Reading an Image

This is a landscape 'Reebok' print advert released in 2011. With two halves, there is a medium close up of 50 cent and on the other a quote from him, the poster is minimalist in content but with strong symbolism from ,such things, as the fingerprints with conventions of crime, fight and criminal. The colour scheme is an opaque black and white scheme, the seriousness is emphasised with the artists straight solemn facial expression. The low key lighting also adds to the seriousness of the poster with the artist coming out of the shadows. The target audience maybe young black youth, as they are stereotyped by the media and older age groups to get into gang violence or not make it to their early twenties and so by getting someone such as 50 cent with history of criminal past but was able to become successful is the dominant reading  and shows that this is the image of Reebok a company which stresses victory for others.  Also, to add, the motif of success and victory is show through the sans serif font, the quote states  'Where I am from there is no Plan B. So take advantage of today because tomorrow is not promised.', the optional reading may entail that because of his environment there may not be a chance for someone to follow their path in life, showing how the audience will be lead to think the products from Reebok will help people take risks which will lead to success rather than failure.







First,the two characters in the centre of the poster. In the landscape, the characters are lit up in the centre of the poster and showing the audience see that they will be the main and most important characters in the movie. They are lit up by a bright sun behind them which has connotations of the fantasy genre which shows that this is a hybrid genre film. Claire Danes is featured behind the main male character which shows that he is going to be dominant protector of her and be the main heroic protagonist. This is stereotypical female role and shows Claire Danes as the damsel in distress who needs rescuing, and may lead .To add, the colours scheme add to the mysterious connotations from the blue and the golden warmth and purity connotations from the golden orange colour in the middle. The dominant reading of the poster is the violent characters are featured with the darker colours which shows the audience that they are evil, clearly conveying the positioning of good vs evil in the film. The protagonist characters are featured in the sun which shows that they are the light in the film, the characters that are trying to escape from the evil character (these are basic conventions of fantasy drama).