1) What are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings for the adverts you have studied?
The preferred reading for the RBK 50 cent advert is that your past is what makes you, no matter how shameful or crime filled it is. However, a more cynical person may consider this advert to be a greenlight for criminal behaviour. A negotiated reading is that your actions define you no matter how you repent.
2) Do these adverts provide evidence for the idea that audiences are free to interpret messages in a variety of ways - including rejecting them? Answer this question as a mini-essay, exploring both sides of the argument.
I agree with this statement as the iconographies of adverts can be easily confused and misunderstood through different ideologies and mindsets. Someone more geared towards racist ideas may see this advert as confirmation for their pre-formed beliefs as it features a black man (50 Cents) and crime imagery. This, of course, is not the intended meaning of the advert as it only aims to be viewed as a product edgy and dangerous people buy. People reserve the right to have cynical readings of media products such as thinking the rbk advert is supporting crime just as much as people are allowed to recognise 50 cents on the poster and be compelled to buy the product. There is no correct reading, only the universal meaning the company tried to create through design.
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