Some examples of what social message campaigns can be on are subjects such as:
- Anti-Bullying advertisements
- Driving Safety advertisements
- Donating blood advertisements
This advertisement is about trying to stop anti-bullying, its about standing up for yourself if you are getting bullied. Many techniques are used in this advertisement, one of which is that in the advert there is a possible solution to the problem, which is, standing up for yourself. This technique is good as it helps to try and tackle the problem of bullying. This advertisement promotes anti-bullying in a humorous and surreal way. It is humorous as it uses a parody of the song 'i will survive' this attracts a wide range of audiences as most people know this song. The reason it is humorous is because the kids getting bullied are singing about how they are going to stand up for themselves and get their revenge. The advertisement is also surreal as it is very strange and odd as you would not see this in real life which leads me on to my next point. The advertisement takes a form of an anti-realistic narrative. This is because you would never see kids that are getting bullied singing parodies of songs about how they are going to stand up for themselves and get their revenge on the bullies. The convention of this advertisement is that the advert features music, this is a successful convention as it is easily heard and is catchy so more people are likely to stop to look and watch the rest of the advert. I feel the main target audience of this advert is aimed at younger people that may still be in full time education, but it also has an older theme to it as it plays a parody of and old song, this could also be targeted at a slightly older target audience.
This advert is used to try and persuade the audiences to give blood as it will help to save or increase the life of people that may need help. The technique which is used in this advert are emotional responses. This technique is effective as it touches the audience, it helps the audience to feel the selfishness and kindness of the people who donate blood as they help to save lives. This advert uses a dramatic style, this advert uses a serious tone as this is a very sensitive topic. the serious tone adds to the meaning of the advert, because it shows that by donating blood you can help people dramatically. However, if the advert were to use a less serious tone and tried to make a joke out of it then people may feel offended by it and others then may not want to give blood. The form of this advert is in the form of a realistic narrative. The advert seems to be real people meeting with the person who gave blood to help save their own or their relatives lives, this is a good form as it give the audience a heart warming feel. The target audience for this is for people aged 18 and over, this is because people over the age of 18 are considered adults and are responsible for themselves so it is their decision if they want to donate.
This advertisement is designed too make you think twice before having that "one more" drink before driving home. The advert shows a man doing the impressions of the various different people someone would come across, the police for example, if they are caught Driving Under the Influence of alcohol. This drink driving campaign shows the technique of presenting a hidden message: "it will ruin your life if you get caught if you drive under the influence of alcohol". However, the advertisement also provokes and emotional response; fear and compassion. The two emotions are conveyed through the ad as it is designed to make you feel fearful that the situation that is being presented through the bar tender will happen to you if you drink and drive; as well as causing you to feel compassion for the character presented last in the advert as he has now lost his driving license and job as a result of his actions. This advert is styled seriously, dramatically and has constant serious tones throughout. As drink driving is a serious and dangerous topic to discuss, the advert was in no way humorous or light-hearted; the advertisement was designed to shock people in to the possible consequences of their actions. This particular Think! advertisement has been created in a realist narrative form. It is common for drink drivers to lose their license after being caught and be punished through the criminal justice system and therefore the situation the ad presents is likely to have happened to many different men and women across the UK, making a realist narrative. The conventions shown in this advertisement are: shows a brand logo features audio presents a catchy phrase The target audience for this advert is adults over the age of 18; it is illegal to drink alcohol before the age of 18 and illegal to drive a car before the age of 17. The advert is aimed at people that may be confident drivers and people who feel they "know their limits" when alcohol is concerned. The ad isn't necessarily aimed at people of a similar age to bar tender in the advert, it is aimed at all drivers and adults of any age that consume alcohol and will consider driving home.
This campaign aims to encourage more people to test their smoke alarm more often as the number of house fires has increased over the last decade and, as mentioned in the advertisement, 15 children were killed in house fires last year.
The techniques used in this ad are, presenting an overt message and provoking and emotional response: fear and compassion. The child in the advert talks about how house fires have killed 15 children over the past year, however he then goes on to say "children like yours", immediately sparking an emotional response among the target audience. The over message is: you should test your smoke alarm often because house fires are devastating and can kill.
The style of the advert is dramatic. The ad, from start to finish, has a very serious, morbid tone and therefore creates a dramatic atmosphere.
The form of the Fire Kills ad is a realist narrative. By using a statistic in the advert, it may be seen as a talking heads form, however the child is making a statement not a testimonial. Also, due to the statistic, the ad may been as a documentary, although the advert is not raw footage of life after a house fire for example; the set in which the advertisement has been filmed has been created specifically for the Fire Kills campaign.
The target audience for this advert is adults and parents. A phrase is used in the ad that directly aims the advert at parents: children like yours. However, the scenes of a home destroyed by fire damage would increase other adults' awareness of the possibility of a house fire and encourage them to test their smoke alarms more often also.
