Save the Children - A Second a day for a child - 6

Charity: Save the Children

Campaign: Second a Day

The ideologies presented in the advert is that thousands of children are facing every day unrest from the constant barrage and violence in their city, and there is nothing they can do to stop it from happening. It shows how different life can be after only a year, and that war within their country will prevent them from leading a happy life, as he completely takes over your life in a negative way. He start and the end of the advert is the child on her birthday, which I should be a happy day for children. At the start, a massive cake, several candles representing her age, and many of her friends and family surround her. At the end, there is no cake, it appears to be bread, or something to that effect, her face is down, and her eyes are just so far away form life due to the violence she has witnessed in life. Only the mum is next to her, as her dad got split up from them during the advert, and presumably all her friends and family have died, or didn't flee to the same place the child and mum did. The encoders want people to know that this isn't the way a child should be living, they should be happy, healthy, not fleeing from their loved ones due to war. The audience don't realise how life changing the war is to these Syrian children, they don't realise how brutal the war can be because it isn't happening where the audience lives, but it when a white, English girl is portrayed to be in the war, people change their perspective on the war in Syria, people start to realise that the war is so brutal to children, and the encoders want to reinforce their ideology that children shouldn't have to live this way. 

The main character in the advert is a child, which more than likely pull at the strings of the audience because children are portrayed to be vulnerable, the audience always Imagine to themselves their children in that situation, and the encoders believe that if a child is the main character, then the audience will feel more empathetic, and more likely to donate to the cause. The need to nurture in Maslows  Hierarchy of Needs is the most prominent need in the advert, as the audience naturally want to protect children regardless of were they come from, which will mean that the audience will be more likely to donate to a charity that has highlighted a child as the main character. The use of diegetic sounds in the advert highlights how bad the war is, it adds more of a realistic sound to the advert, rather than music played over the top of the advert, which can make the advert more empathetic. It gives a personal connection between the audience and the child, as both head the same sounds at the same time, so it makes the audience feel as though they were in that situation themselves. The use of close up shots in every scene, and the camera not moving at all despite the obvious change in scene, shows how the child has no future while she is living in a war torn country, and it makes the audience only want to look at the child, rather than get distracted and look elsewhere. The use of shock tactics is also important in the advert, as the audience will feel appalled when they see how the child is being treated, and the horrors she has to live with on a display basis. No child should live like that, and it more or less persuades the audience into feel pressurised into donating. The sign of illness though is also important to the audience, the lack of new clothes, or medicine, or the loss of hair shocks the audience, and it makes them realise how unwell these children are, and this is only one girl, there is thousands of young children going through the same treatment, and they are also fleeing their homes whilst unhealthy and unwell, and they need donations to survive.

The advert is one of the best at making the audience feel emotional, the threat of war is constant throughout the advert, and the fact that the audience is forced into looking at the child means that we have to startle into the soulless eyes of the child. At the end, when the mum says "Make a wish" and the child stares into the camera, it makes the audience feel awkward, and guilty about eh is happening. Her wish is to live a healthy life, but also to receive donations from the audience, when she stares into the camera, she's almost asking the audience to donate, using her watery eyes and looking up at us, to suggest that she is small in life and she is lacking any sort of power, and feels worthless to be asking the audience for money.