But in order to get the teenagers of Britain to read ‘Talk To Frank’, the front cover must be attractive and engaging enough for the teenager to actually pick it up. The background of one of the main drug information pieces is ‘The Score’. The front cover denotes a faded woolly jumper fabric, in a range of dark distorted colours. The main colour, purple, completely dominates the background. Purple connotes being lost or in a state of confusion. The background is connoting a drug trip and the fact that they have used purple is a way of saying that you are confused with the subject of drugs or you do not know who to turn to. Right in the centre there are the words, in very large bubble typography, ‘The Score’ with ‘Facts About Drugs’ written beneath this. The words are all written in white which connotes purity and clarity or maybe even an answer or solution. Around these words there are a series of sixteen small pictures drawn in a circle. Each of these represent a different drug, and this is where the use of generic features from teenage magazines has been introduced. We call this ‘tasters’, where the magazine is giving you a little look at what is going to be inside. Tasters are more commonly used in teenage magazines to give the target audience an idea of what is going to be on the inside of the magazine. It very cleverly wants the reader to read on without giving away everything on the front cover.
The same idea has been used with ‘The Score’, because these pictures are giving you a little example of what they are going to be talking about within in the booklet. They do not tell you what drug each of the pictures represent, making you want to know what each of them represents so you read the booklet. They have used modern methods of attracting teenagers to the booklet. The phrase ‘The Score’ is old slang which means to get drugs but now it means to lay down the facts and get straight to the point. This is extremely clever because it is trying to appeal to both types of people, ones that know the old slang and the others, who know it as it is used today.
Similarly, the first and most noticeable aspect of the front cover of ‘Drugs: The Facts’ is the background which is also purple, reminiscent of the ‘The Score’. So again, this connotes that there might be confusion about drugs and that this magazine is going to give you all the answers. The main title tells you from the beginning exactly what this booklet is going to be talking about. Exactly in the vein of ‘The Score’, the booklet has used generic features from teenage magazines to draw teenagers in and to get them to read this booklet. One of the tasters that is on the front cover of ‘Drugs: The Facts’ says ‘Problem Page’. A problem page is one of the main generic features of a teenage magazine; the fact that they are even considering the main generic features of a teenage magazine is showing how much they want them to read their booklet. They have used teenage slang to suggest that their booklet is laid back and relaxed, almost as if they have copied all the elements that made ‘The Score’ such a success. On the central layout of the front cover, there is an open eye. This could connote that this booklet is going to open you eyes to the problems regarding drugs and how to avoid them. Because their marketing campaign is so similar to ‘The Score’, it still is able to catch a teenager’s eye but at the same time comes across somewhat younger, to appeal more to the pre-teen market. Not all teenagers will be drawn in by the style that has been used, such as pictures resembling cartoons and slanting words, and this could cost ‘Drugs: The Facts’ when it comes to desirability.
Of course, it would be pointless to judge whether the Government’s campaign had been working just by looking at the magazine’s cover so, in order to get a more detailed analysis, we have to look at the features inside.
In ‘The Score’, there is a feature called ‘Dilemma’ and it is a completely typical generic feature of a teenage magazine, it also allows us to see what the Government thinks is a good way to entice teenagers to their booklet. ‘Dilemma’ is a prime example of what the Government thinks of teenagers. They are not going to use characters in a storyboard that are too out of place, otherwise they will not find it believable, ignore the message and turn to the next feature. What the storyboard focuses in on is a teenager called Steve who is preparing to go to a party. His mate offers him some speed so that he will learn to relax. Just to make sure they have not lost the teenagers so early on, they number the pictures. Of course, nothing bad can ever happen in a teenage magazine storyboard so Steve ends up rejecting his mate’s offer of speed and has a really great party! Everybody wins and the reader has learnt a valuable lesson. As odd as this may sound, it is far more effective at getting the message across than if Steve took the speed and ended up in hospital for the night because it leaves the user feeling positive.
What happens when not-so positive features are used? The teenager might not understand the plot because it is so different from typical teenage magazines used today and, consequently, not take everything in? This is quite untrue and a similar feature used in ‘Drugs: The Facts’ has no title, no colourful storyboard and no cheesy 1960’s-style language. What the teenager does get, however is a hard-hitting real life story on the subject of one teenager’s encounter with lighter refills. At the top of the page, and the first feature that catches your eye is the text ‘My friend could have died…’, with the continuation marks implying that you have to read the main text beneath it to understand the full picture. The main text is the teenager speaking in his own words, detailing his own experiences, not what the editor has put in place inside speech bubbles. The teenager is identified as Chris, fourteen, from Leeds, not Mr. Steve One-name. Chris goes on to say that he and some mates began to start sniffing lighter refills at the park, but when one of the gang fell to the floor and escaped death thanks to a passer by, they all stopped sniffing. What makes this so engaging is its subject matter, the fact that something bad happened to a real person, as if it could happen to the teenager reading.
We know that the target audience is teenagers but we have not checked to see whether they are portrayed in the magazine appropriately. If we browse through both ‘The Score’ and ‘Drugs: The Facts’, it would be an unpleasant surprise if anyone thought that the way that they are portrayed is the normal way that teenagers dress, talk and behave. Lets say that a booklet has passed the first hurdle of being aesthetically pleasing to the teenager, can they possibly represent teenagers in a well enough manner to make them listen to what the booklet or leaflet has to say? In the majority of the cases it is another teenager speaking to them. Even if it is the editor of the magazine who is speaking on behalf of the characters, the clothes that the characters wear and their average lifestyle must reflect reality. No teenager wears faded down pastel coloured t-shirts tucked into beige khakis with a pair of large, brown boots to top it off. The Government must think that teenagers have the I.Q of a peanut if they are not able to take in large chunks of information and instead, have to be fed small bits that include a great number of slang words, most of which date back to when teenagers were not even alive.
All of the work and effort that the ‘Talk to Frank’ campaign has done on both ‘The Score’ and ‘Drugs: The Facts’ would all be for nothing if it did not do what it is trying to achieve, which is to get teenagers to read their booklets. They want them to learn more on drugs, so that they are able to make their own decision when it comes to taking drugs. I believe that the front cover of ‘The Score’ is far better in its presentational devices and attracting a teenager’s attention than ‘Drugs: The Facts’. This is because of the tasters, as well as the rather interesting font, used on the front cover of ‘The Score’ that immediately get you interacting with the booklet from the word go.
This use of immediate interaction makes the booklet considerably more appealing and so a larger majority of teenagers are going to pick it up and continue reading it. I think that the main problem with the ‘Drugs: The Facts’ booklet is that there is too much happening on such a small page and therefore is less appealing. I think they should have done something closer to ‘The Score’ where it is nice, plain and simple. On the other hand, the contents of ‘The Score’ can, at times, seem too simple to keep teenagers interested, they give you a few stories and a few problems and expect you to love it so much that you continue reading. All the Government would need to do is to combine some of the contents that are in ‘Drugs: The Facts’ such as the questionnaire that tells you what kind of person you are, and the various other quizzes with the method of presenting their information on drugs with the front cover of ‘The Score’ and they would have a far better booklet.
Both booklets seem to miss the mark with what a teenager is looking for in a magazine. However, and this is generally the same with most other magazines similar to them, both manage to show the pressure that teenagers are under and all the possible factors that makes it worse. It clearly and repeatedly says that drugs are not a means of escape from all of this and at the ends of both booklets is the Talk To Frank help line which, and I quote, “offers free and confidential advice about any drugs issue, whether it’s info you’re after, advice or just a chat. You can also find out about the services available in your area. Lines are open 24 hours a day.” I wondered whether what it was stating was actually true, that they offer friendly advice. I talked to a friend who had phoned up the Talk To Frank help line a few months ago to try and find some answers. He told me that they offered advice, even to the questions that every parent dreads to hear. Does Frank really talk to Teenagers? Yes, and their help line is 0800 77 66 00.
