Advertising essay

Advertising Essay

TV advertising uses many different techniques to advertise products. Some advertising companies use techniques that support their product. Advertisers also use different techniques to make the viewer have an emotional response to what it is they are advertising. For example; safe drive adverts sometimes show car accidents that could’ve been avoided if the characters in the scene had worn a seatbelt. In this essay I will be explaining the structures and techniques used in tv advertising.

Some adverts use directed methods to portray a certain kind of message. Some adverts also use directed methods for effect/ emotional response.

Structure Structure is a key element of advertising as it is determines what kind of advert it’s going to be. There are many different elements to structure when it comes to tv advertising. Here are a few of the different elements to structure; ● Linear advert: this type of advert has a beginning, middle and end. This type of advert also is more narrative based. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9feIcIUkPms​ ​ This is an example of a linear advert because it is in chronological order. It also has a narrator who is literally telling the story. These adverts are narrative based to make the advert more interesting, this advert in particular is linear to make a point that it seems unrealistic but it can actually happen.

● The opposite to a linear advert is a non linear advert. These types advert aren't in chronological order so that means that the advert could start from the end and have a rewind kind of moment. These adverts are like this to show that what has happened can be prevented. ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgXckh0wCw This non linear advert uses flashforward and flashback to show that if “Malcom”

● An unrealistic advert is an advert that couldn’t ever happen. These style of adverts usually have an element of animation and comedy. This is an example of an unrealistic advert​ ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIx_0EOfBUk​ ​ This advert is an unrealistic advert because it's not everyday that a cartoon doughnut and sub start talking to you.

● A realistic advert is obviously the opposite of an unrealistic advert. These adverts are usaluly narrative based and most are created to tug at the heart strings.For instiance, this advert;​ ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxZu­6jewL4​ , ​ is about a daughter and father and how the father uses the product which is the chewing gum to bond with his daughter.

● This is an example of an open ended advert, but it is also episodic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG6vOzwW2sc​ ​ A open ended advert is in the really in the name but it's basically an advert that can be continued. This advert is

also episodic which means that can be continued but is part of a series or a chain of adverts. ● A Stand alone advert is an advert that can’t be continued on and its sole Paco Rabanne fragrance ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF6vB1bClc8​ .​ This advert features a model wining some type of world cup and the message is that if you use this fragrance all you'll do is win. ● This is an animation advert​ ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TslvXje9eU4​ .

These adverts are usually created for children or for things relating to children like this one which was created for wear the rose charity.

● A surreal advert is similar to an unrealistic advert but the surreal adverts usually contain things that are slightly more majesty and are selling a fantasy almost.

Like this surreal advert; ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUD97rKZuxE​ . ​ This feature a man with animal like senses and instincts, it features him running through the forest and then him jumping over buildings and huge growing heights. The creators of this advert did this to make it seem like if you use this fragrance you'll have crazy confidence.

Techniques Association­ ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRV­2_Un­kk This advert uses association to imply that if you use this perfume you will be in control of men and irresistible. The actress in this is a model who is going around on her scooter, on top of the world and then goes to her shoot and is all flirty with the photographer. Then at the end of the advert, she leaves him and puts the perfume in her jacket to symbolise that if you use the perfume you will be able to walk around like forbidden fruit. Another example of association is this advert for John Lewis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuz2ILq4UeA​ This is a good representation of association because it creates an emotional response to the advert. For a lot of people that do still have grandparents, they often don’t get to see them, it creates a sense of guilt and makes you realise that christmas is all about giving to the ones you love.

Bandwagon ­ ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mByznNYCWTY This advert represents the bandwagon technique because it is using the film stars wars to sell playstation. Stars wars is currently a worldwide at the moment so a lot of people know about it. Uses this as a marketing ploy is very smart because a lot of fans will want to enjoy the experience that you can’t do when you watch the film. Another bandwagon technique is this T­Moible advert that was filmed at Liverpool train station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM​ ​ This is a good representation of bandwagon because it seems like the dance is the main focus but in actuality, it's the mobile phones that are the focus. This relates back to what they are advertising. The advert is also full of happy smiling faces which creates an emotional, humorous response in the viewer.

Celebrity endorsement ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpFrNNDIygo This advert is an example of celebrity endorsement because it uses the fame of Adam Levine ​ to promote their product. This technique is very effective especially because this is an advert for acne and the majority of people who have acne are teenages. I say this because Adam Levine is part of a pop band and the majority of their fanbase are actually teens. So when they see an advertisement where their favourite artist is talking how he has acne and has struggled with it, it’s going to make more likely buy it because if it worked for a famous celebrity it's going to work for them.

Codes and conventions Iconography ­ an important part part of genre as it is what we seen on screen that indicators what genre the is going to be. Simply, it's the mise en scene matching the genre. An example of this would be a modern horror film that has a group of teenagers in the forest summoning a dangerous legend using a ouija board or something similar to that.

Editing ­ Advertisements that edited in a way that makes the product/ service look amazing and that there's nothing like it. Editing is mainly used for athletic toys and shoes. In these the types of adverts editing is used to create perfect shots, catches and clear slow motion shots (for shoes, this is done on the feet of a player to show that they are wearing the shoes being advertised and sometimes they will have the actual “x­ray” type of shot where you can see the shoes inside and the “technology” behind them) Lighting ­ Lighting is a very important part of adverts, depending on the style of the advert in question. If it is a horror film trailer or a awareness advert (drugs,drink driving), the lighting will be a lot darker to subconsciously put the viewer on edge and trigger a response in your brain to be worried/scared. The same way we would if we were in dark alone. On the contrary, adverts that are promoting happy things like weight loss products have darker lighting at the start showing someone who is overweight and then the same person who has lost a lot of weight in brighter lighting to tell the viewer that if you use this product you life will be better essentially.

Sound ­ The same method of lighting is used for sound. For adverts that want to install fear, a spooky/mysterious soundtrack is going to be used because it will immediately send off an uneasy vibe. For an advert like one for a hair dye or make up, a happy/lighthearted soundtrack is going to be used because the product should seem like it's going make you feel good.

Special effects (SFX) ­ Some adverts rely heavily on special effects because it's the easiest and most effective way to instill fear in a split second. Adverts like the safe drive use this a lot because they can create a scenario where a crash has happened and everyone in the car is dead but then it turns out that it was just a vision. This would

really make someone think about how quickly a crash could happen and how easy it actually is to have one.

Characteristics of products or services Some advertisements use subliminal messages, this means that the creator of the advertisement puts little hints or nudges towards something they wouldn't get away with if it was in plain sight. They usually reference things that are sexual. For example in this ‘Hooters’ logo the owl has the ‘oo’s are its eyes but if you know what kind of establishment Hooters actually are you can easily mistake the ‘oo’s for women’s breast.

Another example of subliminal messages is these covers of an ‘SFX’ magazine. These covers all have stars on the cover who are made to look like sexy figurines and all of their heads are cover the bottom of the ‘f’ to make it seem like the magazine has ‘sex’ written on the cover.

Some other a​ dverts are used to provide a solution to a problem.This means that in an advert, the creators will it make a problem that they feel most people have and whatever they are advertising will the only thing that can fix it.

Sources of information

Rate cards are one of the most helpful things to have when creating a an advert or looking to create one because it can tell you how much it's going to cost you to put your adver out there and if you know what kind of target audience you have .Rate cards are the rate of how much it costs to show an advert at a region and time or day. The seasonal rate affect the cost of advertising. It just helps you get a more guaranteed and accurate target audience and how to get whatever you're advertising to them.

Using the information from this rate card, I made some decisions for my body spray advert. I came to the realisation that daytime would be the most effective and cost effective slot for you to advertise your product this morning because it is part of a morning routine and is something a lot of people use in the morning. My slot selection will reach my target audience effectively because women most commonly use body spray and are more attracted to it than men and they also pay more attention to detail.

Audience classification Geodemographics is the analysis of demographics that is put into a concentrated groups by age, race,gender, social class or religious education. Once you have the information from your rate cards, you can then use geodemographics so you know where to advertise your product and where it would be a hit. An example of this is: Dagenham ­ Struggling suburbs.Populated by above average numbers of Black residents, these neighbourhoods also have high unemployment by London standards.

Above average levels of housing are provided by the social rented sector often in terraces. Employment is found across a range of blue­collar occupations that are found within the Greater London area.

Conclusion In this essay, my goal was to explain the structure and techniques used in TV advertising. Following all the research i did, I applied it to my own advert that I did for body spray. I used the information I gathered on audiences to create a target audience for my advert. Once I did this, I was able to plan my location and how I wanted my advert to be filmed. I decided to film in the gym at my college because my target audience was mainly students, this also influenced my choice of characters (who were actually students at my college). Overall the research I did for my essay helped me in the production of my body spray advert.