House of Cards, a Netflix original series, aired February 1, 2013. The show itself is a thoroughly engaging and border-line addicting tale of Congressman Frank Underwood's (Kevin Spacey) manipulation and domination of Washington politics at the expense of anyone in his way. Underwood functions as "The House Majority Whip" who keeps things moving in an often sluggish and dead-locked political system. The political drama is laden with skillful manipulation, cunning revenge, physical and corporate violence, sexuality, and ultimately the ruthless drive for power.

The production of original series by Netflix was an attempt to "become HBO before HBO can become Netflix" (CNNMoney). The company invested nearly $100 million into the making of House of Cards, an investment they hope will pay off with new subscribers. With such a large expense being dedicated to the first major attempt at an original series, Netflix has a lot riding on viewership. In order to promote the series and attain greater audience appeal, Netflix has created an advertisement campaign which is relatively simplistic in design yet comes with a lot of loaded connotations aimed to communicate the shows underlying core themes. The show, and consequently the ad campaigns, revolves around ideals of power and conflict, contextualized in a variety of forms.

Methodology:

This analysis of the visual and textual communication located within the House of Cards promotional advertisements is to be broken down into a psychoanalytic analysis of the encoded messages and themes of the individual images themselves as well as utilizing a discourse analysis in order to solidify connections throughout. Special attention will also be placed on audiencing aspects of the image including intended encoding and decoding messages. This analysis will also be looking at gendered displays and disruptions of masculinity and femininity as well as intimidation, control, fear, submission, desire, sexuality, and voyeurism.

Introductory Thoughts: Advertisements for the Netflix original series, House of Cards, are highly successful in conveying the dominant themes from the show itself through the use of body/character positioning, figure size, framing, and spatial composition. Elements of point of view, angles, and eye lines also contribute to representations of engagement, detachment, and isolation and furthermore establish a structure for power verses equality between the characters and the viewer. These elements all together combine to entice and intrigue the viewer. The ads may contain few words, but the images scream the messages of the show. While this may seem like a large undertaking, in the words of House of Cards character Frank Underwood, "Take a step back. Look at the bigger picture. That's how you devour a whale… one bite at a time" (direct quote from series).

Cover Page

Psychoanalysis

Discourse

Makenzie Richardson