Audience - Lego Movie

Audience

Who are the products targeting?

- Children who play Lego - AGE

- Adults who played Lego when they were younger - AGE

- Families 

- Young adult cinema-goers - AGE

- Both genders - GENDER

Audience demographics - GRACE

G - Gender

R - Race

A - Age

C - Class

E - Ethnicity

The Lego Movie advertising campaign would attract young children aged between 5-10 of all ethnicities who play with Lego because of the bright colours, young childish humour and the use of a 'creative imagination'. Young children would identify with the different characters and different coloured Lego characters such as Vitruvius and Lenny Henry encourages different ethnicities and races.

Uses and Gratifications:

P - Personal Identity - Audiences may identify with a range of characters in the film, but especially with Emmet, who represents the 'normal', everyday member of society who can make a massive difference to the world they live in. E.g Wyldstyle - female power, counter-type to representation of females.

I - Information - The film may offer children information about the world, such as the message that each individual can make a difference to society and the people around them. E.g BHF ad - teaches audiences how to administer CPR properly and safely.

E - Escapism, Entertainment - The narrative is entertaining, audiences are thrust into a fantasy world and follow a 'regular' character who takes on an extraordinary challenge - to stop Lord Business. This entertaining spectacle is added to with mystery and humour throughout the film. E.g Main Lego Section - chaotic nature of the segment causes diversion and therefore provides escapism/entertainment.

S - Social Interaction - The LEGO Movie offers audiences the chance to maintain personal relationships, especially in the way the themes and content of the film could bring together both young and older audiences in a shared interest for Lego. E.g Fictional world itself across the entire campaign provides young children with ways to communicate with their friends.

A younger passive target audience may have a preferred reading of the poster campaign as the main poster is full of action and shows subtle violence. As young audiences are far more influenced, this may have an effect on society on how younger aged media texts develop. This means that possibly more than subtle violence may be socially accepted - younger ages will still have a preferred reading as they have been influenced from past media texts that contain subtle violence, so they think that it is okay.
However, a younger target audience member might have an oppositional reading because of the characters presented on the posters. Younger audiences may find it unusual for Vitruvius's character to be associated with a working class builder, same as Batman. Batman and Vitruvius as 'Gandalf' in the LEGO movie posters may affect how younger audiences see those intertextual references.

An older target audience who grew up playing with Lego blocks would be very nostalgic and instantly fall in love with the varied characters shown throughout the poster and video campaign, therefore having a preferred reading. This is through personal identity, older audiences through these posters and advertisements may feel connected when watching the movie and could identify with the setting and stop motion type animation. In addition, the characters represented such as Emmet, who is a normal, working class character, may relate to many older audiences who possibly work in similar jobs or have similar lives prior to all the action.