Introduction

Advertising is all around us and is integral to everyday life. It is one of the largest sectors of the media industry, adverts being presented in a wide range of media such as television, film, radio, magazines, posters, billboards, the press and the internet. Of all these, television advertisements probably has the highest profile, some television advertisements being so effective and memorable that they become classics and part of the cultural background for a whole generation of viewers. Television is used to market almost every product one can imagine from everyday consumables, like washing powder, to extravagant sports cars, whilst some advertisements promote a service such as, banking or vehicle breakdown cover.

Television advertising has become more and more spohisticated, utilising the very latest digital production techniques. Content and style can be simple or complex, using traditional narrative structures or less obvious surrealist imagery, and messages can be overt or understated.

I have created this blog to show my understanding of the structures and techniques used in television advertisements.

I have conered structures relating to form, style and the codes and conventions used in adverts.

I have also discussed with examples the different techniques that advertisers use to promote a product.

Structures of Advertisements

The structures of television advertisements relate to its form, style and the codes and conventions used by media producers. Over the next series of blog posts I will discuss each of these in detail with examples.

Form - Documentary

A lot of adverts use some sort of song, joke or highly dramatic advert that isnt very strongly related to their product. However occasionally adverts sometimes use a totally informative documentary style. This can be a good idea because if it is a product that promises lots of things then the best way to promote the product is to make sure the audience get all the facts about why they should choose that product.

Form - Animation

Today more and more adverts are beiggining to use animation. This is because animation is becoming easier and more impressive to look at. Animated adverts can also be used cleverly to appeal to a certain audience depending on the product advertised. For example a child would be more likely to enjoy an animated advert if it was a game or such a product being advertised aimed maily at children.

This Coco Pops advert for example uses a lot of very good animation and is obviously aimed at children. The advert is very clever because at the same time as appealing to the children with its typical cartoon style it appeals to parents who would be doing the shopping by still managing to add facts such as when it states it has high fibre.

Form - Narrative Structures

In the media there are lots of techniques used for advertising and such. A way that advertising gets you to purchase something is by telling stories relating to a product. How The story is told relates to its narrative structure. Every story contains characters, settings, conflicts and resolutions. A narrative structure can be Linear or non linear, open or closed and certain people have come up with theories related to narrative structure. This means that the story either only goes one way (linear) or it has several stories in one and/or can be told in more than one way (non-linear). The story can be left with no real resolution at the end, open for another sequel (open ended)

An example of Narrative structures in an advert would be the strongbow advert, This advert would be classed as an open ended, linear advert. which uses its narrative structure to create humour whilst also involving the strongbow product as a constant goal throughout the advert.

Form - Stand Alone/Series

Usually adverts are just a random clip using whatever is necessary in the clip to promote its product. Most of the time these adverts are what we call stand alone. This just means that the advert does not carry on from/to any other adverts for the same or another product. The usual reason for creating a stand alone advert is if the company had a lot of money and could use it all to create one big, impressive advert.

Some adverts however are different, They are called series adverts; these adverts are basically just the same as a stand alone except in a short time another advert will be released following on from the other advert. These adverts are usually used with less of a budget spent to make a simple short advert.

This advert is an example of a series advert where the same characters appear again and again at different points in their life making them memorable and making so the audience knows what the advert is promoting before actually seeing the product.

Form - Talking Heads

Talking Heads is the name given to the use of vox pops or basically using inverviews with the public and their opinions in this case to enhance the advert and make the audience belive in their claim because if the audience see a member of the public saying it they dont expect them to be lying. It also can make the audience think that everyone else likes the product.

In this particular advert, the talking heads technique has been used in a humourous way to make the audience take notice of and belive what the girl is saying about the ketchups being the same. The target audience of this advert would be mums who are doing the shopping for a child and would go to aldi and buy the cheaper version because the advert shows a child liking it as much as the expensive one.