“Explain and analyse the structures and techniques of television advertisements.� Companies use advertising as a way to help sell their brand. Most companies also create an advertisement which is broadcasted on television. They are normally a shot 30 second ad which briefly gives an overview of what the product is about. It is in essence a sales pitch to capture the audience of anyone watching TV. There are many different ways in which a company can create an advertisement by using one of many different structures. The first one Is realist narrative. This is when an advertisement follows a story that could happen in real life based structure including a beginning, middle and an end. A good example of an advertisement like this is a previous Halifax advert. In this advert, it starts with a couple searching for a house. In the middle, they start to have problems and lose hope with searching, but at the end, the couple manage to use the new app that the company is advertising and complete their house search. This type of advertisement is good as it shows with using the product on offer, it can help in situations which can seem tricky. This ad shows clips of the app in use so the audience get an idea of what exactly is on offer.
There are also types of advertisements which use anti-realist structures. This is when the advertisement includes a narrative that is very unrealistic and would never happen in real life. These advertisements are normally used to target humour and give a more enjoyable ad to watch, rather than one that includes more information. A good example of an advertisement like this would be the skittles advert. In this ad, a man is at work, and whatever he touches turns to skittles. This is not only cleverly made, but very entertaining to watch for the younger viewers. This is a good marketing trick as the kids will want the parents to buy the product.
Some advertisements also include more formal approaches to their product. This is called a documentary advert. A documentary advert is much more formal and gives more information. It is literally as it says, a short documentary. Most of the adverts using a documentary style ad want to highlight a certain danger in some cases, or just to inform the audience of a previous experience. The company ‘Think!’, use documentary style ads to highlight the dangers on road and to inform the importance of being streetwise. This ad is good as it shows the consequences of what can happen if you abuse your privileges. It is a very serious type of ad so it gets a strong message across.
Using the method of talking heads is a very effective method of TV advertising. It is where the actors within the adverts will interact and talk directly to the camera as if they are talking to the audience. They are mainly used in ads that represent an emotional appeal, such as adverts from charities to show thanks and praise. It represents a much more emotional advert to one such as an anti-realist as it tries to bring across a stronger message. Another example of a talking head advertisement is the Aldi’s advert. This is a person comparing a product of Aldi’s to one of another brand, and explaining what the customers are missing out on.
Another example of an advert is series. This is where the moral of an ad continues through a line of adverts from the same company. This means there is a storyline that flows through all the ads. This also means that the ads might end on a cliff-hanger and make the audience exited to see the new ad when it will be released. A good example of a series ad is the series of BMW ads.
The animation adverts include completely CGI created adverts. This type of advert ads a more sense of humour to the product. This type of advert is also used to advertise products aimed at the younger audience. A good example would be the Frosties advert including Tony the tiger. This advert includes humour and lots of bright colours. This is also an important feature as bright colours are associates with happiness and can show that the product will bring happiness. This type of ad is much more enjoyable to watch rather than a documentary style advert
There are many structures that form an advert, but all adverts also follow a style. This determines how serious or humorous an advert is. This determines how serious or humorous an advert is. Different styles work more effectively on different products. For example, if you have a kids toy, you will not want a serious styled advert, as it will not fit. Here are the main styles. Arguably the most important of the styles. It can be used to target all ages and be included in the majority of the adverts. Also humour is very easy to remember so whatever is in the ad will stick in the head. This is a great marketing technique as they will always remember the product associated to the funny advert. A common example of a humerous advert would be the go compare advert. It features a man dressed in a black suit with a fairly iconic mustache. This advert is effective as it is silly and enjoyable to watch.
Surreal styled adverts have an unusual effect on the viewer. It will make them want to talk to others about it and spread the word. It is a clever marketing trick as the customers are advertising the product without even realizing. This acts as a form of un noticed synergy. It doesn’t matter however, as the key message is that the awareness of the product is increasing and more people will buy it (dramatic)This is a type of advert that will bemuse the audience and keep them watching the whole thing on the edge of their seats. It constantly builds up suspense. There are many different examples of dramatic adverts. One of the best examples is the Packard bell advert of 1996. The advert includes images of slavery and slogans such as ‘wouldn’t you rather be at home?’. This advert is effective as it uses its drama in a rhetorical form and sort of questions the viewers to show how fortunate they are. This is performed in a dramatic way to add extra effect.
A parodic advert usually copies a scene from a certain film or TV series. It will use this to make the advert appeal to those who watch the TV show or film, thus increasing the audience. This advert is in essence, a parody. One effective parody advert which has been advertised is the Specsavers advert which references the 'Lynx Effect' advert. Using this style and the combination of adverts, this will help Specsavers as they try to sway and attract the audience of Lynx fans, to Specsavers. This advert is effective as using iconic film and TV scenes can boost popularity as it is more recognizable and are generally more enjoyable to watch.
In adverts, they each use maybe one, two or more codes and conventions to make sure the ad is up to date and can compete in the industry. Here is a list of them: • Camera angle and Shot • Iconography • Editing • Lighting • Sound • Music • Computer Graphics • Specials Effects (SFX)
Every advert has to be regulated. the company that does this is called ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). They are the UK’s independent regulator for advertising across all media. Their job is to deal with all of the complaints said about all of the adverts. They aim to act on anything they feel is out of place or anything that’s malicious on an advert and sort it out. On average, they claim to consider over 30,000 complaints on about 20,000 adverts so it’s quite a tricky job. recently, they released an article talking about the most complained about adverts of 2016 and how many complaints they received about that advert. In top spot was money supermarket.com. they received 1,063 complaints about this advertisement. ASA said this about the ad: “This TV ad featured ‘Gary the Bodyguard’ dressed in a suit and sunglasses, dancing at a rally. We received complaints Gary’s dance moves were overtly sexual and not suitable to be seen by children. While acknowledging some viewers may have found the dance moves distasteful, we judged the ad wouldn’t cause serious or widespread offence to viewers and the ad was generally likely to be interpreted in a humorous manner. “