Advertising in TV

Task 1

Toys R Us (Magical Place, 1990's)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qpEVl-Q-Ks
The Toys R Us largest target audience is children, with a secondary target audience of parents. This advertisement is most likely to be played during the daytime on channels for children. The advert has different lines of appeal. The first one being childhood. Even though the advert is aimed at children, adults will still enjoy it as it may remind them of their childhood, wanting to relive it. The other line of appeal is fantasy as in the advert the store workers are giraffes. The music bed of the advert is entitled 'magical place', which relates to the giraffes. The music bed also contains singing, which is upbeat and positive which helps to appeal to the target audience as children are attracted to happy things. The whole music bed is non-diegetic, it links in with the narrative of the advert, as though only the audience can hear it. Watching the advert, there doesn't seem to be a use of Propp's theory of Villain, Damsel and Hero, however the entire Toys R Us store could be interpreted as the hero for the young children.
Looking at Young and Rubicam's theory, suggesting that all consumers can be categorised, the category that the target audience for Toys R Us fit's into is Explorers - seeking discovery. Children are naturally curious about the world and explore new things. Straight away the primary target audience falls into atleast one of the categories.
At the start of the advert a point of view panning shot is used, looking through the front window of a car on a journey. By using a panning shot tension is built up as we start to guess where the car is travelling to. Long shot's are used in the advert to show the audience the whole store, with shelves full of toys, which will attract children's attention, even though the advert is animated. Close ups are also used to show the happy expressions on the children in the adverts faces, showing the audience that they could feel the same if they shopped at Toys R Us.
There is a very simple narrative for the Toys R Us advert. A journey to the store and then inside the store. Although the narrative is so short and simple it is a linear or sequential narrative as it follows on in chronological order - there are no flashbacks etc. which would make the narrative non-sequential. The narrative is also anti realist as it is animated, as well as the use of animals playing the role of people. Todorov's theory could be applied to the advert as there is a kind of disruption (more for the audience than the characters) as we cannot see where the car is travelling straight away. However there is a quick resolution in the advert. The ending of the advert is closed, it does not leave the viewers with unanswered questions as appose to certain adverts for example, Daz, that have open endings, as they are serial adverts.

Alpen (We Know You Know)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyIRIDQbug
Watching the Alpen advert, the main target audience seems to be adults, mostly women, caring about their health. The advert seems to fall into multiple lines of appeal. The initial line of appeal is beautiful women. Both women and men enjoy watching beautiful women. However in this case it is probably aiming more towards women viewers as the advert is linking the women s beauty to the product they are trying to sell. Therefore women viewers will notice this and are more likely to buy the product.
The second line of appeal the advert falls into is nature and natural world. The women, and men, in the advert are located in a natural environment surrounded by water and woodland. The whole scene appears to be very tranquil.
Thirdly, Comedy and humour. The advert starts off filming women eating the product, while doing yoga. A non-diegetic music bed is then played. The music being alluring. The advert then quickly changes from filming women to filming men doing yoga. After the voice over explaining that the advert is sexist. Even though the advert has now turned to filming attractive men, the advert still appeals more to women.
There are many factors of persuasion for this advert. Firstly reward power, if the product is bought it will have some positive benefit. Even though the voice over doesn't reveal anything factual about the product having a positive benefit, by using beautiful people in the advert, it gives off false reward power to the audience. They start to believe that they can be as beautiful by using the product.
As talked about, the characters in the advert are stereotypically beautiful. Women are often stereotyped in this way and used to represent beauty, however, less popular are stereotypes in men, which are also used in this advert. The men used in this advert falls under erotic male. A man who, stereotypically, every women fantasises about. Propp's theory is not used in the advert.
The very first shot of the advert is a long shot, revealing five women doing yoga in a very natural and tranquil environment. The shot is mainly used to show the environment in which the women are. There are the many close ups of the women's faces to emphasise their beauty. The shots alternate from long shots and close ups of the women's faces, as well as different parts of their bodies. At the very end of the advert, an iconic trigger is used, showing the box of cereal, so that it makes it easier for customers to know what they are looking for if they choose to buy the product.

Task 2

Looking at the Cheryl Cole advert for L'oreal, there are a range of narrative structures. Firstly, Propp's theory can be applied, even though Cheryl Cole is the only character in the advert. Cheryl is portrayed, firstly as the 'hero', for enlightening the audience of this product, however, even though she can be seen as a strong character, she is also portrayed as the 'damsel' as she is suffering with her hair - which could be seen as the villain. The audience may also see the shampoo as the hero in the narrative, as is supposedly saves Cheryl from her Bad Hair Days. Todorov's theory can also be applied to the advert. It begins with an equilibrium, as Cheryl is happily and seductivley laying on the couch, and then the audience is hit with the disruption of hair problems. Soon after the resolution is introduced as the shampoo. The advert simply follows a linear narrative, the events happen in chronological order, and there are no flashbacks etc. The narrative is also realist, as there is minimal use of animation or unrealistic events/characters. The aim of the advert is to give restricted range of information, as they are trying to teach the audience about the product, therefore it is better if the audience do not know alot about the product. The overall narration of the advert is objective, as we are watching external of the character - we are not given any point of view shots or perception from Cheryl's point of view in any way.

Task 3

The Jennifer Anniston L'oreal advert falls into a few different categories of style of adverts. Firstly the advert takes on a talking heads approach as it just uses one person throughout the advert talking about the product. The advert uses star power to help advertise the product in the advert. By using a celebrity, the product will appeal to a much larger audience as they will think that if a celebrity is willing to advertise the product, then the product is worthy of buying. Celebrities always help to sell products as they are seen to many people as idols, people to look up to, therefore many people will be willing to buy the product because they think that their idol is using it.
The L'oreal advert also takes on a documentary style as it tries to use a scientific part in the advert. The scientific part of the advert uses a deep male voice over, which is often used in voice overs as it is usually a more persuasive type of voice. By using a voice over, and not Jennifer Aniston, there is an element of expert power (factors in persuasion). This helps to sell the product as the viewers feel they are being told facts about the product by someone who is a proffesional and knows what they are talking about. However this advert doesn't have as high expert power as the information is only being given by a voice over. This means the viewers cannot be sure that the person giving the voice over isn't someone who is just reading from a script.

Task 4

Iron Bru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfiqrkV_ZqI

The christmas Iron Bru advert follows most of the codes and conventions of advertising. Firstly, showing the product or the logo of the product in the advert. The Iron Bru advert does this at the very beginning of the advert, intervals throughout, and at the end. At the beginning of the advert, the boy opens a can of iron bru and takes a sip. Repetition of both the image and the name of the product is used throughout the video, as we see the boy constantly holding the can, aswell as singing about it in the music bed - which could be portrayed as diegetic, as it is the boy singing in the advert. The advert uses lines of appeal. Two of the lines of appeal that seem to relate best with the advert is dreams and fantasy, aswell as childhood. By using these lines of appeal the advert is widening its target audience, the dreams and fantasy of flying through the air with the snowman will attract young children, however most adults will also be targeted by the advert, as it is taken from a well known film, this would help bring back memories of their childhood. In a way the advert has used star power, as the snowman is seen as an iconic character from a well known christmas film, to many generations. The advert also has referent power as it may appeal to young boys who enjoy the slapstick kind of humour.

Task 5

ASA stands for the Advertising Standards Authority, a company that regulates advertising in every aspect - TV, Radio, Internet etc, ensuring that the adverts follow Advertising Codes in order to be legal, safe and true to consumers. However there are certain issues that the ASA cannot deal with, for example 'discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, age or disability, as well as political advertising, which Ofcom deal with complaints on that aspect. When it comes to consumers complaining about adverts, the ASA deals with their problems. If the ASA recieve a complaint, they address the Codes of Advertising. If they feel the advert does not offend any of those codes, then the complainer will be contacted and the situation will be explained. However if the advert appears to rebel against any of the codes, then it will be resolved in a way that depends on the certain issue. The ASA follows different courses of action.

• Out of remit - if the ASA finds an issue following up a complaint but it lies under a problem they are unable to deal with, they will advise the complainer of where would be better to express their isses.
  
• No case to answer - If the complaint does not rebel against any of their codes, and the ASA think that the offence may only be caused towards minimum amounts of people
  
• No case to answer after a Council Decision - Once the advert has been analysed, the ASA council will be consulted. The decision is then left to them, if they feel there is no problem, then they case will be dropped.
  
• Informal resolution - A minor breach of the codes had occured, and the advertiser is to co-operate in changing their ad or removing it.
  
• Formal investigation - After a breach of the codes, the ASA has a formal investigation with the advertiser and they are to explain and defend their advertising technique.
  

To ensure that there are little complaints, the ASA applies adverts to their advertising codes. The codes are seperated into different groups.
Non-broadcast (CAP code)
Broadcast (BCAP code)
BCAP codes are split into two sections - Radio advertising and TV advertising. TV advertising is then further split into TV ad standards code, rules on scheduling and code for text servicing. Some of the codes are: Misleading advertising and children; Religion, Faith and system of belief and sperations and timing restrictions.



Task 6

Task 7
Client Brief
PROJECT:
Internet advert for the music department at Pudsey Grangefield
Prepared by: Stacey, Connor, Scott, Beth and maybe Rew
Background / Overview
The advert is aimed at year 6's, thinking about coming up to Pudsey Grangefield.
What is the objective and purpose of the ad?
The objective of the advert is to attract new pupils to the school and encourage ones who are already thinking about coming to the school. The advert will also need to appeal to the parents of the children wanting to come to the school.
Target Audience. Who are we talking to?
The primary target audience will be 10-11 year olds who are leaving primary school and coming up to secondary school. There will also be a secondary target audience of the parents of the children, as they need to know that the school their child is going to is good enough,
What’s the single most important thing to say?

What are the supporting rational and emotional ‘reasons to buy?’
Pudsey Grangefield is a brand new building, with brand new technology allowing students to be creative and more independent, allowing them to show full potential.
The staff at Grangefield devote their lives to helping the students at this school, and encourage the students to push themselves, allowing them to become everything they want to be in the future.
Details that will assist the creative team…
Find out the grades for the music department over the past few years, if not specifically the music department then just use the whole schools grades.
If the music teachers are willing to be involved in the filming of the advert.
If we would be allowed to interview some of this year's year 7's to see how they are enjoying music in secondary school.
If we need a tag line for the advert.
How should all the different of types of technology be involved in the advert.
Consumer insights: We will most likely use vox-pops of year 7 students and the music teachers. As well as vox pops we may use video interviews.
Description of brand personality: Striving for excellence.. Daring 2 be different
Positioning Taglines: Unleash the creativity. Music..... Listen to your soul.
Mandatory Details:
Pudsey Grangefield School,
Mount Pleasant Road, Pudsey Town,
Pudsey LS28 7ND
Telephone: 0113
http://pudseygrangefield.leeds.sch.uk/

This will cover…….
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
Deadline: 18th July

Task 9

The graph above shows that, out of 10 people, 5 people thought that narratives were not important in an advert, and 5 people thought that they helped to make the advert more interesting. This tells me that, although a narrative may help my advert become more interesting, it is not an essential.

This graph shows me that creating a slogan for my advert would be a very important thing to do as it helps to keep the product fresh in the viewers mind, which is what an advertisement is made to do. Therefore when I create my advert, I will try and think of an interesting and catchy slogan to include.

When looking at different types of genres for adverts, the most popular one seems to be comical adverts with 4 out of 10 people choosing this genre. Other genre such as talking heads and documentary style adverts may be something to consider, but if was to use my results to help me, I would be better creating a comical advert.

Task 10

Which has been your favourite, recent advert and why?

James Clifton, 19, Leeds

James's favourite advert is the Muller yoghurt advert with the cow running along the beach. He likes the concept of the advert and thinks that it is quite comical. He also likes the music bed of the advert (REO speedwagon, can't fight this feeling) as it reminds him of songs his parents listened to in his childhood.

Jamie Brewster, 17, Leeds

Jamie's favourite advert is the cheestring advert where the cheese is in the questioning room.

What kind of characters do you like to see in adverts and why?

James does not like to see celebrities in adverts as he feels that the only reason they are agreeing to advertise the product is because they will get paid for it, he feels that they do not care about how well the product does. He also doesn't like to see experts in adverts, such as the ones in the Colgate adverts, as he says he cannot be certain whether or not the expert is actually an expert, therefore they may be tricking viewers into trusting what is been said.

Jamie feels that if celebrities are used in adverts, they are only enhanced through post production, maybe to trick viewers into thinking the product will make them look as beautiful/handsome as the celebrity in the advert. He also feels the same way as James in terms of experts in the adverts. He feels that they may be using scientific words, which the viewers may not understand, to try and trick them into thinking that the product is amazing. Jamie likes to see animals in adverts as he feels they are comical, especially if they are acting like humans e.g. talking etc.

What kind of music bed do you like in an advert and why?

Task 11

Task 12

I think that when creating an advert, one of the most important advertising codes I will need to consider is misleading advertising.

Definition: No advertisement may directly or by implication mislead about any material fact or characteristics of a product or service.

Material characteristics include things like the price, the availability of the product and the performance. If any of these characteristics are falsely advertised, the advert will no longer be allowed to be aired. The same effects will also take place if the advert uses scientific language to try and sell the product, when the product been advertised does not live up to the claims the advert is making. Advertisements are also classed as misleading if it results in the viewer using up a lot of time making enquiries about the product or finding out that there are limitations to a certain offer of the product.

Advertisements should avoid using 'absolute claims' such as 'best on the market' and ' lowest prices' unless they have done a lot of research into been able to prove that there product does in fact match these claims. Even if the evidence is there, it is still risky for advertisers to use claims such as these as new products will be constantly coming to the market, and their advert may still be aired, while a new product has come out which replaces their product, being the new 'best on the market'. The ASA has the right to remove any advertisement from being aired, according to the Control of Misleading Advertisement Regulations 1988, if the advertiser does not have sufficient evidence to prove that the claims being made are true.

Another rule that is taken seriously in terms of misleading advertising, is the claim that the product is not tested as animals because, although the end product may not, somewhere in the manufacturing process, certain individual materials may have been. Therefore the advert is making a false claim on animal testing.

When I am creating my advert, I will have to think deeply and do a lot more research into the rules of misleading advertising as, if I were to make my advert to a proffesional standard, I would have to follow the rules that all adverts have to follow. I think that the rules on misleading advertising are the most important to think about as if I were a real advertiser, these would be the rules that would determine whether or not my advert was shown on TV.