Charity advertising- a brief overview

Charity adverts want an immediate response so they produce shocking, memorable and hard hitting adverts. These adverts will include, the name of the campaign, audio codes such as; recognizable songs, dramatic sound tracks, non-diegetic voice over often with an authority tone explaining the issue or situation. Also the adverts will use technical codes, for example they often use close up shots combined with visual codes of expression and establishing shots. As well as this they use tracking shots following the “main character” with slow motion and black and white images for impact. The mode of address is assertive and uses personal pronouns such as “we” to make the audience feel involved and responsible. Also the advert will most likely include on screen graphics with the company’s logo, slogan and social media links. Charites use adverts to raise awareness and encourage people to donate to their charity.

Background to Water Aid

! WaterAid is an international non-profit organization that was set up in 1981 as a response to the UN International Drinking Water & Sanitation decade (1981–1990). Since its origins the charity has supplied clean water and services to over 1 billion people.

! The organization was first established by the UK water industry on 21 July 1981 as a charitable trust at their main office in London. As of 2013, WaterAid had fundraising offices located in Australia, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

! Activities involve providing people with clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene education. By 1987 its income exceeded £1 million per year. In 2011-12, it raised £55.8m in the UK, and spent £54m.

! WaterAid works in partnership with local organisations in 34 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific region to help poor communities establish sustainable water supplies and toilets, and to promote safe hygiene. It works also with governments helping with water education. A policy of WaterAid is to support public ownership and public control of water supplies.

The use of Media Language in Charity Advertisements

All Charity advertisements want an immediate response from the audience, therefore the adverts become shocking, memorable and hard hitting adverts. The conventions firstly include a name for the campaign for example the 2015 Oxfam Campaign was called ‘we wont live with poverty’, and used green and white colour branding which is associated with Oxfam.

Audio codes.

Here are the different use of audio codes:

-Recognisable songs

-Dramatic soundtrack

-Repetition of words

-Use of non-diegetic voice over,which explain the issue or situation, maybe from the voice of a celebrity to grab the audiences attention

-Personalised narrative in the real voice of the victim.

Technical Codes

These are some examples of some technical codes.

-Close-up shots, showing expression and a direct mode of address, most used on children as they are the most vulnerable.

-Establishing shots reinforce audiences perceptions and are recognisable, for example a drought-plagued African village.

-Tracking shots following the main characters

-The use of slow motion to emphasise how the victims are lost and forgotten.

Language and mode of address

Some examples are:

-Voice overs, which is used to provide information about the situation and to urge the audience to act

-On screen graphics serve to reinforce a message and to show the agency logo and the slogan.

-The use of the imperative ‘give act shop’ urges the audience to participate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiy3dkTwPcQ

• Avoids eye contact with the camera, shows emotion and despair. Mid-close up.

• Visual proof the issue – carrying water buckets and collecting the water. Mid shot.

• Close up shots, shows her expression, exhaustion and sadness. Extreme close up.

• Bold colours (clothing) shows culture which relates to the structuralist theory showing us the African culture so that we understand. Close up.

• LOGO, lets us know who we are donating to.

• Uses official statistics to persuade you to help and donate. And also gives information about how to donate too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVnE3HHbaQo

• Sound is all diagetic, this shows the conditions they are living in and that they make the most of what they have and don’t rely on anything else.

• Intertextuality is used through the use of an original known song that Claudia is singing, Zoe – ‘sunshine on a rainy day’ 1990.

• The video shows the conditions and how they are living is wrong, therefore we need to help them to make society morally correct. Mid shot.

• The advert also shows that water makes the people happy, so donating will not only save their lives but also make them happy. Close up.

Representation

TASK!

Draw and annotate a Ethiopian person.

Representation Theory

From the Water Aid video, stereotyping reduces people to a few simple, recognisable characteristics.

For example, here a some screenshots from the Water Aid advert that show what poverty is like in Africa. From the images, it shows the daily struggles of life in Africa, through people walking miles with pots and jars to rivers to get dirty water for their families. People have dirty clothes and the hygiene standards are not perfect. The media stereotypes them as pitied, and the location is dangerous for the people.

https://www.wateraid.org/uk/

Stuart Hall – Positioning theory

This is the idea that representation is the production of meaning through language, as shown in the water aid advert through the system of signs. How Audiences can respond: ! Oppositional – The persons completely reject the idea. ! Negotiated – This when you don't agree with some aspects but agree with other aspects. ! Preferred – The preferred response is when the audience respond in the way the

producer hopes. In summary, audiences can respond to representation in this advert in different ways.

TASK! How might different audiences react to the advert?

Positioning theory

Audiences that completely reject the idea could be people living in these countries but not in the same position as the people in the Water Aid advert. They could be middle class people living in the city getting annoyed of the stereotypes being made about the small snip of poverty in their country.

However, The advert wants people in other countries, such as the UK, to feel sorry for the Ethiopian people and to donate to help.

Although, there are some people that are in the middle, for example some may say poverty is a problem in these countries, but, its only a small minority.

Positioning theory

Water Aid states facts and isn’t trying to be controversial, however there have been some cases where adverts have been banned. For example, here is an article of an advert in South Africa that had been banned for being offensive and racist.

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/asa-south-africa-drops-investigation-racist-charity-ad/1303193

 Postcolonial Theory 

Paul Gilroy Theory:

• This is the idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era.

• This is the idea that civilizations constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on nations of otherness.

Broadly a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies. It is concerned with both how European

nations conquered and controlled "Third World" cultures and how these groups have since responded to and resisted those encroachments. Post-colonialism, as both a body of theory and a study of political and cultural

change, has gone and continues to go through three broad stages:

1. an initial awareness of the social, psychological, and cultural

inferiority enforced by being in a colonized state

2. the struggle for ethnic, cultural, and political autonomy

3. a growing awareness of cultural overlap and hybridity

Gilroy’s ethnicity and post-colonial theories that media texts reinforce

colonial power could be applied, as Water Aid is

encouraging its British audience to ‘help’ those like Claudia who live in

‘less developed’ countries. 

Analysis of representation : example

!Gender: ! They only show girls because they seem more vulnerable. ! Its seen that girls look after their family. ! Everyone is in the same boat.

!Ethnicity:

! The advert is showing the audience that its main focus is on the African people and how they go through everyday struggles in poverty.

! Age: ! They’ve used young children because they are more innocent

and vulnerable. ! Young children have their whole life ahead of them. ! Young children can make a difference to the future as they are

the leaders of the future.

!Underrepresentation of social groups:

! Versions of reality: ! The girl carrying water from the source to the village.

WaterAid No Choice TV advert: TASK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szT7grQnHRUYou will need the sheet to bullet point

each section from the video.