Media Industry Regulation Report

The regulators/ founders of Warner Bros were Albert Warner, Harry Warner, Sam Warner and Jack Warner and for 'Nivea Skin Care' is actually owned by a co-company Beiersdorf AG is a German personal care company based in Hamburg, manufacturing personal care products. Not only owning Nivea but  Elastoplast, Eucerin (makers of Aquaphor), Labello, La Prairie and tesa SE (tesa tape).

First, controversial case study - The Dark Knight 

The Dark Knight, Batman's synopsis consists of  "Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent launch an assault on the mob, they let the clown out of the box, the Joker, bent on turning Gotham on itself and bringing any heroes down to his level." what was controversial about this movie was the rating given by the BBFC for the film. A 12A Iain Duncan Smith wrote to The Times to express his disapproval with The Dark Knight’s 12A rating. He said “I was astonished that the board could have seen fit to allow anyone under the age of 15 to watch the film. Unlike past Batman films, where the villains were somewhat surreal and comical figures, Heath Ledger's Joker is a brilliantly acted but very credible psychopathic killer, who extols the use of knives to kill and disfigure his victims during a reign of urban terrorism laced with torture.” The organization(s) involved for the production companies are Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy and finally DC Comics. The outcome of all this was a handful of MP's complaining about the age certificate for the movie yet the BBFC did not budge and left the age boundary as it is.

Second, controversial case study - Nivea Male Skin Care

"Nivea apologizes for controversial ad in Esquire" Questioned for being cutting edge or... Just cutting. The skin care company nivea are known for aiming towards females however also have a male line too which doesn't have as much recognition with their advertisement became quite the 'trending' sensation on twitter. "The advert for Nivea for Men appeared in the September issue of Esquire magazine and featured a clean-cut, African-American male holding what appeared to be a mask of a black man with an Afro hair style and a beard. The copy accompanying the ad read, "Look Like You Give a Damn. Re-civilize Yourself." Once a pic of the ad was tweeted, the outcry was fast an furious from those complaining that the ad was insensitive and racist. "Adding Nivea to the list of companies that will not be getting my money," tweeted blogger Septembre Anderson, who appears to have been the user who first tweeted a pic of the ad. "Post-racial my ass..." The response from Nivea; "We are deeply sorry to anyone who may take offense to this specific local advertisement. After realizing that this ad is misleading, it was immediately withdrawn." 

The statement went on to say that "Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of NIVEA: The brand represents diversity, tolerance, and equal opportunity. We value difference. Direct or indirect discrimination must be ruled out in all decisions by, and in all areas of our activities. This applies regardless of gender, age, race, skin color, religion, ideology, sexual orientation, or disability. Nor should cultural, ethnic, or national origin, and political or philosophical conviction be of any significance."

I completely agree with the way in which companies are regulated, it's just a matter of opinion the public/ audience's view. Not only this but as a result of this it is considered to be a major opinion of two major companies the BBFC and the ASA.

The BBFC is a trusted guide to media content. Working as an independent, self-financing and not-for-profit media content regulator, the BBFC operates transparent, consistent and trusted co-regulatory and self-regulatory classification and labelling systems in the U.K.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. We apply the Advertising Codes, which are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice. Our work includes acting on complaints and proactively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.

The powers in which these both companies have are simple and straight forward as they consist of creating the age boundaries in which certain movies/ adverts can be viewed. For example, the BBFC are mainly known for their classification for movies therefore have the power to define/ decide what age category can watch a movie and upwards. Whereas the ASA have power over advertisements which are shown during Television programmes and before and after water shed. Which is adverts which are aimed towards an older audience products advertised such as condoms, cigarettes, alcohol etc. 

TV Advert Synopsis

Pharrell's Clothing line - Billionaire Boys Club / Ice Cream

The synopsis of my T.V Advert bases around two people, a couple in fact. One female, and the other male. Linked through hands, with pinkies attached the camera first follows them walking into a park with a back shot of the two together walking, talking and laughing. Walking towards an ice cream truck whereby the female goes to lean against the truck as the male goes to by some. The camera then does a slow pan of the female in her clothing to show the audience who/ what she's wearing as the male approaches her and hands the ice cream to her whilst placing his arm around her neck and similar to the female leans against the truck as the camera does another slow pan of his clothing whilst he eats his ice cream. As the camera comes back up to both the male and female a two shot is used to show the two logos and another back shot is used to show the two walking off/ teasing each other as the male takes the hat off the female and places it on his own head.

Two Main Actors - Leah & Damilola 

Female clothing - Leah

All black; jeans and top with a snap back with a contrasting white logo. 

Male clothing - Damilola

White t-shirt; with contrasting black logo as well as black jeans and trainers. 

BOTH - (Maybe blacked out sunglasses)

Location -

Crystal Palace Park

Expenses -

£12 each for the logo on t-shirts (£24 total) 

£5 for Ice Cream

Camera/ Steadi cam (free)

Total = £29

Health & Safety -
When filming I must look where I'm going/ keep an eye out.

Task 4 - Zombie film production

Three Weeks / Bollywood Horror Movie

The bride from lack of sleep decides to take caffeine pills which are actually expired yet she doesn't realize therefore continues to take a daily dosage for a whole week as it is rehearsal week for her wedding. And as we all know, asian weddings consist of a three day process spread along three weeks or one after the other. The day of her wedding she awakes in a sickening state not realizing that she is in the process of turning into a zombie yet refusing to rest she carries on with the process of marrying her betrothed and on the final 'circle' she collapses and arises as the dead; bride zombie. Terrorising and attacking those around her/ and her newly wed husband is then turned as he picks her up and she bites him on the neck.

Priya the main female lead character - Fiancee/ Bride to be; below similar make up/ style to the female below when turned into a zombie.

Human - (on wedding)

Aadi the main male lead character - Fiancee/ Groom

Human / engagement

Media Industries Investigation

Ownership -
The company Penguin Books is owned by the worldwide Penguin Random House, a newly emerging conglomerate which was formed in 2012 by the merger of the two publishers. Formerly Penguin Group was wholly owned by Pearson PLC, the global media company which also own the Financial Times, but it now retains only a minority holding of 47% of the stock against Random House owner Bertelsmann who controls the majority stake.

What they own -
Noel Carrington, an editor at Country Life magazine, first approached Lane with the idea of publishing low-cost, illustrated non-fiction children's books in 1938. Inspired by the Editions Père Castor books drawn by Rojan and the technique of auto-lithography used in the poster art of the time, Carrington's suggestion for what was to become the Puffin Picture Book series was adopted by Penguin in 1940 when, as Lane saw it, evacuated city children would need books on farming and natural history to help adjust to the country.

Lane expanded the business in 1937 with the publication of George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism under the Pelican Books imprint, an imprint designed to educate the reading public rather than entertain. Recognising his own limitations Lane appointed V. K. Krishna Menon as the first commissioning editor of the series, supported by an advisory panel consisting of Peter Chalmers Mitchell, H. L. Bales and W. E. Williams. Several thousand Pelicans were published over the next half-century and brought high quality accounts of the current state of knowledge in many fields, often written by authors of specialised academic books. (The Pelican series, in decline for several years, was finally discontinued in 1984.)

Other products/ services -
Penguin, used to also published magazines "A gap in the magazine market that Lane hoped to fill. In January 1941 the first issue of Penguin New Writing appeared and instantly dominated the market with 80,000 copies sold compared to its closest rival, Cyril Connolly's Horizon, which mustered 3,500 sales in its first edition."

History -
Penguin were found in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane, "Lane decided that good quality contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores."

Terms which can be applied -
It was originally a local and national publishing industry however on the 1st July 2013 Penguin and Random House officially united to create Penguin Random House, the world's first truly global trade book publisher. Therefore a term which would best describe this Penguin Publication would be; Multi-national.

Due to the company now working amongst a global scale, in terms of employees it would be a medium sized facility. As both the companies have merged in terms of control it would be subsidiary a mixture of both a public company; aiming towards anyone and everyone. Also, a vertical integration as they used to publish magazines as well as their books.

Customers -
Originally penguin was created for the everyday person who wanted a good read wherever he/ she may be. It also gained the attention of soldiers who took part in the war; "A Penguin could fit into a soldier's pocket or his kit bag ... It was especially prized in prison camps"- Martin Bell therefore aiming towards both female and male. Not only this, but penguin also have a section of their publication devoted to children books too; therefore the publication is universal as well as friendly amongst all ages and sexes.

Reading/ Viewing figures -
unable to find

Financial -
Their competition consists of a variety of other publications, however their most biggest rivalry are the 'kindles' which allow individuals to read without an actual book rather another piece of technology.

Who is responsible for regulating your industry, and what powers do they have?
The CEO Markus Dohle; in charge of the company as a whole.

Task 4D: Written Research Summary

The way in which I collated, evaluated and summarised all my research was through firstly taking part with my actual research process which consisted of three parts. Questionnaire, Vox pops and a Focus Group. When creating questions for each I attempted to make them all unique as possible so that I was not obtaining the same information from each process. For example, in terms of my questionnaire the questions consisted of 8 simple and short questions based around getting to know the audience better. Asking questions such as their age, gender, ethnicity and occupation. These were the main 4 which I aimed to find out about my target audience which I gained as well as whether or not they are fans of Television/ watch both shows as well as the T.V adverts which are shown. Not only this, but as my plan is to initially advertise clothes and the brand I also went out to find out what clothing brands my audience are fans of so that I can also from the clothing collection I have aim to pick clothes of a similar style to capture my targets audience.

In terms of the design/ clothing to gain a much more in depth feedback I printed off the chosen designs for the clothing and showed my focus group in which I received constructive feedback on both logos/ designs as well as this I found out more about my target audience and their relationship with this particular clothing brand the CEO. Many where aware of the owner however lacked knowledge of him owning his own clothing brand.

(the same logo of this tank top, but placed on a t-shirt) 

In terms of my Vox Pops they consisted of questions based on the spending habits of my target audience as well as in a way finding out which physchographic category they belonged too. It became apparent that all members belonged to the same therefore making my job in terms of creating an advert to aim towards the whole of my target audience easier. The questions asked were:

• How old are you? 
• Are you a fan of cloth shopping? 
• If you had £30-50, what’s the first thing you would buy, and why? 
• Are you a fan/ enjoy/ listen to any artists who have their own clothing brand? E.g. Kanye West, Rihanna

In terms of finding out their physchographic's the questions which I asked in particular to focus on this were the last two focused on the spending of money as well as other clothing brands which similar to my chosen product is owned by a well known artist.

In conclusion the quality of my findings were all exceptionally influential as well as helpful. They've made me make strict decisions in terms of what clothing designs I will be using as well as how I will approach the filming/ story board for this project.