TASK 4 – Regulation - Unit 30: P1,M1,D1 and Unit 2: P1,M1,D1

Advertising is an essential part of modern day life and also the modern day economy. This is because it informs potential consumers about the products / services that are available to them, also they are there to try and persuade them in a fair way to try and get them to buy their products. That is the main reason that these regulation need to be in place to stop these advertising companies from doing false adverts that are inaccurate and false, just to try and booster their sales, by wrongly persuading those consumers.

The Office of Communications, often referred to as Ofcom is the government approved regulatory and competition authority for the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal industries of the UK. Ofcom are very powerful within the television, radio, postal and telecom world. Its main duty is to represent the interests of the public and consumers by promoting competition between firms and also to make sure that no material is posted that can / may be considered offensive or harmful. Ofcom's main areas of inforcements are licensing, research, codes, complaints and more.

But when Ofcom are dealing with advertisements, they will end up referring you to ASA who specifically deals with the regulations of advertisement.

The ASA are in place to make sure that the adverts can be trusted and dare accurate. ASA stands for Advertising Standards Authority and have been going for over 50 years ands only role is to ensure that all forms of advertising from television to posters, radio to leaflets, are legal, decent, truthful and honest. But if an advert fails to meet their standards, that advert is ever corrected / amended or it is abandoned completely.

The things that the ASA do not cover are packaging, shop windows, press releases and more. There are certain parts within advertising that have specific more detailed rules to follow, these products are Alcohol, Gambling, Foods and Soft Drinks, Health and Beauty Products and finally Tobacco. There are also specific 'Code' rules for actions such as Harm and Offence, Environmental Claims, Racism, Children and Advertising, Scheduling ads at appropriate times, Displaying ads in appropriate places and also misleading claims.

The advertising codes of the ASA are mainly focused on two things when asking questions to the advertising companies about their adverts, the accuracy of the advert or to see if the advert is misleading and the second is to see if the advert causes offence to people who have seen it, if anyone was harmed or if it could harm people.

The way the ASA judge to see if an advert is appropriate or not, are the ASA Council who are the jury who decide if its acceptable or not. Two - thirds of the council consits of independent people who have no involvement in the advertising industry. The other third consists of members who have a professional background in the advertising / media sector.

The way the ASA had changed how the cigarette companies showed their products was in 1965 cigarette advertising was banned on television, however cigars and loose tobacco can be advertised until the 1990's. In 1975 new rules for other types of cigarette advertising was introduced, along with pre - vetting. In 2003 the tabacco advertising and promotion act 2002 came into force, prohibiting the advertising and promotion of advertising products, but not including rolling papers or filters.



The first advert i am going to talk about is the maltesers one, the issue people had with this advert was that it claimed to 'help keep you slim' thus giving the illusion that they can help you lose weight which is false. The advert claims that the chocolate are less than than 11 calories each which will give the illusion that they are a low - energy food, which is false. In my opinion the advert is quiet mis-leading impression that they are good for you and will help you lose weight which is false therefore it was withdrawn.

The next advert i am going to talk about is the Paddy Power cat advert. The issues with this advert are that when they was playing one of the blind footballers was kicked a cat, and some people also took offence for the blind people as they thought they was taking the mick out of them. The ASA said it was alright as they didn't actually show the cat getting hurt and shows it alright at the end. They also had a letter of support from the manager of the blind football manager. In my opinion the advert is okay and should be allowed as they had consent from a high ranking member of the blind football association.






The third and final advert i am going to talk about is the 'nice headlamps' adverts. The ASA had widespread complaints from this advert as they thought it was degrading and sexiest. Therefore the ASA had the advert banned. In my opinion the advert is a bit sexiest as they are portraying her as a good / product. Therefore i understand why so many people had complaints and why the ASA decided to get rid of the advert.

Task 3 - Analysing a television advertisement - Unit 30:P1,M1,D1

 

The advert i have chosen to write up in detail is the 'Phones 4 U - Missing our deals will haunt you' advert. The style type for this advert will be horror, as it try to be scary at the beginning to gain your attention and keep watching as you are anticipating about what will happen to the women in the advert as she walks to her car. The advert form is a horror story as it shows a women getting followed by a mysterious creepy girl in an abondond underground car park, this makes people want to anticipate what is going to happen, as they think they know (through watching other actual scary movies / films) but they still want to find out for them selves. Therefore you are keeping their interest in watching the actual advert fully, giving it more chance to remember the advert and the deals that they could be missing. The target audience for this advert are people who have phones as its an advert  for the phone company 'Phones 4 U' to try and sell you their product. Therefore they are targeting everyone as now-days most people generally have phones.

This advert provokes the emotion fear, as you are fearing for the women trying to get to her car (safety) and even when she does make it to safety the little girl pops up beside her in her window to make you jump as the lady screams to make it seem more scary than the advert actually is, as you can get a sense of how scared she really is. The other emotion is relief as at the end you realise she wasnt trying to hurt the women but inform her off the deals she is missing, that will actually haunt her. Therefore you are more likely to remember the advert as it had an unusual ending, as it is not like any other advert, as it is unique.

It has not used a celebrity to try and endorse their sale, as this would have cost them a lot more to make (but you could also argue attract more people), the main attraction the actual 'Phones 4 You' company and their deals. Instead they have used an iconic grudge look a like, which many people will know the look of, once they see it, so in a way it is a celebrity 'image' of horror fans as they can still attract the fans who are really into the 'Grudge' franchise.

The persuasive device that has been used for this advert is fear, as it uses a scary looking girl who looks like a ghost stalking a women in an underground car-park, also as the image is very much like the 'Grudge' it will scare them more, as their fear for the 'Grudge' will come back up to the front of their minds so that they will think something bad is going to happen, whereas she is actually just trying to help the woman. They will use this fear to try and persuade you to keep watching the advert and not turn over as you are anticipating what will happen to the women, and see if she is going to be alright. This is a good technique to use as you have caught the audience to watch the advert, therefore they are more likely to remember the advert. Also they have used  an 'iconic' image, this may also attract the fans  who are really into the 'Grudge' franchise into buying your product / sale.

Once you first see the ghost the music picks up to make it more intense and also the time for each scene gets shorter and short, to exaggerate the fact that she is trying to run to safety, which in this case is her car. Once shes in her car, you believe her to be safe, but then all of a sudden the little girl appears next to the drivers window, this may make you jump a little. But then all of a sudden she tells you about the deal 'Phones 4 U' are offering, which is not what you as the viewer was expecting.

So overall i feel that this advert was a success in attracting new customers to come and buy their product as they have used emotions and peoples feeling to gain their attention in order for them to remember the advert and the deals that they showed.

Task 2 - Styles of Television Advertising

In every advert, the advertisers try to target a specific audience to get the full affect of the advert. They can do this by using different styles of advertising, some examples of this would be:

Humour

Parody

Shock

Surrealism

Intertexuality

Repetition

Sex Appeal

Famous Faces

And many more.....

One method that is used in advertising will be humour, this is when the advertising company tries to be funny to  get the audience to remember their advert. If they are successful and become really funny and popular, many people may remember their product through the joke or theme. If becomes really popular it will be remembered as people may say the joke between each other.

Another advert technique will be parody, this is done when the advertising company takes fun of another product and / or company. They can also be done by trying to interpret another popular advert to their product. They do this to try and get different reactions, they aim to make them laugh and also for it to be remembered. A good example of this is the Somersby Cider advert, as it copies Apples adverts as its layout is like an Apple store.




Another advert method will be shock, these are adverts that try and do something shocking or bad so that people will be that shocked it will be rememberable. This is a good way to get them to remember their product as if it is that shocking people may get the product so that what happened in the advert don't happen to them. An example of a shocking advert is the Southwark council advert about gun crime, is a really shocking advert.




Another advert method is surrealism , this method is when you do something so extraordinary that it can never happen in real life, or something that can be done with enough money, but realistically it can never be done. These play on people fantasies and wants, this make it memorable as people would like it to happen to them, or it is so bad they don't want it to happen to them. My example is the Barclays card advert that has a man at work go to a cupboard and then goes down a water slide to his house, which would never happen.





Repetition is another advertising method used by companies as it is a good way to get your product remembered by the public. This is when you play the same advert or very similar adverts over and over again so that people get the product stuck into their heads. This can be a good method if the advert is good as people will want to shop in your store as they will remember the good advert and if they forget its likely to be played again so they will remember, but if done badly people will want to forget the advert and may avoid the store / business altogether.




Sex Appeal is also an advertising technique which is when you get a good looking / attractive person showing off your product and get people to buy it. This can be done as if you use a beautiful / attractive women, the men will want to buy the product as they are sexually attracted to the women and the women will buy the product to try and look like them as the men are so attracted to them. This can also be done by using and handsome / attractive man, as they women may be sexually attracted to his, and the men may buy it to look like them so that women will find them sexually attractive.




Famous faces is another advertising method and in my opinion is very much like the sex appeal method as it will use the image of a celebrity to attract new and existing customers, if they are very popular and good looking they will attract customers for their look and the fact that people know them they may buy their product. Also if they are famous and have fans hey may want to buy their product just because the product is associated with their idle.

Task 1 - Forms of Television Advertising: This provides evidence for: Unit 30:P1,M1,D1

Forms of Television Advertising

This provides evidence for: Unit 30:P1,M1,D1

Realist Narrative:

Realist narrative is an advert that can relate to the real world situations, my example of this would be the fairy liquid advert. As it will relate to every women or man who do the washing up. This advert has been very affective as it shows people how it can help them directly on a day-to-day basis.




Anti-Realist Narrative

Anti-Realist narrative are adverts that have things in them that wouldn't actually happen in real life and in my example Rubberduckzilla for oasis, evolves a giant rubber duck roaming around a city destroying anything that has water. The advantages of this are that you can do anything out of this world, if you can imagine it, you can do it in an advert. The disadvantage of this would be that you may go over the top and people may dislike it for that reason and may end up disliking your product.




Animation
Animated adverts are made to attract mainly the younger generation, these are used to show things mainly that are not real. This is an advantage as it will be easy to do, now days as it can all be done on a computer, it is also good as it can relate to the younger generation. The disadvantage of using animations is that the older generation may not be able to understand the advert and may end up disliking the advert.




Documents
Another form of advertising is Documentary. They are adverts that have facts and figures in them to make their product seem more better as they have sone tests and surveys on that product against other products of that type. The advantage of this will be that you can give your audience a lot of facts and figures to make them aware of how good your product is, and they normally have a 'Dr' of some sort in those adverts, therefore people are more likely to trust them. The disadvantage would be that they are normally quiet boring so people will lose interest and may end up turning the channel so they don't see your advert and therefore probably not buy your product.




Talking Heads
Talking head commercials are when there is just someone talking in the adverts, there are no dancing, acting, but will have animations to try and keep your attention but primarily it is just there person talking to you about the product. The advantage of this method is that it gets you straight to the point of the product, there is nothing distracting you from the product, you they only focus on the product. The disadvantage of this method is that people may forget the advert quickly as there was nothing interesting about that advert to keep them interested, but in order to fight that problem companies tried to use famous people as the people displaying the product in order to get their fans to buy the product which is an advantage but can also be considered a disadvantage as people may not like the person you chose so they may not buy the product.


Stand Alone
These adverts are normally a one of advert, and there is not another advert like it. These adverts, if over the top or have a good theme are normally rememberable as they are normally played a lot on a lot of channels as the don't run for long, they just do them a lot in a small period of time. The advantage of this is that if you have a good advert people will remember it for a long time such as the cadburys gorilla advert. That advert was on a long time ago but people still remember it fondly. The disadvantage  of this is that if it is not that good of an advert people will not remember and all the money will have been wasted, as it is not played over long periods so it is not as it it is relayed in peoples mind over and over again.





Series
The last form of advertising that i am going to be talking about is a series, which are adverts that are basically the same characters / actors in every advert but its just a different story to display the product. The good thing about this advert is that if they are a fan of one advert they may go and buy a product but also if one of them fails there are many more of that type of adverts they may work so they still may end up buying that product. It may also become so popular that people actually like to watch the advert just for its humour maybe such as the 'compare the market' advert's meerkat became so popular they now sell teddies of all the meerkat characters. The bad thing is that it may get played too much and may end up getting on peoples nerves such as the 'go compare' advert, but they ended up hurting the actor in the episodes (not physically but with animations) to make the people like the adverts and want to watch them again.

An Introduction to Advertising

Welcome to my ‘ Introduction to Advertising’. This blog will be designed to tell you everything you need to know to be successful in the world of advertising.  This blog will provide you with details such as: 

• Different formats of advertising
• Different purposes of advertising
• Examples of ineffective and effective advertising campaigns
• Examples of controversial advertising campaigns 
• Different styles of television advertisement
• How television adverts are researched and designed
• How television adverts are produced
• Common codes and conversations
• How advertising is regulated