Discuss techniques used in charity advertising with specific reference to particular examples and case studies.

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Rhiann Johns

Charity Advertising

Discuss techniques used in charity advertising with specific reference to particular examples and case studies

Charity advertising is very different from other forms of advertising, as the main purpose of charity ads is to persuade target audiences to donate money, rather than buy a product.  Thus, the techniques have to be different from product or brand advertising; however, it can be argued that they do use similar techniques.  

An example of a charity advertising campaign is that of the children’ charity Barnado’s.  In my opinion these campaigns have been extremely effective to highlight the plight of thousands of children who live with issues such as exclusion, abuse, drug addiction, alcoholism and prostitution.  

These adverts are usually placed in the broadcast and also newspapers such as the Daily Mail as this is the best way, in the charity’s opinion to reach their target audience; ABC1 35 to 55 year olds.  The reason for why they are targeting this age group is because they usually have a regular income, and thus be able to afford to give money.  For example, it would be a waste of time and valuable money, which charities cannot afford to spend, constructing an advert for a teenage audience because they don’t have a disposable income, and so they would not be able to afford to donate money to charities.   An additional reason why they target ABC1 35 to 55 year olds because they are more likely to have children, and thus be able to sympathise with the adverts, for example, they may think ‘What if that was my child?’ and as a result this may influence them to donate money to the charity.  

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A technique charity adverts often use is sensational or emotive images, or even controversial images as this will have an impact on the target audience.  For example, one of the Barnado’s adverts it showed a young baby injecting itself with heroin, which is disturbing, and caused an influx of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).  These adverts for the ‘Giving children back their future campaign’ highlighted the long-term effects of a disadvantaged childhood.  However, it could be argued that these complaints had a positive effect on the charity as it made people talk about the issues that Barnado’s ...

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Overall, this essay offers some perceptive textual analysis. However, the structure requires work - there are too many small paragraphs that are not needed. In addition, the textual analysis could be much more detailed and should focus on the five technical codes and conventions.