Analysis of NSPCC Adverts

Both of these adverts include girls of a young age who have clearly suffered from abuse in the past. These adverts will appeal to a wide range of different people and target audiences – particularly teenagers and young people in that position. This is because of the use of young faces in the advert, which will appeal to others that feel the same way as the girls in the adverts do. I believe that for Young and Rubicam’s 4Cs classification, these adverts would appeal to the ‘struggler’ as they feel that they need to escape their thoughts and feelings, which may indicate that something similar has happened to them. I also think that the ‘explorer’ may be drawn in by these adverts because they want to experience new feelings or sensations and this could mean that they want to feel happiness again after their personal experience and this advert could help them to have that sensation.
 

                  For the first advert, there is a young girl’s face that is extremely close to the camera. This is known as a big close up and it has been used here to express how the girl feels and show the audience how she feels. The facial expression that the girl is showing that this is a desperate plead for help and this is also shown in the way that she is looking directly into the face of the audience member. By doing this, the advertisers are reinforcing the message that there are children in the world who are in this situation and this is a serious topic that must be addressed. The lighting in this advert is constructed to purposely shine only on one side of her face and have the darkness on the other side. This is an indication that she is hiding a secret and has a light side to her that everyone sees but also a dark side that she sees. Using the shadows as a way of showing her emotions and secrets, the audience will see that the girl is not in a good mental state and she needs the help of the audience members. For the second advert, there is a smiling young girl’s face that is hanging on the wall, primarily showing that this is a mask for her feelings. There is also a school tie and pink wallpaper and stickers on the wall. These have many connotations, such as the girl must be of a young as due to the way her room is pink and there is a school tie hanging on the wall. She is clearly seen to be innocent and still only a young child like everyone else her age is. However, she is hiding the fact that she must have been abused due to the mask hanging on the wall. This mask is symbolic of the fact that she is hiding a secret and she is putting on a mask to hide what she really feels. She is smiling but this is a fake smile and this is not really how she truly feels. Everything in the background is clearly in focus because everything is relevant to the whole picture. However, the mask is the main point of focus for the audience because the advertisers will have wanted them to see and understand exactly what the advert connotes.  
 

                  The first advert for the NSPCC triggers many basic appeals; one of them being the ‘need to nurture’. This is because the audience will see a young girl staring directly into the eyes of the audience members to try and encourage them to donate to the charity. This advert triggers a person’s maternal or paternal instincts as they will see a young person in need of help and potentially think of their own child when seeing this. They will subsequently feel sympathy for the person in this position and want to do something to help them. Another basic appeal for this advert would be ‘physiological needs’. This is because of how the audience will see that the girl will potentially be deprived of her basic needs such as a safe place to live or even food. The message that the advert sends to the audience members clearly has connotations that this girl is unhappy and this is because of the abuse that she is receiving. If the audience see that the girl is not getting her basic needs for life, they will want to help to give them to her. The second advert also has many basic appeals such as the ‘need to nurture’. Like the first advert, this advert shows a young child in a situation that parents will not want to see a child in. Therefore, this will make the parents potentially seek their maternal or paternal instincts and this will cause them to subsequently want to help the child. Another basic appeal that this advert appeals to is the ‘need to feel safe’. This is because some of the audience may be in the same situation as the girl in the advert and as a result, they will want to feel safe from the abuse that they have suffered. This advert will appeal to hem because the helplines will offer them some hope that they will be able to overcome want has happened.

                  For the first advert, there is a mute symbol that has been placed over her mouth. This will have many connotations such as she will have been silenced by someone that she knows and she therefore feels that she cannot tell anyone. The mute symbol is similar to that of a TV mute button, therefore signifying that she has been forced to remain silent on the issue.