TV Advertising

Task one:

Write an analysis for two or three advertisements.

Honda advert(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x13DH6IoIcQ&feature=player_embedded): There are several lines of appeal present in this advertisement one of which is: Rich, luxurious lifestyles because “Honda” is seen as an expensive, quality brand that many people aspire to own. The products such as the racing car and the boat, especially, connote wealth as they are things that the majority of the audience do not and will never own, however if they buy into the brand it is perhaps the next best thing. Dreams and fantasy are also a key part of making this advertisement appeal to the viewer. One of the ways that the marketer has incorporated dreams and fantasy is the choice of soundtrack. The soundtrack’s lyrics are empowering “Reach the unreachable” “No matter how hopeless” and connote that if the viewer buys a Honda that all their dreams will come true. Honda’s slogan, seen at the end of the advertisement, also states “The power of dreams” which again backs up my point. The final line of appeal that I see in this advertisement is self importance and pride because the advertisement suggests that owning a Honda is something to be proud of as evidenced by the man driving the various vehicles joyously singing. The most evident factor of persuasion in this advertisement is reward power as the Honda advertisement suggests that owning a Honda will make anything possible, some of the viewers may also view owning a Honda as a status symbol which in result will reward them with respect from their peers. The target audience for this advertisement is men, as they generally harbour an interest for technology, particularly vehicles. To be more precise the target audience would be middle aged men as they will be more likely to have the money needed to purchase a Honda. They are generally settled in a full time job by that age and will probably be looking for new excitement in their lives (i.e a new fancy Honda) The target audience also fits into several categories, one of which is aspirers who seek status, the Honda will appeal to them because they are generally quite materialistic and they will be more likely to want an expensive product such as a Honda. Another category the target audience may fit into is succeeders as they seek the highest quality products and Honda is a well known, quality brand. The sound used in the advertisement is diagetic as the man in the advert is seen to be singing to it. Silence is used when the boat goes into the waterfall to create suspense before the hot air balloon appears. A voice over is present at the very end of the advert stating “I couldn’t have put it better myself” the simplicity of this suggests that the reasons the viewer should buy a Honda have already been shown in the advertisement and you should be convinced already. The man in the advertisement has been stereotyped as a heroic male figure, striving to achieve his dreams through the use of his passion for Honda vehicles. This is effective because many men will aspire to be like him and the advertisement suggests that the first step is to invest in a Honda. In order to reach it’s target audience, this advertisement may be shown in the break of a program such as Top gear in order to reach those who are interested in cars.

Dell advert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ijH3cRJ1BY&feature=player_embedded): This is not a generic laptop advertisement as it does not present the laptops as particularly futuristic, unlike other advertisers; this suggests that the marketer is looking to appeal to a different type of audience to their competitors. One of the lines of appeal used in the advertisement is dreams and fantasy because the laptops are presented as sweets, creating an air of make-believe and causing the viewer to subconsciously believe that anything is possible when you have one of these laptops. By metaphorically connecting the laptops to sweets, the marketers have ensured that the advertisement will attract a younge

r audience. The bright colours do not as professional as the typical black or silver which connotes that the target audience could perhaps be teens, students or those looking for a more “fun” approach to technology. By making the laptops seem fun, the process of buying a laptop seems more approachable. This is enhanced by the voice over which says “Treat yourself” connoting that it is okay to spend money in order to own one of the laptops shown in the advertisement. The music bed is diagetic as all the people in the advertisement are singing along happily, making a happy looking product, therefore suggesting that you will be happy if you buy the product which is an example of reward power, the reward being that you become a happier person. The soundtrack is a well known song (Lollipop) which increases the appeal of the advertisement and ties in with the theme of the laptops being presented as sweets. The humour line of appeal becomes evident here as the song, the workers in the advertisement and the way in which the laptops are made/shown are presented in a potentially humorous and fun manner. The voice over at the end adds factual information stating what kind of laptop it is and what functions it has to offer which adds reliability to the product. The target audience would fit into several different categories, one of which is explorers as they seek discovery.

The laptops are presented as sweets which make them seem new and exciting, this, coupled with the fact that explorers tend to be drawn towards technology will make the product immediately appeal to that category. Mainstreamers may also be drawn to the product as they seek security and the price is reasonably low, a major selling point for the marketer.

Task two:

Making reference to a range of narrative structures, write a detailed analysis of how they are employed in an advert.

Loreal advertisement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3EEIcPkcO4&feature=player_embedded): Many narrative structures apply to this clip. One of the easiest narrative structures to spot in this advertisement is the use of a linear narrative. A linear narrative is used as at the beginning of the advert Cheryl’s hair is portrayed as “Limp and lifeless” contrasting with the end of the clip which states that her hair has been “replenished”. The product is “used” between these two revelations demonstrating a chronologically ordered sequence of events. A linear narrative is typically used in domestic advertisements. Contrasting with this, the advertisement does not follow Todorov’s theory, as instead of following the traditional equilibrium, disruption, resolution, the advertisement completely misses out the equilibrium at the beginning of the sequence. This could be reflective of the urgency for the viewer to go out, buy the product and “replenish” their hair. This advertisement also shows evidence of a goal-orientated plot. The goal being: to possess perfect hair. To achieve this, the advertisement incorporates a search/investigation. In this case, the search/investigatigation is for a product which will help the star vehicle, Cheryl Cole, achieve the goal. The climax is similar to what Todorov calls the resolution, the goal of having perfect hair has been achieved. The Loreal advert follows a realist narrative, the problem Cheryl has is an every day problem, enhanced into something that appears catastrophic to ensure that the viewers will rush out and buy the product. However, the narrative can appear to be anti-realist through the use of the computer generated animation of the "scientific" side of the product as I'm sure that the magnified process will actually look nothing like what is portrayed. We are left with a closed ending as the problem has been resolved.

Task three:

Compare the Loreal advertisement with two other adverts, explain which styles they employ and evaluate how effective they are.
I believe that the Loreal advertisement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfbZkCLXJbA&feature=player_embedded)

is presented in the documentary style which makes the information stated in the advertisement seem more factual and reliable, giving the viewer a sense of knowledge. However, I believe it could also be classified as a "talking head" style advertisement due to the periods in which Jennifer Anniston is directly addressing the audience. By mixing these styles together, the clip seems more interesting and will therefore be more effective in engaging the audience, thus ensuring that the viewer will go out and buy the product. There is also evidence of star power. The Iron Bru advertisement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfiqrkV_ZqI&feature=player_embedded) uses animation which is common collocation of an anti-realist narrative. In this case: animation is used because the advertisement is using an edited clip from an iconic short film named The Snowman. By using this animation it anchors the target audience to children, as was the "The Snowman"'s target audience. It is effective as the strategic editing of the clip could also demonstrate humour as a line of appeal. It also makes the product accessible, not just to the target audience, but to all those who have seen The Snowman as it provides familiarity. The final advert I am going to compare is the Nescafe advert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igi9u6X4y-s&feature=player_embedded) which is presented in the form of a series. Every advert follows on from the last creating a story. I think this type of structure stands out against the animated advert and the documentary advert as it is an unusual form of advertising. I think it is effective because the plot is simple but is built on each advert. This allows us to get to know the characters and form a relationship with the brand itself, making us more likely to buy the product. I think out of the three advertisements that I have analysed, the Iron Bru advertisement is the most effective due to its use of an iconic

animation.

Task five:

Write a paragraph about the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

The ASA are the advertising standards agency, they are the UK's independent regulator of all advertising. Their role is to ensure that advertisements are legal, truthful, honest and decent by applying the advertising codes. They regulate these types of advertising: magazine and newspaper advertisements, radio and TV commercials, TV shopping channels, posters on legitimate poster sites, leaflets and brochures, cinema commercials, direct mail, door drops and circulars, commercial email and SMS ads, ads on CD-ROMS, DVD, video, fax and sales promotions. The ASA respond to complaints by first establishing if the complaint can be dealt with by the ASA and is then assessed against the advertising codes. If there is no case of complaint the ASA will then inform the person who complained why further action is not being taken. If the ASA feel further action is needed (the complaint is valid when assessed against the advertising codes) then depending on which code the advertisement violates, appropriate action will be taken.

Courses of action:

Out of remit - The ASA decide that the complaint or the marketing communication falls outside the scope of the codes

No case to answer - The marketing communication may be within the remit of the codes but the ASA do not think the advertisement is a problem

No case to answer after a council decision - after assessing both the marketing communication and the complaint, the executive may ask the ASA council to decide whether or not they would like an investigation to be conducted.

Informal resolution - When a minor breach of the codes has been made, the ASA will resolve the complaint informally so long as the marketer agrees to withdraw their marketing communication straight away.

Formal investigation - if the executive thinks there is a case to answer under the codes, the ASA will conduct a formal investigation.

To ensure that there is the smallest amount of complaints possible, the ASA applies adverts to their advertising codes. The codes are separated into two groups: NON-Broadcast (CAP code) and Broadcast (BCAP code). BCAP codes are divided into two sections, radio advertising and television advertising. TV advertising is then split up into more different sections each with sub-sections that marketers must adeer to when making their advertisements. Examples of the sections are: Harm and Offense, Children, Religion and Faith.

Task six:

Audience classification, explain why this info may be beneficial to advertisers.

Examples of jobs each social class may have:

A: Consultant, Dentists, Lawyer etc

B: Doctor, Senior civil servants, Police officials

C1: Nurse, Shop manager, Administrator

C2: Plumber, Brick layer, Chef

D: Refuse collector, Dinner lady, Asda workers

E: Unemployed.

Examples of the media each social class may consume:

A: Question time, The Times, The South Bank Show

B: QI, University challenge, The Independent

C1: 8 out of Ten Cats, Mock the Week, Daily Mail

C2: Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Friends

D: The Sun, Coronation Street, Big Brother

E: Trisha, The Star, X-Factor.

This information could potentially be very powerful for advertisers as it lets them know which slots to place their adverts in, in order to reach their target demographic, the consumer category that their product is aimed at.

Task seven:

Create a brief for your client covering the main aims of the advertisement.

Our project will be an advertisement aiming to raise the awareness of eating disorders and the sufferings attached to them to encourage viewers to donate to the charity BEAT (http://www.b-eat.co.uk/Home) which arranges support and help for those affected by eating disorders. I will be prepared by myself and Beth Higgins. The target demographic of the advertisement will be everyone but it is clear that we will have to focus heavily upon the "Mainstream" category of consumers as they are the largest group, meaning that the more people the advertisement appeals to, the more money will be donated. It is likely that the advertisement will be more likely to encourage women to donate than men because it is proven that there are more recorded cases of eating disorders in women, raising their ability to empathise with the cause. The primary purpose of the advertisement is to persuade therefore we will have to use persuasive techniques in our production (eg. statistics, facts, etc) The secondary purpose of our advertisement will be to inform the audience of the dangers of eating disorders in the form of an anecdote and the possible consequences that can arise from being affected by them which could be classed as a persuasive technique. Details such as facts and statistics must be gained quickly in order to aid the creative team. We must also check if other students are willing to be involved the making of the production as we will need a cast. The logo of the charity shall be collected and placed in a prominent position at some point during the course of the advert as without it people may be skeptical about parting with their money.

It is unlikely that we will use any dialogue within the advertisement as we will mainly rely on camera shots and music to generate a dramatic effect although it is possibe that we will also use vox-pops. The description of our brand's personality is "Beating Eating Disorders" because this is the tagline attached to the the name of the charity and it suggests that the charity will help people overcome their physical and mental insecurities. At this stage in planning I am unsure if there will be any positioning taglines but we have debated using some sort of appealing message at the end of the advert if it is simple and to the point. We will be shooting at the following address: Pudsey Grangefield School, Mount Pleasant Rd, Pudsey, LS28 7ND. The school's website is: http://pudseygrangefield.leeds.sch.uk/
If we were to be completing this advertisement in a professional environment, we would have to incorporate these prices into the budget of our production.
Camera hire = Handheld Video Camera (mini dv) = £10 per day (4 days) = £40
Microphones = AKG C-1000 = £10 per day (4 days) = £40
MP3 Sound Recorders = Edirol R-09h = £30 per day (4 days) =£120
Editing Suite = (imac) £10 per hour (8 hours) = £80
Camera person = £ 20 per hour (8 hours) = £160
Sound Assistant = £10 per hour (8 hours) = £80
Actors= £50 per hour (8 hours) = £400

Task eight: Create a questionnaire to help you collect results that may aid the creation of your TV advert.

We created this questionnaire to gain insight into what consumers expect to see or prefer to see when viewing an advertisement. The results were as shown above.

The graph above shows that out of the ten people questioned, five believed that narratives can make advertisements more interesting and five believed otherwise. This suggests that although a narrative could potentially make my production a greater success, it is not as essential as was at first predicted.

This graph conveys to our production team that we should include a slogan in our advertisement due to the unanimous result that emerged from our research. A slogan will create an identity for the product, resulting in it becoming more memorable in the mind of the viewer.

The results gathered demonstrate that a comical genre of advert is preferred amongst our target audience. However, this may be difficult to incorporate within our advertisement due to the specifications of the client brief, so it is comforting to see from the graphs that other styles can be explored.

Task nine: Interview three or more friends and document your findings.

For this task I interviewed three of my peers with the following questions then recorded their answers here. I did this to discover what consumers prefer to see in advertisements. What type of characters do you like to see in advertisements? Billee explained that she likes to see animated characters in advertisements as she feels this makes them more fun and they stand out more against advertisements for similar products, she does not like to see celebrities in adverts because she believes that they provide a false idealistic image that the general public cannot possibly live up to. Nick said that he prefers to see attractive women in adverts because this makes him like the product more and gives him something pleasant to look at in the process. Katie conveyed that the characters she likes to see are characters that she can aspire to, such as a happy family or a person completing a challenging act, she also agrees with Billee's views on celebrity endorsement.

Do you prefer to hear popular music in an advertisement? Billee doesn't like to hear popular music in an advertisement as she doesn't really like chart music and feels that it distracts her from the product. Nick also said that he doesn't like to hear popular music in advertisements as he is reminded of the advert every time that he hears the song and he finds this annoying. Katie, on the other hand, does enjoy the inclusion of popular music within advertisements as it adds something familiar to the product and makes the advertisement more interesting as a whole.

Has a recent advertisement caught your eye and why? Billee said that she likes the Lloyds TSB advert because it is animated and she likes the fact that the each advert carries on from the previous advertisement's narrative. She also enjoys the music that is played throughout each advert. A recent advertisement that caught Nick's eye was the one for Cravendale, he said that he likes it because it the toy cows make it different and he finds the advert amusing. Katie stated that she likes the adverts for Bupa healthcare because she finds the way the characters are presented as shapes interesting. She thinks this helps the advert be simple and to the point.

Task ten: Set up a focus group and document your results.

We created a focus group within our class which consisted of around twenty five students aged sixteen to nineteen and two teachers. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of focus groups when aiming to collect information on consumer preferences for companies. One of the biggest advantages was that observing a focus group allowed a company to collect a large amount of data and opinions from their chosen target audience. It is also one of the quickest and easiest methods to gather information as opposed to a paper survey or individual interviews regarding the product. One of the disadvantages of using a focus group style method is that unless some people taking part may shy away from sharing their opinion when in a public setting possibly for fear of ridicule or fear that their opinion may not be seen as valid. Another disadvantage is that those participating may respond to peer pressure within the group and may simply decide to go with the popular opinion on the product rather than their own individual view. After taking note of both the advantages and disadvantages of the focus group set up, I feel that although information can be gathered at a quicker rate, it would be more beneficial to use the survey or individual interview approach as this would provide the optimum amount of data. One of the advertisements that was presented to the group was the "Compare the Market" advertisement., which around 80% of the group deemed effective. The main reason that this advertisement was seen as effective was because of its catchy tagline "Compare the meerkat.com, compare the market.com" The use of repetition and the simplicity of the chosen tagline ensured that it was memorable to the audience. This data collected in the focus group could benefit the production of my own advertisement because it has provided me with the necessary materials to understand which types of taglines are the most effective. In light of this, it would be a good idea to use repetition and simplicity if we include a tagline in our advertisement in order to cement its success.

Task eleven: Consider the advertising codes for TV and pick out one that you must be conscious of when making your advert

When creating my advertisement, I must be concious of the advertising codes for televsion and take care not to violate them. One of the codes that I will be taking particular care to avoid is the code concerning false advertising: "5.1.1- No advertisment may directly or by implication mislead about any material fact or characteristic of a product or service" I shall do this by making sure that the information included in my advert such as the facts and statistics of eating disorders and what the charity does to help people suffering from them are purely factual. Our advertisement will strive to provide a "true to life" representation of the kind of things that those affected by eating disorders go through in the course of their life. This will mean researching almost every possible outcome of the disease. Of course, there is room for some dramatisation in order to produce the desired effect of donations in this advertisement but we must not stray too far from the facts. To increase the validity of our advert, we will include some true stories of how those affected felt and dealt with their eating disorder in a voiceover.

Task twelve: What type of program would your advert be placed between?

My advertisement's primary target audience is adult consumers belonging to the mainstream category, is clear that the best option would probably be to place my advertisement in the break of television programs such as X-Factor or Coronation Street because they command huge audiences and consecutively produce excellent viewing figures. However, it is possible that this advertisement may need to be aired after the "watershed" due to some of the shocking images and statistics incorporated in the production as it may upset and not be suitable for young children meaning that it may need to placed in the breaks of popular film shown at a later time on one the main channels like ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Also, due to the nature of the programs such as Coronation street and the time of the day that they are aired on television, the advert could reach audiences of different ages when they are in company of each other as the students won't be at school and it is likely that their parents will not be at work, it is possible that they will all be sat together watching the chosen TV programs when the advertisement is aired.

Task thirteen: Produce a record of your initial ideas.
This a record of my initial ideas collected in a creative meeting regarding the advertisement:
-Logo of charity
-Clip of a girl putting make up on
-Voice over and titles informing the viewer about eating disorders
-Voice over reading anecdotes of those who have suffered from anorexia, bulimia etc
-Shots of related problems eg. drinking, self harm etc
-Non diagetic music bed, preferably a sad song
-Text at the end asking people to donate to the charity
-Close up of the girl's face showing pain
-Shots of mirrors to outline the fact that anorexia evolves from obsession with looks

We will be including a narrative in our advertisement in order to aid the public's perception of the eating disorder as stories instil a greater sympathy in people rather than just plain facts and figures. The narrative will be the story of a girl suffering from anorexia and bulimia outlining the trials she faces in every day life due to her eating disorder

Task fourteen: Complete a treatment for your TV advert.

Our production will be an informative advertisement aiming to raise awareness about eating disorders and to persuade adults to donate to the charity: BEAT (Beating Eating Disorders) Our target audience will mostly be adults who sympathise with the cause, which is likely to be made up of a larger amount of women than men, possibly even teenagers given that it is a teenager that stars in the advert. We will use persuasive techniques such as statistics, facts and anecdotes from sufferers of eating disorders to aid the imagery of the girl we will be using in the advertisement to represent someone with an eating disorder. The reason that we will be using a girl and not a boy is because of the simple fact that studies show that there are more recorded cases of eating disorders within women than there are men, although we will be using a male voiceover in parts to make sure that the production is not gender biased. We will actually aspire to use a variety of voiceovers done by different people to convey to the viewer that many different people need help to overcome their illnesses and that the illness is all around them even when it cannot be seen, just like the people who say the voiceovers cannot be seen. The tone of the advertisement will be serious as the consequences of eating disorders are often severe and our non-diagetic music bed will aim to mirror this. We will use the song "Breathe" by Sia because we feel that the lyrics of the song fit in with what we plan to include in our voice over and the song is generally quite sad. The production will include a linear narrative to make the advertisement seem more personal and realistic to the viewer. In this narrative we will see the girl in question illustrate the various problems that can rise from an eating disorder such as bulimia, anorexia, self harm, depression and alcohol abuse, it is important that we include these serious issues to demonstrate just how harmful the condition can be and to produce the desired effect of donations from the target audience. I feel that this advertisement will have a particularly strong effect upon those who have teenage daughters. We will enlist in the help of the internet to gain facts and statistics relevant to our production and we will also enlist in the help of other students to be filmed in our advertisement. One of the techniques that we will attempt to incorporate which may aid the presentation of the charity and encourage donations is the factor of persuasion known as reward power, connoting that if people donate to this worthy cause they will feel better about themselves whilst at the same time helping others by funding the charity, this links to the line of appeal: self importance and pride. Another factor of persuasion that we will attempt to incorporate is expert power as the anecdotes and stories that we will collect will come from real people that have suffered from eating disorders meaning that the viewer will be more likely to believe in what the advert is saying. We will begin the advert with a mid shot of a girl putting her make-up on in the mirror connoting that all eating disorders begin with an obsession with appearances and also connoting that beneath something beautiful there can be a world of pain and suffering, this suffering will attract the audience to donate by using coercive power, ensuring the viewer that people like the girl shown need help to get better or consequences could emerge. We will also we be using extreme close ups and close ups of the girl's face to convey the pain in her eyes to the viewer and to provide an interesting range of camera shots to keep the audience absorbed and paying attention. We may also switch between different shots very quickly to try and suggest how quickly eating disorders can cause health problems. The advertisement will be changed into black and white with the assistance of iMovie as we feel that this is a more appropriate effect and adds to the solemn tone. Additionally, we will try to make sure that the cuts inbetween different footage or titles are in time with the music to make it look more professional, appealing and to really cause the audience to relate the footage to the lyrics in the song we have chosen. It is possible that our advert may be longer than a traditional television advert as it needs to include all the necessary information and it may also be shown on the internet.

Task fifteen: Write a report detailing the equipment you will be using and to what effect you will be using it.

In the making of our advertisement for for the charity: BEAT we will be using the Panasonic DVX-100-B video camera so that we can obtain high quality footage which will increase the effectiveness of our advertisement. We will be using this camera in conjunction with a tripod as this ensures a steadier, less shaky picture as opposed to a hand held approach. When recording the voice over and/or the interviews for our production we will be using the Edirol R-09 voice recorder as this produces better sound than the microphones located directly on the cameras. The editing software that we will use to edit the footage we collect will be iMovie and/or Final Cut Express as these programs allow us to add transitions and effects to our film. To edit the sound we will be Audacity and/or Garageband, this will be particularly important when uploading the sound from the interviews conducted. All footage and sound will be gathered in the school unless otherwise stated.

Task sixteen: Create a storyboard for your production.

Task seventeen: Create a production schedule.

My finished production: