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Aragon Kyra RSM 201 Remix Paper
Aragon Kyra RSM 201 Remix Paper
Kyra Aragon
Dr. Kaunert
May 1, 2020
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Introduction
message or idea to the viewer. In this particular remix assignment, I chose an advertisement for
the company PUMA. PUMA is widely known for its athletic clothing and footwear that it sells
worldwide. Over the years they have sponsored many celebrities, such as artist Rihanna. In this
remix, I chose PUMA because of their lack to recognize skillful athletes, and their message to
Analysis
When shopping on an athletic website, or in store, one would expect to see pictures of
professional athletes plastered across the store wearing the sponsors merchandise, right? For
PUMA, it’s all about the popularity of a person and the way their body can sell a product. This
seems to be true for the female advertisement, but for a male advertisement, athleticism is the
highlight of the ad. When browsing PUMA advertisements, I found that all the female ads were
of non-professional athletes and were focused on how the women’s body looks in the
merchandise. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for boasting body positivity in women, but what I
don’t understand is why have female celebrities’ model athletic clothing in a way that it’s not
used athletically? In the original artifact that I chose, Rihanna is pictured in PUMA sports bra
and sweatpants with the caption “WHAT ARE YOU TRAINING FOR?” I am caught off-guard
in this particular advertisement because one, Rihanna is not a professional athlete and two, she
isn’t seen training for anything athletically. In the other PUMA ads for women, the celebrities
Kylie Jenner, Cara Delevingne, and Selena Gomez are seen pictured in PUMA attire. The only
picture of the women that is close to being athletic is one of Kylie Jenner holding a basketball
even though she’s a social media influencer and does not play basketball professionally.
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On the other hand, the male PUMA ads are all athletic and focused on that aspect. A
popular male endorser for PUMA is track and field star Usain Bolt. In all of his ads, and all the
other male ads, they are seen doing something athletic or posing in their professional athletic
uniforms. This gives the message that the women aren’t “man” enough to model doing their
sport, even if they could. What I mean is, if PUMA had picked actual professional female
athletes, they could be pictured performing their sport and wearing the merchandise as well.
Remix
For my remix, I wanted to pick an actual athlete, and I wanted to pick someone that is
confident in themselves and gives off a good message. Naturally, Olympic figure skater Adam
Rippon came to mind. I can’t imagine the struggles that Rippon has overcome to be so successful
in a sport that is overly strict with its champions image. Male figure skaters, like Rippon, are
harassed for participating in a “female” sport and not owning up to their “masculine gender
ideology (Kaunert Homophobia in Sport).” While most male athletes choose to play a sport for
their family, or respect, some athletes do it for the pure thrill they get from performing it well
unapologetically gay. His courage to come out and perform well in the Olympics has inspired
many others like him to follow in his footsteps. However not only does a gay athlete bring in
more diversity, but it also, unfortunately, scares off viewers of the sport. In a study done by
Emily Roper and Erin Halloran, they tested the effect that gay and lesbian athletes have on the
views of straight male and female student-athletes. In one of the results, straight men were found
to be more negative to gay male athletes and lesbian female athletes (Roper and Halloran). Due
to this shocking discovery, I wanted to highlight Rippon even more as my remix image.
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Another reason Rippon was my first choice, is because of the lack of recognition of gay
male athletes and also athletes of less popular sports in media. Sports, such as figure skating,
only received 3.4% of television coverage - collecting a minimum amount of recognition from
the media (Kaunert Gender and Sport Media (Television)). Also, just think about all the ads you
see. Can you think of one that a gay person is highlighted in?
The message that PUMA was portraying was unclear in the Rihanna ad. She is pictured
with her arms out wide spinning around in the merchandise. The caption that is placed right in
the middle of the photo is the question, “WHAT ARE YOU TRAINING FOR?” This question,
based off of the odd photo they chose, is not able to be answered and can be confusing to the
viewer. It’s almost as if PUMA is mistakenly leading the viewer into thinking that they may not
be training for anything, or don’t want to after seeing the inattentive ad. Thankfully, my remix
highlights the importance of training and gives the viewer a sense of direction and power. I first
edited a photo of Adam Rippon proudly hoisting the American flag across his shoulders; I then
changed Rihanna’s caption to a more direct quote that reads, “I TRAIN TO WIN.” The simple
act of changing a question to giving a firm answer is the difference between broke and rich.
Conclusion
As I reflect on this assignment, I realize that a lot of thought goes into preparing an
advertisement and how much one picture can speak to an entirety of people. Overall, I really
enjoyed researching different advertisements and expanding my mind on what key images
convey to people. I hope my remix of the artifact is substantial and that it radiates the right
Citations
Roper, Emily, and Erin Halloran. “Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbians Among
www.link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-007-9323-0.