Charity Adverts

REPRESENTATION IS A CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY

Charity Adverts

 - The Purpose of a charity advert is to try and make you donate/get involve with the charity.

- They try to encourage members of the public to agree with their ideology and establish a cause.

-They want the audience to donate to the charity.

- They use distressing images and sad music as a mode of address to 'guilt trip' the audience.

- They are scheduled during the day between shows such as Jeremy Kyle or Homes under the hammer. These appeal to working class unemployed, new parents and the elderly.

- We know it is a charity advert as they use a soft, sympathetic and comforting voices voice (conventions).

- The use of sound is emphasised and direct address is used to appealed to the audience to make them feel bad and more likely to donate.

- They make us feel like we have to donate.

NSPCC - Open Your Eyes (2000)

-The repetition of the £2 a month gets the idea into the watchers head so they have more time to think about it. This makes the audience feel like they don't have a choice. The repetition of the phone number gives the audience time to jot it down.

- The child is made to look weak through the high angles and the black and white filter put on during the editing process. The direct address of the child looking straight into the camera makes it look like the child is looking straight into your eyes and is trying to appeal to you.

- The proiratic code of the child pulling the blanket over his head suggests he is about to be hit and his body language is closed of which makes the audience feel like they should help them.

- The use of the tatted, ripped clothes emphasises the abuse and makes the audience want to reach out, even though they know it is actors to protect the identity of the children.

- We are being positioned as the abuser - we are not doing anything about him being abused if we do not donate any money. The slow motion editing means the watcher has to watch the child crying or look at the '£2 a month' or the helpline number.

- The direct address of 'open your eyes' suggests the audience is blind and that if you don't donate money you are an evil abuser

WATERAID - No Choice

- The video footage is realistic, the possibility is that they are not actors. It is at least somewhat staged as the characters are looking directly into the camera. She is from a third world country/Africa.

- We are presented as her last chance - the only ones who can change her life. We have the money to change her life as we are not a third world country - we are British.

- The dull colour that shifts to the blue suggests hope and water and a before and after they receive your money. The binary opposition of the children with the dirty water that is monotone vs the bight happy pictures of the children with clean water.

WATERAID - Claudia Sings On A Rainy Day

- Shows the positive outcomes of the donation instead of guilt tripping. Shows the water bringing the community together in positivity for what they have.

- The 'victim' is healthy and talented gives a positive outlook on the 'African community'

- The close up shot of the feet emphasises how harsh the journey to get the water is on her and her feet and how long she has to walk for the water. The audience will most likely be sat at home comfy, on a sofa relaxing whilst she is embarking on this long treacherous journey of which makes them feel like they should do something.

-  The background noise of the insects and the absence of any music symbolises her lack of joy when she has to carry this heavy bucket of water home on the long journey represented at the start of the advert. It also hits reality after the joy of the whole community coming together to celebrate the water fountain that has been funded by WaterAid donations.

- The binary opposites of the rainy scene in England to the dry desert of Zambia make the audience feel grateful for the rain that they have as whilst it is a culture to complain about it, these people in Zambia do not have enough so therefore the audience feels guilty and i more likely to donate.

- The Zambian population is represented to not have much yet be very grateful of what they have. By singing joyfully about what little water she does have along her treacherous journey she 

- The slow motion show of the water coming out of the tap emphasises the importance of the water in their life. It is a symbolic code of hope, life and happiness.