Compare and contrast a range of product and charity/issue advertising

Advertising is a multi-million pound industry; charities/issues with a small percentage of advertising and funding, such as Oxfam or Red Cross, and companies with a much larger percentage of advertising and funding, such as Nike or Cadbury’s. These two sides of advertising have two different aims; product adverts aim to increase profits, and popularity, unlike charity/issue adverts, which aim to raise awareness and donations. Large companies have vast budgets purely allocated to advertising, whilst charities/issues have to use money from donations only, to produce low-budget adverts. Adverts are displayed in a variety of ways, in a diverse range of places, such as on T.V, on billboards, in shop-windows, in magazines and newspapers, on the internet, on the radio, on the sides of buses and in cinema adverts.

We will now discuss the similarities and differences of product and charity adverts, discussing them in detail first. We will now deconstruct the T.V product advert of Coca-Cola, then a magazine advert from L’Oreal Paris, noticing the names of well-known brands are used, as companies receive more publicity through their adverts. The Coca-Cola advert used a young cast, as Coca Cola is aimed at a younger audience, as a persuasive technique. . The use of fit, energetic teenagers, most of a white ethnicity (as in the 70’s and 80’s, people of different colours were not commonly used in T.V adverts) captures the intensifying energy of the product, as the advert displays Coca-Cola giving a fun boost of energy to the teens, as they dance and run, to reflect the loud, active beat of the song played in the background. Rhyme is also another technique used, this time in the caption; ‘can’t shake it-can’t fake it’. It symbolizes the hyperbole shown throughout these adverts, the hyperbole being that Coca-Cola gives you such an energetic boost that you can dance vividly or be in high spirits, which it really doesn’t, showing that exaggeration is used to a great extent. Another caption; ‘you can’t beat the real thing’, shows just how powerful Coca-Cola are, as they are saying to viewers that they have the real product, and ‘no-one else’s coke’ could be/is as good as theirs! The use of imagery also adds effect to the advert. The colours of red, white and black are used constantly to represent Coca-Cola, which leads to imagery staying in the mind, for instance when viewers see the three colours together, they will instantly think of Coca-Cola. There is also a section of the advert where a variety of 26 images are displayed. Bright colours are used to attract attention, and here, the cast are a variety of ages and ethnicity; from a toddler to a senior. Symbolism is also used, as in one sequence, where there are three girls standing slanted, wearing black, red and white, and the next image that appears is that if three Coca-Cola bottles, slanted, in the same place and position. This is a very effective use if imagery.

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The next advert is from L’Oreal Paris, another well-known brand. This magazine advert is advertising a new straightening cream. There are many advertising techniques used to advertise this product, with the main one being celebrity endorsement. Beyoncé (well-known singer and actress) is a beautiful woman, in her early twenties, who L’Oreal hired to advertise their products, as girls want to be her, and boys want tot be with her. But, as this advert is aimed at girls, a deep pink coloured background is used, as a girly colour. The next technique used is known as ‘product for memory’. There is a large picture of the product, that stands put in the right-hand side and middle of the page, and is a lighter shade of pink than the background, so when people go into a shop, they remember what the product looked like in the advert. The caption used is ‘straight to perfection, with protection!’ as well as ‘Studio Hot!’ which are catching words; especially for teenagers girls. There are two examples of copy used in this advert:- The first a short, small explanation saying how the product helps your hair, which is centred in the page, in small white writing (‘It’s Thermo-Protect technology…and protect the hair for a perfect, silky result…your style lasts, even in humid conditions.)’. The second is in tiny writing, at the bottom-left corner of the page, and states that Beyoncé is styled in the picture using the product. This exaggerates on the celebrity endorsement.

Next, we will be deconstructing a T.V charity advert from the NSPCC, and a leaflet about adopting a dolphin. The NSPCC advert is a new advert shown on television quite recently, and consists of a small boy and girl throughout the advert. They look around 5-7 years old, and are shown wearing normal, everyday clothes, but have no lines to say. The technique of narration is used instead, with a deep, but caring man’s voice telling the story of what happened to those children. The uses of colour throughout the whole advert are light greys, with black and white tints/tones to reflect the children’s sadness, which also makes viewers feel sad, enhancing the technique of emotive language, and images. The only colour used throughout the advert is that of the NSPCC logo, name and contact details, as to say that they are ‘the ray of light and hope’ which will help these children through their ordeals. The narration not only tells of a story, but only suggests how viewers can help by directly addressing them using emotive language, such as ‘you can help’. This technique is aimed to receive donations by targeting the audience. Another technique used is softness and subtleness of the music played in the background, to emphasise the feeling of sadness, showing that charity/issue adverts rely on direct address and emotions to enhance their adverts.

The charity/issue leaflet we will discuss is an “Adopt Me” leaflet for the adoption of dolphins. The company supporting this is called WDCS and is not a well-known company, so the company name and logo are well presented, as they are in large, white, bold lettering on the bottom-right of the leaflet. The next technique used, is the use of colour co-ordination, as a blue background is used for the leaflet, which relates to the meaning of the leaflet, dolphins. And as dolphins are blue, so is the background! The picture used is of four dolphins, assorted randomly on the page, made to look like they are swimming in the sea, which supports the aim of the leaflet. The caption used in the issue leaflet is ‘Adopt Me!’ clear, concise, and straight to the point wording. There is a great amount of copy on the page, suggesting ways to help dolphins, or adopt them, with the main being, ‘Will you adopt Rainbow or one of friends?’. The technique of personal address is used here, to propose the question directly to the audience. The other copy informs on how paying a minor fee each month could save a dolphin. Another technique used is a rhetorical question, ‘Please will YOU help us save them?’ which also “goes straight to the heart”, and straight to the point, and as donations are wanted, it seems a good technique to use. Other smaller pictures are also used on the leaflet, which display various dolphin products (mugs, hats etc.) that can be purchased to help to raise more money for the issue.

Now that all four adverts- two product adverts and two charity/issue adverts have been deconstructed and analysed, we can look at the differences and similarities of all adverts. There are many differences between both the T.V adverts, and they include the use of colour; the Coca-Cola advert was red, white and black, a range of vivid colours, which shows that they have money to spend on livening up their adverts, and displaying them in an attractive manner, to increase the popularity of their company, by associating well-known colours to their product, whilst the NSPCC advert was grey and dull, mainly due to the fact that it was imposing a sense of sadness, but also because of the budget allocated to the advert. The themes of the adverts were also quite different; Coca-Cola were advertising their product to increase profits and popularity, with fun, and lively conceptions, whereas the NSPCC advert was intended to raise awareness and donations, with a ‘sad and guilty’ scheme. There were also a few similarities between the adverts such as both adverts showed their company’s name and logo throughout the advert, and many images were used to capture the essence of the advert. Also, both Coca-Cola and the NSPCC used music in the background, as a method, to promote their adverts, recognising that it is a well-used technique.

Both the advert for L’Oreal and the leaflet for ‘Adopting Dolphins’ had some differences and similarities too. The L’Oreal advert was aimed at a younger audience of teenage girls or younger women, with the use of pink shades of colour and celebrity endorsement to support the advert, whilst the dolphin leaflet was aimed at an older audience (as it is quite unlikely that many teenagers or younger people would spend their money or pocket money on supporting a dolphin), as a sympathy vote, to elevate contributions, by the subtle shades of blue, and request for money. Another difference is that L’Oreal could afford to keep their advert, as their company name is widely-known, but the dolphin leaflet organization (the WDCS) is not widely-known, and have to advertise their cause more thoroughly. The similar concepts used again, were the bold white lettering, used for the company’s/organization’s name and logo, and a straight-to-the-point concept, as both used large images of what they were advertising/rising awareness of.

In conclusion, there are still some points to be discussed about advertising, such as ‘Is advertising good or bad?’. On one hand, advertising products gets the point across, is informative, can be entertaining, clever or amusing, and advertising charity/issue needs can potentially increase contributions, provide people with useful knowledge and understanding, be helpful and get the charity/issue well-noticed. But on the other hand, product adverts can be pressurizing, as people could get teased or taunted if they don’t have a new or flashy product, can display ‘wants’ and not ‘needs’, as people would want to buy a new product even if they had the old version, so they don’t really need it but want to have it, can be very materialistic, can lead to debts, as people buy new and expensive products without realizing how much it will set them back, and can lead to jealousy or competition, as people without a new product would be jealous of those who have the new product, or would want to compete with other people to buy the newest products. However, the advertisement of a charity/issue cannot be classified as bad, as they are there to help, not increase profits.

There are many effects of advertising; the main being jealousy. Many people see adverts and others buying or showing-off that product and want to buy it or have it to themselves, even though realistically, they don’t need it. This is called materialism, and doesn’t appear in charity/issue adverts.

Noticing that product adverts are substantially more influential to the environment through materialism, I feel that they are advertising too much, in too many places, and can afford to do this because of profits, unlike charity adverts/issues are advertised in the minority, and I think that that is unreasonable, as charity/issue adverts are their to inform and help, and should be recognized more.

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