The Big Issue : Assessment Task 2

On June 13^th, 2016, The Big Issue Ltd published it's 1209^th magazine cover which carried a humorous theme towards a serious debate. This magazine cover was released just over a week prior to when the EU referendum commenced in Britain.

 The main visual narrative depicted a clear intertextual reference to ABBA who are a 1970’s Swedish pop band. There’s a clear relation to ABBA due to the fact The Big Issue has taken an iconic image of the band performing, where the mise en scene has been kept the same; they are wearing iconic outfits and the two (supposedly) male members are playing instruments, such as the guitar and a piano. This intrigues The Big Issue’s primary target audience, as they are aimed to aged between 25-44, therefore ABBA would have been popular during and before their youth but not during the 21^st century. They would question why an old band is being brought up again, I believe that this may excite the readers and it would create a nostalgic feel. At the time of the release of this issue, ABBA were due to sing together after more than 30 years of being apart. This shows that The Big Issue has Cultural awareness when it comes to its target audiences key appeals.

Following on from the humorous theme portrayed within this front cover, the main visual narrative has been heavily photo shopped, the four band members heads have been replaced with 4 politicians relating to the UK. These 4 politicians are (from left to right) Nicola Sturgeon, David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. They were relevant during the release of this issue because the EU referendum was about to be conceded and I believe they all had varying opinions on whether Britain should stay or leave.  In addition to the face-swapping, their heads appear to be much larger in comparison to real life. The significance of their heads being larger may be to represent their power during the time of the issues release. Nicola Sturgeon appears to have a concerned facial expression, I think this is because at the time, she wanted Britain (specifically Scotland) to remain within the EU. The Big Issue appear to have used an unpleasant image of David Cameron, this may be because Cameron is a right-wing campaigner, and The Big Issue is left wing, meaning they have opposing views thus, The Big issue want to push this ideology onto the magazines target demographic. In addition to David Cameron, Boris Johnson also poses an ugly facial expression for supposedly similar reasons. In opposition to the other images used, Nigel Farage seems to have an excited expression. I think that The Big Issue has done this because Nigel Farage will not be supported by their readers, as he is right-wing. His happiness will anger the audience; therefore, this may be an encouragement for the big issue readers to make a decision in order to change this expression. The 4 specific politicians used and the main copy line on the front cover will relate to the articles inside of the magazine, they are not direct, meaning the audience will have to engage with the inside of the magazine to understand the meaning behind the front cover.

There is a clear connection to the Brexit referendum because there is a voting box in the bottom right corner, and a voting card can just vaguely be seen beside the big issue logo; I think that the aim of this front cover was to specifically encourage citizens within the UK to vote whether to leave or stay in the European Union. The Big Issue is known to be left-wing and politically aware, this means it would want to ensure that its target demographic makes the right decision when it comes to voting for Brexit. The front cover is mainly towards UK readers, based upon the politicians being used within the visual narrative, however using ABBA keeps it universal as they are well known across the globe. Linking to it still being a universal cover, despite heavily involving British politicians, there is a disco ball which involves detailing relating to the Earth. The connotations of this could be the impact on the rest of the planet upon the possible results of the referendum.

The main copy line consisted of the typography being black and capitalised, beneath it is a white box, this aids the focus of the viewer in order to read it. Above this, it’s states ‘Decision time’ in red, the red could symbolise the urgency and importance of the EU referendum, pressuring the readers to make the right decision.  The main copy line states ‘The winner takes it all’ this creates anchorage to the cover image as it then confirms and identifies the ABBA theme. This is because it a title and main lyric of one of ABBA’s most popular songs (UK no.1 singles hit), meaning its well-known and easily recognisable to the reader. Furthermore, beside each of the politicians faces, there are also miniature speech bubbles, each involving a politics- related ‘play on words’ with other popular ABBA songs, again portraying the humorous theme. Away from the politics, the 5 references to the ABBA songs would be attractive to those who have an interest in the music industry.