Advertising and Representation (and Audience!): Work on AVIIVA Case Study

Here are some of the adverts from the 'Little things matter' campaign advertising car insurance.

There are SEVEN adverts to choose from. You need to choose THREE very different adverts and analyse them using the chart you've been given and the questions below. You can do this on paper or Powerpoint but must do ONE EACH - this is an individual piece of work. You can work together but must produce your own outcome. It will form part of coursework assignment one.

Adverts are a very short-form medium and so use stereotypes to communicate - they have around 30 seconds to convey to you an awful lot of information so using stereotypes, whilst generalised and often inaccurate, is the most efficient way to communicate to the audience.

As Media students, your role is to work out how these stereotypes and messages are being 'constructed' - what makes them work?

Key questions/areas to debate are around: the technical aspects of the video (such as camera work, movement, framing, lighting, sound, editing) and the content of the video (such as mise-en-scene (costume, hair, make-up, body language, props, location, characters, position in frame)

Questions to consider as media students are:
WHO is being represented?
HOW? what details are being used to give you information?
WHO is the target audience (who do the producers think they are addressing? what do they think the target audience like/value?)
HOW do you know? what details are used to give you this impression?

Think about:

Costumes
Props
Location  - where and when set
Details of the set (background props and set dressing)
Characters (not just main)
Accents (key to stereotypes here)
What words are spoken (the script)
Hair/Make-up
Fonts/Graphics
Lighting
Colour
Sound
Camerawork
Framing
Editing

KEEP THIS WORK & DO IT WELL AS IT COUNTS TOWARDS YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT!

You should discuss and then write down how the following are used in your three adverts:

1. The use of stereotypes - what ideas, values, costume, accents etc are being used? What are the people shown in the advert's 'values'? What 'values' are being communicated to the audience? Think about the word typical
     e.g. Toni is Italian and runs a restaurant so..., Lord and Lady Brassick have no money but have a butler so..., Penny-wise Gary thinks saving money is important so...etc (and don't forget to say how you know - use evidence!)

2. Regional Identity - how people from different areas (or countries) are perceived/portrayed
     e.g. Toni has a stereotypical italian-accented English with certain words pronounced in certain ways and his grammar is not Standard English so...

3. Issues of CLASS - working, middle, upper
     e.g. Lord and Lady Brassick have a manor and a butler so..., Pennywise Gary cares about money (and is a Geordie) - is he to be viewed negatively as penny-pinching or is he being held up as a shining example? Does this depend on who the audience is? (i.e. a young audience may respond to this different that older people)

4. Unique Selling Point - what is it? Is it the same in each advert?
     e.g. What particular 'idea' (or ideas) or 'value' (or values) are being promoted most in each advert - choice? cheap? good quality product? more than one idea/value?? Is one more important? Is this different from the other adverts and does this tell you anything about the intended audience and what AVIVA thinks its audiences think/want? (what do AVIVA think their audience is 'like'?)
 
5. Audience - the audience isn't always the same as the 'people' shown in an advert - who do you think the audience is for each advert? Also consider how the above (1-4) indicate or change for slightly differing audiences. DON'T repeat yourself here if you've already discussed it above in detail you don't need to do it again here! If there's not much left to say then fine. You could look at the audience categories given to you last lesson or look some up on line - Mosaic is a good place to start. (page 6 gives an overview and pages 8 on explore them in more detail). This is not the only audience profiling system you will look at.


You must use DETAILS and EXAMPLES from the adverts - you can pause the videos on screen and screengrab at any time (Cmd+Shift+4) (Shift = caps button (not caps lock))

These can be printed out if Michael is there - otherwise we can print them later. (In both cases you will need to save them on the media drive in your folder)

DON'T FORGET TO EVALUATE! - How effective is the advert? How effective is the element you're discussing? Does it achieve its aims? and so on....