Task Seven - Sources of Information in Advertising

Client and agencies can gather information before they start producing a new advertising campaign through many different ways. 

The first way is through Television ratings, an example of this is BARB, which is useful as it is objective. BARB is an acronym for Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, it was set up in 1981 to provide the industry standard television audience measurement service for broadcasters' and the advertising agency. BARB is owned by the ITV, BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, British Sky Broadcasting, and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Being able to get television ratings is helpful as producers and advertisers can see the popularity of certain shows and then decide, based on these ratings, where to put their advertisements.  Programme Profiles is a breakdown of who watches a programme, this is useful to the advertiser as they can target adverts to specific programmes, for example Downton Abbey may be a programme for women who are aged 50+. A Rate card is how much it costs to put an advert on, what the rates are. For example Coronation Street is much more expensive than a minority programme show at an unsocial hour.

Information on advertising can also be found on websites such as Channel 4 sales, which gives you a whole range of opportunities to put your advert on the TV and get people interested in a certain event or place etc. They offer a selection of resources and questions frequently asked by newcomers. The Grow LIVE gives young entrepreneurs the opportunity to go and find out about the benefits of TV advertising and what the money can be used on. There are also many TV series and programs that need sponsoring and the website gives you a list of many different ones you can choose from. Choosing a program to sponsor helps to your brand to be successful as it will be seen by a large quantity of the audience. 

Task Six - Audience Information

It is useful for advertisers to study audiences because they are a very important concept throughout media studies. Every time and advert is made there has been an audience in mind i.e. a group of people who will see it and make some sort of sense out of it. Generally the producers make some sort of money out of the targeted audience.

When adverts are being made the producers tend to divide and label the audience by a number of ways. The first way the audience is divided is by Standard Occupational Classification (also known as Social Grade by advertising companies). This method of dividing and labelling consists of using letter codes to show their income bracket; A - Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and other highly salaried professionals, B - middle management, teachers, many 'creatives' e.g. graphic designers, C - office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff, D - skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar), E - semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar) and finally F - unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers.

The next method of dividing and labelling is by examining the Psychographics, the common attitudes within the audience. This is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. This area of study focuses of Interests, Activities and Opinions, therefore psychographic factors are also called IAO Variables. The producers also look at the age and gender as that helps them to decide how they will get the advert across.

Geodemographics is also another way to get a clearer target audience. Geodemographics is when the producer focuses on where the required audience live, it is based on two principles. Firstly, they know that people who live in the same neighbourhood are more likely to have similar characteristics then two people chosen at random. Secondly, neighbourhoods can be categorised in terms of the characteristics of the population which they contain. Any two neighbourhoods can be placed in the same category i.e. they contain similar types of people, even though they are widely separated. Once the producers know all of this information; Income bracket/status, age, gender, race and location of their potential audience media producers can begin to shape their text to appeal to a target audience with known reading/viewing/listening habits.

It is important to be able to identify certain sections of the audience when carrying out market research as it enables the television advertiser to determine the types of incentives and barriers that the audience perceive to exist with the product. Being able to divide the research into things such as psychographics is helpful because it means that you are doing extensive research on smaller groups so you can really understand what they like and their interests.

Once you have made your advert, it is helpful to know where to place it and then how many people actually tune in to watch it. The more viewers a programme has, the more expensive it is to place an advert in that slot, so advertising companies tend to carefully place their advert within programmes that a lot of young people, with disposable income watch. Generally an audience research agency, such as BARB will select a sample of the population and monitor their viewing and listening habits over the space of seven days (The Panel). The data gained from this is then extrapolated to cover the whole population, based on the percentage sample. The numbers obtained are known as the viewing figures or ratings. BARB stands for Broadcasters' Audience Research Board and it was set up in 1981to provide the industry standard television audience measurement service for broadcasters and the advertising industry. BARB is owned by  BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, British Sky Broadcasting and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. BARB have approximately 5100 homes participating in the panel, the box records exactly what programmes they watch and the panellists indicate who is in the room by pressing a button on a remote control handset, all individuals aged 4+ are measured by BARB. To be able to measure the viewings, the panellists must watch the programme for more than 30 seconds for the rating to count. Programme audiences are calculated by averaging the audience of all the minutes covered by the programme transmission, from the start-time to the end-time of the programme, this calculation excludes any embedded commercial breaks and promotions. BARB numbers are extremely important to commercial television stations that rely on advertising. The advertising agency will pay the television station a certain amount of money based on the number of people watching a show. Higher BARB numbers usually mean more advertising revenue for the television station. Each person in the panel represents a number of people in 'the universe', this is the total number of people in a particular country or area. The market requires that the panel is 'weighted' to reflect the universe for age and gender.

Task Five - Methods of Research

It is important to conduct research before you start planning a new advertising campaign, as it is helpful to find out about the people that use the product. Planning makes sure that you have collected as much information as possible to ensure that your advertisement will be successful in selling the product. There are many different ways of conducting this research and it is important that some research is done that has never been done before, this makes sure that every aspect is covered and that the advertisement will attract the attention of many different people. 

There are many different types of research and each one is used to help target a specific part of the planning progress. The first type of research is primary research, which usually has a specific purpose and it is normally original data that has not been copied from anywhere else. It is research that an organisation conducts or commissions itself to find out the answers to specific questions. Some examples of primary research are things such as questionnaires, surveys, Internet forums, and interviews or group research. Primary research has many advantages, for example you are able to explore the secondary research already performed by other researchers, carrying out their own research allows the media organisation to address issues specific to their own situation. Also it allows for 'further control', not only does it allow the marketer to focus on specific issues, it also allows the marketer to have a higher level of control over how the information is collected. This means that the marketer can focus on his/her product only, meaning that they can analyse it further. However there are some disadvantages to primary research, for example it may cost a lot and takes a lot of time. It is time consuming because researchers have to strata with no existing data, which means that all the research has to be done from start to finish. It may be very expensive because all the data has to independently collected without any help from previously existing data, which can cost a lot of money.

Secondary research is also another way of collecting data and conducting research. This is when the research is done by someone else and can be used alongside primary research. Secondary research uses outside information assembled by media sources, it is a form of research where the information already exists and can be sued as a form of second hand research. This type of information is usually published in things such as pamphlets, newsletters, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers. Media firms can also get information from the government, competitors or trade publications. Like primary research, there are also many advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages of secondary research are that it is easier to do, as the data already exists, most of this pre-existing data is fairly accurate which therefore makes research easier. However there are some disadvantages, for example the main concern is that you don't know who did the research before you, and how honest and accurate it is. Also, secondary data can be biased and the inaccuracies cannot be checked.

The next type of research is quantitative research, which is normally shown as a set of numbers, graphs, charts, and can be measured. The most common way of collecting quantitative data is through the use of questionnaires; quantitative data is 'number crunching'. Like the other types of research there are also many advantages and disadvantages to this type of research to. An example of some of the advantages is that you can have a relatively large sample (quantity) of data and that it is also fairly easy to administer. It also allows the researcher to measure and analyse data, also the researcher is more objective about the findings of the research. However there are some disadvantages, for example it is hard to design a questionnaire that finds out exactly what you want and also things such as closed questionnaires cannot be altered, meaning that some of the information may not have enough detail to be able to find what you are looking for. You cannot ask subsidiary questions, often it is either a 'yes' or 'no' answer when in actual fact the true answer may be somewhere in the middle. Also you cannot be sure that the person filling in the questionnaire fully understands the question or whether or not they are being honest, there is the question of whether or not they are just saying what they think you want to hear. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ measurable facts and information rather than opinions as it is based on actual data. Quantitative research can help to determine how many people are likely to buy a new product idea, which group of individuals will react best to which type of advert, and which incentive (e.g. free gift) will appeal to which target market.

Qualitative research is also another way of collecting important or necessary information; this type of research helps to find out how people feel, the response are usually personal and it can't really be measured. Some ways of collecting qualitative data is through focus groups or one-to-one interviews. Unlike quantitative data, qualitative data requires quality information, therefore subsidiary questions can be asked. There are, however, many disadvantages, for example the sample collected is usually relatively small and may not then be representative, it is also very time consuming. Furthermore, qualitative research does not ensure accuracy in the same way quantitative research does, opinion and bias are far more likely to distort the results. Also qualitative researchers ask questions to small groups of people which means that it is not representative of the whole population/target group. This makes it difficult to analyse what the majority of the audience feel about a particular subject.

There are different purposes for these types of research, audience research, market research, and production research. There are four types of audience research; Descriptive research, which describes your audience and their characteristics, Analytical research, which seeks to understand 'how' and 'why', Predictive research, which considers 'what if' situations, and finally Tracking research, which is long-term research that monitors changes taking place over time. There are five stages to audience research; 1. Target Audience, 2. Plan, 3. Research, 4. Analyse, and 5. Apply.

Before starting you must find out who your audience is, as knowing your audience is vital, you may have more than one distinct audience with different needs. To be able to define your target audience you must picture and ideal audience member, their occupation, gender, interests, technological interests etc. You can then think about categories for audience segmentation, the target audience could be a group of students in full-time education, retired people or people who travelled abroad for their holidays. The next stage is planning; this should be done before you start so that you have clear objectives for your research. You then must think about how you will collect the data, which is step 3.   Research can be done by yourself or by a researching agency, you must consider time, resources or available expertise. You must then ask yourself if you want qualitative of quantitative data. Evidence from research can help make informed decisions.

Market research is the next type of research, successful companies are interested in what the market looks like, aware of who their competitors are and are driven by the potential revenue available. There are many questions that successful market researchers ask such as what other products are on the market? What are their sales figures compared to ours? and what can be done to improve our product?. Most companies have a number of marketing objectives, they generally want to retain current audiences and build loyalty, attract new audiences by 'stealing' customers from the opposition, find ways to persuade lapsed audiences return, spend limited marketing budgets to make the most effective advert possible, monitor how audiences feel about their products, identify competitors and understand their strengths and weaknesses, identify new opportunities and identify changes in the operating environment which may impact on the organisation.

Finally there is the production research stage, if the audience research goes well and the market analysis is favourable a media company might decide to launch a new product in that market, to do this they need production research. Production research is done so that material can be gathered to allow a company to develop new products and ensure the whole process will run smoothly. Production research involves investigating the technology and personnel available and planning production and post-production.

Task Four - Regulation

 Before adverts are publicised on national TV they must be checked and regulated by Ofcom and The ASA. Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has a wide range of powers over things such as radio to TV. The aim of it is to represent the interests of citizens and consumers by protecting them from adverts which may be harmful or offensive. The main areas Ofcom looks at are licensing research, codes and policies, complaints, competition and protecting the radio spectrum from abuse. When dealing with adverts Ofcom will direct you to The ASA. ASA stands for Advertising Standards Agency and came around about 50 years ago. The aim of The ASA is to ensure that all forms of media are legal, decent, honest and truthful. If an advert cannot pass these tests then it is either withdrawn or amended. The ASA covers things such as magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, television shopping channels, posters, cinema, direct mail, Internet, leaflets and brochures, commercial email and Mobile messages, CD Roms, DVDs, videos, faxes and sales promotions. However it does not cover sponsorship, packaging, shop windows, telephone calls, fly-posting, private classified adverts, statutory/public notices, press releases, political adverts or online editorial.

The Advertisement Code has specific regulations on certain types of advert and carefully check that it will not cause harm or be offensive towards the audience. Some of the adverts that need to be regulated carefully are Alcohol, Gambling, Food and soft drinks, Health and beauty and Tobacco. There are also codes that relate to Harm and offence, Environmental claims, Racism, Children and advertising, Scheduling adverts at appropriate times, Displaying adverts in appropriate places, and also Misleading claims. The ASA must look at these types of adverts and decide whether or not they are accurate, inaccurate or misleading and whether or not it causes offence and harm. As well as checking if adverts are appropriate and not offensive, the ASA also handle the complaints of the audience and they act on these complaints if an advert is coming across as harmful, misleading or offensive. Every complaint is taken seriously and even a single complaint can lead to the withdrawal of an advert. Audiences can complain for a number of reasons such as; if they think there is something wrong with an advert they have seen or heard, have difficulty getting goods or a refund for items bought by mail order or through television shopping channels, if they think that a special offer or prize promotion has been unfairly run, if they want to stop mail from companies sent by post, fax, text message or email and finally if they think there is something wrong with the marketing on a company’s website or their social network site. The ASA handled 31,458 complaints about 22,397 different adverts in 2011, after carefully judging them they decided that 4,591 had to be either changed or withdrawn and nearly 94% of these complaints came from members of the public.

The ASA judge adverts against the UK Advertising Codes, these advertising codes are written by the advertising industry through the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). The members of these committees are drawn from the main industry bodies representing advertisers, agencies and media owners. These Advertising Codes contain a wide range of rules that are designed to ensure that advertising does not mislead, harm or offend and is socially responsible, no matter what’s being advertised. The ASA works on the principle that advertisers must adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of the rules, making it almost impossible for advertisers to find loopholes. The ASA council is the jury responsible for deciding whether adverts are have breached these Advertising Codes.

A particularly controversial advert that was investigated and removed due to content was the 208 Walkers summer holiday advert.

The advert was intentionally made for the promotion of free British Trips when you buy the crisps, it featured Gary Lineker driving an old Routemaster bus which had its roof ripped of after going under a low bridge. The advert was investigated and removed as there were many complaints about it. These complaints were mainly about the fact that watching the advert may be distressing for people who may have experienced similar circumstances or know someone who has. After a number of complaints Walkers agreed to remove the advert to prevent further distress.

A more recent advert that has been banned was the Jaguar advert featuring Tom Hiddleston 'The Art of Villainy'.

This advert shows Tom Hiddleston in a Jaguar Land Rover explaining that it's good to be bad and why British actors make the best villains. Once aired a number of complaints were received stating that the advert encouraged unsafe and irresponsible driving. After research into the case the ASA decided that it was best that the advert was banned, the first part of the advert was acceptable, the ASA stated that it was the second part in which the car is shown to be driving at excessive speeds on a public road and that showing this did, in fact, encourage irresponsible driving, the advert was therefore banned.

Another banned commercial is a recent one from Center Parcs promoting midweek holidays for just £279. The advert featured a family with school age children with small print at the bottom of the screen stating that the offer "excludes school holidays". After various complaints the ASA decided that the advert should be taken down as they argued it encouraged 'irresponsibilty' as the advert promotes taking children out of school to get a cheaper holiday, even after the government had decided to introduce tougher regulations to crack down on term-time absence. Center Parcs argued that taking down the advert was "extremely harsh" and that it was up to parents to exercise judgement regarding their children. Eventually it was ruled out and banned from TV.

Task Three - Analysing a Television Advertisement in Detail

 The advert I've chosen is an advert to promote the behaviour of adults and their children. It was part of an Australian campaign called Child Friendly and the aim of it was to make parents aware of their actions and how it can affect their children. The advert style is emotional but also shocking as the children behave appallingly, but only because they are copying what their parents are doing. The target audience would be parents or carers of children as they will realise that their children look up to them. If they see their parents doing something then they are likely to imitate them as they believe it is the right thing to do. I believe that an advert like this is purposely made to provoke an emotional response. In the advert we see at the beginning the children copying their parents. The  parents in the video are doing things that are unsafe and irresponsible. For example we see a man walking across the road on the phone, not paying attention to anything that might be coming, then behind him we see his son doing the exact same thing. As the advert progresses we see the actions become worse, we start to see abuse of a partner in a kitchen and a woman shouting at her baby, and right beside them, their children are doing the same thing. This emphasises how children think and act, they do what their parents do. It's emotional to watch because the adults know better but the children don't, they're just copying their role models. There are a lot of persuasive devices in the advert such as fear and guilt. Some parents/carers watching it may be able to relate to it if they do things such as smoke, and watching it may lead them to feel guilty as they may feel they've had a bad influence on their child/children, creating emotion within the audience. This helps the aim of the advert as they then become more aware of their actions. Then at the end we see a man helping a woman pick up her shopping, and his son is copying him, stating that if you do good things and behave correctly, your child will do also.

The positioning of the camera throughout the advert is very important to. We have a lot of long shots of the child and parent to show the whole picture, letting us see the whole situation. There are also a few close up shots that show the anger and emotion of the characters in the advert, an example is when the woman and the child are going up the escalator and the camera cuts to a close up of a cigarette in the child's hand.This is a powerful image as it is horrible to think that a child of that age should be involved with something like that. The way the camera is positioned is important as it emphasises power. For example when we see the man shouting and abusing his wife, we are shown a point of view shot of the woman which emphasises the power of the man, and in this case the son also.

Task Two - Styles of Television Advertising

 Advertisers use many different styles to target particular audiences and these different styles help them to appeal to many different people. There are many different styles, these include; Humour, Parody, Shock, Surrealism, Intertextuality, Repetition, Sex and Famous Faces.

One of the most popular styles of advertising is Humour. Using humour means that the audience will enjoy the advert and are likely to be more engaged in it. Also, humorous adverts tend to stay in peoples minds so this means that they are not likely to forget it. An example of a Humour advert is the Dance Pony Dance advert from the mobile company Three.

This is a good example of a Humour advert because it's not what you'd expect to see in an advert for a phone company. Using a dancing pony pulls in the audience as it's something different from what you normally see and this makes it memorable. Also the use of the song means that the audience are unlikely to forget what they've seen. The mise-en-scene is also used effectively because it shows a pony in it's natural surroundings, on a normal day. It is appropriate for the service it's trying to sell because it suggests that no matter how silly stuff is you still need to put it on the Internet, emphasising the fact that there is a pony dancing. I believe that it is successful because it is funny and memorable and appeals to many different types of audience.

Another style of television advertising is a Parody. An example of a television advert that's filmed in the form of a parody is the T-Mobile Royal Wedding advert.

This is an effective form of advertising because it's a parody of a well known event that the majority of people know about, meaning that it appeals to all audiences. The advertisement is successful because it makes the audience feel involved as everyone knows the idea behind it. The idea of making a parody of the Royal Wedding makes it memorable because it is funny and everyone who watches it remembers the song used. Also the clever use of look alikes means that the audience can clearly see who everyone is supposed to be. The use of mise-en-scene is effective because you can see that it is some sort of church setting, the people in it are wearing formal clothes and there is a red carpet which shows that someone important will walk down it. I believe that this is an effective way of advertising because it sticks in the audiences memory and sells the service well.

Shock is also a good way of advertising because it really makes the audience think about what they're doing and the consequences if they don't do something properly. The common use of shock is in adverts for safe driving.

This is an extremely effective way of advertising because it's a really shocking and gruesome advert which some people may feel like they can't watch. This is what makes it effective because it makes people think about their actions and the consequences if they don't follow rules put there for safety. Also, because shock adverts normally tend to be based upon real life scenarios it appeals to everyone because it could be something that can happen to anyone of any age. The mise-en-scene is used well because it is set in a car that's driving and most people have a car and can drive, which means they can relate to it. I believe that this is a successful style of advertising because it is memorable and set in a real life setting. Also it makes people actually think about what they're doing and their safety.

Another style of advertisement is by using the idea of Sex.This is a good style of advertising because it normally tends to be funny when used to sell products such as deodorant but relates to real life if they are promoting things such as safe sex. The Lynx advert is a good example of a Sex advert.

This is a good example as it creates the idea that spraying Lynx means that loads of females will be after you. This is a good portrayal of an advert based around the idea of sex as it makes the audience, specifically men, want to buy the product as they believe it will make them more attractive. This is a memorable advert because we wouldn't normally see an advert of hundreds of women running around in swim suits, which means we are more likely to remember it and the product it is trying to sell. I think that this is the best style of advert to promote deodorant because the idea of buying deodorant is to make you smell nice and appeal more attractive. I believe it is effective due to these reasons and that it is also appealing to the male audience.

Another style of advertising is through the use of Surrealism. Producing adverts this way makes them effective because they tend to be confusing and hard to understand but at the same time clearly promote a product. An example is the advert for Stella Artois Dry.

This is a very effective way of advertising because it makes the audience feel uncomfortable but at the same time intrigued, which means they are likely to watch it until the end. Its not until the end that we find out what is actually being advertised, meaning that throughout we are confused and interested. The use of surreal adverts, such as this, make the audience remember it as it is peculiar and weird and you can't really tell what's going on throughout it. I think that this is an appropiate way of advertising the product as it is different which means people are likely to remember it and the product it's promoting. Therefore I believe that this is an effect device for advertising, and that it sells the product well.

Intertextality is another style of advertising used to promote different products. It appeals to different audiences depending on the context of the advert. A good example of an Intertextual advert is the Sky advert.

This is also an effective style of advertising because Intertextual adverts tend to appeal to both children and adults. The example i've given of the Sky advert is effective because it portrays the problems of adult life, the car running out of petrol, but also brings to life childrens characters and various films. Using intertextuality to make an advert is a good way of advertising because it makes the audience feel like they can relate to it, and are likely to buy the product being advertised. This advert is quite memorable because it's well made and cleverly sells the product, in this case Sky. I think that this is an appropriate way of advertising this product because it shows all of the different programs, films and genres that you can have if you buy Sky. By putting a childrens character in there as well as films for older people means that different audiences will be drawn in by it. I believe that this is a successful style of advertising because it is relaxing and pleasant to watch and effectively sells the product.

Selling products through the advert style of Repetition is also effective. An example of an advert that uses repetition to sell a product is the Headon advert to promote a cure for headaches and migraines.

This is a good example of an advert that uses repitition to promote a product as it constantly repeats the way in which you apply Headon. Using this style is good because it will make the audience remember it long after they've seen the advert, intentionally putting the message or image in their head means they are more likely to go out and buy it. The use of the repitition makes it memorable. I believe that this style of advertising is appropriate for this product because it repeats the method of applying the product which means you are unlikely to forget. I believe that it is successful but at the same time I don't think it is. This is because it is extremely repetitive, meaning that the audience are likely to become irritated with it if they continued to hear it advertised. However it is effective because of the idea that the audience will keep hearing it, meaning they can subconsciously remember it.

The last style of advertising is through the use of Famous Faces i.e celebrities. An example of an advert that uses a famous face is an advert for Sky Broadband. In this advert they feature Bruce Willis.

This final style of advertising is effective because they use a Famous Face which most people are likely to remember and recognise. Using a famous face in an advert is always a good way of advertising because it makes the audience think that if the product being sold is good enough for a celebrity then it's good enough for them. Also, they may think that if they get the product then they might end up as successful as Bruce Willis. The use of a famous face makes the advert memorable because it is unexpected and sometimes unbelievable that a celebrity will feature in an advert. I believe that adding a celebrity to any advert is appropriate because the product is more likely to be sold as people may believe that they share the same Broadband as a celebrity and that automatically makes it good enough for them. Overall, I believe that this is an effective style of advertising as the audience may believe that they will be closer to a celebrity if they purchase it.

Task One - Forms of Television Advertising

There are many different forms that advertising can take and there are many positives and negatives of each types of advertising. The main types of advertisement are Realist Narrative, Anti-Realist Narrative, Animation, Documentary, Talking Head, Stand Alone and a Series.

A Realist Narrative is normally an advert that relates to real life, and something that normal, everyday people can be apart of. A main example of this is the L'Oreal adverts, featuring Cheryl Cole.



This is a good example of a Realist Narrative because it relates to the real life needs of ordinary people. Its a good advert as it features Cheryl Cole who is a well loved role model for many women. Using a famous person helps to sell the product as the audience believe that if they buy it they could look as good as Cheryl Cole. It is also relatable as problems with hair are common amongst women, particularly younger women, so they feel as though they can relate to the video. The use of the music and the video of Cheryl dancing is effective as it makes us realise that no matter what you do, your hair will stay neat and tidy and still look good. The video also uses close up shots and long shots to emphasise the effect of the product and to make the video more effective. However, there are also some negative aspects to this advert such as the idea that some people may genuinely believe that if they buy the product they might be disappointed if they don't turn out exactly like the person advertising it, in this case Cheryl Cole. Also, there is a lot going on in one advert which may be a lot to take in for some people, and so they are less likely to watch the whole advert. 

An Anti-Realist Narrative is an advert that doesn't use real life events, but has a real life product for sale. An example of this would be the Mr Muscle adverts.

This is a good example of an Anti-Realist Narrative because the situation isn't something that's ever going to happen but the idea of the advert is to sell the 'Mr Muscle' drain cleaner, which is a real product. It is effective because the mise-en-scene is relatable to the majority of women. It is set in a kitchen and shows a woman having trouble cleaning, which many women feel they can relate to. It also has a scientific aspect to it as it explains how it works. Also the length of the video is quite short, which emphasises the idea that the drain unblocker works quickly and efficiently, which also makes it more appealing to the target audience. The close up of the drain and the plughole is a useful way to film it as it lets us see for ourselves how the product works, instead of just being told it does. Even though this advert is effective in promoting the product it is trying to sell, it may seem to some people as too unrealistic, which means they are probably likely to loose attention in it half way through. Some people may not like the idea of adding a superhero to an advert which is trying to sell cleaning products as children may get the wrong idea and think that if they have this product a superhero is going to come to there house. 

The next form of advertising is an Animated advert. An Animated advert is normally a cartoon and not real at all, but is still trying to sell a real product. An example of this is the Kit Kat Vending Machine advert.

This is a good example of an animated advert as it isn't real but it is memorable and many office workers can relate to it. The use of the mise-en-scene in this advert is good as it is based in an office building and relates to the problems of everyday office work. This appeals to people who have an office job as they can relate to it and feel as though it is about them. The advert is longer than most adverts but this emphasises the idea of a long day at work and perfectly sells the product. The use of sound is also very good in this advert, especially when he is sitting at the desk and everything starts to go wrong for him. The cacophony of noises suggests how stressed the character is and that he needs a break. The use of sound after that is also very well done as we can hear nothing else but his heartbeat, it makes the advert a lot more effective. The use of he close us and long shots also make the advert successful. This advert also has many negative aspects to it. For example it lasts a very long time and halfway through some people are likely to lose interest. Also, we don't really know what the advert is trying to promote until the very last couple of seconds, meaning that even though it is effective, it doesn't sell the product well. 

Another form of advertising is by using a Documentary style. This is normally an advert based in a real life setting with people who have real life professions, such as scientists. A good example is the Vortex advert in 1980.

This is effective because it is filmed like a real documentary and based in a laboratory with people who look like they are scientists. This is a good way of promoting the advert as many people will believe the effects of the Vortex cleaner as it has been suggested by scientists. Again this type of advert may relate mostly to women as they may need help when it comes to getting the right cleaner. Also the length of it is quite short which means it doesn't take up a lot of the audiences time. The close up of the Petri dishes is also good as we, the audience, can see for ourselves the results of the cleaner, meaning we are more likely to go out of our way to buy it. There are, however, some negative aspects to this advert. For example the speech between to two people is very formal and this means that some people may not like it as that may not be what they are interested in watching. 

A Talking Head advert is also another way of making an advert. A Talking Head advert is when the person is talking into the camera, as if they are talking to us personally. An example of this is the advert featuring Ewan Mcgregor thanking people for their help towards a charity.

This is an example of a Talking Head advert as the person in the advert is talking directly to the audience, which make it very personal. The use of the medium shot on his face means that we can see the emotion and sincerity on his face which means that we get involved emotionally. The idea of using a famous person, such as Ewan Mcgregor, means that people are more likely to watch it as they know who he is, which then makes them more likely to help the charity he's appealing for. Also, filming in what looks like his home means that the whole advert becomes more personal as we feel he is really talking to us. Furthermore, the length of the advert is good as it isn't too long but isn't too short either, which means it's long enough to get the point across to the audience. The one thing that could make this advert better is the use of pictures or evidence that the money that has been raised has gone to a useful cause. I think that if the audience could see how their money has helped they would be more interested in the advert and willing to tell other people about the charity. 

A Stand Alone advert is an advert which is a one off but is memorable to everyone. An example of this is the 2012 Olympic Games advert.

This is a Stand Alone advert as it was a one off to promote the 2012 Olympic Games. It is effective because it shows how anything is possible. They create this idea by showing the athletes on things such as mountains and hanging from tall buildings. This appeals to the audience as it makes them feel like they are able to achieve anything, especially younger children. The way that the music is used is also good as it is dramatic and emphasised which attracts the attention of the people watching it. The creators of the advert have also used the images of real life athletes and changed them into cartoon characters to make it more enjoyable for perhaps little children to watch. There are also a range of camera angles such as extreme close up, close up, medium shot and wide shots which make it nice to watch as it changes between angels regularly, keeping the audience's attention. One problem with this advert is that even though it is promoting a world wide event it is quite a long advert, also meaning that people watching this advert may not quite watch the full thing. 

Finally, the last form or advertising is a Series. An example of this is the Alien Family adverts for Argos.

This is a good example of a Series advert because it shows the lives of a family in different situations. Its a good idea because attracts the attention of little children, as they are blue aliens, but also older people as its promoting the easier way of getting products online. The adverts also have a sense of humour to them as well as real life situations. The length of it is also good because it's short, meaning the audience will be paying attention throughout the whole advert, which means they are more likely to be attracted to what the advert is promoting. A negative aspect to this advert is that because the characters in it aren't real, adults watching it may not take it seriously and may stop watching it before it has finished, meaning that they are not around to see what the advert is actually promoting. This, therefore, means that less people are likely to use the app as they may not have known the advertisement was selling that. 

As you can see there are many different Forms of Television Advertising, and each of which have many different positive and negative aspects. Depending on what you want to advertise, there are many options to choose from, and you're likely to find one that advertises your product efficiently.  

An Introduction to Advertising

I have been asked by a youth media project to create a blog on an Introduction to Television Advertising. The idea of the blog will be to help young film makers understand how the industry works and how to be successful in the world of advertising.

To be able to strive in the advertising industry amateur film makers will need to know everything they possibly can and to be able to achieve this there are many details they need to know. Firstly, they will need to know the different formats of advertising and the different purposes of advertising. It would also prove helpful if they knew a range of examples of effective/ineffective advertisng campaigns and examples of controversial advertising campaigns. Additionally, they should know the different styles of television advertisements and how television adverts are researched and designed. Furthermore, they should understand how television adverts are produced, the Common Codes and Conventions and finally how advertising is regulated.