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1. Social Action and Community
Media
Existing Product Research

2. Case Study: NHS - SMOKEFREE
Purpose:
• To bring about national change
• To change attitudes
• To raise awareness
• To challenge dominant
representations
• To provide information
• To campaign
Aims:
The aim of this particular smoking campaign
is to persuade people to quit smoking and to
show the effects and damage that smoking
causes. It is extremely powerful and makes a
bold point which is order to shock people and
hopefully shock them and also disgust them
enough to give up smoking. It is also for non
smokers as it can make people who have
family members or friends that smoke
persuade them not to do it as from this one
image you can see the extreme effects that it
can have on your body and the quality of your
life if you are a smoker.
2Creative Media Production 2012

3. Techniques:
For this campaign they have used many techniques in order to shock, scare
and also disgust and horrify some people as they are getting straight to the
point, which is that smoking is a way of killing yourself and damaging your body
in such an extreme way. The ‘NHS’ logo is visibly in the corner so you
immediately know that this information is factual and reliable as this is coming
from their own medical and scientific research, not just a random fact that has
been made up in order to scare people. The image is the main focus point and
is used across the whole advert, it shows a cigarette in an ash tray with the end
of it dripping blood that appears to be very thick and not healthy looking in any
way. They have clearly gone for a very bold and straightforward method of
showing exactly what smokers are doing to their bodies and exactly why they
should stop. It is very alarming, shocking and quite disturbing in some ways as
it will be hard for some people to look at, especially audiences of a younger
age. They have purposely made it this way in order to alarm people so much
so that they immediately want to stop as they can see what they are doing to
themselves. They have then included some text alongside this image which
reads, ‘every time you smoke your blood gets thick and dirty with toxins.
Search smokefree’. They have included this fact as it links with the image
talking about how smoking ruins and seriously damages your blood. The image
acts as a diagram of how a smokers blood will look, the text is fact and we
know this from the source of the advert as it is a medical awareness campaign.
They have also included that you can search ‘smokefree’ online to receive
more information and also to get help stopping. The text is in a simple font just
so it doesn’t distract from the main focus of the image as this is the part that is
going to grab the attention of the public. They have also included the small
‘smokefree’ logo at the bottom of the advert as this is just again reminding the
public of where you can go and who is there to help. 3
Case Study: NHS - SMOKEFREE

4. Impact: Evidence of any change being brought about through projects
using words and or graphics.
With any non smoking campaign it is pretty much impossible for everyone to listen to it, see it and actually
do something about it and quit smoking so it never really has that great of an impact. However it can have
a bigger impact over a larger time scale as the NHS in particular are always bringing out new campaigns
against smoking. So over this time along with laws such as the ban against smoking inside public
businesses for example there can be a noticeable change and decrease in the amount of smokers. The
impact is intended to shock people who didn’t realise the serious effects and implications smoking has on a
persons health, it’s point it to inform people of these facts about smoking and it’s effects and to make a
change in some way whether that’s to a large group or to only a few people that have taken the advert very
seriously. The impacts of this image they have used are largely to scare people as it is extremely shocking
to see the effects in such a blunt way without any kind of warning. The text alongside this has the impact of
informing people of something they possibly didn’t know and intentionally links with the image as an
example of what your blood could look like if you are a smoker. The actual impacts of smoking campaigns
over the years is shown in the graph below. The figures show that the numbers have dramatically reduced,
for example the amount of people smoking has gone from being 45% in 1974 to just 19% in 2013. These
numbers show the change in the amount of smokers over the years mainly as a result of new laws and
also campaigns like this one that are clearly impacting smokers in a really powerful way as it clearly shows
the damages it makes to your body and gives the overall message that smoking kills
and it is just a slow and painful
way of dying that also just
causes a lot of serious health
problems.
f
4Creative Media Production 2012
Case Study: NHS - SMOKEFREE

5. Case Study: YMCA – global charity for young people
Purpose:
• To bring about global change
• To change attitudes
• To raise awareness
• To provide information
• To campaign
• To create/strengthen community
ties
• To build relationships with
subjects
Aims:
The aim of this advert is bring a lot more
awareness regarding homelessness globally
as the majority aren’t there by choice. This
organisation wants to draw attention to this
and get the public that are able to help them
to stop this being an issue. This is an issue
everywhere so the main aim is to get this
advert shown on a global scale to decrease
the amount of young people being homeless.
5Creative Media Production 2012

6. Techniques:
In this campaign the charity is very well known for it’s work with young people,
helping them to get work, progress, achieve what they want to and also to ensure
they are living a life that will allow them to do this. As it is a charity organisation that
aspires to help, they need the people that see this to do something about it and also
want to help them. The charity YMCA or the ‘Y’ have included lots of techniques in
this particular advert as they want people to feel almost guilty if they don’t help the
charity. They have used a large image of a young girl that appears to be homeless,
lonely and afraid sitting on a floor with nothing and no one around her to help. This
initially tells the audience who they would be helping and gives a sense of why they
should help also as the girl in the image is very young and defenceless. The people
they are aiming it at may also have families as it is targeted to people who have
extra money that they wish to give to a charity. If they have families this advert is
even more effective as it immediately will have more of an emotional connection to
the charity and can make them want to donate or volunteer. They have text above
the image of the girl that reads, ‘her dream is a place to call home’. They have made
the word ‘home’ in a different colour to the rest immediately getting straight to the
point of the advert and highlighting the fact that this girl doesn’t have a home like so
many people seeing the advert will do. The word, ‘dream’ has connotations of
happiness contrasting completely to the main message the charity is sending to the
audience making it even clearer that instead of a young person dreaming of a great
career for example as many people do, she is actually dreaming of something that
so many people have and something she should have already. This text along with
the image are very powerful and make a bold statement making anyone that sees
this advert feel some guilt and need to help the charity in some way. They have also
included text discussing factual information about the homeless and also the
websites and phone numbers they can go to if they want to help or learn more about
the organisation and what they do for young people around the world. 6
Case Study: YMCA – global charity for young people

7. Impact: Evidence of any change being brought about through projects
using words and or graphics.
The intended impact of this advert is to shock the person seeing it as it is a young person that is alone,
without a family or a home so this can be very emotive for some people, especially those who have
children themselves. Some will have more of an emotional reaction than others, and this may just be
dependant on what their own living situation is. For example, those who have young children and a nice
home are more likely to feel more compassion and sympathy toward the girl in the image and are more
likely to want to help the charity and help get young people off the streets and in to homes of their own.
This kind of impact is very powerful as they have chosen emotive language such as ‘dream’ which has an
impact on it’s own as this word holds a different connotation for each individual but has the same meaning
of being something you strive to achieve and seeing that this girls is to have something that she should
already have can create a much more effective impact on the audience. The charity have included some of
their success stories and some concerning young homeless people, for example;
Zubari who is 17 was made homeless after his mother couldn’t afford to pay for the house any longer, the
charity set him up with a family in a new home to live in while he works hard at college to become an
aerospace engineer. He was also quoted saying, “If YMCA wasn’t there I can’t imagine what I’d do. I could
have been forced to be like one of those boys selling drugs on the street. All you need sometimes is
someone who cares”. This work can only be done by the charity as a result of this kind of advert being
shown to the public and with the help of their donations. New research by Homeless Link, found that 40%
of councils believe they do not have the tools they need to prevent youth homelessness, with statistics
showing that homelessness was not prevented in 8 in 10 cases where young people approached the
council for help. In the report, Young and Homeless, published by the national body for homeless
organisations, 52% of those seeking help with homelessness were found to be under 25 and there appears
to be a shortage of suitable accommodation, with 94% of councils saying that they have placed young
people in bed & breakfasts. This is exactly what the YMCA help to prevent and these advertisements help
them to do so as they have just recently been awarded a £2.95 million grant for homeless young adults
after partnering with the government. 7
Case Study: YMCA – global charity for young people

8. Case Study: YOUTHWORX MEDIA
Purpose:
• To bring about community change
• To provide information
•To create/strengthen community ties
• To build relationships with subjects
• To create access to media production
for non-traditional groups
Aims:
Young people sometimes aren’t given the
experience of learning what goes on in the
media, especially those of a really young age,
regardless of how much they want to learn as
there are many restrictions of 18 and older
with some companies for work experience.
However a town based in Australia organised
this group for young people to come together
and work with the media and new
technologies and to generally help them gain
experience and knowledge. Their aim is to
bring the community together and to ensure
that young person that wants the media
experience can get it.
8Creative Media Production 2012

9. Techniques:
As this is a community based organisation that doesn’t have that much recognition
and it’s that well known, the way they use techniques is really important. This
screen shot is just the home page of their website which is the first thing people will
see when they find their organisation online so the way in which they have designed
it, shows exactly what they do and what their company is about. Their audience is
young people, so they have designed this page around that fact and aimed to make
that clear to the people that see their website. The font they have used is bold and
colourful and shows a fun theme with a handwritten effect on some of it and bold
coloured in effect on others. The fact that they have made it look coloured in shows
the young age to which they are targeting their organisation at and also they have
used a camera roll effect that has been drawn on to the word ‘films’ making it look
like a roll of film and linking the concept of this media program with their slogan,
‘making better films, building better lives’. They have also used an image and
continued with the hand drawn effect where they have drawn three young people
clearly shown by the clothing they have put on them that are crowded round a
computer. They have shown the target audience through the use of this image as
they have drawn the kind of age range they are aiming at. There is also an
interactive aspect to the website as there is a video that you can view showing more
about the organisation that appears to be on the screen of the computer. This
interactive technique to the website shows the media and technical things they can
learn to do themselves. The last main aspect of the web page is the text that they
have included as they have put a fairly large section of text that explains more
about them and what they help young people to do and learn if they join the
programme.
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Case Study: YOUTHWORX MEDIA

10. Impact: Evidence of any change being brought about through projects
using words and or graphics.
Youthworx media are a community based organisation that aim to help young people in a small area to
learn more about the media and learn more technical aspects of it to develop their skills. They offer
different programmes and also work to prevent homelessness and to help the homeless to develop their
skills and get off the streets. However their main impact is the knowledge that young people learn with the
programmes that they offer that are all revolved around the media. When they first started this organisation
they got a group of young people that fit in to their target audience profile and ran a trial for the programs to
see if this was something that people were going to enjoy and learn from. The trials were extremely
successful as it ended in one participant winning a national youth media award for work done in the
youthworx media trial. They also partnered with a local youth radio station SYN and a lot of support was
given to assist the radio team to win a community radio licence and also to gain funding for the first year of
broadcasting. Funding for Youthworx was given by The Salvation Army from 2006-2008 and in 2006 they
gained a large associate grant from the ARC for research.
Along with this success they achieved they also have helped many young teens to develop their
knowledge on the media and help them to aspire and achieve their own success in the media if they want
a career in this industry. It helps young people to get work experience as many companies don’t offer to
people of a young age.
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Case Study: YOUTHWORKX MEDIA