CHARITY ADVERTISING

PURPOSE  to make the audience feel guilty, to agree with an ideology, to donate

HOW THEY WORK  make audience feel guilty, therefore, want to donate

MODE OF ADDRESS  aimed at unemployed , or working class as they generally give more to charity - shown during the day when they are home

CONVENTIONS  soft voice, emotional shots, sad soundtrack, direct address

AUDIENCE POSITION  more fortunate position so they feel like they have to donate

NSPCC - 'Open your eyes' (2000)

• high angle shot, children looking up to audience, look vunerable so audience feels guilt
• repetition of £2 graphics, pushes audience into donating
• black and white editing, weakness and misery
• direct address of child looking directly at camera, begging audience
• closed body language, meloncholy
• constructed representation that children are being abused, crying, ripped clothes, 'actors used to protect identities', nothing is real
• positioned so audience has the power to help, child will stop crying if you donate
• positioned as the abuser which makes you feel bad if you don't help
• slow paced editing, feel uncomfortable looking into child's eyes
• depressing, ambient soundtrack sets tone of the advert

WaterAid - 'Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day' (2016)

• shows positive outcomes instead of guilt-tripping audience, broken away from charity ad conventions (audience becomes desentsitised to meloncholy ads)
• alone without water, water brings community together
• binary opposition between rainy day in England and dry ground in Africa, shows difference in lives
• statistics "650 million", gives audience information so they realise how big the problem is
• sunshine appearing through water, symbolic code that water is hope
• long shot of Claudia walking through dry land, shows conditions that she has to live in (establishing shot)
• atmospheric sounds, grasshoppers and feet on dry ground, helps audience understand how she lives (feels as if they're there)
• slow motion editing of other children having fun, brings joy to the advert and shows impact of donation
• how to donate only shown at end, "£3", by the end of the advert audience should be interested
• extreme close up of Claudia, positions audience so that they feel like they know her, want to help
• slow motion editing of water, shows importance of it in their lives, symbolic code of hope and happiness
• song lyrics "sunshine on a rainy day" connotates how water is their 'sunshine' 
• women represented as strong, remaining positive in bad situation 

GENRE AND INTERTEXTUALITY

GENRE  a type of media product governed by implicit rules that are shared by the makers of the product and the audience for it

MUSIC
pop
r&b
jazz
rock
blues
k-pop
punk 
heavy metal
grunge
alternative
emo
classical
musical 
indie-rock
swing
folk

SUBGENRE  a genre within a genre (e.g. horror / zombies / paranormal/ vampire/ gore)
GENERIC HYBRIDITY  combination of 2 or more genres (e.g. romantic comedies, indie-rock) 
GENERIC PARADIGMS  aka genre conventions, aspects of a media text that demonstrate to the audience what genre a media product is
ICONOGRAPHY  the familiar signs of a genre (similar to generic paradigms)

Trailer for 'Utopia' (2013)

• horror elements include creepy soundtrack that builds tension
• large, creepy house thats blocked up
• someone locked up in a dark room (hermeneutic code)
• psychological horror
• murder mystery elements include peering through notebooks of drawings (blood and bodies)
• people hiding behind masks
• no dialogue 
• contrapuntal music, opposite to whats being shown on screen
• dark humour is an element of black humour

INTERTEXTUALITY  when a media product makes reference to another media product

• intertextuality involves the audience on another level
• often seen in comedies as a joke (makes fun of something serious)
• broadens the demographic of the target audience
• comedy makes it easier to deal with social issues

STEVE NEALE

THEORIES AROUND GENRE

• advantages of genre include being able to categorise your likes and dislikes, to find specific media products you are looking for, and it allows producers to make products more efficiently
• a disadvantage of genre is that they give people certain expectations of what a media product should include, but they may not
• both producers and audiences benefit from generic classification

Neale believes the genre is simply instances of 'repetition and difference'. He suggested that texts need to conform to some generic paradigms to be identified as a certain genre, but must also subvert these conventions in order to not appear identical.

CHARITY ADVERTISING VS HIGH END CLOTHING ADVERTISING

CA

Repertoire of elements - make the audience feel as if it's their fault because sufferers are looking into their eyes, statistics so audience can see how big the problem is, clear information of how to donate

Mode of address - address audience as it they are guilty "you can help", begs audience for help "please"

Ideology - donating small amount of money will make a huge difference

Representation (including stereotypes) - sufferers are shown to be vunerable (high angle shots), black and white to make them seem weak, often young to make them seem helpless

HECA

Repertoire of elements - simplistic layout (looks classier), brand name, no mention of price, attractive looking model, often don't mention the exact product they are selling

Mode of address - don't say much to the audience, no convincing language, photos speak for themselves, infer the audience is middle class or above 

Ideology - buying the products of these brands will make you look or feel as attractive/fashionable as they do  

Representation (including stereotypes) -attractive, young, fashionable, organised, stern

NARRATIVE (AND REPRESENTATION)

NARRATIVE  how a story is told and portrayed 

NARRATOR  the person who tells the story (narrative device)

TZVETAN TODOROV

NARRATIVE EQUILIBRIUM state of balance

establishment of equilibrium >> disequilibrium >> partial restoration of equilibrium

                                                               the liminal period

balance >> unbalance >> balanced but different 

start >> middle >> end 

Narrative is moving from one state of equilibrium to another

LIMINALITY  a period of transition

SINGLE STRAND NARRATIVE  follows one narrative 

MULTI STRAND NARRATIVE  follows many isolated narratives 

LINEAR NARRATIVE  chronological narrative

NON-LINEAR NARRATIVE  non-chronological narrative

Other building blocks of narrative,

• genre conventions
• character archetype 
• mise en scene
• Barthe's semiotic codes
• Struass' binary oppositions