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1. Research – Pre-Production Planning Assignment
Videos Used for inspiration / Research:
In order to get a good idea of what I would need to produce as a final product, I
lookinto existing anti-drink/ anti-drug adverts and campaign ads. These are as
follows:
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1rKHGeMRk (Sweet Child of Mine -
2014)
Works Doesn’t Work
- Tugs on Heartstrings of
audience
- Music overlay ‘sweet child of
mine’ brings about emotions of
audience
- Too Cheesy / Unrealistic
- Too graphic
- Music gives away concept
immediately
- Too accusatory at end by saying
‘shame on you’
I felt this ad was extremely effective in its simplicity, but was also too cheesy and
a little bit too accusatory towards an innocent audience. The final words being
‘shame on you’ bring down the impact quite a bit, as the audience feel attacked
despite doing nothing wrong.
I took the innocence of youth from this advert, using it in my own concept by
having our protagonist be a young girl, which seems to work in getting people’s
emotions running high.
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56b09ZyLaWk (Budweiser - 2014)
Works Doesn’t Work
- Dog gives audience an
emotional attachment from the
outset
- Giving backstory makes ending
so much harder to deal with
- Happy ending gives sense of
optimism
- Cheesy Acting / dialogue
- TOO much backstory gives it a
‘serial drama’ feeling
- Feels longer than it actually is
because of this and feels like a
chore to watch
- Mixed message: beer company
putting us off drinking?
Overall, I personally really like this advert. By giving the audience a sense of
knowing the characters via backstory, we feel attachment to them and thus want
a happy ending, which means the fakeout sad ending is hard to deal with.
I took inspiration from this and decided to give the protagonist of my own ad
some screentime before her drug-use, getting to know her beforehand and
getting the audience attached, thus giving a much more powerful message at the
end.

2. 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeUX6LABCEA (It’s 30 for a reason –
2009)
Works Doesn’t Work
- Brutality
- Gritty Realism
- Normal setting
- TOO graphic
- Unrealistic
- Girl slides into road and makes
it a little comical
Although I think this ad works well, there are a few things I didn’t like. In
particularly, I didn’t like the way the protagonist slides across the road as it
makes it too funny, giving it less impact on the audience. Also the way her bones
pop back into place makes for extremely uncomfortable watching.
However, as I said before, the innocence of youth is something I want to take into
account for my own piece.
4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtTREndJKk (What’s it Gonna Be? –
2008)
Works Doesn’t Work
- Unusualness of situation gives
the audience a sense of
confusion, which could show
how the character is feeling
- Acting is top notch, with quite
clear changes in personality
representing different stages /
impacts drinking and driving
could have
- Noise cancelling out serving no
distractions to audience and
means every line is clear to
hear.
- Lighting and Setting
N/A
Everything works about this advert. From the eerie lighting focusing on the main
speaker to the ambient noise that suddenly cancels out. The acting, the premise,
and the way it is executed is fantastic.
I decided on using lighting ideas from this video in my piece to represent danger
and intensity.

3. 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUPfD_FobwM (Slow Down – 2014)
Works Doesn’t Work
- Shock Factor
- Emotional connection to
characters
- Lack of blame to either party
- Visual / special effects
N/A
Everything, again, works in this ad. Neither party is guilty, so the audience can
relate even if they’ve never been in that situation. Also the fact that the child is
only introduced at the end hits harder than if he were introduced in the
beginning.
Using this, that is why I chose to only introduce the drugs element at the end of
my ad, to give a greater shock / impact to the audience.

4. Websites Used for Research on drug use:
- http://www.talktofrank.com/
- https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/health-consequences-drug-
misuse
- https://easyread.drugabuse.gov/content/effects-drugs
- https://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/brain-and-addiction
- https://drugfree.org/article/brain-development-teen-behavior/
Websites Used for Research on Alcohol use:
- http://alcoholthinkagain.com.au/Parents-Young-People/Alcohol-and-
the-Developing-Brain/Impact-of-Alcohol-on-the-developing-brain
- http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/understanding-
affects-on-body.html
- https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/alcohol-can-rewire-
teenage-brain
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122765890
As I wanted to get as accurate a portrayal as possible, I tried to put as much
research into this as possible, taking in as many media outlets as possible to do
this, as you can see from the above websites.