Television is the biggest form advertisement we have today. Before Itv first aired in 1955 there were no such thing as television advertisement. The BBC was the first British television channel in 1936 but only the wealthy residents of London could get the channel, however it closed down due to World War 2 and re open in 1946.
In 1955 the first ever commercial television was aired. The first ever advert for aired in September 22 1955. Gibbs S R Toothpaste. And it aired on itv.
1964 BBC 2 was aired on British television and it was an till nearly 2 decade for another television channel was aired on British TV. And then finally channel five was aired in 1997.
In our lives today it’s we see adverts everywhere so it is very difficult for us to remember an advert. Advert makers thing carefully about the structure of the advert. Finding a structure that suits the target audience is very difficult. The advert makers will have to think about what type of advert it is going to be EG: Is going to be a humours or dramatic advert, documentary or animation advert.
Getting the right sort of adverts is a very difficult however a very rewarding job if done right. Humours adverts are the viewer’s favourite most of the time and it normally sticks in their minds; however they are very difficult to make. Dramatic adverts often shock the viewers and also to make the advert stick in the viewer’s minds. They normally send a message they are not also advert they also sometimes are advertised on billboards.
Documentaries are not a very popular choice it is not often seen on TV they are often also used to send a message to the viewers or to educated people about a certain issue; they can also be used to appeal for a certain cause. Animation is a good tool to keep a viewers interested. Making animation is very time consuming but it is a very popular tool in today’s advertising industry for example: compare the market.com, PG tips tea.
There are many techniques advertisement agencies use to make a successful they are: - Emotional responses, Solution to a problem, Fear, Concern, Compassion, Self-perception, Social position, Celebrity endorsement.
When advert makers are looking to get an emotional response out of the audience when they watch this advert and or want to a donation from the audience. For example: - adverts that want donation to kids that live in poorer countries ask all a rhetorical question wail showing an shocking images, this is to get as much sympathy as possible from the viewers and also to for the video to stick in the viewer’s minds. But the main aim is to make them donate money, so the video need to create as big emotional response as possible.
There are adverts that are aimed to scare people into stop doing wrong. There are often created with a lot of shocking video and images in an image to scare viewers that are watching. Eg: speeding adverts an aimed to shock and scare viewers in order stop them from speeding in places they shouldn’t.
An example of an advert is the think advert. They shows the inside of a man organs crush after the car stops. The aim is to put fear in the viewers and also to make them stop speeding and driving carelessly. Those adverts will be targeted people drive; they will be aired during the evening because of the graphic scenes that are in the video.
Some adverts are targeted only to certain people; it is not designed to attract audience outside their target audience for adverts for holiday cruises are design for elderly people and couples so most people outside those categories are will not be interested in watching this adverts. And other example will be and advert for the new 2011 jaguar car will only target upper-class people because they are the people that are able to afford it.
Although other people might be interested in watching this advert but they will not be considered as the target audience. However some adverts may seem that they are target to a specific audience but they are not. For example perfume adverts are design to make men buy specific cologne but they are all also aimed to make women buy the perfume for their partners.
Some adverts are created to get people donate to a certain organisation or a charity. The try to get into people companionate side by showing images and videos of other misfortunate people. For example child abuse originations often air appeals for donations by showing videos of children and also using voices of children, the aim is to make the viewer’s fell concerned so they empathies and donate.
A lot of adverts now use celebrities to advertise for their product. The reason for that is in the modern society celebrities are regarded as role models and often are imitated by a lot of the youth, so if they were to be advertise a product they would have a great deal of influence in the decision making of the consumer when buying a product.
An example of celebrity endorsement is addias football boots; addias used former and current football world cup stars (messi, villa and zidan) to advertise this product. The aim was to catch the attention of the viewers and also to influence them in buy their product instead of their competitors.
Not all adverts a liked by its viewers some adverts some adverts cause offensive to its viewers or they can be taken as misleading adverts the consciences are they are the advert being withdrawn by the company or in some cases banned from airing. For example An advert for Walkers crisps featuring ex-footballer Gary Linker was deemed offensive for a scene in which a bus drove under a bridge and had its top deck ripped off.
Some of those who complained said it could have upset people who had experienced such accidents. After hearing of the complaints, Walkers Snack Foods Ltd decided to withdraw the ad and no action needed to be taken by the ASA.
An example of an advert being ban by the asa is the is a new brand of chewing gum by Cadbury’s. This advert showed people speaking in Caribbean accents while praising the qualities of the new gum and drew complaints that they were offensive and racist. People argued the ads - shown on television and in cinemas and it showed stereotypes that ridiculed black or Caribbean people and their culture, The ASA decided the adverts did not incite racial discrimination but acknowledged that a significant minority of viewers had been unintentionally offended so the advert was banned.
An example of an advert being banned for misleading its viewers is the advert for Aviva bank. The advert, starring Paul Whitehouse, features a voiceover saying: "when you retire get up to 20% more income with Aviva". However four people thought that the advert was misleading and complained about the advert. Aviva claims its annuity rates are 20% or more above those of its competitors in 22% of cases. The insurer also says the inclusion of the words ‘up to 20%' in the advert makes it clear not all of its annuities will be 20% above those of competitors. However, the ASA decided that compared with other open-market providers, Aviva were only able to offer 20% more income in only a small number of cases. The advert was banned by the ASA for making false claims and misleading viewers.
In conclusion the advertisement industry has gone a long way since first airing in 1955 and there no doubt that it is going to advance in the years to come but to make an advert you all ways need to look at the structure, technique and most importantly the audience. Or the advert will not have its full impact.
by
kurdo12 (student)
