation of self-esteem in both men and women as a consequence of the construction and manipulation of images in advertisements. 25
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METHODOLOGY 27
Initially, I had the idea that consumer Secondly, I want to know more about buying decisions in Thailand tend to be persuasive speeches in advertising and to affected by persuasive words or speech discover more about how it relates with es in advertisements. I also have genders and how it affects consumers' experience as a consumer and my buying decision making. Therefore, I studied the decision was affected by the shop \"language of persuasion.\" I had to know assistant's enticing words that related to this concept because it is the technique masculinity. Then I start to research about of advertisers to persuade the audience cognitive biases in consumer behavior to believe and make a purchasing deci- that can influence their decision making. sion. I researched furthermore and found However, I believed that it would not be that advertisements could influence each necessary enough for my project during people's lifestyle and motivate them to the latter stages. represent themselves in the way that their society accepts, which is reflected by the \"social role\" and \"social image.\" 1 28
Next, I became interested that commer- This idea led me to develop a question of cial actors are being used in many adver- \"what are the features or patterns that tisements, and they portray definite char- the advertisers use to keep repeating and acteristics, stereotypical attributes, which reinforcing the concept of masculinity then become the accepted trait in Thai and femininity through their works which society. Therefore, I focused on the idea reinforces the gender role stereotypes in that \"Masculinity and Femininity rep- consumer culture?\". Then I observe that resentation in advertising is demonstrat- entertainment can make advertisements ing a misleading thinking pattern to con- gain more potential to grabs consumer sumer culture, about how men and attention. I also decided to develop my women should be or should be doing.\" work to focus on the area of masculinity because it is more related to myself and In reality, people as consumers have the more approachable for me. freedom to use discretion in choosing the product attributes in advertisements, considering by their own experiences. Thus, they should make opinion regardless of gender before making a purchasing decision. 29
In addition, I examined a case study from From this point, I try to analyze both the UK Advertising standards Agency western and Thai advertisements as case (ASA). They have banned two advertise- studies. I found that there were many ments because they depict gender stere- styles of using entertainment in advertise- otypes that have a tendency to cause ments related to men's stereotype attrib- harm, serious, or widespread offense utes. Those contents were represented (Picheta and CNN Business, 2019). This both physically and emotionally by the news also explains that audiences were commercial actors. Then I think that these complaining about these ads because are the feature that advertisers use to they perpetuated gender stereotypes. keep repeating and reinforcing the con- This case study also reflects that these cept of masculinity. stereotypical contents can influence the societal expectation of genders. 30
All of the observations of Thai and West- As a result, I specified my project's topic ern advertisements, studies on advertis- into the context of how advertising af- ing, societal expectations of genders, fects the expectation of men in Thailand discrimination against introverts, and because it is more related to myself. I self-esteem leads me to think about the also focused more on these stereotypical aspect of advertising media that influ- attributes through entertainment in Thai ences the social expectation, and onto advertisements. I think that entertainment the people who do not comply with the is the specific feature that the advertisers expectations of their society. use to keep repeating these masculine standards. As a result, I specified my project's topic into the context of how advertising af- The interesting point is, I found that all fects the expectation of men in Thailand stereotypical attributes of male commer- because it is more related to myself. I cial actors in Thai advertisements are also focused more on these stereotypical both physically, emotionally, and behav- attributes through entertainment in Thai iorally related to the term \"boldness.\" advertisements. I think that entertainment Moreover, many consumers think that is the specific feature that the advertisers entertainments in ads are exciting, fun, use to keep repeating these masculine and visually appealing. Although,they standards. know that it is one factor that influences social expectations in men and also cre- 31 ates negative effects on people who do not follow those expectations.
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VISUAL DEVELOPMENT 33
After I finalize the core idea and my aim, I focused on the point that Thai men who have the attributes that are different from the expectation of their society have received negative effects, and negative treatment such as labeled, oppression, and false assumptions. It can be noted that advertising can influence the societal expectations and creates negative effects on these people. 34
My visual experiment starts with visualizing the portraying of \"boldness\" in the male product advertisement through the analysis of the physical, emotional, and behavioral attributes of male commercial actors. I painted a symbolic figure with a masculine color tone riding a brown horse because riding a brown horse symbolizes power, sociability, independence, and endurance, which I found that It also has a relation with masculinity. I also utilize background color elements from the graphics and mood tone colors in male product ads. 35
The second experiment was to visualize the effects of persuasive messages from advertising media on a man. I tried to represent this idea by using another layer of paper to engrave the messages on the background, as those messages are also approaching the consumers at a subliminal level. The blue-grey color tone was also used because it can also represent masculinity. 36
ONTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF From this point, a short fictional-narrative THE FICTIONAL NARRATIVE story is introduced to the development AND 2D ANIMATION because it is a more effective way to achieve my aim by allowing me to deliver the message in a more engaging way. I will demonstrate a fictional life event of an introverted man encountering the negative effect of living in a society with stringent roles and masculine standards. Then I hope that this fictional-narrative story will make the audience see the positives and negatives side of both stereotypical men and a man who does not comply with social expectations. I also want the audience to see my work and look back at themselves and think about how this issue affects their life. 37
I observe that moving images is more effective in communicating the fictional life event. Then 2D motion graphics is the technique that I choose to create my nar- rative animation because it has the visual potential to deliver a clear message to the audience. Regarding my intellectual framework, I will design the contents in a fantasy style and also an ironic approach in some de- tails. As I want to create the animation to be a metaphorical way of demonstrating the issue that I was proposing. 1 38
In the first version of the storyline, I observe that it is simple but still lacks elements in the story to be effective for delivering messages. Therefore, I revised the story. 39
\"One night, a guy is on the way to his home. He then has a negative backstabbing experience when he sees his colleague snatches on his crush. Then he got influenced by stereotypical attributes of men in ads on social media and went back to his home. He sees himself in the mirror and realizes that he is nerdy and puny. He then watches the television and becomes mesmerized with the male product advertisement, which then alters his self-esteem and consciousness. Then he can't control his consciousness and unexpectedly transforms to Boldman, a stereotypical figure from advertisements. He sees the positiveness of being a bold man and goes ot to the to prove himself. However, an event that he lost his own shadow makes him experience flashbacks and have internal conflict within his thought, which then makes him decide to return to his home, to retrieve his shadow.\" 40
SETTING IN THE STORY AND MOOD TONE COLOR MOOD TONE COLOR There will be two main places in the animation, which are the inside the protagonist's residence and City area. 41
The protagonist residence is a place 42 symbolically represented as one of the protagonist’s identity. I use the gloomier and paler color tone to express his introverted trait The city area is being symbolically represented as societal expectation. To have contrast with the protagonist's resi- dence, I use the brighter color tone. 1
For the mood tone part, I use blue color palettes because it can represent a mas- culine mood. But I separated into two sections. The first section is for the out- door setting of the city and the second section is for the setting inside the pro- tagonist's residence. 43
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CHARACTER DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT It starts with the figures in previous paint- ing and mixed-media visual experiments. I found that they are interesting symbolic representations to be used as the main content for the narrative story. 45
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