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.