Analysis Of The UFS Promotional Poster To Evaluate Its Influence On Society

Popular culture takes many forms and encompasses areas such as art, music, dance, and entertainment. It “is a set of practices and texts through which we learn about and make meaning of the world.” Popular culture is used to send messages on how society should view certain issues. The artifact that will be analyzed is a promotional poster of the UFC. This poster will symbolize the UFC and define what this company is all about. In the first part of this analysis, what will be identified is the influence that the UFC has on me. Further analysis will be done to identify the broader impacts that the UFC has on society and understand how this company manipulates popular culture to its benefit. This will uncover issues that encompass inequality of gender, manipulation of mass media, exploitation through capitalism, body shaming, and nationalism.

UFC is a mixed martial art promotional company that creates events so that fighters from different fighting backgrounds can compete. The company uses various forms of social media to promote their events and their fighters. This industry is very competitive as it tests a fighter’s ability to successfully perform in front of large crowds, as well as, being broadcast for the entire world to watch. UFC fighters spend hours, days, months, and even years preparing themselves. These athletes must follow strict diets and workout routines. As well as, portray a desirable image to society. The influence that UFC has on me is that I am a consumer in their business. This is because I watch UFC fights that are on television and follow fighters on their social media accounts. The UFC takes a quantitative approach because their goal is to make maximum profit. To produce maximum profit, this company must target audiences from large demographical and geographical populations. By reaching these populations, it will influence more people to buy tickets to see live events or order pay per view to watch it on television.

The goal for the UFC is to gain popularity. This company incorporates the notion that “popularity can be measured by patterns of consumption.” By attending or watching these events we are conforming to a capitalist society. Watching these events, there is a tendency that discussion will occur with others about the highlights of the event. This allows for free advertisement to occur, as satisfied consumers will want to share their positive experience with others. By sharing these experiences with others, it may influence people who were not watching UFC, to begin watching it. The UFC conforms with capitalism because it is using “an economic system that is based on private ownership of the means of production and distribution which is geared toward the generation of profit.”

The problem identified with capitalism is that the profit that is generated, tends to come in the expense of exploitation of someone else. This can be shown by watching press conferences that occur weeks before the fight. During press conferences, it is typical that the two fighters will direct offensive comments about their opponent to make them look less significant. Majority of these comments are directed on topics that revolve around a person’s masculinity, their sexual preferences, weight, and wealth. In one case, Connor McGregor was caught using a homophobic slur “faggot” to describe another fighter. This informs me that people see popularity in these derogatory comments in the UFC. The reasoning behind this is because it adds more to the fight which catches the interest of society. People in our society want to see a show. In the lecture, a clip of the movie “Cinderella Man” was watched. In that movie, people wanted a story behind the fight. That is why the “Baer” was constantly insulting James Braddock.

In my personal belief, this is one aspect of the UFC that I do not enjoy. It is not just the fact that they are insulting one another, but, it is this idea that they can discriminate against a person because of the way they are. For instance, the man Connor McGregor called a “faggot”, may not have been a homosexual. This enforces the idea that people who are homosexuals are lesser people or even a punch line to an offensive joke. It is also the idea that there is a sense of masculinity that must be shown or else the other person looks weak and is determined to be a coward. What this tells me about myself is that even though I do not agree with what is being said, I am silent and continue to watch UFC.

The mass media is a tool that the fight industry uses to create popularity. “Popular culture identifies with the entertainment produced through commercial media that has the economic and technological capacity to reach large, demographically diverse, and geographically dispersed audiences.” The way that this is accomplished is by using social media accounts, radio broadcasts, promotional posters, and commercials on television. These techniques are effective because most people will likely be exposed to the mass media. For instance, millions of people use social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This is one of the easiest ways for the UFC to convey their message to a demographically and geographically diverse population. All that is needed is to post a status promoting an event, or a picture with a caption. Commercials on television are effective because they are short, and they catch the attention of the person watching television. The Connor McGregor versus Khabib Nurmagomedov fight is currently being broadcasted through commercials. When a person watches this commercial it spikes interest. This is because the commercial is telling them that this fight will be the biggest fight in UFC history. Consumerism is a tactic used to force feed the idea that this event is a big deal and that everyone must watch it. If more people watch the fight, then it will result in a greater profit for the UFC.

One of the approaches that the UFC takes is a hegemony approach which means the “dominance over” subordinate groups. In the UFC there are fighters who come from different countries. For instance, Khabib Nurmagomedov is from Russia, and Connor McGregor is from Ireland. The UFC manipulates nationalism in the mass media to create popularity in various countries. It is the reason why the Olympics are successful. It is this idea that one country is superior to the other. This upcoming fight between Connor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov will be watched by people who live in both Ireland and Russia. Not only that but Canadians and Americans who are Irish or Russian will also watch this fight. The mass media has manipulated and incorporated nationalism in this fight by changing the fighters eye color to represent their countries flag. This fight is not only one to settle the disagreement that the two have, but, it is also to identify which country is superior. There is no doubt that UFC is by far one of the most popular and successful companies in the fighting industry. However, popularity and success come with major issues. By observing the artifact what is noticed is the ratio between women and male fighters that are being represented in this poster.

One of the major issues of UFC is gender inequality. Women fighters who are contracted with the UFC do not get the same promotional representation or similar pay to their male counterpart. The challenges of inequality that women fighters face, define the UFC as a male dominant industry. This suggests most of the audience are male. What this tells us about the audience is that they want to see two males compete rather than two females. In the eyes of the audience, they would much rather see a woman as a ring girl. This brings up another issue with the UFC which is not only sexism but body shaming. A ring girl is a model who is dressed promiscuous and walks around the ring with a sign that shows the next round. The issues are the same as in the fashion industry, that a woman must have a desirable body type. This promotes sexism and body shaming because it discriminates against women who have disabilities and women who are fat. The message sent is that ring girls represent desirability and wealth. It also entails certain tropes about a woman’s appearance that they must be thin and tall.

In conclusion, a UFC promotional poster was the artifact chosen to symbolize the UFC company. An Analysis was conducted to identify what the UFC represents to me and how it defines me as a person. Further analysis was conducted to identify broader impacts that the UFC company has on society and understand how popular culture has been manipulated to benefit this company. This presented issues that included; inequality of gender, manipulation of mass media, exploitation, body shaming, and nationalism.