Revision: WaterAid and how representations position audiences

Possible questions:

• How does the WaterAid advert appeal to different audiences? 
• In what ways does the WaterAid audience categorise its audiences
• How does the WaterAid advert attract/target it’s audiences? 
• How does the WaterAid advert construct its audiences? 
• How does the marketing of the WaterAid advert appeal to its target audiences?
• How can audiences interpret the WaterAid advert in different ways? 
•  what ways can audiences use the WaterAid advert, and how does this reflect their identity and cultural capital?
• How do audience responses to the WaterAid advert demonstrate sociohistorical circumstances? 

Possible arguments:

1 - The WaterAid advert uses subversive representations and challenges genre conventions to appeal to a range of audiences

2 - The WaterAid advert uses a range of stereotypical representations to present a straightforward ideology to its target audience: a generalised, stereotypical representation of Africa

How does the WaterAid advert appeal to different audiences? 

• Typical and conventional charity adverts often position the audience as 'the cause' of whatever issue they are promoting. For example, a famous NSPCC advert uses leading cinematography to controversially position the audience as a child abuser, which is highly manipulative. These shocking adverts are eventually ignored by the audience due to desensitisation. The creators of the WaterAid advert use a more positive mode of address to position the audience as 'heroes' who are able to solve the situation. 
• Additionally, the WaterAid advert uses bright, saturated colour throughout. This functions as a symbolic code, suggesting to the audience positivity, happiness and a sense that the world is in good working order. This may well appeal to audiences who have become disillusioned with depressing charity adverts.
• Furthermore, the WaterAid advert uses a popular pop song that was released in 1990 in the UK, which will resonate with and appeal to middle age audiences
• Claudia is hardworking, happy, and a good singer. Claudia is a teenager, but she subverts expectations of teenage girls by being happy and hardworking. The MES of her pink polo shirt also suggests she is a schoolgirl, and is therefore hardworking at school and in carrying water around. She is doing chores, such as ringing cloths, cleaning
• The sound of laughing children may appeal to older audiences

How does the WaterAid advert attract/target it’s audiences? 

• An oppositional reading to traditional charity adverts is that they are often extremely exploitative and manipulative. In older WaterAid adverts, children are shown drinking dirty water in a way that surely hurts them. The justification is that this raises awareness, but all audience members will agree. The Claudia advert takes a deliberately different perspective, and is able to engage viewers more effectively. 
• Use of Lexis: text 'SUNNY'. Use of language here is overwhelmingly positive, and positions the audience in a positive, helpful and powerful position
• MES of group of smiling villagers around the water pump reinforces the ideology that water is a source of happiness. This emphasises the idea of positivity and helpfulness for the target audience
• Sunny, blissful setting is emphasises through high key natural lighting filtering through trees. This functions as a symbolic code, suggesting freedom, happiness and autonomy
• MES of colour becomes brighter and more saturated as advert continues. This is symbolic of the impact of water on the community of the villagers
• Claudia sings an African tinged version of a 90s pop song. This song will appeal in particular to middle aged and older audiences who may have more expendable income or money to spend on charity campaigns. The song itself is positive, uplifting, and also sung in English.
• By singing in English, Claudia is more relatable to the target audience. Claudia is hardworking, is interested in the same ancient pop songs as the target audience, and is wearing bright, optimistic. Claudia is a relatable name that is easy to pronounce, and speaks clear, easy to understand English 

How can audiences use the WaterAid advert to reflect their identity?

• Stereotypes work! They are a straightforward way of reinforcing the producer's ideology, and they ensure that the audience will hopefully donate money
• Generalised and stereotypical representation of 'Africa'. No country in particular is mentioned.
• A stereotypical representation of African people presented here is that they are always happy, are musically talented, dancing, and signing. MES of African villagers dancing happily in the sunset presents a positive but stereotypical representation
• Poor and deprived. There is an inference that Claudia only has water due to WaterAid's intervention. Additionally, the MES of Claudia's blue bucket is positive, yet a reminder and a proairetic code that she is traveling a long distance to take water home
• Africa is represented as bright, sunny and idyllic and heavenly 
• Stereotypically, life is based around water for African people... or at least this is true in charity adverts!
• England is represented through a stereotypical binary opposition, as being cold, wet and dreary. This emphasises the stereotype that 'Africa' is a magical fantasy land, that also has significant economic issues
• Othering - when a separation is made between two different groups of people: us and them
• This advert, makes extensive use of othering in order to position and to construct its audiences!
• Paul Gilroy and postcolonial theory. After the English colonised other nations, there exist racial hierarchies of importance.
• This advert reinforces a hierarchy that exists between privileged, wealthy England, and poor, vulnerable Zambia. The advert reinforces the ideology that it is up to the privileged audiences to help the vulnerable 'Africans'. This reinforces the stereotype of the 'white saviour' 
• Perhaps the advert will encourage more white working class people to donate, as they feel more sympathetic to the 'poor African' stereotype, and more willing to give money 

In what ways can audiences use the WaterAid advert, and how does this reflect their identity?

• In this advert, the audience are positioned in a position of privilege. They are positioned in a way that they have the means and the finances to donate money. Therefore, the WaterAid advert sells a lifestyle of being a good and charitable person.
• The WaterAid advert deliberately uses a process of othering to position the target audience in a position of privilege, but more importantly, to position 'African' people as vulnerable and in need of charity. This is a highly stereotypical representation. 
• The Claudia advert uses stereotypical , postcolonial representations of Africa in order to create sympathy for its target audience. 
• Claudia and other villagers are represented as stereotypically poor/ Claudia is establishes through an establishing montage that shows her walking down a hot and dusty path to collect water. This is a highly stereotypical representation of life in rural central African countries. 
• The advert is set in a remote rural location, and not is Lusaka, Zambia's capital city. This is in order to further other Claudia, and to represent her as being vulnerable and in need of help. This hyperreal representation allows the audience to better understand Africa, through the use of stereotypical representations
• Dry and dusty MES, and in particular the red sand is highly stereotypical of representations of Africa
• Claudia's shoes are extremely important, and are established in a close up, low angle tracking shot. As the audience a positioned 'in her shoes' , we are also confronted with another stereotype. Claudia's footwear us cheap and flimsy looking , which emphasises that she is poor
• The advert makes extensive use of binary oppositions. We are initially positioned in a stereotypical representation of the UK. It is raining, and the desaturated colours connote that it is cold and miserable. However, we cut from a comparatively wealthy country to a comparatively, stereotypically poor country. Producers use Binary oppositions here to emphasise the relative poverty that is experienced in many parts of Africa

How does the WaterAid advert appeal to different audiences? (12)

• The Claudia advert presents a positive and uplifting mode of address that positions the audience with Claudia's community
• DAC
• Audience refers to the consumers of a media product. In this essay I shall argue that the Claudia advert presents a positive and uplifting ideology to it's target audiences in order to help them to engage with this serious issue. WaterAid is UK registered charity that provides drinking water to developing countries.
• Advert focuses on positive outcomes, and the effects of clean running water. This is encoded through fresh, pouring water. This is further reinforced through the use of high key natural lighting. The bright, soft, golden lighting functions as a proairetic code, suggesting the future is bright, and there is a clear and happy ending to this narrative. 
• The WaterAid advert presents a clear and easy to understand narrative to it's target audience. There is a clear three act structure, and a clear problem that must be solved. In this case, the disequilibrium of this narrative is a lack of water. However, this is quickly solved by the hero of this narrative. In this case, it is the audience themselves. The audience is positioned in a way in which they are gently obliged to give money. This is accomplished through the use of direct mode of address, which features in on screen graphics at the end of the advert: 'Text 'SUNNY' to help a person like Claudia'
• Charity adverts often target working class and older audiences. Charity adverts are often scheduled in daytime television which appeals to these audiences. These audiences are specifically targeted through the character of Claudia. The name Claudia is more relatable to English audiences, and Claudia herself is hardworking and an upstanding member of society. Teenage girls are often stereotyped as grumpy and violent in UK media products, but Claudia subverts this stereotype. Finally Claudia is singing a 90's pop song in clear English, which will appeal to older, working class British audiences.
• Africa is represented in a subversive and non-stereotypical way. There is a big focus on togetherness and community, which is encoded through, through the use of other actors arranged in groups and positioned and framed in long shots and mid shots. The cinematography emphasises exactly how many people are having their lives changed by the addition of water. This is further reinforced through the inclusion of an uplifting pop song, which is further anchored through the bright, cheery, saturated colour choices. Throughout the advert, the colours of 'Africa' become more and more intense, which symbolises positivity, and the fact that WaterAid and the audience are making things better
• In addition to the stereotypical target audience of charity adverts, the Claudia advert may also appeal to more diverse audiences, for example middle class black audiences. By including positive representations of black characters, the advert constructs a challenging and atypical representation of Africa
• Younger audiences: younger character of Claudia. Younger audiences are valuable for their disposable income

How do audience responses to the WaterAid advert demonstrate sociohistorical circumstances?

• Sociohistorical circumstances refer to the social issues of our time, and how they have changed over time. The reasons for people donating money have changed, and due to desensitisation, audiences have completely changed their ideologies and attitudes. However, despite presenting a more outwardly positive message, the Claudia advert still uses stereotypical representations in order to make the ideology of the advert easier for the target audience to decode. 
• The Claudia advert is set in Zambia. However, this information is never shared with the audience. This is because the concept of 'Africa' as a poor 'country' provides an easy to understand stereotype for the target audience, and allows audiences to be able to categorise this in their head. Zambia's capital city is a developed and industrial area. Ye this does not conform to the stereotype, and therefore the Claudia advert is set in a stereotypical rural 'African' setting
• The advert is set in a hot and dusty and highly stereotypical setting, which is highly conventional of many audiences expectations of 'Africa'. This is a highly hyperreal representation, which captures the imagination of the target audience, and imagines 'Africa' as a lush escapist paradise.
• Furthermore, this can be seen as a clear example of cultivation of ideology. Because this stereotypical representation has been represented so often, it now functions as a hyperreal expectation for audience members, and makes the ideology of this advert clear and easy to decode. 
• MES of flimsy shoes and bare feet
• Blue bucket of water
• Patterned cloths: traditional 'African' costume
• An issue with using stereotypes is that they are condescending and even potentially harmful to audiences. This would be a classic example of an oppositional reading, where the audience disagrees with the ideology of the product and the producer. In this case, the dominant, ideological, hegemonic perspective of 'Africa' could be rejected by the target audience, who may see it as being reductive and stereotypical .
• Criticism of the white saviour stereotype, and criticism of stereotypical representations of 'Africa'