This thesis is about cover illustrations of DVD movies as examples of visual communication. I have studied the cover illustrations of the three movies Gran Torino, Secret Window and As White As Snow. My research assignment has been to find out how the cover illustrations of DVD movies communicate in relation to the story. I have also been looking for what makes a cover illustration interesting and if the interest in itself is individually considered or if there are certain general rules regardless of the observer.To reach a conclusion I have been studying components in advertising pictures, visual communication and how the commercial producers use advertising to communicate with the observer. Semiotics, advertising and comparisons between the cover illustrations have been my method for analyze.I have come to the conclusion that cover illustrations are meticulously produced, and that every single part of them is important for the observers? over all impression and interpretation of the cover illustration.

Podcast is a new audio media in Sweden and has become larger and increasingly more popular in the past few years. In line with this, companies have seen the opportunity to use this type of marketing in the new coveted media and have created a new marketing tool in the form of sponsorship. Previous studies in this field indicate that this is a very effective method to reach a broad audience, but it still is a relatively new area with very little research in existence today. This study is an analysis of how receptive listeners are to marketing through podcasts and the ability companies have to create a sustainable and effective strategy for successful marketing through this type of medium. The collection of data for this study consists of two different qualitative interviews, the first one with listeners that were chosen, and the second with the sponsor company for two of the largest podcasts in Sweden. The essay´s empirical evidence shows how receptive listeners are to marketing via podcasts, what their podcast habits look like, what form of approach in marketing they prefer, and how often they take part in different offers. From the interviews with listeners and sponsoring companies in the study, it is concluded that the best and most effective strategy for marketing through podcasts is to weave advertising in the conversation and therefore increase the credibility and disturb the listener as little as possible.

The overall purpose of this study has its starting point in theories about the consuming society and its advertising. I have examined what kinds of methods that are being used in TV-commercials for beauty products, to influence the consumers. To study advertising, a semiotic method, symbolic interactionism and other theories which discuss symbols and influences, have been used. Six different TV-commercials for beauty products have been examined.The results from this study indicate that the advertiser apply to feelings such as, happiness, a sense of satisfaction, status and success, to affect the consumers behaviour. The findings in this research are discussed in the light of different theories which deal with the significance and the meaning of symbols..

This paper examines the function of narrative discourse in television talk shows. Basing our analysis on five episodes of the Swedish talk show Skavlan, we illustrate how narratives are initiated and elaborated by the participants of the show. The analysis shows that the institutional roles are challanged and that the roles vary between the host ant the guests. The analysis also shows that when guests introduce and elaborate stories they use the same discursive actions and resources as the host. When participants enter an actvie role in their storytelling the hos takes a more restrained role in which he lets the the conversation evolve spontaneously.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to compare and analyze Malmö Aviation and Rica Talk Hotel's service culture. This is done by examining three themes, the organizations ways of working with training, motivation and empowerment of frontline employees.Method: The essay is a case study-based qualitative research which mainly focuses on semi-structured, qualitative interviews with various people within the two organizations.Theory: The theoretical framework considers theory within two sections. The first section, the organizations importance in service quality, focuses on service culture or service climate and different management strategies. Section two, the employees? importance in service quality, focuses on three themes: training, motivation and empowerment of frontline employeesResults: Both Malmö Aviation and Rica Talk Hotel are companies that put great emphasis on developing and maintaining a quality service culture within the organization.

This paper is about advertising on the Internet using banners. Together with Embryo Webbyrå we have tested a lot of different ways of advertising on the online newspaper of Göteborgs-Posten, gp.se. Two of the web bureau?s existing clients, Resia and Recip, were chosen for the ads and the whole campaign lasted a period of four weeks.By comparing our banners with the consideration of format, color, placement and content we wanted to find an answer to how the most optimal banner would look.Our test result shows that visitors rather do not want to click on a banner, although we think that we have seen some interest and curiousness from visitors in the banners content. Even when the visitor does not click on a banner, the message might be put in mind for a future purchase or act..

Image editing software offers unlimited possibilities to alter an image. Provided that digitalinnovation is not altogether positive, it is important to develop knowledge of its negative sides. Thispaper examines the use of digital image processing from a critical IS perspective. Throughqualitative interviews with professional retouchers, the study provides a picture of their ethicalrelation to the software they use for retouching images in advertising. Though, it turns out that thecustomers who order the retouching holds responsibility for what is altered.

Web 2.0 represents the next generation of creating interactive applications on the Web. The purpose of this thesis was to develop a service tailored to Web 2.0 technology, where users can post ads for free. The platform is an advertising system specially designed for animals. Surveys and interviews have been done; the result is that today?s advertising services on the Internet are not interactive and user-friendly.The users have the possibility to adapt different part of the system to their needs, such as choice of themes.

Adolescents are coming to high school counselors to talk about sexuality for various reasons and the purpose of this study is to gain an enhanced understanding of how adolescents in high school talk regarding sexuality and LGBTQ. The empirical material is assembled on eight narrative interviews with high school counselors. The school counselors have through their experiences in meeting adolescents, submitted stories about the adolescents´ conversations regarding sexuality to us. The empirical data were analyzed by a standard critical perspective and with the help of heteronormativity it made norms about what is normal and abnormal visible and problematized. The result demonstrates that adolescents are influenced by norms of society, the media, family and friends.

Title: The representation of gender: A semiotic study of Tom Ford's Gucci campaign 2003 and Frida Gianninis Gucci Campaign 2013.Number of pages: 73 (79 including enclosures)Author: Sara AndréassonTutor: Anne-Marie Morhed Course: Media and Communication Studies D (2IV091) Period: VT 2013 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University.Purpose/ Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the representation of gender in advertising that has both men and women as the primary audience. The aim of the study was to investigate how Gucci has chosen to represent men and women in their advertising campaigns 2003 and 2013.Material/ Method: A semiotic analysis was performed by using three images from Gucci's spring/ summer campaign for Tom Ford in 2003, and three images from Gucci's spring/ summer campaign for Frida Giannini in 2013.Main result: The results showed that there was a clear difference between Ford and Gianninis ways of representing women and men in the two advertising campaigns. The women in Fords campaign 2003 are presented as sexual objects and represented by the male pornographic imagination and portrayed as sexual eye-catchers while the men are portrayed as addicted to sex. Frida Gianninis advertising images is a contrast of Ford pornographic portrayal of women. Giannini presents women as confident individuals while the man is represented as feminized and androgynous in his appearance. .

AbstractTitle: Art influences in today´s advertisingimages ? A qualitative study of advertisingimages and work of artNumber of pages: 46Author: Sanna OlssonTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Science CPeriod: Autumn 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose with this composition is to analyse how art has influenced todays advertising images, to see wich influences that can be descovered.Method/Material: Since this is an imageanalys the main material has been consisted of advertising images, a total of seven. In addition, art images have been used as comparative material. The advertising images have been strategically selected, however they are modern and aestetically appealing. A number of questions have been formulated wich is the basis of the analys.Main results: Primarily the study found that art has influenced today?s advertisingimages in different ways.

In today's society, consumers get in touch with hundreds of advertising messages a day from companies. It is up to the consumer to choose the messages they want to listen to and ignore the ones they want. Today, there is an advertising saturation and this has implications for both producers and consumer. Companies must be innovative and come with fresh ideas to get us consumers to pay attention to their particular message.  It is through the marketing that companies have an opportunity to spread their message.

In order to answer the question in the title, a cross-cultural analysis of two countries was done. Countries chosen were the Republic of Latvia and the Kingdom of Spain. The need for this research was suggested by increased cross-border business activities inside the European Union, and the lack of previous studies involving new Member States. The aim of the research was to see what environmental factors influence advertising adaptation in the European Union, as well as to evaluate the applicability of a standardisation approach. According to the theory, there are three external factors that influence the creation of a global advertising.

Previous research in the field of consumer marketing has confirmed the positive effects of divergence on advertising efficiency. Despite the coherent evidence, some industries lag in the adoption of these findings, one of which is the Swedish real estate market. Divergence has not been elaborately investigated within said context and this paper addresses the need of actionable insights for housing advertising. Starting with the proven success of housing firm Fantastic Frank who work with detail photos in contrast to the common wide angle, this paper examines theoretical implications of detail photos' characteristics. Besides being divergent, detail photos are also ambiguous which renders access to effects related to visual perception.

This essay is an introduction to the intentions and purposes of the british play writer Sarah Kane (1971-1999). Her own voice is presented both via quotations linked to her work and by an explanation of her connections to the surrealist poet and actor Antonin Artaud. The main focus is on Kane?s second play, Phaedra?s Love, first performed in 1996. The play is analyzed in co-relation to La volonté de savoir, the first volume in Michel Foucault?s trilogy Histoire de la sexualité.