Advertising Techniques - Scientific claim

every single dental related advert, contains a dentist, and some customers who have tried the product, and are giving it their own verdict of how good it is. The dentist is there to make a scientific claim towards the viewers to try and make them think that the product is scientificly proven to do something, therefore it must be worth a purchase.

According to the dentist on the advertisement, the toothpaste is "scientifically proven" to strengthen enamel, or prevent sensitive teeth, or whatever the toothpaste is supposed to do. These claims are more than likely true, but i'd like to see it, in order to believe the effect is genuine.

Sensodyne Pronamel

Advertising Techniques - Escape

Most car advertisements use the escape technique to make us believe that this car will remove us from our plain old day to day lives, and take us off to a luxury, exotic place, to just relax. Now to me, that just sounds like the car's crap, and the driver's just going to crash and die.

They always show footage of the car driving around mountain roads, or down the sides of volcanoes to exaggerate their performance. But to most men, the idea of something as exillerating as one of these drives, is more than enough for them to genuinely consider buying the car.

Land Rover discovery

Advertising Techniques - Exaggeration

To exaggerate something, means to make it sound much better than it really is. Lynx deoderant always exaggerate the effect their product has on people in their advertisements.

In every Lynx advert, a man is swarmed by tonnes of women just because he has decided to wear some Lynx today. Another involves a man made entirely of chocolate, (somehwat racist in my opinion) with women coming from left, right and center eating his confectionary limbs. Now, in my opinion, Lynx chocolate smells absolutely horrible.

With these highly impressionable adverts, Lynx are leaving themselves open for a lawsuit from lonely, naive men who genuinely believe the adverts' effects are real.

Lynx Chocolate

Advertising Techniques - Rebel

The Rebel technique makes us believe that this product does not conform to any kind of mainstream lifestyle. The advertisements make most adults feel the need to look back to their rebellious teenage years, and the product helps them do so.

However, most of the rebellious advertisements are aimed at more of a teenaged age group anyway. Because most teenagers are still rebelling on a daily basis.

The V05 hair gel advertisements are a prime example of rebellious advertising. The slogan "Break the mould" says it all really, but the advertisement in itsself encourages people to be original, and to not conform to any kind of society.

V05 Break the mould

Advertising Techniques - Nurture

The Nurture technique relates to most adults' parental instincts. It forces them to feel the need to 'nurture' their families, especially children, that's why most advertisements for child's products make most of the women in the room go "Awwwww"

The NSPCC and RSPCA advertisements use Nurture a lot in their advertisements, either displaying a young crying child, or an upset looking small animal. Using these images makes people feel sorry for them, and almost force them to donate to, or sponsor the charity in order to make a difference.

RSPCA

I don't think this advertisement is very effective at all, because, the animals aren't really in danger, therefore it's not actually eally convincing. there have been a few RSPCA advertisements in the past that have been really quite shocking, but this one isn't really very good, or convincing.

Advertising Techniques - Beauty Appeal

Beauty appeal is often used in cosmetic product advertising; it forces the viewer to consider a purchase because the fact that a beautiful man/woman is used indicates that the product has made them that way. Beauty Appeal in advertising can, in some ways, relate to the Promise of benefit advertising technique.

Eva Longorea L'Oreal

 

I think this advertisement appeals quite well to it's target audience because, women after a better image are gullible enough to try anything, so, making an advertisement containing Eva Longorea will make every middle aged woman rush to the shops for whatever product it is.

Codes and Conventions (CGI/Special effects)

Without the use of CGI and Special effects, most, if not all, of today's groundbreaking advertisements would have been nothing but the mere ideas and hopes of a poor producer.

Popular advertisements such as Compare the Meerkat, The dancing transformer car, and the Guinness Evolution rely on CGI to make them a possibility.

In fact, nearly all advertisements these days use at least one form of special effect, whether its some non-diegetic sound, or a full blown explosion.

Guinness "Evolution"
Compare the meerkat
Dancing Citroen

Style - Parodic

parodic advertisements are similar in style to the humorous ones. They make a parody of something that already exists in order to entertain the audience more than any other, basic advertisement, thus making it have more of an impact on their minds and memories.

The "118 118" advertisements are great examples of this, because they make parodies of things in every single one, the most obvious of course being the Ghostbusters parody.

Watch advertisement here (118 ghostbusters)

It's difficult to tell what the target audience is for this advertsement, i believe it would be mostly adults because it would be those who fully understand the parody of the ghostbusters theme song. i think it's quite effective, because 118's version of the song is actually quite catchy.

Style - Dramatic conflict

Adding dramatic conflict to an advertisement halps make it more engaging for the audience. dramatic event happening to a character in the advertisement helps make us, as viewers more enthralled and interested, because we want to find out what happens to the protagonist, do they resolve their problem? Do they find what they were looking for?


These questions running through our minds make us want to watch the advert until the very end. Which is very effective, considering most of us just cant be bothered to watch advertisements most of the time, we'd much rather just have Coronation Street come back on.

Perfume advertisements are often very dramatic, and almost always leave the viewer saying: "what was the point of all that"

Watch advertisement here (Davidoff Cool Water)

The target audience for this product is men of all ages, so why the advert contains a naked man, i'll never know. I don't think the advertisement is very effective because it doesn't exactly say what the product is. if the product was perfume, and for women, then it would be acceptable because it could use beauty appeal.

Style - Surreal

Surreal advertisements include something that seems much too good to be true. They basically turn our real life events, into something of a fantasy, or a dream. The 5 gum adverts are a good example of this style, especially the spearmint flavour, which shows a man lying on what appears to be a large speaker, surrounded by ball bearings. This advertisement takes something simple, and blows it completely out of proportion, and makes the gum sound much better than it really is. I've had 5 gum in the past, and it doesn't really "stimulate your senses" like the surreal advertisement suggests.

Watch advertisement here (5 gum - rain)

Style - Humorous

Humorous advertisements can either be an incredible success, or a horrific failure, it all depends on the audience. So for many advertisement producers who have not conducted an incredible amount of research on their target audience, a humorous advertisement is a very big risk. The different demographic and age groups all have a different sense of humour, so there's not much point in making a political joke in an advertisement for a childs toy, they wont understand it. The same works the other way; there's no point in including some slapstick comedy in an ad for a Jaguar or a Ferrari, because those products are for the upper classes, and they'll think that the product is cheap if it includes a pathetic attempt at making them laugh. 

But, if done correctly, humourous advertisements are very effective, for example, most condom advertisements include something to laugh about, because their audience is dominated by teenagers and young adults. 

Watch advertisement here (Zazoo condoms) 

This advertisement is aimed at young adults and older teenagers (16 - 25), because 16 is the legal age to have sex, and around 25 is the average age in which couples decide to have a child. I think this advert is very effective, because it is basically saying "Don't have children" which is basically the condom's only purpose.

Form - Stand Alone/Series

The ‘More Than Freeman’ advertisements are good examples of series adverts, because their style and content are consistent throughout everyone of their most recent advertisements. Whereas, advertisements like the Honda cog, and the Milky Way race car adverts are rather original, and tend to be recognised as stand alone adverts, purely because they are completely original, and there is (relatively) none other like them. Both styles are very effective, but for different reasons, the series advertisements are effective because we get used to the characters, whereas the standalone ones are effective because their originality often fascinates us.

Watch advertisement here (Red car and blue car)

The Milky Way race advertisement is quite clever, because it has two target audiences: Either children, or adults who like the fact that the idea is nostalgic to them, as they had the same advertisement back in 1989, only the 2009 version has been a lot more enhanced. It has been aimed at children aswell because of the sheer fantasy the advertisement entails, it is very well animated, and depicts a lot of personification.

Form - Talking heads

This Nike advertisement from April 2008, uses the Talking Heads form of advertisement. Talking heads are usually made in the style of an interview, where someone behind the camera has asked a question to a multitude of people. However, this Nike one doesn't follow that method, It consists of multiple professional football players and managers, sponsored by Nike, asking the viewer questions about what it takes to be as good as they are. The ending of the advertisement near enough implies that it is the Nike equipment that makes them as good as they are, and that it is possible for the viewer. The slogan “Take it to the next level” reinforces that statement.

Watch advertisement here (Nike 2008)

In my opinion, this advert is not very effective, it is not quite clear exactly who the target audience is. I think it might be for older teenagers/young adults who are into football. But other than nike, it's not clear exactly what the product is. I don't believe that this adevert is very effective at all.

Form - Documentary

The Go-Cat free running advertisement is created in the style of a documentary, which follows a cat named Bobo, who is “regarded as one of the best free runners in the world, who pushes himself and his crew to their limits” This advertisement gives the impression that a camera crew have followed around these ‘Free running’ cats, and interviewed them to find out the back stories of their ‘crew’ just like the majority of most other, real documentaries.  

Watch advertisement here (Go-Cat)

Documentary style advertisements don't really have a target audience, it all really depends on the product, because the documentary can be used in any context. However, the two examples i've seen of the documentary style of advertisement were for cat food and Magner's cider, therefore, judging by these i have reason to believe that they are mainly for adults of all ages. The effectiveness of these advertisements depends solely on the intelligence of the viewers.

Form - Animation

Using animation in an advertisement is more often than not, a very effective method of attracting a viewers attention. Animations can appeal to people of all ages, therefore there is never really a cap on what age the advertisement is aimed at. For example, Alexander the Meerkat is used to advertise car insurance, but he also appeals to younger audiences because of the comedy value, and the fact it is a talking animal, brought around by the power of animation.

Watch advertisement here (Compare the meerkat) 

 

the target audience for most animated advertisements are children (minus this example), because of a child's ever growing love for cartoons and animation. Nearly all animated advertisements contain some form of personification, involving an animal, or an inanimate object having human characteristics. This is effective to children because it helps bring their imaginations to life.

Form - Narrative Structure

The narrative type of advertising involves a voiceover, or

‘narration’ throughout. There are lots of examples of this on the  TV today, but my favourite examples are the recent  ‘More Than’  advertisements, which include a complete voiceover by the actor Morgan Freeman. I think this was a very wise choice by More Than, because Morgan

Freeman has the softest, most distinct voice ever. Thus insinuating that their insurance company is calm and stress free.

Watch advertisement here (MORE TH>N Freeman)

The target audience for this advertisement are more often than not, middle aged people, because the product is cheap car insurance. Considering Morgan Freeman is pretty much an elderly man himself, using him in the advertisement was a very wise move, as i think he is more recognisable by the older generation, and hearing his voice in an advertisement would be some kind of a novelty.

Structures

Advertisements are structured on Form, style, and Codes

and Conventions. Form literally means, the form of the

advertisement, ranging from realist narratives to

periodicals. The style consists of humorous, realistic,

dramatic and/or surreal advertisements. Whereas the

Codes and conventions include angles, shot types,

computer graphics and diegetic and non-diegetic sound.

 

Throughout the length of this assignment I will explain fully 

the length of which the structures extend, and how they

help to make advertising successful.

Video Advertising - Introduction

The mass majority of the public do not like advertisements. They would always prefer to continue watching their favourite television show. But, like them or not, television advertisements have the biggest influence over our lifestyle choices. We rarely ever realise, but more often than not, the advertisements we watch have a subtle effect on our minds. Most advertisement producers include things in their adverts to glue their product to our minds, and influence a purchase.

The grade awarded for this assignment is

Brief