Assessment

How does the producer use the four technical elements to convey a message?

Identify 3 persuasion techniques used in adverts.

Who is the audience?

How effective are the adverts?

The Guardian advert-

This advert uses a well-known children’s tale to portray a top news story. The three little pigs is a story that everyone knows therefore an audience has already been established. The audience is adults as mostly adults read news stories however social networking plays a big part in this advert, which mostly teenagers use this widens their audience. On the socio-Economic chart, I think that from A to C2 could use the Guardian and it would suit their needs.  The four technical elements are used throughout this advert. Non- digetic sound is used at the beginning of the advert meaning a soundtrack is played over the footage. The soundtrack is eerie to create a tense atmosphere. The lighting used is not very bright which again represents this tense and scary atmosphere. A cauldren is firstly presented and the camera zooms into it, just before the footage changes the cauldron tilts and water spills out of it, this could describe the rest of the advert and how its dramatic story becomes over the top from exaggeration.

The Guardian newspaper is then presented as an editor types the title ‘Big Bad Wolf boiled alive’. The audience then understands that the cauldron firstly presented held the body of the Big Bad Wolf. The sounds used are digetic, as you can hear the editor typing the title and office based noises such as phones ringing and people talking. The camera then zooms into the picture where the next scene takes place. As police men run to the house the camera follows them from behind and then cuts to a shot of the front of them as a Police man shouts ‘Little pig, little pig’ which is a famous line from the children’s tale. The Big Bad Wolf usually shouts this which could represent the Police as the enemy.  The sound of footsteps are used to give a realistic approach.

As the Police then break into the pig’s house the camera shots change rapidly to present the fast pace of the advert, The sounds of breaking glass are presented as well as the police shouting sternly to each other, this grabs the audience’s attention to present how serious this situation is. A voice over is then used whilst the pig is forced up to the wall of his house by a police man with a gun. The voice over represents a reporter doing a news report- the camera then pans around a woman who is watching the story on her laptop. She is on the guardians website which portrays to the audience what the guardian offers in regards to where you can see the news reports. 30 seconds into the advert and they have already shown that you can see the guardians news through the internet and newspapers.

As the story is broadcast to the world the advert portrays how social media has a big impact. Tweets and status’ from twitter and Facebook and over social media sites overlap footage of the woman typing on her laptop, multiple tweets and status’ are shown instead of just one to show how many people are voicing their opinion and want to be heard. A voice over is again used to read what the woman is typing, as soon as she finished reading her tweet another voice reads another and so on. The advert then uses an effect to show multiple pieces of footage in small squares, status’ are then shown from all around the world.

As further investigations take place in the house of the pig, the camera pans/ follows two people who walk into the room where the Wolf’s body is. Stories from newspapers are projected onto the walls to show how everyone is aware of this story and covering it. As the two people reach the door the projection shows a vote, the question: Is killing an intruder ever justified, most people voted yes. Voice overs are still being used of people reading their tweets to show how every day that news story is being discussed. Photos are then took of the crime scene which will later be shown to the world. A video from YouTube is then presented showing that the Wolf has asthma as he is using an inhaler, this then changed people’s opinions as a reporter is presented gathering information from many sources. An animation is then presented to portray the wolf innocence.

As the advert progress’ where a press conference is shown, every time the three little pigs are shown dim lighting is used to show how they killed someone and how they are guilty. The camera cuts to show the pigs in court and then status’ are again presented but in a very quick pace overlapping the camera panning houses to show where the messages are coming from. The end of the advert presents how new stories can get out of hand as street riots occur. Close ups are used of people’s mouths to show how they want a say in the matter and banners are presented in protest. Then all the methods of seeing the Guardians stories are presented at the same time and the Guardians slogan appears ‘The Whole Picture’.

One main persuasion technique is showing all the different platforms the guardian is presented on, this allows the audience to use one platform over the other. I believe more people would rather visit the guardians website than buy the newspaper therefore this is an available option for the audience. Another persuasion technique is showing how interacted the audience in the advert is. The audience could look at this advert and want to be in the discussion about the top headlines and then they would use the Guardian to have this opportunity. The last persuasion technique is showing how the Guardian is on top of every story. The Guardian presented the story on every platform with in-depth discussions.

The four technical elements used in this advert presented the advert as a story rather than just a normal advert. This engages the audience’s mind as the advert is different to most other adverts. I believe this advert is very effective because of how busy it is with information. The audience will want to purchase the guardian as they will want to be the first to hear about big stories and be on the internet discussing their own views about it.