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.