As I said early the advert my group was given to analyse had a child stood on the edge of a building looking down ready to jump, he is wearing bright clothes and he is surrounded by dark, dingy buildings in a council estate with block flats.
I will firstly talk about the visual images used:
The child that is used in the advert is dressed in bright colours which are in contrast to the dark dismal background this is so he stands out and we notice him and what he is doing which could symbolise innocence, like a light in the darkness, a shining hope. The background could also denote his bleak dark future which drives him to suicide and his child form self is dressed in bright colours to show his bright past and how that can be salvaged from a dismal future. This is what I think the child’s bright colours are used to represent.
The child itself is used, in my opinion, as an emotional tear jerker as people feel more for a young innocent child than a grown man committing suicide, this may effect mothers more because this could be their child and it prompts them to take care of their child so it doesn’t end up in this predicament and therefore effects them more emotionally, but also we must hope that fathers, to are effected by the adverts and has a positive impact on them.The child also represents innocence in life, and it tells us something bad must have happened top drive a happy care free child to death. We also see the child in front of a background of tall tower blocks, maybe showing the child’s/mans isolation in the world and how insignificant this person feels inside. The child is black, this tells us that it can happen to anyone in any race or creed and everyone can be affected by troublesome childhoods that haunt them. I think that it also allows the audience to understand that children suffer, maybe not on the outside but on the inside and this can scar the child for life leading to eventual problems.
The use of the child is also powerful and grabs your attention and you wonder what must have happened to drive this child to suicide? And that I think is the purpose of him, to grab attention of the audience so they read more about Barnardos, it makes it a hard hitting advertisement.
The camera angle used in this advert is a long shot that is a high angled shot, and, so we are looking down on the child. This type of shot is used to create a feeling of power to the audience. Now in the advert I believe the camera angle is used so the audience feel in power to help stop this incident by helping Barnardo’s, but it could also have been used to show that the child is small and helpless and innocent- the child’s vulnerability . I think that a long shot has been used so that the audience can see the child and his surroundings so they can get a sense of what’s happening.
The colours of the child’s clothing also have some connotations with them: Yellow (Child’s T-Shirt) can be seen as delicate, brightness, flowers- a sense of innocence, white (Child’s shorts) can represent innocence, purity and fragile blackness (The dark background colours) can be seen as sorrow, evil and isolation.
These all help to get the message across just by using pictures and images.
The images are then backed up by the text and the anchorage that is used on the advert.
First of all, and the first bit of text used, we see the child’s/mans name- Martin Ward, this is used to make it more personal and so we can connect with this person, it makes it seem more real and can respond to that. It is a lot more emotional as well as we can put a name to the face.
We then read how old the man is – 29, this too can be powerful as twenty nine is relatively a young age and he is committing suicide, this can affect people of a similar age group and make them think about this as well as they could have ended up this way. So the first bit of text on the page makes the advert more personal and real, and puts a name to the face, which is very effective and powerful as we could know this person or have seen them on the street.
“Made to feel worthless as a child, it was hardly surprising that Martin could see no other way out. With Barnardo's help, an unhappy childhood need not lead to a hopeless future. Although we no longer run orphanages, we continue to help thousands of children and their families, at home, school and in the local community. To make a donation or for information please call 0845 844 0180”
The text above is also on the advert and it tells us the story of how this happened to the child/man, we learn he was made to feel worthless and could see no other way out now we can begin to understand what this person went through and again makes it more personal as we are now involved in what is going on and makes us feel like we want to/ must help this person through this. We then learn that Barnardos helps children like this all the time, this lets the audience know that they do not have to physically get involved but they can give money to Barnardos and that is as good if not better than doing it themselves, Barnardos are the light in the darkness and are experienced at helping children.
This helps reinforce the visual side of the advert and gives it an added strength of a story of the persons past, and give it a more personal touch that the audience can connect to.
The strategy used in this advert and throughout the entire campaign is the idea of shocking images, to shock the audience and let them see the brutal reality of life around them. It is supposed to be emotional and make its audience stop and think and understand what people go through.
This campaign was considered quite controversial with the shock tactics used and that they were, in some cases, too shocking and “awful” to be shown or published. But this was the idea of the campaign to make people aware and maybe it took this level of shock to make people more aware.
I personally found this advert quite disturbing seeing a child of 10 about to kill himself, but as we studied it further I began to see that it was very effective in its role to shock and inform and I began to understand that it was necessary and did its job well.
After looking at the advert and others like it in great detail I would say that this advert is very successful at getting across its message. Its use of disturbing and shocking pictures and images hits home very hard and are very emotional and hard hitting. The idea of helping children affected by bad childhoods grow away from all of that hate and isolation and making them feel happy and loved is shown greatly in this, as none of us want to see a child, never mind a man commit suicide, and this I thought was effective.
It helps the audience see what Barnardo’s do for children all over England and how it helps children with their problems before anything serious happens to them and all is lost. As I have I said I think it is a very effective emotive advert that makes people see and understand what Barnardos do for the community and its children and understand how they can help others who are worse off than themselves.
