presude people to donate blood

The purpose of these advertisements is to persuade people to donate blood.

The first ‘excuses’ advert is a little sketch about a four year old girl dying in hospital because people were giving excuses to avoid donating blood. Similarly the ‘Victoria’ advert is also a little girl who is talking about when she was a baby, she nearly died but a family saved her by donating their little boy’s heart which saved her life but she also owed her life to an unknown blood donator.

Both the adverts attract the audience’s attention by using emotive subjects like two little girls who may die or who nearly died. They are different as the first ‘excuses’ advert uses an unhappy message aimed at making the listener feel guilty using reverse psychology whilst the second one tries to stir your emotions making you fell happy that a little girl has been saved encouraging you to become one of those ‘unsung heroes’. In the same way, both adverts use simple language with commands such as “we need more excuses, NOW”!

Both adverts involve the listener by using simple dialogue especially the Victoria advert which personal pronouns which involve the listener such as “ give excuses not blood, if that makes you feel better” and “ so please keep your appointment” and a personal message thanking the listener for “saving my life”. However, the audience is kept involved as the drama builds up in the first advert until the little girl dies.

The adverts both use voices but in contrast the first advert uses BBC language or accents, technical terms for example “BP 60” , rhetorical questions like “we don’t have time!” ...

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The adverts both use voices but in contrast the first advert uses BBC language or accents, technical terms for example “BP 60” , rhetorical questions like “we don’t have time!” and some stereotyping of characters like the Doctor is a man and the nurse is female. Unlike the ‘Victoria’ advert where Victoria is played by a ‘Geordie’ accent making the little girl sound poor, small but polite in her thanks to the audience. The language used in this advert is simple and based on short phrases. Similarly the male voice over in the second advert uses BBC accent to add an air of authority sounding like he knows what he is talking about. The same applies to the Doctor dialogue in the first advert.

Only in the first advert are sound effects used like hospital noises and technical equipment going on in the background. Then at the end of the advert, the well known sound of the SFX machine makes a long tone suggesting the little girl has died. The second advert doesn’t use sound effects but this helps get the message over because the little girl’s voice is quite quiet.

The impact of the endings for both adverts is very dramatic and powerful. The ‘excuses’ advert uses the drama of a death and then involves the listener with a personal pronoun aimed at making you think and feel guilty. The ‘Victoria’ advert uses the little girl’s emotional, simple message of thanks to encourage the listener to join the group of unsung heroes – blood donators.

In conclusion, I feel the first advert based on excuses is the most effective because it sounds more believable and realistic with the sound effects and the message that these excuses do happen in real life. The Victoria sketch sounds like the little girl is reading from a script and so is less believable.

Jack. Goddard

9.2