Advert Research

Megan Hughes

Form - NarrativeJohn Lewis Christmas Advert 2014

The 2014 Christmas advert for the John Lewis store was a massive hit for the company. It was based on the bestselling "Lost and Found" children’s book by Oliver Jeffers, which also features a boy, a lonely penguin and a search for a mate. In this advert, featuring Monty The Penguin, we

see a loving bond between a young boy and his friend penguin who is looking for love. Luckily for Monty, on Christmas day, the young boy reveals a surprise female penguin, Mabel, who makes the Monty very happy as he falls in love. This advert involves aspects of animation as obviously the penguins aren't real which makes it appropriate for young children also as they will find it

enjoyable.The John Lewis Christmas adverts have been traditionally forming since 2007 and each one so far

has managed to send the population the TV fans through and emotional roller-coaster because they are so touching and relate-able.

 In the majority of the adverts you will see that there is always a problem which includes someone being sad and upset, however, by the end of the advert it's completely turned around and everyone is cheery and happy. This shows that John Lewis are promoting the need to please

people and make their shoppers happy and satisfied.From this, my opinion is that John Lewis will most likely get a larger population of

customers visiting their store as the customers are lead to believe they are going to be pleased with their shopping experience and get everything they're looking for this Christmas because this

is the story that the advert tells. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860

Form – AnimationThe Fanta Orange Advert 2011.

The first thing to point out about this advert is that it is animated which shows proves straight away it is designed to attract younger aged children and teens. The bright colours, bouncy music and childlike characters help to portray a very fun overview of the advert making it appealing for the viewers. From watching

the advert myself, it seems possible that the aim of it is to make Fanta Orange be known as a refreshing and cool drink, giving off exciting vibes and positive spirits.

They use the characters in the advert as an example of this because each time you see one of them take a sip of the Fanta they get all energetic and happy. At

the start of the advert there is a female character lying on the bed and she appears bored and upset, however, then a fellow friend (male character) walks in

and gives her a Fanta bottle and within seconds she's bouncing around. Promoting the product like this will create better income for this company as it's positive and makes the potential customers think they will get hyperactive and

funky from the sugary, energy based drink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QRHDG12avM

Form – Documentary

The Salvation Army - £19 Christmas Appeal

This advert is identified as a documentary due to the ‘real life aspects’ which have been included into it. For example, it documents various different people

on where they sleep and spend there time etc and goes into detail on how they will be suffering outside in the cold at Christmas. The documentary

advert shows the ins and outs of the hard times on the streets and does well to make the audience feel emotional towards the advert by proving how

realistic it is. Even the use of glum body language and sad facial expressions makes it hard to say no to the poor innocent, suffering people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38tbTCYhrno

Form – Stand Alone/Series

Compare the Meerkat - First Advert

Compare the Meerkat/Market adverts started around 6 years ago and are initially formed to fit together in a series. They make new ones all the time

introducing new characters and new voices to keep it appealing and interesting however they always fit along the same lines to advertise the

company. In my opinion doing a series of adverts is better than doing a stand alone one as there will be more out there to grab the audiences attention and if they’re enjoyable people will be waiting on new ones all the time building a bit of a fan base. This particular advert series is extremely popular and known

very well to all TV watchers, it’s one that is unique and repetitive so it’s constantly stuck in your mind and eventually you begin to learn the words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OcX-yKh0-M

Form – Talking Heads

Nicole Scherzinger - Herbal Essences Advert

I think this advert is a good example of using a customer to sell and promote a product. Especially with it being a celebrity I think the advert is more likely to get extra hits and be more recognised because people look up to celebs so

much these days. I think it would also increase the amount of products being sold and increase the financial income on the product due to people buying it hoping to end up having the feature of that celebrity. For example, I myself

would be more likely to buy this hair product because it’s Nicole Scherzinger promoting it showing she has used it in the advert and her hair is amazing and

in good condition which would motivate me to be more like her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpHOw2Uqno

Style – Dramatic

RSPCA Advert - 24/7 2012

Adverts like this one are usually overloaded with emotion and all sorts of drama meaning it stays with the audience for longer as it plays on their mind over and over. This advert in particular will touch many people as it involves

animal cruelty… Meaning people who have pets of their own or are pet lovers in general will get affected bad which will help to do something about it. In this

RSPCA advert you see the poor living conditions of various helpless animals which will infuriate the audience hopefully making them donate and rescue

the pets. As well as this they show close up shots to go into detail on how bad it is and how cute and sad their little faces are. Finally, they also show the animals being rescued and taken into the vets and looked after which will

motivate the watchers to help out and make this happen more frequently. It’s as if they can control your mind and almost manipulate you into helping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1dl4yG2Rdg

Style – Humorous

Dave's #Epic Strut TV Ad - Money Super Market

This is an example of an advert that uses humour to promote a company.. Although what happens in the advert isn’t related to what

the company do it’s funny enough to get stuck in peoples minds as the ‘money super market’ advert which people will remember at the best of times. This advert is probably so hilarious for the public from the fact its so uniquely strange.. A guy in shorts strutting this stuff down the street wearing platform heels isn’t something you see everyday..

This allows it to be different meaning it’s easy to remember and enjoyable at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ643U7ccpM

Style – ParodicShould've gone to Specsavers - Workout/Bingo advert

A parodic advert involves making jokes about the product or company and mocking it. For example, within this advert there’s a woman who gets mocked and laughed at because she attends the wrong class as she obviously can’t see to what she's doing or where she's going. So

the point is saying ‘go to spectsavers’ which is often used as an insult in the real world these days when someone's vison is all there. It

involves aspects of humor making is funny for the audience, however, its promoting the business by saying spectsavers can sort it for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Qmh5SAK-w

Style - Surreal Skittles Advert 2014 - Midas Touch

This Skittles advert is a clever play on the story of the Midas Touch. The original slogan was ‘Taste the rainbow’ but they’ve incorporated one of the

other senses too. In the conventional story everything the man touches turns to gold, whether that be a human or a inanimate object. For the

advert, instead of gold everything turns to skittles. This comes with the implication that Skittles are as good as gold but it also provides an

element of humour.  It’s an unusual concept for an advert which makes it memorable and would make people talk, if people talk the advertisement

agency are doing their job because they want people to want to eat Skittles and make everybody remember about the sweets. 

In my opinion, creating an advert like this one helps to draw people’s attention as it’s very unique which creates more income for the company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0WBiME_fM

Technique – Emotional ResponseWater Aid – Urgent Appeal Advert

The aim of this advert is to show the audience that every day millions of children and mothers in the world's poorest countries are faced with a stark choice: drink dirty water

or die of thirst and they repetitively show us that they have no choice but to choose one of those options but we do have a choice so we should help make it better. Water Aid's new TV appeal was made to help save lives by bringing more people clean safe water for life… They do this by showing us the ones that are suffering tragically, as young as 2 or 3 years old to trigger heart strings even more and guilt us into giving money monthly. They also use close up shots of the children’s faces in the advert to

show the pain and emotion behind their eyes to make the viewers feel bad. After explaining how bad their lives are and telling the audience that giving ‘just’ £2 a month helps to save people (persuading you to be a hero), they show happy children

drinking clean water and communities building wells for a better future so they transform the advert from bad to good to show that you can change somebodies life

from bad to good. In my opinion I think using emotional response here is clever because it’s hard to say

no to starving, parched children… However on the other hand, some strong willed people might see it as a scam to guilt people into giving out their income. On the

whole the technique is used well within this advert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm8l82OX6Ek

Technique – Peer Approval

Clearasil Ultra TV Commercial

A good example for this is the Clearasil advert. They use the demographics to promote the product… As it’s advertising about clearing up spots and having better skin they use teenagers as they’re more prone to acne breakouts ect

because of their hormones kicking in at that age. I think this is a good idea as it will relate to the audience more and develop an emotional kind of response as well as just a genetic response. As well as this it gives that particular teenager in the audience a change to make a connection with the teenager telling them about the product who is potentially trying to help them as they have the same

problem in common.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLqSDlFc-Nk

Technique – Rhetorical QuestionGladstone Brookes Advert

The Gladstone Brooks advert promotes PPI compensation. They use many rhetorical questions within the advert to draw in the viewers attention by making them think they’re talking directly to you. Using open questions such as “Do you know?” at the beginning of the advert immediately shows that they’re trying to

intrigue the audience. Due to the advert being money related it will automatically make some viewers listen because who doesn’t like listening about being able to get more money. The main line that stands out within the advert is

“Can you really afford not to find out if you’re owed up to £7000” because it plays with the viewers mind and allows them to think there's no harm in just

checking. The advert also discusses emotion e.g. feeling nervous about money situations and this leads the audience to believe that Gladstone Brookes can

support them and keep them stable on the right track.In my opinion I think that the use of the rhetorical questions within this advert

does make the audience think more and get them motivated to discover if they're owed anything else so the company will become a lot more popular as

they’re intriguing more of the public to enquire about themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIv350V2Tg