Samaritans Lisa's Story
This Advert is basically advertising people who has emotional problems or suicidal thought can give the Samaritans which is the charity name a call for help as it is a 24/7 phone line that opens every single day of the year and ask the audience to donate money to them so they could keep the phone line available for the ones who need help but it is also used to inform those who has suicidal thoughts or other problem they have, that they can get help from Samaritans as they’ve left their number on the advert as well as read it out loud to the audience.
The settings in this advertisement is very basic because it all set in one place which is Lisa's apartment but filmed in different times which tells the audience the importance of having a 24 hour line because they won't know when Lisa will call during the day and if they had a specific closing time, then Lisa wont be able to get help for her emotional problems as we can see that she calls Samaritans at a very time and if they don’t have a 24 hour service then in this advert, Lisa won't have gotten help at all. In addition, Most of the shots that was used in the advertisement were close ups to show Lisa's emotion. This is used to make the audience to have sympathy for Lisa and donate money to the charity. Other than the close up, there was also a low angle shot of Lisa's house with time-lapse to show how the day went to night and to tell the audience that it is late night that Lisa has chosen to call Samaritans. Also Lisa keeps looking out the window for something. Perhaps she's looking out for her abuser? Maybe the low angle shot of Lisa's house was the POV of the abuser ?
This advert uses need for attention as Lisa would want to be noticed by others and help her because we can see Lisa crying due to abuses in the past therefore the audience would notice her and help her by donating to the charity.
The audience are given context of Lisa's life without any dialogue from her with the use of subtitles. Arguably, the subtitles give more information than the voiceover as they tell the story for Lisa whereas the voiceover tells the story of Samaritans.
ReplyDeleteThe constant visual of the Samaritans logo suggests that they are constantly beside Lisa and always there for her. The repeated use of 'need' is presenting the idea that this an important cause that is absolutely necessary. The idea of 'pledging' gives the donation more importance and lets the audience feel like they are a vital part in cases like Lisa's.
Specifically using a vulnerable woman rather than a man makes the audience feel worse because of how women are generally represented as being weaker or less able to be independent. The voiceover continues to say 'someone like Lisa' which suggests that there are a lot of other vulnerable women out there who desperately need help from the audience.