Advertising techniques (Rebel)

This technique makes the audience associate the advertised product with rebelling against mainstream products and  lifestyle choices, even if the product is mainstream. Skoda used rebel to advertise their new car, previously Skoda made an advert where people were making the Skoda car out of cake. Skoda's new car, which is 'made of meaner stuff' was, made out of things like snake venom and other nasty things. This new car presents the idea of rebelling against the idea of a 'nice' car.

Advertising techniques (Peer Approval)

Peer approval is a technique used to make the audience feel that in order to be 'cool' and accepted by your peers, you must buy the product. This technique although effective can be used negatively, peer approval can make people, particularly teenagers worry that they will not be accepted if they do not have this product. 

Advertising techniques (Intelligence )

Intelligence is a technique that implies that a smart person would buy the advertised product. It can also imply that the advertised product will make you smart. The product itself is usually some kind of food or drink product where the slogan would be along the lines of “For geniuses” Even though the consumer knows that the product will not make them intelligent, or that the product is exclusively for intelligent people, they will still associate the product with being a “genius”.

Advertising techniques (Independence/Individual)

Independence/Individual is a technique where the company intentionally targets their product a people who believe that they can think for themselves. The products a linked to individual decision making. Independence/Individual is usually used to target teenagers, this is because at this age, people believe that they are able to do things on their own and so to buy the product that is advertise would be an act of independence.

Advertising techniques (Escape)

Escape is a technique used to make the consumer believe that if they buy the product they will be able to escape day to day life and be taken to a more exotic surrounding. Car companies of use this technique, they show the car being driven through an exotic country or the country side, or even the dessert. This makes the audience believe that if they buy this car, they will be able to drive through these places like in the advert, even though they probably wont.

Advertising techniques (Compliment the Consumer)

Complimenting the consumer is often used in advertising, companies often flatter their audience so that they will come across as a trust worthy and kind company. One of the most well known adverts where the consumer is complimented is the L'Oréal slogan “because your worth it” this flatters the consumer and makes them believe that they are in fact 'worth it' and so go out and buy the product.

Advertising techniques (Beauty Appeal)

Beauty appeal is often used in beauty products, such as skin cream, shampoo and fragrances. The advert will often include an attractive celebrity to talk about the product and say how good it is. The consumer will then think that if they use this product, they will be attractive like the celebrity who advertised it.

Codes and Conventions (CGI Special Effects)

Using CGI special effects in an advertisement can make the advert stand out and appear to be more blockbuster. CGI can be used to create things like explosions, places that are impossible to reach, they can create an animated world and can even give animals human characteristics; examples of this are the meerkat from the Compare the Market adverts and the puppy koala bear from the Cushelle adverts.

GEIKO used CGI to create a number of human like animals such as a gecko, a pig, woodchucks and an octopus. All of these adverts were very humorous and used rhetorical questions to prove their point, such as “Did the little piggy go WEE WEE WEE all  the way home”. They would then so a little pig literally going WEE WEE WEE all the way home.

Codes and Conventions

The technical code of an advertisement refers to how the film was filmed or created, to explain this I will talk about the technical code in the More Than advert that features Morethan Freeman.

The Advert is shot in full colour, this is so that the cold colours shown can set the mood.

We see a close up of a roof and then zoomed out to a wide shot displaying the whole house, we then see a full shot of the narrator, Morethan Freeman.

All of the images are in focus.

The narrator is left out of the frame until the end of the advert when he introduces himself as Morethan Freeman; this is because up until that point, the audience is led to believe that it is the actor Morgan Freeman that is doing the voice over. This is effective because people will now associate Morgan Freeman’s voice with Morethan Insurance.

Iconography is not dissimilar from celebrity endorcement. An advertisement uses iconography has an actor or celebrity that becomes iconic to that specific advert, for example, Gary Lineker has become iconic to the Walkers. However adverts that use celebrity endorcement are usually a one off.

An adverts soundtrack can effect how succsesful it. The effectiveness of an adverts soundtrack mainly depends on how catchy the tune is. For example, many people find the jingle to adverts such as the Go Compare advert and the we buy any car advert. As annoying as these soundtracks maybe, they are memorable and are used as a talking point.

Style – Parodic

A parodic style advertisement is an advertisement That emulates another advert or film. A periodic advertisement can mock another product or simply remind us of it. An example of a parodic advertisement is one of Tango’s adverts; they emulated the Sony Bravia advert where thousands of bouncy balls are bouncing down a hill. Tango parodied this by making thousands of fruits going down a hill. Both adverts are almost the same in every other way.

Style – Dramatic Conflict

Using the style of dramatic conflict engages the audience into the advert. Most people do not like to sit through advertisements and so adding dramatic conflict into the advert will make it more exciting for the audience. The conflict can be anything from man vs. woman to a teenager and their studies. An advert with a dramatic conflict usually has a goodie, or hero; this hero will have a  problem, the problem could be a villain, or a difficult situation.

Style – Surreal

An advert that is surreal is one that takes real life into fantasy; they take something that we see everyday and display in a way that we could only dream of. Ariston used a surreal advertisement to advertise their washing machines. In the ad, we  see a woman closing the door of a washing machine. The camera then zooms into the machine and we are transported to what appears to be the sea. 

The advert allows us to explore this place, we see lots of recognisable sea life such as stingrays, turtles ect. It is noticeable that all of the aqua life is made of the clothes. As the camera is panning we see a young boy looking through the window. It is then when we are taken back into the kitchen or the 'real world'. The advert has no dialogue whatsoever, it allows the audience to make up their own mind up about what they think of the machine.

Style – Humorous

Humour is used in advertisements to make the audience laugh or just smile. Humour is a style of advertising that is particularly effective when it used to advertise something that is known for being a serious or boring product. An example of this is comparing car insurance; car insurance is rather dull to think about, however there currently there are a number of price comparison sites that are trying to win over the viewers by using humour.

Examples of these are Go Compare, Money Super Market and Compare the Market. Although all of these companies have produced humorous adverts, it Compare the Market that has truly won over its audience. The Compare the Market adverts consist of a talking meerkat who is frustrated because people confuse his website 'comparethemeerkat.com' with 'comparethemarket.com'.

It is not clear exactly what us so loveable about this creature; perhaps it is his accent or even the now well known and loved phrase “simples” Either way Compare the market have made a very successful advertising campaign out of this meerkat.

Form – Stand Alone/Series

A stand alone advertisement is a form of advert that is a one off, there will not be another advert by the same company that is related in terms of the story. A stand alone advertisement as a beginning and an end, no other advertisement from the same company will start the ad where the last one finished. Yell produced many stand alone advertisements in a three month campaign of adverts to tell their consumers their new phone number.

An advert that is part of a series has a constantly developing story. The series usually has a main character and additional characters. BT uses a series of adverts. In each of their adverts we see a family consisting of a mother, her son, her daughter and her new husband. This family goes through some problems that audience members will be able to relate to and in the series, BT broadband helps the family to cope with trouble they face.

Form – Talking Heads

Talking heads are a form of advertisement where an interview appears to be taking place. As the audience we imagine that that company is interviewing 'real' people, as opposed to actors, this makes us believe that the answer or reaction of the person on screen must also be real, making the company and the company product seem more trustworthy.

Colgate used a talking heads style advertisement when they were advertising their new Sensitive Pro Relief toothpaste. They asked members of the public who had sensitive teeth to rub the toothpaste on where they felt sensitivity. All of the testers said that they felt instant relief, this makes us believe that the claim is indisputable.

Form – Documentary

Documentary is a form of advertisement where it is filmed in a similar style to a documentary. There  is usually a narrator who appears to be an expert in the topic of whatever is being advertised. The narrator talks us through a scene, explain what is happening and how it links to the product.

It is said that if a documentary is filmed well, it has the ability to make us believe anything, ni matter how far-fetched it sounds. I believe that the narrator has a lot to do with this; if the narrator sounds calm and soothing, we a lead to believe that he/she is comfortable talking about whatever is being advertised and so we can be sure that there is nothing to worry about with this company.

Magners cider use a documentary advert. They show a cricket team who has supposedly never loosed a match. The narrator tells us this team is from Clonmel, the home of Magners cider, where apples are never picked but are just waited upon to fall. The narrator tells us why the cricket team are undefeated but also why Magners cider are the best. The narrator also seems very trustworthy, he has a calm and soothing voice so we feel relaxed as well. Also he has an Irish accent which makes us believe that he knows this team very well, so we take his word.

Form – Animation

Using animation in an advertisement can not only be very effective for companies, but extremely efficient. Animations are effective because they can appeal to different audiences dependent on what the product is. Food products that appeal to children could be advertised in animation, for example the monkey mascot for Coco-Pops. However if the product appeals to a more mature audience then the animation could still appeal to them without actually being a cartoon. For example the Citron C4 transforming car is still appealing and yet not necessarily 'immature'.

Advertisements that are in cartoon format are extremely efficient because there is now cultural time limit without them. Most cartoon adverts go from main stream in the time of there release and then ten years later, it will be 'retro'. An example of this is the Milky Way advert where the red car and the blue car have a race. For the older audience, this advert will bring back child hood memories and for the younger audience, this advert is a exciting new addition to popular culture.

Form – Narration

Narration is a form where there is a voice over talking us through the advert. The two main aspects of ones voice that companies consider are the narrators accent and their tone of voice.

Many people tend to stereotype a character based on their accent and so many companies use this to their advantage. For example many call centres and other similar companies tend to hire people with Geordie accents because people tend to think that this is friendly accent.

A narrators tone of voice can influence the way people think about the product. For example the Cilit Bang advertising campaign had a spokesperson who shouted every word of the script and the now well known and parodied phrase “bang and the dirt is gone”. The spokespersons tone of voice became very controversial, where some people found it amusing where others found it irritating and unnecessary; either way it got their message across and made Cilit Bang a household name.

The narrator of More Than Insurance, better known as 'Morethan Freeman' impersonated the voice of Hollywood actor, Morgan Freeman. I believe that this is because Freeman has a very soothing voice thus making the insurance company a stress free choice. 

Structure

Advertisements use many different techniques and methods. In this assignment, I will explain the way form, style and codes and conventions are used to persuade us to buy something

Introduction

The mass majority of the public do not like to watch advertisements. They would very much prefer to continue watching their favourite television show. Like them or not television advertisements have the biggest influence over our lifestyle choices. They influence the food we eat, the clothes we wear, where we buy our insurance, what car we buy and even where we go on holiday. There are usually around ten  adverts during each a commercial break, we usually remember one from each, this is why companies must ensure that their advert is the one that we remember and action.

This presentation shows the forms, styles and techniques used by companies to ensure that it is their product that we buy.

The grade you received for this assignment is as follows;