Representation

The women seems to be in her 30s, having fun exercising with her hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing athletic clothing that seems to be drenched with sweat and is also messy. This represents her as imperfect and normal rather than idealised. This represents her in more of a realistic way in comparison to many other women in other adverts.

This reflects the research Sport England did before the campaign that discovered many women were worried about their appearance when exercising.

Her position is in the centre, and her brightly coloured clothing makes her seem dominant and powerful.

Her face and body is angled away from the camera shows that this is an indirect mode of address. This suggests that a woman’s appearance isn’t important.

The shallow focus connotes that no one matters apart from the person exercising.

The shallow focus also adds to the woman’s importance. It also signifies that she doesn’t care about anyone else, and is in her own world, having fun.

The shot type used in this is a long shot. The placement of the slogan over her body connotes that a woman’s body isn’t important and the audience is encouraged not to objectify her.

Normally, women are seen as sexual objects, wearing revealing or even minimal clothing and doing lustrous, seductive poses in adverts. Their bodies normally seen as extremely important and desirable.

This advert challenges feminist ideas that women are often sexualised in the media. This might be because the target audience is women and their research showed that women are self conscious of their bodies.

A regular woman doing exercise suggests that the advert isn’t trying to make the exercise look luxurious or posh or even expensive, but make it look fun, natural and normal.

Media Language

Conventions

• There is a slogan placed right in the middle of the page. This connotes that apperances aren’t important.

• The woman looks unaware of the camera or someone else, which connotes that women should not worry about what others are thinking.

Small size and corner placement of company suggests that the purpose of the advert isn’t to tell a product or a brand, but a message.

Connotations & denotations

• This image denotes a shallow focus shot of the woman exercising.

• The shallow focus connotes that no one else matters apart from the person exercising.

• Her facial expression and body language connote that she is having fun, lost in the moment, and enjoying exercise.

• The slogan includes animal imagery. The first part of the slogan has the phrase ‘sweating like a pig’ which connotes something that is unattractive and dirty, which people use as insults all the especially towards women. This phrase is playing on women’s worst fears about what they look like when exercising. The phrase ‘feeling like a fox’ signifies that doing exercise will make you feel more attractive.

• The logo/font/general style of the advert may act as an intertexual references to all the other This Girl Can adverts in the campaign. They are not trying to make exercise look luxurious or posh or even expensive, but make it look fun, natural and normal which might be the reason why they used a sans serif font.

• The use of the words ‘ this girl can’ is simple, easy to understand and is a really positive message and being empowering as well and makes exercise seem more achievable.

• The word ‘Girl’ might connote to audiences that exercise will make them feel more powerful and youthful.

• The use of the hashtag appeals to younger audiences and reflects the modern context of the advert.

Props

• The woman does not look like a typical weak, distressed character that is in trouble, she looks independent, very confident and having fun. She also seems strong and is more like a hero unlike a damsel in distress.

• This advert feels like she is the protagonist of this particular story, which might appeal to women who want to be the heroes of their own lives.

• There is a sort of narrative in this advert that suggest if you get up and exercise, you are going to be having loads of fun like the woman in the advert and you are going to have an amazing lifestyle where you don’t care about what other people think about you, and it is going to feel amazing.