1 - Analysing typical advertising campaigns
Choose two print adverts from two different UK charities. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Oxfam
- Barnados
- Save The Children
- NSPCC
Answer the following questions:
- What groups are being represented in this advert?
- How is this representation constructed using media language? (Hall)
- What messages are presented about this societal group?
- In what ways might this advert impact the group being represented?
2 - WaterAid TV spot advert: Claudia Sings Sunshine on a Rainy Day - background
The charity Water Aid was established in 1981 as a response to a United Nations campaign for clean water, sanitation and water hygiene education. It now works with organisations in 37 African, Asian and Central American countries plus the Pacific region. Since1991 its patron has been Prince Charles.
Created by Atomic London in October 2016, this advert (titled Rain For Good) stars 16 year-old Zambian student Claudia and aims to show how communities benefit from clean water by depicting everyday chores such as farming and laundry.
Information taken directly from exam board resources
3 - Textual analysis
Making extensive use of the textual analysis toolkit, analyse this advert, making screencaps to draw attention to important points
Make reference to:
- Barthe’s codes (proairetic, hermeneutic, symbolic)
- media language, especially audience positioning, editing, sound and mise-en-scene
- Levi Strauss’s binary oppositions
- Hall’s representation (gender, ethnicity, age)
- Van-Zoonen's construction of gender expectations
- The representation of women/girls, ethnicity and 'Africa'*
4 - Comparing representations of ethnicity
In what ways do the representation of
- Ethnicity
- 'Africa'*, and
- Women/girls
in this advert differ from the 2016 WaterAid advert you have previously studied?
*Remember, 'Africa' is a continent, not a country. However, many charity advertising campaigns are fuzzy on exactly which African country that the advert is set in. For example, the Claudia advert is filmed and set in Zambia, but makes no reference to the country. Why is this the case?