2. Who is the target audience of charity ads?
The target audience of charity ads are people in the abc1 demographic as they have the most
money and can compare what they have versus what others have and feel empathy for these
people and are willing to donate a lot of money for these vulnerable people.
3. What techniques are used to target this
audience?
The techniques used are graphic pictures and guilt tripping headlines as these are the ones that
make people horrified and think the most and are more likely to look into and donate to the
Charites in question,
4. Desensitisation
Cultivation theory- We keep looking at gory things and it will not affect us anymore and we will
be so used to it that we will just look over it. (Joseph Gerbner).
5. Text in childish
handwriting, also uses of
quotation marks these both
give the effect that a child
has written it themselves, it
also makes the audience
realize they may not just
be damaging themselves
but also their children.
They have taken the
well known fear of
spiders, to show
what really scares
this girl, the audience
can tell it is a girl,
from the flowers in
the background, the
spider is also made
to look big thanks to
shadows and
lighting.
The fact at the
bottom is used to
shock the audience;
showing that this ad
is aimed at adults.
6. What does
shelter do?
Shelter are a charity that
specialise in giving advice and
helping homeless people,
people in temporary housing
which they could lose at any
moment and people who are
stuck in a house where they do
not feel comfortable or treated
fairly.
7. Context- 2011 campaign
Founded in 1966 in London. Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home was pivotal in establishment of the
charity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xky8ZqhNAlo
Aims to help people with homelessness and bad housing. Gives advice and lobbies government to
make changes to improve housing.
Campaign launched in 2011 to encourage people at risk of losing their home to ask for advice
earlier
Main focus of campaign is poster ads, but FB and mobile messaging also used
The poster campaign initially launched in four towns identified as hotspots for housing problems,
and ran from 21 August for six weeks.
8. Discussion
Shelter’s campaign was created by Amplify on a pro bono basis. Jonathan Emmins, founder of Amplify said:
“It was crucial to us that the creative had the ability to shock and stand out but without resorting to gimmicks. We wanted people
to empathise, to never lose sight of the real people, the real faces impacted by the current economic and housing situation.”
Purpose:
To campaign
To provide information
Aims:
The aims of this campaign is to raise awareness of homelessness arising in todays society, especially with the
recession and the current climate, which is relatable to many people in todays society because it coincides with
the issues of debt which people are faced with.
Some of slogans used to really catch to eye of the reader include; ‘but where will we live?’ this is a good clear
message which gets the information across in a direct manner as this could happen to anyone down to their job
or living accommodation.
9. Advert 1
This advert shows a rhetorical question which makes people
empathise with the woman as they think about where they would
have to live if they were in this situation, the tagline underneath is
important because it shows that if someone gets into this type of
trouble they can speak to shelter and they can fix the problem and
this gives trust to the company and makes outsiders want to donate
more.
10. Advert 2
This advert shows a man who is making a statement but the way it is
written is in a scared and confused way, this can be helped by the
confusion and horror on his face. The strapline about being a tenant is
reassuring and comforting as it stops and then on its own claims “we
can help” which shows Shelter are serious about helping people.
11. Advert 3
This advert shows a woman looking vulnerable with the vague
caption of ’I can’t face it’ this is left vague as it makes people read on
to the bottom of the page to the strapline where it talks about debt
and how Shelter can help, this is done as it will make people think
about debt and make people donate as they will think about what
they would want if they were in that situation.
12. Analysis of advert
Aim of the advert- The aim of the advert is to give help to people struggling with housing by
showing a question they may be asking and showing where to go if everything is going wrong
and also underneath it talks about how to donate to this charity to help people who are in a bad
situation as people would want the same back if it was the other way round.
Messages communicated- The messages communicated is that no matter how bad the situation
gets Shelter is there for you and they will help. They also communicate how they could not do it
without donations which allow them to be as helpful as they possibly can.
13. Analysis of advert
Shelter values- Shelters values are to always help people in need and to not let anyone slip into
being scared on where they will live or stop them from living on the streets as no one deserves
that no matter how their live has been.
Who is represented and how is this constructed- The ‘normal everyday people’ demographic of
everyone is being represented by the actors as the people in the adverts just look like normal
everyday people who you could not possibly tell the wealth or lifestyle they live but for one
reason or another have found themselves in financial trouble. The advert also does this by not
getting a stereotypical homeless unwashed and unshaved character who people feel sorry for
but can not relate to to be in the advert.
14. Social anxieties
●How many households are homeless? (2013-2014)
●In the East Midlands? 5,440 people.
●In London? 24,543 people.
●In England? 81,810 people.
●https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/08/one-in-every-200-people-in-uk-are-homeless-
according-to-shelter
17. Contexts (2)
●Social Context
●Inequalities
Reminds us of the inequalities of wealth in
society
●Social Values
Values of people facing losing their home is
different to people who value trivial matters,
latest x box, make up etc
●Cultural Context
●Consumerism
Homelessness can be seen as one of the effects
of consumerism (over spending, debt)
● Postmodernism
Media saturated world, shocking images,
desensitised to shocking images and statistics,
focusing on individual, personal experiences
rather than mass stats / data
18. Generic codes and conventions of charity
adverts
●The creation of sympathy for the subject of
the charity (use of facts and statistics)
●The creation of empathy for the subject of the
charity ( use of images - how would you feel if
you were in their shoes?)
●Shock – make you feel that you have to
contribute to the charitable cause (disturbing
images)
●Charity name / logo
●Slogan
●Image of victim maybe isolated
●Sombre mode of address
●Use of colour
●Colour associated with brand
●Web address
●Invitation to interact with company / donate
●Message will be text / image based