Social action research

Product There are a few pre-existing products that are similar to the subject I have chosen. Organizations such as ‘ypte’ have used different ways of advertising and used different methods of attracting attention. They have used images showing littered beaches, other than this the other images used are very simple yet straight to the point. A better example upon this would be the organization ‘surfrider’. Surfrider uses a more deep approach to gaining the audiences attention. Using an image of an animal that lives upon the sea then using a bar code scanner to represent a gun pointing at the animal. To the side an image of a receipt is displayed with the caption ‘You buy, the sea pays, 26 million tons of plastic packaging waste ends up in the oceans every year’. A series of this type of posters have been made by this organization. This technique has been very successful by using a main method of guilt. Another very clever and successful poster they made consists of torn and discarded rubber glove attempting to pick itself up. The font used in the image has been made to look dirty as though its apart of the waste that ben left in the sea. The colour scheme used in this genre of adverts has been kept to a dark and dull theme (same for the overall tone).

The logos used have a representation towards the subject of their organization. For example, the surfrider logo represents a wave. This allows people to easily identify that this organization is linked with the oceans. The name of the organization is presented within the logo as well, this has worked well as it allows people who haven't seen the logo before to understand the organizations name straight away allowing to follow up and find out more information about them. Overall the imagery has a As this organization is aimed at solving a global problem their main attitudes aren't towards making a money profit, there main effort is to raise awareness and to educate people of what pollution is doing to the seas.

Ondazul

Another organization that’s main aim is to help reduce the pollution within the seas. Again this organization uses a darker theme to its posters/advertisements. The imagery used is separated into 2 sections, one section of the imagery is created into posters showing somebody throwing an object into the ocean, however the object is tied to the person. The poster is captioned ‘Deal with the consequences’. This kind of poster has been created into a series with the same caption but different image of something throwing waste into the sea. The second section of imagery presents a tin of fish food, but inside the tin is shown an object of waste instead of fish. These posters present a very simple and effective method of grabbing the audiences attention. The caption upon these images is ‘is it what you expect to find in the sea? Neither do the fishes’.

Surfers against sewage

This organization uses a limited amount of posters for advertising, the style is also kept the same. With there always being a surfer and his board in the center of the image. The background is always captured to be of a dull and gloomy nature (to show the effects of pollution). However not all the posters are kept the same, with the surfer being changed to capture the different elements surrounding the problems with the pollution in the seas. The organizations name or logo isn't displayed upon the posters. However the logo alone presents a very clear representation of what the organization is about (simple design allowing the audience to distinguish the company's subject from the logos imagery). The company has a range of other methods it uses to gain the attention of its audience. It has a selection of merchandise, printed with the companies logo and other things related with pollution and the seas. The imagery presents a negative atmosphere, with the use of dull colors in the background and the image used in the forefront of the poster. As the company is set up with the main purpose of stopping the pollution in the oceans, the company does not have any aims of generating money. Its main focus is raising awareness for the pollution or in some cases the company may have the purpose of promoting an event (this event could require volunteers coming and helping to remove the litter upon the beaches).

WWF

WWF have used a limited amount of techniques to attract the attention of an audience. The logo they use doesn’t represent anything to do with marine/ocean pollution. It does include an image of a panda representing that the company does support animals. A method the company uses is creating posters, this has been a successful method for the company in gaining the audiences attention. The posters include a fact upon each one, an example of this would be ‘Each year, plastic pollution kills more than 100,000 marine creatures’. The imagery used presents a negative atmosphere, the use of the dark and dull colors present the pollution within the oceans. The intended audience to these posters would be people who already support the WWF but no for the reasons for the ocean pollution. These posters may also be used to gain a larger amount of supporters for the WWF. The audience for this subject may be anyone, raising awareness is the main purpose of these adverts, so whoever is affected by these posters completes the main goal of the advertisements. Leading onto purposes, the main purposes of this method are raising awareness and to educate people upon the problems with marine pollution.The font used is kept to a simple and bold font, the color of the text is always kept to a white so it stands from the darker colors In the background. The color scheme is kept dark and dull to give the effect the pollution is having upon the oceans. The layout of the posters includes an image of the subject with a fact and the logo of the company.

Greenpeace

The Greenpeace logo is very simple and presents just the name of the company, there is no image upon the logo. Some of the posters use facts where as some just preset a line of direct text. The imagery upon some of the posters uses positive color but presents a negative message. For example one message upon a poster is ‘The greatest wonder of the sea is that its still alive’. Some of the posters are photographs of Greenpeace members presenting direct messages. The purpose of this is to gain the attention of people, the intended audience will be people who have never really thought upon the water pollution before. As these posters present very direct messages that are intended to make the audience think.The font for the posters that include images of the underneath of the sea are kept to a blue to match the color of the sea. The color scheme for some of the imagery used is positive (uses bright colors). This is done to show why the sea is worth protecting. The layout is kept simple, with a box to the side of each poster presenting either a fact or a piece of information. The overall tone of the images presents the effects that pollution is having upon the ocean.

Client Surfrider is a organization set up to help stop the amount of pollution being placed into the seas. They are dedicated to the protection of the worlds oceans and beaches. The organization was founded in 1984 by a handful of surfers to protest against the amount of waste polluting the sea. The organization didn’t get of the ground until 1991 when the first major chapters were founded. The organization sets up campaigns to tackle the environmental problems. The organization is funded through a couple methods, firstly the group is partnered with many other organizations and companies. Secondly they are funded through donations that people give. Other than organization relies mainly upon volunteers.The issues the client campaigns upon are made up of may things. Firstly they campaign on beach access, this is the litter upon the beaches. They campaign to remove all the waste. Another issue they face is dirty waters, they fight to ensure that waters are kept clean. The main issues they face is the ocean pollution, coastal preservation, and plastic pollution. Surfrider have impacted these problems positively. Setting up events to facing the issues themselves. Between the years 2006 and 2010 surfrider achieved over 150 victories contributing to the oceans protection. The organization is still hoping to achieve 100% clean bleaches (achieved with the help of a growing amount of volunteers). The organization is also hoping to achieve a much larger following of people and a larger network so they are able to expand the organization to further chapters (countries).

Audience I gathered a small amount of results from the questions I asked. As the things I will be producing will be educational, I wanted to ask questions regarding factual things to do with the subject I have chosen.

Question 1;For my first question I asked if the person answering knew any causes to the pollution in the oceans. I asked this question as I felt it would help me to identify if the posters would need to be more educational. From the responses I got, people are aware of the causes to ocean pollution. They provided short answers regarding a few of the causes.From these answers I am able to identify that the matters of what causes pollution doesn’t need to be addressed as much as other elements do.

Question 2;The following question asked was if people were aware of what could be done to reduce the amount of pollution within the oceans. For this question I got a 50/50 answer. Someone who responded with the answer ‘yes’ they followed this up by stating that the reduction of trash thrown into the waters would reduce the pollution. From this result I am able to identify that within my posters I could mention the different ways to reduce the amount of pollution within the oceans.

Question 3;For this question I asked if they were aware of other existing organizations fighting to reduce the amount of ocean pollution. All responses I got were yes, I then asked them to state the name of these organizations and where they heard it from. The answers provided organizations such as ‘Green peace’ and ‘surfers against sewage’ and these had been heard via the news.From these responses I am to use the organizations mentioned and find out what methods had worked successful for them in gaining the audiences attention.