MY FIRST ESSAY

Jamie Oliver advertisement essay

Jamie great Italian escape advertisement published in the BBC radio times aims to advertise and promote the new programme which features Jamie travelling through Italy trying to understand their eating values and enforcing British values in Italy. The advertisement is a double spread featured in the BBC radio times, a TV/Radio guide, which means it can directly aim towards the large audience for TV viewing. This also means it can attract many other individuals who may not have generally watched it.

The first and initial prop you see in the picture is the Jamie Oliver; he is hanging upside down and is in the foreground. He is prominent within the whole advertisement; this is so in order to promote the programme. It is almost a type of celebrity endorsement, the only difference is that he is in the programme himself and is literally the centralised character. Jamie is well known for two things; advertising for Sainsbury’s and doing documentaries or programmes on healthier eating, aired on Channel 4. It is a publicly owned corporation which commissions its programmes from other production companies. E4, E4 +1, ch4 OD, More4, film4 are all part of the channel 4 family. Channel 4 is funded completely through advertising. Jamie is directly related to channel 4, which shows he is well known because of the institution. Jamie is widely known for his style of cooking, with his documentaries, which have followed him to primary schools, and his own restaurant. His genre of programme is cooking and healthy eating, and has done many series, which involved a hybrid genre, of documentaries and cooking shows. These programmes have followed him around his house and his professional life, almost making it a reality TV show giving a sense of entertainment and also education.

The picture is set in a kitchen, it seems like a stereotypical Italian kitchen, but in fact it’s a small butcher’s kitchen. It is dim-light, giving it a sense of a horror genre. The background has a painting-like look to it allowing Jamie to stand out even more then usual. The kitchen seems very old fashioned, with old, unclean, unhygienic setting. The fans in the back suggest a high rising temperature, and within a slaughter house gives it even more of a horror feel. The place is in need of a renovation, and is represented as a really lower class, dirty place. This is why Jamie has gone to Italy. The advert suggests many things; one is that Jamie who is British and has a patriarchal ideology, with his handkerchief is there to almost save Italy, from itself. The kitchen has a patriotic ideology, its very Italian, and Jamie being part of it, a large part of it, shows he’s taking over, and making Italy more British. These ideologies give away a lot of the programme and the aim behind it.

There are many references towards Italy within the advert. Around the slaughterhouse/kitchen, there are many pictures on the walls and posters which represent a patriotic ideology. As the background does seem painted, Italy is well known for its artists, which re-inforces the patriotic ideology, alongside the pictures up on the wall, of large families, which follows stereotypes of Italian families, with references to large mafias. There is a large picture in the right hand side, of a pope or a priest allowing cultural stereotypes. The cupboard in the back also has a poster of the Italian football team, giving the whole setting a traditional Italian feel, and Jamie in the middle of it. The meat hanging alongside Jamie also has Italian stamps on them, making Jamie seem like an outsider, an invader who is disrupting the Italian environment. It represents Italy as a rock solid country and they stick together, allowing nothing to break them. All the references to Italy makes the people of Italy seem like they love their country, culture and values, and with Jamie in the middle, makes it seem like he wants to change this all in to a more British society with British values.

The male in the background o n the left hand side is an Italian butcher, who has a sharp butcher’s knife in his hand, it almost seems like a snapshot where he has stopped for a moment and is contemplating. The use of the knife within the image has a huge impact on the way Italians are perceived. The knife can act as a phallic symbol, and as the man is holding it, gives him dominance over everything, even though he is in the background. This can again link the Italian stereotype back to Italian Mafias. As Jamie is tied up he seems helpless and allows the audience to see the Italian butcher in control of the situation and can release Jamie. From both of their facial expressions we can also see who has authority. Jamie seems frightened crating a fear for the audience, and again allows stereotyping of Italian people to be part of the Mafia. According to all these values given from this advert the audience must be of an older age group. Jamie is very young compared to other cooks on television and has created programmes which have been aimed at large target audiences, however the great Italian escape must be aimed at an older group. This is because of the image shown and of the title. The dead carcasses show this programme won’t be for the faint hearted, and the title refers to an old British film called the great escape which would be more meaningful to an older audience.

The advertisement has kept writing to a minimum, it has the title and the date it starts, and the channel 4 icon. The font is contemporary and in sans serif. The use of the word escape is ironic towards the image and the situation that Jamie is in. The title does not state Jamie Oliver as, Jamie Oliver; it says Jamie, which almost makes it inevitable for the audience to know who Jamie is as he is so heavily linked to channel 4. The channel 4 icon is also cut off, making it seem like the audience knows what channel it would be on, just because of Jamie Oliver and the typography generally used. The general audience for channel 4 is an older more mature audience, and for Jamie Oliver, makes it more niche audience who enjoy watching interactive cooking programmes. The words suggest an actual film with a narrative which follows Jamie escaping out of Italy, but in fact he seems to go there to change things and make Italy a better place, just like what he did with the school dinners in the U.K