Group Task - Our Chosen Hero Text

Which text did we choose? How and why did we choose it?
Our group chose to discuss the text which actually contained two contrasting hero adverts. The first advert was one that was persuading men to donate their blood platelets. Although the other the text was also persuading a different kind of audience using a different form of advertisement, this particular advert used the conventions of a movie poster.

What struck our group about the text? What were the interesting and significant features?
One of the most interesting and significant aspects of the first text was the audience. When we looked at the title we assumed that the primary audience was as general as being just male because of the heading of the advert "Strong men needed to help those who are weakened..." and we thought most men would then be persuaded to read the advert because they would believe that the advert has assumed that they are strong which has complimented their ego and caused them to read on. However, from further reading we found out that the text had a very specific audience of strong men who lived near Southmead Hospital with a blood type from groups A,B and O. This information was placed further on in the advert so that all men would read it thinking they were the strong men that they were looking for to donate blood platelets and then the criteria would filter out those who were not necessary. Another interesting point that was raised in conversation was why men were being targeted to donate blood platelets rather than both men and women. We still don't really know why this may have been but it may have been because men have a higher platelet count which is one of the requirements for donors. 

At first glance, we all thought that the primary audience was men because in the advert, which used conventions of a film poster form, portrayed the man as being the hero who would go after the woman and would "get her back" because he has this railcard. However, as we looked closer at the text we realised that women would also be a audience, possibly a secondary one, because women may see the poster and think they are this "precious" perfect woman that men should go after and could only achieve this by buying the railcard. Another interesting aspect of the text is that by looking closer at the text we realised that the audience was men and women between the ages of 16-25, the text producer did this by using the age rating symbol that would be seen on a film poster, which informs the audience that only people over a certain age can watch the film, and changed the age to 16-25 so show the audience that the railcard is only available for that specific age group. Upon further reading of the text, we noticed that one reason why the text was produced because the railcard was changing to being known as the railcard for 16-25 year olds rather for young people which is what they called the group before, by changing the name it made the groupings clearer for people when they wished to purchase the railcard. So the text actually has quite a few purposes; the main purpose of the text being to persuade the specific audience to buy the railcard, to inform the public who the railcard is for and to make people who have bought the railcard before and new customers aware that the name of the card has changed to avoid confusion and make it clearer to people which card they should be buying.

What did I find that linked to the theories? 
Both texts have aspects of both power and gender theory. Aspects of power in the first text are instrumental and influential, instrumental because the advert is from the NHS which may make men more willing to donate because they do have a form of power over people. The advert mostly has influential power because it influences "strong" men to donate by calling them "strong", this could be classified as synthetic personalisation because the text producer makes the male reader believe that the they believe he is the "strong" donor that they are looking for. The gender theory is applicable here with the description of the "strong man" because it is a stereotypical image of a man to be "strong" and since men are the only donors they are looking for there is a suggestion that these "strong men" will be helping the "weak" which may possibly be women, portraying a damsel in distress image.

The second text also has aspects of power theory because the male has the power in the advert because he has the railcard and he is trying to "get" the girl. The text has much more gender theory in it because it does link to Deborah Tannen's difference pairings with the pairing of intimacy vs independence. Surprisingly enough the man is looking for the relationship since he wants her back and it seems like she wants her independence. This is something that would have been anticipated because we would expect for it to be the other way around. However, the reason why the text producer may have done this is to create a poster which looks like it is advertising a common film from a romantic genre where the man wants the woman back fulfilling the purpose of making the advert look more like a film poster to attract a bigger audience of 16-25 in which women will be most interesting in because women stereotypical watch more romance or romantic comedy films.