You have created a charity and come up with an idea for a TV advert. Unfortunately the TV advert will never be made...
...fortunately you will be making 3 advertisements that could be found in a magazine or newspaper or on a billboard.
The first half of the booklet below takes you through what you need to do next in terms of coming up with ideas and how to plan and draft them.
The second half of the booklet explains how to work with people who are models for you and how to get the best photos possible for your adverts.
Click here for a guide to using Photoshop to create your adverts.
Beneath the booklet is a guide to help you create adverts by looking at other charity campaigns - you must use this if you are having trouble thinking of ideas - however even if you have a good idea then it might be worth visiting to look at other ideas and how to complete your ads as professionally as possible.
Ideas for Charity Advertising Campaigns
What is an advert made of?
- Image
- Copy
- Logo/Slogans - branding of the charity
This page will deal with the first two of these things as you should already have some ideas for Logo/Slogans from your pre-production ideas.
Images
For most people a powerful image will be more memorable than a well written line or an insightful statement. Images have the power to make us emote, and make us think. They may be taken on face value, or require several views to be fully understood or appreciated.
Since the explosion of the advertising industry on New York's Madison Avenue in the 1950s and 60s the image has been the foundation of print adverts and our current era is no exception. So...
What makes an image?
The subject of an image has to be not only 'eye catching' but should command the audience's attention. The audience should be compelled to look at an advert even i their instinct is telling them to look away. As is the case with most corporate advertising: charities will use people to make a connection with an audience.
People/Portraits
Making eye contact with another human being is a powerful point of identification. Adverts can force us into making this connection - charity adverts can make devastating and important points by doing this. The most successful way of gaining the eye contact, of reaching out to your audience is through the use of Close Up. This will also generally make the face on an advert 'life size' and therefore more realistic. Look at the following anti domestic violence advert. Look at how much detail there is in the expression of the face and how we are drawn to a fairly disturbing image...
Make some notes on the impact this advert has and why it is effective.
Mise-en-scene/Composition
Images have to be visually stimulating. They must give us something to look at. Even something shocking or abhorrent must have something aesthetic about it. When taking a photograph the setting is as important as the people in the photo. The 'look' and 'feel' of an image can encourage an audience to respond in a certain way. The mise-en-scene can make or break the impact of an image - it can create a sense of realism or fantasy.
Once the setting, lighting, costume & make-up on the set of a photo shoot is perfect; it is then vital to take the perfect photo! What devices can be used to draw people in? The Rule of Thirds? The use of shade An unusual angle?
Look at these three adverts from the 2008 campaign for Amnesty International which attacks China on its human rights abuses - it uses the Beijing Olympics as its context, but the images are the really powerful part of the campaign.
Make notes in the composition and mise-en-scene of the adverts. What makes them so effective?
Visual effects/Photoshop
It is inevitable that you will use Adobe Photoshop not only to organise the layout of your adverts but also to make small alterations to the photos you take. However, editing images in such a way that makes a point or sends a message can be innovative and creative.
They can make an audience think, laugh or look again. When thinking of ideas - imagination is vital. Often the visuals will be a metaphor which reveals the ideologies of the charity.
How have visual effects created a metaphor which explores the ideologies of the charity? What is the impact of the visual effects?
Shocking Images
Shock tactics have long been used by charities to make people sit up and pay attention - sometimes this is done using words (advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi created an ad campaign for an anti-slavery charity that had the commanding if not endearing slogan: "Read This You Piece of Shit."), although images can be much more effective - and repulsive!
Famously Barnardo's 'Silver Spoon' campaign was banned for distressing the audience, children's charities are often unapologetic in their desire to shock an audience into action, and so are animal rights organisations...
Why are these ads shocking? Are they effective?Iconic images/Intertextuality
Using an image or a symbol that is instantly recognisable can be a powerful and very fast way of getting a message across to an audience - even better if you can change that idea slightly in a way that represents your cause. The images below are from two very different charities; one advertises a helpline for people who feel suicidal and the other is about animal cruelty - both of them use the iconic symbol of a noose to make their point.
This advert uses an intertextual reference to another well established and iconic advertising campaign. Not only does the intertextuality reward those who recognise the campaign it also suggests a specific target audience that the charity may want to reach out to. Intertextuality is a shared reference between people.
Intertextuality can also be used to juxtapose ideas and to create a subtle, sometimes ironic, humour.
Visual Metaphors
We've already discussed how visual effects can be used to represent different ideas - but it shouldn't be underestimated just how often advertising will use metaphors to emphasise the ideologies they are promoting. This might make an audience smile - but its overall impact should be to make the audience think.
If you can achieve this through the use of images, the impact can be lasting and powerful. Some adverts will be very direct in their use of metaphor, some of them will be abstract.
Here are some examples...
Tis advert for Save the Children not only uses the metaphor of a weight being lifted but directly addresses the audience to make them feel as though they can make a difference to a child's life. It also uses the repetition of an image to reinforce its point.
The next advert uses humour - but also a situation which has very little relevance to the actual charity - without the anchorage of the slogan, the meaning of the advert would be very difficult to ascertain!
This last advert below uses visual effects to give the impression of a belt tightening around a chest - the impact is visceral, you can imagine what that would feel like and it creates a reaction...
Copy
Most of the adverts shown so far have relied almost entirely on images to get their message across. Some of them are very simple ideas, some are very complex - all of them are very creative.
Charities are complex organisations which do not only provide services but also represent complex and sometimes controversial and detailed ideologies. Getting a message across can't always be done simply - and sometimes an image and a slogan is just not enough to convey a complicated idea.
Whilst a main image will still be central to an advert, the copy can fill in many of the blanks or provide an audience with the substance needed to feel that they can donate money or support a charity.
The advert uses statistics and facts to seem informative, but continues to use emotive language to describe the awful situation that children are in: 'The pain of losing their daughter'.
It directly addresses the audience and gives them a sense that they can make a difference: 'You have the power'.
It contains all the information necessary for an audience member to become a supporter of the charity.
The following advert uses a higher than average amount of copy which has been reproduced below it.
Click on the copy to make it clearer to read.
What written techniques have been used? How effective is the copy of this advert, what is the impact?
Think about the language devices used as well as how these vary between statements of FACT and those that are used to engage the audience in an EMOTIVE way.
A lot of the devices used here are very traditional - but the impact is significant.
Continuity - creating a campaign
Below are three adverts for the same charity from the same campaign.
The images are different, the copy is different - but they clearly have continuity and feel similar. This is the hallmark of a good advertising campaign.
Each one is 'on message' and reinforces the ideologies of the others.
Analyse them based on the criteria we have looked at so far on this page...
