Fox News Ramps Up Costume Department Game – Analysis of Fox News as Political Cinema

We men are typically color-blind. We don’t typically think a lot about what color dress someone’s wearing, unless it particularly stands out.

This is, no doubt, the highlight performance of Fox News Weathergirl Janice Dean’s year.

Amid catching up on Fox and Friends, the only program on Fox worth paying attention to for the average American, and really, for all of us, if we’re honest – something odd stood out to me.

Even I noticed it. It’s a costume Janice Dean was wearing that was more Disney Channel than Fox and Friends.

It stood out so much, I couldn’t focus on what Janice was talking about. And for Janice, this is out of the ordinary.

She’s wearing, this morning, primary colors, straight primary colors; one half of her costume is straight red – as best as I, as a man can tell; if you’re a girl, you’re probably thinking, oh, gee, that’s magenta (or today’s girls are probably thinking that’s red #…)

In any event, it’s weird. And so I was trying to figure out why she is wearing this odd getup. And then I started to notice the background.

Nevermind that there’s a storm going on – this is an odd piece of clothing, but as I took in the rest of the set, I realized that the costuming – and that’s what it is, a costume – is designed to match the color scheme of the whole thing.

Now, in marketing, this color scheme is a trope. You have one side of the screen one color, and the other side, a totally different color. It’s a jarring piece of art, if you were to analyze it as a moving piece of art. And I’m not an art student, but I am a film expert.

So Fox News here is really stepping up an art game that is rather impressive, compared to even the FakeNews drama – which isn’t doing so well these days.

Vertically Split-Colored Background Conveys Sense Of Movement

It’s the still-art equivalent of doctors on a television show walking forward to convey a sense of movement in a story.

Here’s how the pop culture analysts described the new Quaker Oats makeover, which is similar but more muted and subtle:

Larry wasn’t the only part of the logo getting a touchup. His backdrop was also colored in two shades of red to convey a sense of movement.

http://popicon.life/design-evolution-quaker-man/

Take a look:

So basically, you have a seemingly jarring and unintuitive backround. Why would they do this? Again, to convey a sense of movement forward. But it’s not too jarring; because here, the Quaker Oat Man’s backdrop at least has two shades of red behind him.

Not so with this Weather Drop from Fox News.

Fox News Split Background Dramatizes Storm’s Movement Forward Through Carefully Designed Set, Costuming

So, as you can see in this picture – and it’s amazing – Fox News has not only designed a background which steps up the subtle “movement” game from the Quaker game. I mean, how else to convey subtly the idea that this is the man that can keep you regularly “moving” over 55?

But how to convey all the angst intended to move Floridians to action in the sense of an actual existential threat, when most of the FakeNews is crying wolf?

Why not some slick set and costume designs?

It’s kind of like this. Again, guys don’t notice what kind of makeup their date has on; all we guys typically know is “hot” or “not hot.” That’s practically it, unless you really take the time to think about it.

In this case, the subconscious implications aren’t sexual, per se. Fox is just doing what it does best, which is, in this case, responsible scaremongering. Here, we’ve thrown out the info-babe and gone straight to the knowledgeable, prophetic weatherwoman.

And she’s color-coordinated, but not in the bright, seductive colors which typically play well for women. As if to say, guys, keep your eyes on the weather screen.

Moreover, it takes the “movement” mentality of the Quaker Oats rebranding to a new level, because we’re not “moving” from one darker shade of red to another lighter shade; we’re going from a brighter red to a darker blue hue.

Political Overtones?

The piece of art, reduced to visuals, can obviously only mean one thing; and that is that the climate catastrophe will result in Florida moving from Republican Red to Donkey blue, and this reflects Fox News’s overall shift from its once patriotic core audience to its focus on appealing to the lowest-common denominator in order to amass a larger audience and rake in more ratings dollars.