This document outlines plans for a TV advertisement to promote mental health awareness among 15-25 year olds. It discusses targeting this audience who feel alone with their struggles. Ideas include showing how a character's mood improves from sad to happy after spending time with supportive friends and family. Previous successful mental health ads are reviewed that portrayed feelings of loneliness, darkness, and connected personally with viewers. TV ads are considered an effective medium to visually share ideas with immediate impact. The proposed plot follows two characters - one with mental health issues - and how smiling and social interaction changes their day for the better. The unique selling point is to reach those struggling to smile and demonstrate how activities with loved ones can improve mood and thinking.

1. SMILE – RATIONALE
JENNIFER FINNIGAN

2. TARGET AUDIENCE
• Who is the target audience for this product? The target
audience for my product is the age range between 15 – 25
year olds. This product is aimed at people that struggle with
mental health problems and find themselves believing to be
alone. They are not alone, so my aim is to reach out to those
in this category helping them open up more.

3. IDEAS FOR TV ADVERTS
• Dark and gloomy – serious music
• Uplifting, fun music
• Sad morning then towards the day the mood and behaviour of character gets better and becomes
happier
• Start off character having fun with friends then when by themselves the character is depressed
towards end, this shows how smiling and being with people that makes them happy (friends, family
partners etc..) can automatically change their mood no matter how they initially were feeling at the
start of the day.

4. • From previous advertisements about mental health, the majority of them become successful when they
are able to portrait how people that struggle with mental health are feeling through their perspective. For
example, in an advertisement about depression, they shot scenes where a female character was
surrounded with nothing but trees. This is capturing her feeling loneliness and how she feels helpless. By
doing this, the audience are able to connect with that character and can relate to her. Therefore, when
creating my product, I am having to include these key points to be able to create a successful product.
• Key points:
1. Connect with the audience
2. Understand what the audience are more likely to attract to
3. How to deliver the idea to be successful
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED FROM PREVIOUS
ADVERTISEMENTS?

5. EXAMPLE 1
• HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=JBS7V-V5OMO
• THIS ADVERTISEMENT SHOWS HOW MENTAL HEALTH ILLNESSES CAN BE EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE TO A PERSONS EVERYDAY
LIFESTYLE. TO GO INTO MORE DEPTH, THE GIRL IN THIS ADVERT SUFFERS FROM AN ANXIETY DISORDER AND SHE SPEAKS
DIRECTLY TO THE CAMERA AS IF SHE IS TALKING TO THE AUDIENCE. THIS IS DONE TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO CONNECT
TO THE AUDIENCE. SHE THEN EXPLAINS THE IMPACT THIS HAS ON HER DAY-TO-DAY LIFE AND SHE EXPRESSES THE PAIN SHE IS
DEALING WITH AND SHOWS THAT THE DISORDER SHE HAS IS VERY SERIOUS AS SHE IS LYING IN A HOSPITAL BED. THE
MESSAGE BEHIND THIS ADVERTISEMENT IS THAT NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE ARE DEALING WITH THEY SHOULD BE ABLE SEEK
HELP AND THAT MENTAL HEALTH CAN BE DANGEROUS. MENTAL HEALTH IS CONSIDERED AS AN ILLNESS.

6. EXAMPLE 2
• HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=ACV10OWZMZU
• IN THIS ADVERTISEMENT, MENTAL HEALTH IS CONSIDERED AS AN UNNOTICEABLE THING TO MOST PEOPLE. IN ONE OF THE
SHOTS, THE SCENE WAS TAKING PLACE IN A FOREST AND A GIRL BY HERSELF STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS SCENERY. THIS
COULD DEMONSTRATE THAT SHE FEELS ALONE ALL THE TIME EVEN WHEN SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE THAT CARE ABOUT HER.
IN ADDITION TO THIS, THERE IS THIS OTHER SCENE WHERE THE GIRL THAT IS DEALING WITH DEPRESSION, IS FALLING INTO
DARKNESS. THIS COULD DEMONSTRATE THAT SHE IS FALLING INTO A DARK TIME OF HER LIFE AND DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT NOR GET OUT OF IT. THIS GIVES THE AUDIENCE SOME SORT OF AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW SHE/ PEOPLE
WHO DEAL WITH THIS IS FEELING.

7. WHY ARE TV ADVERTISEMENTS A GOOD IDEA?
• Short term profits
• Has the most effective impact on an audience as they can visually see and hear my idea
• mmediate and longer term benefits is a particular advantage of TV advertising.

8. CODES AND CONVENTIONS
• The music – matches the characters energy
• Theme – dark, gloomy.
• Font - I would use serif font style as this is about a serious topic e.g. Mental health. By doing this it
would make the audience get a serious feeling atmosphere whilst watching the advert video.

9. THE PITCH PLOT – SMILE
• At the beginning of this video, we will have a two characters. One character that struggles with
mental health, and one that doesn’t. I will then take shots of how both characters start their days
from both perspectives in a split screen. After that, they both meet as both characters are friends.
We then will be able to create a shot on how smiling and spending time with people that care about
you can change your mood. However, once they part, we will be able to see an improvement in the
characters (that struggles with mental health) attitude that they were initially feeling.

10. WHAT IS ITS USP?
• My USP (unique selling point) is that I am wanting to reach out to people with mental health
problems and that are struggling to smile. This is mainly aimed at 15 to 25 years old who don’t have
the motivation or ability to smile and are struggling. This why I am creating an advertisement to
demonstrate how much doing stuff that you love can change that by changing way you can behave
and think throughout the day-to-day basis. By people watching this video I am hoping it helps
people understand the problems others face whilst dealing with mental health issues and hopefully
they can relate to it.