Seven Deadly Sins
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The Canterbury Tales is a strong social commentary that was written in Europe during the 1300's. The author Geoffrey Chaucer, used examples of the Seven Deadly Sins in order to convey the degradation of that specific social class in the Feudal System in the eyes of the catholic church. While focusing on the Seven Deadly Sins of man, it can be seen that in today's society, large corporations use these sins as part of their campaigns and advertisements, in order to theoretically appeal to our natural tendency to commit and follow sin rather than heed the churches teaching. A particular advertisement that I have selected to look at was from a 2006 catalog for Harvey Nichols. This advertisement was created by Adam Tucker and Justin Tindall, in order to promote the Harvey Nichols store locations across Britain.
When first examining this advertisement on a very superficial plain, one might notice a series of key characteristics of the advert. Upon first glance a view might notice that all the men are the ones who are sitting and not working, while the women are tending them and each of their desires and needs. When looking at the differences in their characters between the groups of the men and women, you can also see that the men look very unkempt and sedated, wearing fine bright colored suits. Differing from the way the women are presented because it shows them as very proactive and hardworking, wearing professional dresses, dubbed in dreadfully dull colors. Another thing that you could notice about the scene of the advertisement is the lighting, it seems that the women are kept in the shadows working, and on the contrary the men are sitting lazily and kept in the light.
However upon taking a supplementary look that this advertisement, specially looking at the deeper meanings of the imagery some key ideas can be transmitted that relate to Chaucer's work in The Canterbury Tales. It can be seen that the main deadly sins that are being exhibited by the men in the advertisement, the key ones being; Sloth and Lust. These are important because when looking at the order to the Seven Deadly Sins, both of these sins are very minimal in their offense against the catholic church. This is because during the 1300's in the Feudal System, the clergy was very corrupt and altered the will of god in order to make their actions that they were taking seem less offensive. They made actions like Lust and Sloth, seem like a very low offense in order to justify how they were acting, and making it seem like it was acceptable behavior in the eyes of the lord.
This idea of the variance of sin offense levels, mainly when looking at the Seven Deadly Sins, has drifted into modern society and is seen in this image mainly because of wealth, power, and social structure. In today's society it can be seen that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, this idea can be seen in this aid because it pertains to the upper wealthy class that has influxes of wealth and power. By conveying these ideas of the wealthy upper class sins only being; sloth and lust, which are accepted by the catholic church in the 1300's. So this ad is reinforcing a cultural idea that once you become wealthy and powerful, you should have people do your bidding and you have earned this privilege to relax and do nothing. Thus showing that the Harvey Nichols brand is mainly targeting the wealthy for the reasons that have been highlighted above.
Also when looking at this advertisement many of the aspects of; color, layout have a beneficial effect on the ideas that the creators are trying to make when depicting the social dichotomy of the wealthy class. Color has a major impact on the perception of this ad because it shows the individuals who are not doing anything, wearing nice semi-bright colors, whereas the working women are wear dull and bland colors. This shows that the men are the most popular and have the highest level of fashion, making it seem like they have all the money. And because of their upper class status they should be waited on, and not the other way around.
With layout it can be seen that the first thing that the audience is going to seen in the advertisement, is going to be the man in the purple suit, with a pair of women's hands tying his tie. This first image has social implications because it shows that there is a clear stereotype that women must always take care of men because they are the prime bread winners of society. It is also saying that the real goal of women is to support the men and make sure that they are dressed well and are well kept. Thus from this the main idea of the advertisement is that the only way that you will please your man and keep him well dressed is if you shop at our store.
This is how this advertisement uses the Seven Deadly Sins, to convey social class as well as to comment on the social dichotomy of wealth and power dictating the actions and ideas certain groups or individuals. While also using the ideas of the Seven Deadly Sins to make a comment on the societal dichotomy of the modern era.
However upon taking a supplementary look that this advertisement, specially looking at the deeper meanings of the imagery some key ideas can be transmitted that relate to Chaucer's work in The Canterbury Tales. It can be seen that the main deadly sins that are being exhibited by the men in the advertisement, the key ones being; Sloth and Lust. These are important because when looking at the order to the Seven Deadly Sins, both of these sins are very minimal in their offense against the catholic church. This is because during the 1300's in the Feudal System, the clergy was very corrupt and altered the will of god in order to make their actions that they were taking seem less offensive. They made actions like Lust and Sloth, seem like a very low offense in order to justify how they were acting, and making it seem like it was acceptable behavior in the eyes of the lord.
This idea of the variance of sin offense levels, mainly when looking at the Seven Deadly Sins, has drifted into modern society and is seen in this image mainly because of wealth, power, and social structure. In today's society it can be seen that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, this idea can be seen in this aid because it pertains to the upper wealthy class that has influxes of wealth and power. By conveying these ideas of the wealthy upper class sins only being; sloth and lust, which are accepted by the catholic church in the 1300's. So this ad is reinforcing a cultural idea that once you become wealthy and powerful, you should have people do your bidding and you have earned this privilege to relax and do nothing. Thus showing that the Harvey Nichols brand is mainly targeting the wealthy for the reasons that have been highlighted above.
Also when looking at this advertisement many of the aspects of; color, layout have a beneficial effect on the ideas that the creators are trying to make when depicting the social dichotomy of the wealthy class. Color has a major impact on the perception of this ad because it shows the individuals who are not doing anything, wearing nice semi-bright colors, whereas the working women are wear dull and bland colors. This shows that the men are the most popular and have the highest level of fashion, making it seem like they have all the money. And because of their upper class status they should be waited on, and not the other way around.
With layout it can be seen that the first thing that the audience is going to seen in the advertisement, is going to be the man in the purple suit, with a pair of women's hands tying his tie. This first image has social implications because it shows that there is a clear stereotype that women must always take care of men because they are the prime bread winners of society. It is also saying that the real goal of women is to support the men and make sure that they are dressed well and are well kept. Thus from this the main idea of the advertisement is that the only way that you will please your man and keep him well dressed is if you shop at our store.
This is how this advertisement uses the Seven Deadly Sins, to convey social class as well as to comment on the social dichotomy of wealth and power dictating the actions and ideas certain groups or individuals. While also using the ideas of the Seven Deadly Sins to make a comment on the societal dichotomy of the modern era.
Hey John!!
ReplyDeleteI thought your blogpost was very insightful, especially when you took inconsideration the use of color and lighting to represent the oppression of different genders. Your analysis of the deadly sins within the advertisement was also very eye opening, at first glance I would have not noticed what you said about the layout of the figures in it, especially the way it goes with the stereotype of men being the bread winners in society. Overall, it was a fun post to read. Keep up the good work!
This post is very informational! Thats not necessarily a bad thing, but since it's a blog, you could've used a little more opinion or personality to get your point across and it would've taken the post to the next level. I liked your links to the 7 deadly sins throughout the post, and how the ad fell victim to them. I felt like you really interpreted every aspect of the ad and analyzed how it could relate back to the prompt. Super good job!
ReplyDeleteJohn, I enjoyed reading about your thoughts on the seven deadly sins from both this advertisement, as well as the sins found in Canterbury Tales. They were all well thought out and I could tell that you spent a lot of time working on this. However, one problem that I did have while reading this is that I thought we were supposed to primarily focus on the advertisement and the sins we found within it, but you mainly talked about the sins in everyday life and also focused a lot on just the Canterbury tales. Very good work, but put more focus on what is at hand in the future.
ReplyDeleteHey John!
ReplyDeleteI think you're connection between wealth and social status to the concept that the rich get richer is very insightful. You clearly took your time making this post. I also loved how you brought psychology into the idea of how women should act and dress around men. I would definitely comment on a specific audience, however. For example, is this targeted towards wealthy men or simple, blue collar men? I would also take a few minutes to read over your post to correct any grammatical mistakes you might have.
This post was exceptionally well written. I loved that you made it very informational and that you connected the advertisement to the Canterbury Tales often. I think you did a very good job analyzing the deadly sins in relation to the ad, as well as analyzing the audience. This was really well written, keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete