Our task is to analyse different TV adverts, firstly a modern one.
I looked at the John Lewis advert from 2010. It shows the timeline through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. The transitions through each decade blend together smoothly, props were also used, for example; when the girl blew out her candles, the lighting dimmed and when the lights came back another actress appeared to portray an older student. The advert then progressed as she walked through a door into another scene where a different actress played her marrying her university sweet-heart. The camera then panned across all the guests attending the wedding into her house where she now is pregnant. The fact that this advert follows a woman’s whole life conveys how John Lewis provides everything you could need throughout your life and that the products are reliable and never go out of date. This advert is effective for many reasons. Firstly, the audiences attention is grabbed straight away- the advert does not specify immediately that its advertising ‘John Lewis’ therefore the audience watches the advert more carefully to find out what is being advertised. The song ‘She’s always a woman’ is used as the song has a slow pace and provides an emotional feeling to the whole advert. This creates a relationship between the audience and the woman in the advert who we watch grow up.
Another modern advert I looked at was for Marmite. This advert used a clever way of grabbing the audiences attention- at the beginning of the video a documentary style of recording was used as a team approached a house claiming someone had reported a case of neglect at the house. A child is seen present sitting at a table as the team move into the house, the audience begin to think that the family have neglected a child, however the team walk past the child into the cupboard where they take out a tub of Marmite and claim the family have neglected the product. This big difference of the audience believing a child is neglected to the neglect-ion of a product makes the audience feel almost relived and at ease. The advert is humorous because of this big difference between a serious problem and something most of us actually can admit to doing. Once the audience understands what the team are investigating the advert becomes very funny because of how serious the actors are about such a silly situation. The slogan used “Love it. Hate it. Just don’t forget it.” makes the audience want to try the product more than if the slogan would have been about the audience having to like the product, as the audience feels that they can try the product without having to like it as 50% of the people who have tried the product don’t like it anyway.
I then looked at an ASDA advert from 1990
This advert displays how even though you may have a hectic life, ASDA can allow you to easily cook perfect meals with no hassle. Many close up shots are used to display specific details of the products, the fast pace shots also portray how quick it is to prepare ASDA’s food.The products that are sold in ASDA are continuously shown and advertised. The character used in the advert are displayed as a normal family, a woman is the main character to attract the attention of males. A family is presented in the advert to convey that ASDA is a family friendly company- the woman is always smiling when she looks over at the children to exaggerate this point. This advert is straight to the point, the audience knows that ASDA is being advertised as soon as the advert plays as it is written on a loaf of bread. At the end of the advert a white screen is shown with the ASDA logo and slogan ‘It ASDA be ASDA’ which is a play of words (It has to be ASDA). This advert is a lot different to the modern advert, ASDA’s advert concentrates on showing the products more than the people who buy them whereas the ‘John Lewis’ advert doesn’t display many products that are available.
I wanted to discuss this advert as even though it was created in the 1990’s, the advert is still used today. I believe that this advert could possibly be the most successful advert created- It appears every Christmas and quite literally announces when the Christmas season begins (Everyone always says “you know its Christmas when the Coco-cola advert comes on”). The music is the most memorable aspect to this advert, with the chant ‘Holidays are coming’ that everyone knows and recognises. When the lorries are driving everything they pass lights up to show how the product, coco-cola, brightens everyones day. A family is also shown putting up a christmas tree to show how coco-cola provides product to ‘perfect’ families (this presents the idea that coco-cola are a family friendly company). A bottle of coco-cola is presented underneath the christmas tree to show how the product is good enough to be a present for someone, even though its only a drink- it’s precious and magical (shown by the animation used).
I then looked back to adverts from the 1980’s. The first one advertises ASDA.
Firstly, a lollipop lady is presented guiding children across the road to instrumental music which is still used today in ASDA’s recent adverts. The lollipop lady presents a respectable character who is currently unaware about ASDA’s good prices and deals. This respectable character is used to present the type of people who used ASDA. A child then explains he has purchased large amount of expensive meats from ASDA as he says the slogan ‘That’s ASDA price’ and taps his pocket twice- this movement is again still used today. A close up then shows the lollipop lady who pulls an impressed face towards the camera, the lollipop lady looks at the camera to create a relationship between herself and the audience- similar to if both the audience and the lady found out this information together/ at the same time. Another scene is then presented where the lollipop lady is in a different location and has too look twice at another characters fridge (which conveys a surprised reaction to the quality of the fridge) where she asks if it’s new. The character replies with the same line as the child ‘Thats ASDA price’ and again she taps her pocket. The repetition of this line/ gesture helps the audience associate this small gesture with the ASDA brand and the slogan begins to stick in the audiences mind. This is important as a wide audience will be aware of your brand through simplistic advertising, just like being able to know a brand just from the logo. The lollipop lady then looks back at the camera with a sceptic reaction to suggest she is confused at ASDA’s quality of product and how you can buy many different items from just one store. The ending of the advert then presents the lollipop lady guiding the same children across a road, however they all have a trolly containing shopping and the children are walking towards the lady’s car. The lollipop lady then taps her purse and winks at the camera, copying what the two characters before her did. This advert influences a new audience to go to ASDA, as it informs the audience that it doesn’t matter if you have never been there before- just like the lollipop lady, as you can still get lots of well priced items, (shown by the large amount of shopping trollies).
This advert is for Terry’s chocolate orange.
Erie music is played from the beginning of this advert which quickly grabs the audiences attention as it creates suspense. The advert moves quickly as a woman walks from her house towards a group of people while a male character peers through the window behind her and watches her leave. This male character then begins looking through all of the cupboards and gives the audience the impression that he is planning on stealing something expensive. However the audience then finds out he is looking for the female characters Chocolate Orange as she is questioned if the decision of leaving the male character alone was a good one, as he might find and eat the Chocolate Orange. The audience expects the chocolate to be hidden in a simplistic area however as the female character claims it is quite safe the male character is then spun around to the other side of a bookshelf where he is presented with many obstacles he must pass to reach the chocolate orange. These obstacles make the advert humorous, which keeps the audiences attention throughout as you want to know if the male character reaches the chocolate at the end of the advert. The music then changes from erie to almost victorious as the male character runs through all the obstacles searching for the chocolate. A voice over is used at the end of the advert to describe the product in a more serious manner, the slogan is then presented asking ‘How safe is yours’. This describes the quality of the product and how if you purchase one you must keep it safe so no-one steals it as it does taste good enough to steal. Throughout this advert the lighting changes dramatically at only one point. The lighting begins to present a normal bright day however once the male character is spun around the bookshelf, the lighting dims to present a scary ambience. This exaggerates both the length that the female character has gone to hide this chocolate, and what length the male character will go to steal this chocolate. Overall, showing the brilliant quality of this product.
Comparing three adverts:
Sky-
This advert has a large target audience as it advertises both Sky and Toy Story. The audience which watched the first Toy Story film are now a lot older therefore Toy Story has not only the desired child audience but an adult audience also. Sky targets home owners (adults) to sell there product to which is a completely different audience to Toy Story, however adults may already be familiar with Toy Story because of their children or from viewing one of the films themselves. Children could influence their parents to purchase Sky if they see the Toy Story characters in the advert. The animation used appeals to Toy Story’s desired child audience as the memorable characters and bright colours stand out- in addition to this most children are already familiar with the Toy Story characters therefore the audience has already been established.
Go Compare-
The most memorable aspect of this advert is the very catchy song which sticks in the audiences mind. This allows the audience to remember the advert, the name of the company and what the company is advertising. This advert is set in a common cafe with two casual men discussing car insurance. This displays that anyone can use Go compare, no matter what your background is. However, when the ‘Go Compare man’ enters the cafe he is wearing a tuxedo and is signing opera to show that Go Compare offers superior insurance to any other insurance provider. The advert is also humorous which entertains the audience and keeps them interested in the advert.
Skittles-
This is a very humorous advert which is entertaining throughout. The target audience is the younger generation- I know this because of the bright colours used and the style of witty jokes. Half way through the advert there is a large contrast from the cheerful thought of being able to turn any object into skittles, into the seriousness of the situation- this contrast makes the audience become more interested. The mans name who turns everything into skittles is Tim, this is a common name which presents how anyone can buy and eat skittles.
Kerry Hatfield 