NSPPC Advert Analysis

Media Studies                        Image Based Analysis           Lewis Pinnington

NSPPC- Mask Advert

The advertisement is an image of the back of a girl’s bedroom door. There are colourful hearts present and hung up is a mask and tie. The door is coloured in pinks and purples. The colouring of the child’s door is pink and purple, this connotes that the child I in fact a girl but also a young or childish one. The uses of these colours are predominately associated with girls and childhood. The location of the image is also very important as it is the back of a door, this is important as this location is generally out of sight to most people. This shows that the child may want to hide the content hung there. On the back of the door there is stickers of hearts with various patterns on them. All of these stickers are light in colour, this connotes to re-enforce the child like nature of the girl.

The next thing present on the door is a school tie; this school tie gives the audience a visual signifier to the child’s age, about 13-15. This would make the girl a teenager, a time in a young girls life that is considered particularly stressful so the sexual abuse the advertisement talks about is just giving the girl even more pressure. The next item on the door is a mask, this mask is very human like, this connotes to the girls cover being believable. The mask is of a girl (most likely the girl who lives in the bedroom) the mask is identical however this is smiling, this links into what the advertisement was saying about hiding abuse that she uses the mask to hide her true self. There are lots of expressions like “A smile can hide true feelings” this is a literal illustration of this.

The text on the advertisement is almost hidden away in the corners; this is done so no attention is distracted from the image. NSPCC use this method throughout all of their ads as they use powerful/meaningful images to raise awareness for there cause. The adverts use of words is very important as NSPCC reaches out to the audience via using the word ‘you’ this is a technique to make the advertisement address there audience on a personal level. ‘When you’re ready’ this is a direct quote from the ad and it implies that NSPCC are gentle and considerate for there audience. I believe this as most advertisements are very aggressive with there methods making out that you need to do/own something now otherwise they will be out of the loop (advertisements aimed at aspirers use this method). Finally the colours of the text is also thought about here, the use of the colour purple on a pink background may seem like a mistake however it connotes once more to the fact the advertisement is aimed at women. The use of the white is also used as it contrasts well with the background as well as the colour white symbolising purity and safety.

NSPPC- Mute Button Advert 

         When looking at this advert for the first time the denotations are that there is a women really close to the camera who appears to be looking at us, the women has brown hair and brown eyes (a common trait), also there is a mute button present over the mouth of the girl. There is also text in a small font placed at the bottom of the picture, the colour is white and is easily visible despite the size.

            Upon second glance of the advertisement connotations are formed, first of all the camera angle is a close up positioned at mid angle. The use of the close up shows the character on a more personal level, as at this range imperfections are clearly visible; these wouldn’t be present in different camera time (a wide shot for example). The girl in the advertisement has brown hair and brown eyes as I stated earlier these are very common features for a person to have, so I believe these have been chosen by the NSPPC. I believe they have been chosen specifically as it connotes the commonness of the girl and due to this abuse could happen to anyone. The eyes of the girl are also important, as she appears to be looking directly at us; this is used by a lot of charity adverts as it makes the person look like they are pleading to us for help (re-enforcing the person connection).

            The use of shadow in this advertisement is important, as the designers have used low key and high key lighting to achieve this effect. The girls face is half covered with light and half with shadow. This connotes that the girl have a light/pleasant side and a dark/sad or evil side, and due to the mute button that I will talk about soon it is a safe assumption that she only shows people the lighter side. The mute button present over the girls mouth acts as a barrier effectively stopping her from talking about the abuse she has been through. The use of the mute button connotes that this has been done to her as you mute something also making her out to be an object.