1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production
L3 Unit 30 Advertisement Production for Television
HA3 – Computer Arts Blog Article – TV Advertising Trends
Task 2 Codes and Conventions of Children’s Cereal Adverts
Codes
Technical - camera angle, shot, iconography, editing, lighting, sound, music, computer graphics and special effects (SFX)
Many of the adverts in my cereal case study featured some form of animation. Coco pops featured simple
2D animated animals, rice crispies had plasticine elves and weetos had a CGI weeto, complete with arms
and legs. The lighting is usually very bright and focused on the cereal, as many times it is set during the
morning, when people sit down to eat cereal. The sounds that appear most commonly in the adverts are
the sound of cheers and laughter from children and either the cereal crunching or being eaten by someone.
The music featured in it is very upbeat and child-like music that would appear in a children’s television
programme. The music often fits the pace of the video and helps compliment the entertaining factors of the
advert. Camera shots include close ups of happy children who have just finished eating the cereal and
sometimes still shots if it is of a breakfast on its own. Other images that will be clearly shown on screen are
shots of milk being poured onto the cereal and a child eating the cereal. These can be done from multiple
angles and usually involve close ups.
Throughout the advert, it may switch between live and animated footage or feature both at the same time.
An animated character may even engage with the viewer and talk to them. There are very bright colours in
the advert, which will easily attract the attention of the children. This may be done through either bright
cereal boxes and cereal itself or bright animations. Animations are essentially cartoons, which appeal to
most children anyway.
Symbolic - language, dress, and actions of characters. Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see.
Children in the video always appear to be enjoying themselves, usually through eating the cereal.
Sometimes, they will be wearing casual clothes or children’s clothes, with the nature of the cereal
depending on this. For example lucky charms will generally only appeal to children whereas frosties will
appeal to both adults and children. This means that they may have to make a middle-ground to
accommodate the viewing of both adults and children. Thusly, children may appear in smart school clothes.
The language is almost always designed to attract people. The children in the video will often use terms
such as ‘mmm…’ or ‘yummy’. This is done while they are eating the cereal. The voiceovers are crucial to
selling the product as they will often use words such as ‘sweet’ and ‘chocolaty’, which are words that will
appeal to the target audience- children. They may also attempt to appeal to a parent to redeem its sugary
qualities, stating things such as ‘… is part of a complete breakfast’ and general things such as ‘breakfast is
the most important meal of the day’. Some may also try and state the meal is healthy using comforting and
secure words such as ‘wholegrain’ ‘nutritional’ and ‘important’.
The voice is always welcoming and outgoing, designed to pull people into purchasing the product. Though
they may use longer words to appeal to parents they will often use short words that children can
understand and react to. The happy consumers of the product and the language of the people within the
advert will make more people want to buy it.

2. Conventions - What should we expect to see?
Most of the adverts I have featured within my case study had shots of milk being poured into the bowl of
cereal. This was sometimes done in slow motion and sometimes to illustrate a point (coco pops turn the
milk chocolaty). It is also meant to make the product look much more appealing and tasty. The cereal will
almost always have a fun mascot to represent the cereal, who will often be fun and entertaining and appear
in the adverts. They do not necessarily have to be animations in the cases of cereals such as coco pops
(monkey) and frosties (Tony the tiger) as can be seen from the sugar puffs adverts, where the honey
monster is played by a man in a suit. However, regardless of how they appear they are often funny and
helpful, with a huge craving for the cereal.
Villains sometimes appear in adverts, attempting to steal the cereal from the ‘good’ characters in the video.
Golden Nuggets cereal is very Western themed and so often features two scruffy looking cowboy men
attempting to steal the golden nuggets. Coco pops also has a Croc as its villain. In the end the villains always
end up failing in their attempt or losing possession of the cereal at the critical moment. The good characters
are meant to appeal to the children watching, as they are like short cartoons.
The setting of the video will usually be at a table in the kitchen, where the children are sitting down eating
the cereal. However, depending on the specific brand the cereal can be being eaten by anyone, anywhere.
For example the monkey and his friends in the coco pops adverts may eat altogether in the jungle.
The cereal adverts almost always feature a catchy slogan, which seeks to remain with the viewer long after
they have finished watching the advert. A couple of examples are: ‘They’reeee Greattt’ (Tony the Tiger,
Frosties) and ‘I’d rather have a bowl of coco pops’ (Different characters, though usually the monkey, coco
pops).