Free The Use Of Parody And Satire In Advertising And Television Programming Essay Sample

The visual media accounts for the highest percentage of media that people access in their day-to-day business. It comprises of various content from across the media world; arts, business, politics among others. However, there are a number of publications, print and visual, which targets a certain medium with the aim of creating jokes or entertain people. Such form of media categories under satire and parody. People confuse the two words as one in all, but there is a slight difference. Satire is a literature that uses imitation and humor to ridicule and attack an individuals’ character, moral (Satire/Parody/Pastiche, 2015). Such imitation comes by using cartoons and puppets that artists creatively try to use to their advantage. Parody is simply an imitation of an original work but twisted to create a comical or humorous image (Satire/Parody/Pastiche, 2015).
Parodies have recently been the best type of humor media especially in YouTube. The site has dozens of videos that people make against artists’ music or comments made by important people. Both satire and parody serve as ways of airing out grievances of what people experience in the ground. In the movie and advertising world, parody reigns more than satire due to the availability of critics. Satires come in place when people try to come up with a perfect ending to a movie or a different approach on an advertisement.
The pranksters creatively show their fans how the original creators would make the movie or advertisement better. People recently try to impersonate important people and act out their behaviors. Currently, various videos and shows have such content in its lineup. The satire works like magic since people do not get tired of listening to them. The love people have on parody makes the media strive further and more artist head to it because of the easy money.
The major disadvantage of satire and parody is the likeliness to face contempt, criticism and at time's lawsuits (Satire/Parody/Pastiche, 2015). The imagery created by the new comic might not appeal to the owner or/and the fans. As a way of payback, the artist might order the capturing of a person. However, the First Amendment law protects an artist under these conditions by guiding him/her with the laws. The law, on the other hand, favors people who committed greater crimes and setting them free instead of locking them up for good. Parody and Satire have their goods and bad but which side out ways the other?
The world holds account of several cases that included the use of satire and parody. However, the courts cannot close all cases because there is no proper equipment, weak salary among other things. Hence, the courts have loopholes in it, which encourage criminals to go through it. There are several parody movies created after the release of the original film. The Police Academy came to show how fun the police academy is (Satire/Parody/Pastiche, 2015). Unlike the contrary of people’s belief that the police academy is full of strict people, which the film showed the jovial and funny sides of the forces. Though the force had an objection to their usage of the department, it brought a joke towards their work.
Another great parody movie is the Austin Powers. It mimics the infamous James Bond movie series (Satire/Parody/Pastiche, 2015). They create a joke out of him through the various superhero actions he boasts about. James Bond movies are action packed classics and give the reader a chance to impersonate him. From the information gathered, the two seemed to enjoy their work of art; creating parodies on peoples’ constructive work. Such kind of scenarios blocks the real artist to show up from within a person.
More recently, the advertising world has had its share of parody and satire usage in the content produced. It revolves around all media; print and visual. However, most of the print publications seem harmless and more of satire work than parody. For example, Keanu Reeves, a famous Hollywood actor, had his cartoon image of himself portrayed on the cover of Americas’ Magazine, MAD (Satire/Parody/Pastiche, 2015). He acknowledged the work of the arts and did not feel offended at all about the image; it was funny as per him. Quite an odd comment is coming from an achieved actor.
The first reaction people expected from him was filing with court charges against the company and most probably demand apologies from the company. However, people think the actor confused satire and parody since the image looked more of a parody. The picture in question had Reeves with a balancing cigarette in the mouth and his eyes gazing at his arms. The arms had a picture of a young boy tattoos on them. The assumption is the young boy is Reeves and portrayed how he has grown in the years. He seemed more shocked to see how he changed. Indeed, the picture looks more of a parody than a satire since it mocks the artist in question. However, it seems harmless to the common person since it does not show a bad side of the artist but more of a joke side.
As stated early in the paper, not all parody or satire products portray a good image. However, the use of parody has its good side. Parody acts as a form of inspiration. The advertising companies that incorporate parody in their products come across inspirational material, such as music, style, and format. For example, the Star Wars film and Yeo Valley campaigns in Currys/PC world incorporated parodies from rap music videos in their commercials (Comedy in advertising. Why use parody? 2015). Lorraine Chase starred in a Campari advertising campaign back in 1979, which was a parody of Casablanca, an iconic film.
There are criteria for using parody in an advert. The parody must be original, popular and respected by the audience. For the success of the parody, it ought to share a familiar platform as the original content; target the same audience or have inter-textual references. Parodies mainly pick out the credits from the original product as well as the audience then uses contrast and juxtaposition to come up with a new meaning.
Parodies can go viral once released (Comedy in advertising. Why use parody?, 2015). Due to its nature and humor, people will whisper about the parody of other people. The people who would enjoy the parody more are the competitors and the media houses. There is nothing as food as sweet gossip. In the same way, people will want to use the products as per the way the clip portrays it. It attracts new consumers to the products or the parody creators. A good laugh occasionally never hurts anyone and parodies make up for the funny times. The parodies favored the Liberal Democrats party because they created a Labservative website that allows the user to post in their ‘mashed up’ images of members of the Conservative and Labor party.
As an artist in the world of satire and parody, one must be careful not to overdo their work or else fall into serious trouble with the law under cases of copyright infringement. There is a couple of rules and regulations that will help an artist avoid a brush with the law. Parody can act as a defense of claims of copyright infringement (Kimbrough, 2015). If one has a valid parody running, he/she avoids arrest from copyright officials. The trick to avoiding it is not claiming ownership of the work and state it is more of a research than a work. Stating the above deviates the official from opening charges against a person. The main point of note is copying another artist work without their permission is an infringement of their work
When one creates and markets their work, always have in mind of the audience that will view it as offensive (Kimbrough, 2015). Human beings are different, and not everyone will see the joke in a parody work. Some see it as offensive to the original composer if the work. That does not mean it will not have its supporters; one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Being mindful of audience feedback and reaction will help an artist come up with a fair parody, which appeals to almost everyone.
The last rule to think of is, in cases of copyright litigation, one has to hope for court to favor them because it is too expensive to cater for the fines. The possibility of a copyright case to litigate is when presented to a federal court (Kimbrough, 2015). No matter how much a parodist might try to defend themselves, there is no possibility of the federal court to sweeten the case. Most of the cases run in the thousands of compensation without factoring in the attorney’s fees. Consequently, it is quite a costly affair for bringing laughter to people. The rule shows how harsh the law can be towards copyright infringement and litigation.
However, times changed and more people especially artists are not against most of the parodies done upon them. It at times brings more fame to the artist since the art will trend in the industry for a while. It is a good opportunity for the artist to grow his/her image. Parodies and Satire bring out the blind side of the artist, the perspective that one cannot see by themselves. It exposes their weakness, flaws and mistake they did or currently doing. The satire in such works reveals what the artist should do to bring their lives to track. Satire in the context works as a pace setter for the artist and a guide in how to live better than the current condition.
Parodies, on the other hand, bring about humor to people through works of arts done by the artist. It looks offensive to the artist, but no one hates a good laugh in the end. It positively shows the artist that people appreciate his/her work of art. The parodies are quite harmless unless they target a specific group or race. As long as the parodist sticks to the regulations, there is no point to take them to court.
In conclusion, the use of parody and satire in advertising and television programming has its good and bad side. None of the two weighs heavier; what determines the scale is the work presented to the world. A good work will have positive feedback and reach the true meaning of parody. A bad work will lead to court cases and large fines; something not worth a person’s time and finances unless funded by people to cause mayhem.

References

Comedy in advertising. Why use parody? (2015, February 25). Retrieved from History of Advertising Trust: http://www.hatads.org.uk/documents/Education_resources/Comedy%20in%20Advertising.pdf
Kimbrough, M. (2015, February 25). Parody, Satire, and You: A Quick Artists's Guide. Retrieved from Parody and Satire: http://www.artsandbusinessphila.org/pvla/documents/ParodySatire.pdf
Satire/Parody/Pastiche. (2015, February 25). Retrieved from tvtropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SatireParodyPastiche