Considering all the research we had done and after many group sessions, planning and story boarding, we had an idea of what we wanted to have and do in our advert.
The main concern was having a good storyline and characters in the advert, but over time we developed some good ideas.
We decided that we would have 3 to 4 scientists/professors sitting in a lab, but not just any scientists, we wanted to have the stereotypical ‘mad’ German scientist, this would have a comical effect and the concept we be easily understood by the audience.
Another aspect we wanted, that I have mentioned before, was the effect of slow motion, we wanted to have the scientist running around in their lab coats throwing coffee at each other in slow motion, although what equipment we were going to use for the slow motion was still to be decided.
The setting for the advert was going to be a completely white room, almost appearing like a white abyss, we would create this look by using a green screen. There we would have the stereotypical science lab equipment, test tubes, bunson burner, goggles etc to create the mis-en-sen we want.
Advert Plot
The point behind this would be that there were four German scientists who for years have been searching for the ‘perfect coffee’. But have never been successful in their experiments and they were running out of time. Finally one day they have a break through, as the key to finding the perfect Coffee, is finding the perfect Coffee bean. And from there we would have slow motion clips of the scientists throwing the coffee beans around in happiness.
In order to address our audience in the best way, we needed to do some hands on research, interviewing the general public on their thoughts about Coffee.
From this we needed to infer what audience we were going to be addressing i.e. age group, more male or female etc. This was important to us, so that when we were planning our advert, we knew what would appeal and what wouldn’t to our audience.
This video is of my group interviewing members of the public, we asked over 25 people in and around the area, but here is a shortened down clip of some of the people we asked.
From this research we gathered that Coffee as a product has a surprisingly varied audience, we can infer that it appeals to a wide variety of age groups and people. Also that people enjoy Coffee for its taste, but mainly because of its benefits, acting as a stimulant.
We found that adverts do sway people when they go to buy, even if they have stuck with one brand for a while, if they see an appealing new advert on television they may choose to differ, which is what we wanted to hear, as our ‘fake’ product is going to be new on the market. Another analysis to make is that in the advert people like humour, it makes it more memorable and entertaining. Luckily for us form the start we have been planning to make our advert comical so this was pleasing to hear.
This research has been a big stride towards us developing our ideas for our advert. We now know what the audience like in an advert especially in a coffee ad, so all we need to do now is start planning and making.
After initial research into Food and Drink TV commercials, we decided that the product we wanted to promote was Coffee. We thought that choosing Coffee as our product would allow us to be creative with our advert as Coffee is a well known stimulant to millions and is drank by millions of people everyday, because Coffee has such I high demand we wanted to address the audience in a certain way, so we could engage them, but also entertain them at the same time.
Before we began planning our own Coffee Ad, we needed to see past Coffee adverts to gain some ideas and to look at what makes them successful, so that we could take all of the research we’ve done and create an ultimate advert.
This advert is great, because it’s addressing the problem millions of people have everyday, which is getting up in the morning and trying to be spurred up to go to work. The advert has comedy in it, which makes it all the more entertaining, whilst promoting what their product is for.
Here, the creators of the ad are trying to promote the quality of their Coffee, with a stereotypical Coffee bean farm in Africa. Their promoting the quality of the raw material they produce. People will like this ad because, people like to know where the food/drink they buy comes from. Although this isn’t actually the bean farm Kenco gets there coffee beans from, it sub consciously effects the audience, so that the next time they go to buy their coffee they will have an inkling that Kenco’s coffee is quality and comes from natural harvesting, they may not remember the ad when they go to buy, but it will effect their decision.
This ad like the first one promotes what their coffee will do to you; it will get you up in the morning and help you get on with your day. And that is really their main focus, there is very little of the actual product shown, only small glances, but the ad definitely catches your attention, with its use of special effects and quirky story line.
From doing this research, I can now see what aspects we want in our advert, we want it to be comical, we want to engage the audience with something different using characters and special effects and we also want to present or state the quality of our product.
After looking at successful adverts we needed to decide what kind of product we were going to be promoting. We thought about the resources we had, so we had to stay grounded with our ideas, we couldn’t be too ambitious. After a group discussion we decided that we would promote some sort of food or drink. The next stage was to research food and drink adverts to gain some ideas.
This is one of the many renowned M&S Food adverts, which personally I think they do a really good job of selling the product to the audience. From the advert I can see that there main focus is to simply show off the quality of food that they sell. There are no cut-aways from the food at any point bar the end, they are simply showing what hey have to offer and with the seductive over voice , it makes the advert all the better, so this is one way of selling food/drink products.
This McDonalds advert goes about selling their product a totally different way to M&S, they are using a comical effect, which is something that is mentioned in the theories I gathered. Making the audience laugh, will benefit the advert because it makes it entertaining, the person watching might want to show friends and they may do the same and so on, so this is an important aspect. I think when it comes to my advert; comedy will play a big part in selling our product or even just getting the audience to remember the advert/brand.
This advert also goes about a different way when selling their product, this advert is celebrity indorsed. A lot more people will take notice to an advert when they see that there is a famous person involved and using somebody like Stephen Fry, who is a very popular and a relevant celebrity right now, helps sell the product. Obviously with my advert I can’t get a celebrity to appear but, perhaps creating a character that will appear in a series of linked adverts will be as good, so this character will become iconic and be associated with that product, becoming a celebrity in him/herself.
In our advert we wanted some action in it to excite and entertain the audience, but we also wanted to use some form of special effect and one effect we thought would be really effective was slow motion.
With this in mind we researched into other slow motion adverts to get some ideas.
This advert has some really great shots and what it doe straight away is grab the audiences attention, with the stunning slow motion. The camera equipment they are using would cost a lot of money, but if we could get close to anything like this, then our advert could really develop.
This advert is great because it not only captures the audience’s attention but also has a comical effect which will make the audience enjoy the advert more and are more likely to then show friends or talk about it.
Here is another advert that uses the effect of slow motion really well, the setting of San Francisco grabs your attention at first and then the 250,000 multicoloured bouncing balls being dropped down the streets is mesmerising.
From this research we can clearly see the effects of using something like slow motion in an advert. It makes the advert stand out from all the rest, which is exactly what we want to do; it entertains the audience and fascinates them. And in some cases can be used for a comical effect, which is something we’re now definitely considering doing in our own ad.
It was important for us to research successful TV commercials from the past to get some inspiration for our own ad, but also to identify why these adverts were so successful.
(Gorilla is a British advertising campaign launched by Cadbury in 2007 to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk-brand chocolate.)
The advertisement, which first appeared on British television on 31 August 2007, it has been well received by the public – a version uploaded to YouTube received 500,000 page views in the first week after the launch.
I like this advert because this is like no other advert; the opening shot grabs your attention and the way they hide what the gorilla is doing makes you want to find out more. The whole plot is excellent because you would never associate a gorilla on drums with Cadbury’s chocolate but that’s what makes it memorable. Also the track used in the advert is quite old so for the younger generation watching it, when they hear the track away from the commercial itself they will associate it with Cadbury’s.
(Guinness advert launched in 2008)
In my opinion, I can see why this would make a good advert for obvious reasons, it is different so it will be memorable and it grabs your attention, the special effects make it look fantastic, but the main point behind this advert being good is it’s whole story line, its very cleverly done, showing evolution backwards is quite fascinating to watch.
(Stella Artois Advert launched in 2004)
This advert is really good, because it is really well shot and tells a great story in a only a few minutes, the whole concept is brilliant. This ad is certainly one that you would here people talking about, which is just what they wanted because it is easily recalled.
Each year, the UK public sees many millions of ads, direct marketing and digital communications about products, services, charities, causes and awareness campaigns. The vast majority are responsible and comply with the advertising rules.
Last year the ASA received nearly 29,000 complaints. They thoroughly assessed every one of those concerns and investigated the ads that seemed to breach the rules. As a result, nearly 2,400 ads were changed or withdrawn in 2009. For our own benefit it was important we looked at what is acceptable and what isn’t, just in case our ideas about our Coffee advert breached any of the rules.
*(Taken from the, Times Online) by Patrick Foster Media Correspondent
An advertisement by children’s charity Barnardo’s that featured a girl being repeatedly slapped across the head was the most complained about marketing message of the year, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed.
The advertising watchdog said in its annual report that it had received 26,433 complaints in 2008, the highest amount ever, about 15,556 adverts, also a record number.
However, not one of the ten most complained about adverts, which included missives from Volkswagen, the Department of Health, and Heinz, was banned by the ASA.
The Barnardo’s campaign, which generated 840 complaints, showed scenes of a girl taking drugs and being slapped around the head, which were repeated a number of times, emphasising the sound of the slap.
The ASA said: “Many people found the repeated scenes of violence and drug-taking upsetting and challenged whether the ads caused serious or widespread offence.
“We did not doubt that the distress or offence described by many of the complainants was deeply felt. However, we considered the ads were scheduled appropriately and their aim justified the use of strong imagery.”
The second most complained about advert, with 743 protests, was a Volkswagen advert featuring a singing dog. Viewers complained the adverts condoned animal cruelty, but the ASA refused to investigate.
In third place was an advert for Orangina, the soft drink, which showed animals dancing provocatively. The advert generated 286 complaints but was also not investigated.
The ASA also announced today that it had banned an advert for the car insurer Swiftcover, fronted by Iggy Pop, the musician, after it emerged that the insurance company did not offer insurance to musicians. Swiftcover has since announced that it is changing its policy.
Top Ten most complained about adverts
1) Barnardo's - Raising awareness against child abuse
2) Volkswagen Group - Singing dog/shaking dog
3) AG Barr/Orangina - Dancing animals
4) HJ Heinz/Deli Mayo - Sandwich-making kissing men
5) Department of Health - Anti-smoking campaign
6) Tiscali - Sleeping with the next door neighbour
7) Entertainment Film Distributors - Zack and Miri make a porno
8) Walker Snack Foods - Gary Linekar/damaged bus
9) Specsavers Optical Group - Edith Piaf "Je ne regrette de rien"
10) Cargiant - Man takes mistress to Paris
From this research we have learnt a lot of things and it has brought to our attention how careful you have to be, so you do not cause any offence or show something too explicit. It is important for us to keep our audience as a whole in mind when planning our advert.
This research will help us understand the rules of advertising so that we don’t breach them and also looking at the history of regulations will benefit and general knowledge on advertising as a whole.
Restrictions
Beginning on January 2, 1971, advertisements featuring cigarettes were banned from American TV. Advertisements for alcohol products are allowed, but the consumption of any alcohol product is not allowed in a television advertisement. Since the late 1990s TV advertisements have become far more diverse,and household products and foods that are not new are no longer generally advertised as they were in the mid to late 20th century. Subliminal messaging has also been banned.
*Taken from the AQA- Advertising Standards Authority
‘The ASA is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including marketing on websites. We work to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes.’
When commercial TV started broadcasting in 1955, the advertisements were controlled by legislation. This was the first time that advertisements – and the claims they made - were subject to any form of formal regulation. When commercial radio was launched in 1973, they too were subject to statutory control. In 1961, the Advertising Association, following discussions with other industry associations, agreed that it was important that advertisements were welcomed and trusted by consumers in non-broadcast media too. As a result, the industry (agencies, media and advertisers) came together to form the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and produced the first edition of the British Code of Advertising Practice. The industry’s actions meant that an official report on Consumer Protection by the Molony Committee, published that same year, rejected the case for an American-style Federal Trade Commission to regulate advertising by statute: In 1962, CAP established the ASA as the independent adjudicator under the newly created Code. The Authority was set up to supervise the working of the new self-regulatory system in the public interest.
1974 onwards - Introduction of the levy
In 1973, the Minister for Consumer Protection, Shirley Williams, criticised the system for not being well-known enough. In response, the industry set up the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Asbof) in 1974 to provide sufficient and secure funding for the system through a levy of 0.1% on advertising space costs. Because the ASA is not responsible for collecting the levy itself, its independence is assured. The levy also provides enough funding for the ASA to promote itself to the public.
1988 onwards - Legal backstop
In 1988, the introduction of the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations provided the ASA with legal backing from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). These regulations enabled the ASA, for the first time, to refer advertisers who made persistent misleading claims and refused to co-operate with the self-regulatory system to the OFT for legal action. The ASA still has the ability to refer advertisers to the OFT for unfair or misleading advertising, but today we would refer under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, which replaced the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988. Referral to the OFT remains a last resort and is rarely needed: the overwhelming majority of advertisers work within the system.
2004 onwards - Becoming the one-stop shop
In 2004, after more than forty years of successful self-regulation of non-broadcast ads, the ASA/CAP system assumed responsibility for TV and radio ads. The newly-formed communications regulator, Ofcom, took the decision, in a move supported by Parliament, to contract-out responsibility for broadcast (TV and radio) advertising to the ASA system in a co-regulatory partnership. The co-regulatory agreement created for the first time in the UK a single regulator for advertising – a one-stop shop for advertising complaints. Although there are various constituent parts, the system runs as a single advertising regulator. This is particularly important for members of the public who want a complaints system that’s easy to navigate. From under 100 complaints in its first year of operation, the ASA now receives around 26,000 complaints a year. This is mainly due to the fact that the one-stop shop ASA is well known; has a much broader remit and it is easier to complain.
Regulation today - Advertising under control
More than 45 years on and advertising in the UK overwhelmingly complies with the Codes. Our compliance surveys regularly reveal that more than 97% of ads are in line with the Advertising Codes. The vast majority of TV and radio ads are pre-cleared before they go on air. There is also lots of free help and guidance available to non-broadcast advertisers publishing the many millions of non-broadcast ads in the UK each year in the form of the Copy Advice team who offer free, independent and expert advice on how to avoid failing foul of the rules. And because the industry is committed to making self-regulation effective, advertisements that break the Codes can be withdrawn swiftly without needing to resort to legal action. A range of sanctions can be brought to bear. For example, advertisers who continue to flout the rules can be denied access to advertising media space. Today’s self-regulatory system has come a long way since 1962, winning the confidence of consumers, industry and government along the way.
2010 onwards - What next for advertising self-regulation?
Over the years, the advertising self-regulatory system has responded to changes in society and media. The system is continuing to develop based on the enduring principles that ads should not mislead, harm or offend. A major challenge for the system is to maintain standards in fast-developing new media as effectively as in established media.
Video-on-demand
In December 2009, following the UK government’s decision that new rules relating to video-on-demand (VOD) services should be delivered under a co-regulatory framework, the ASA entered into a co-regulatory partnership with Ofcom to regulate advertisements accompanying VOD services. With the rise of VOD consumers are able to watch programmes at a time of their own choosing, and it was necessary that these new services be subject to the same standards as ‘linear’ programming on TV. In May 2010 the ASA upheld its first complaint about an ad accompanying VOD content, judging that the ad in question had not been appropriately targeted around a suitable programme. As with broadcast advertising, broadcasters who continually air ads that break the Codes can be referred to Ofcom, which has the power to fine them or even revoke their license.
Digital Media
In 1995 the self-regulation of the internet began as the ASA’s remit was extended to cover advertisements in ‘non-broadcast electronic media’, predominantly in ‘paid-for space’ such as banner and display ads and paid-for (sponsored) search. Such has been the growth in online content and usage that in 2007 the Internet became the second most complained about medium behind television - drawing approximately three thousand complaints per year - and has remained so ever since. However, nearly two-thirds of these complaints fell outside of the ASA’s remit as they related to claims made on companies’ own websites. To address this regulatory gap and to broaden the existing protections for consumers and children online, Industry recommended that the ASA extend its remit in digital media to cover marketing communications on companies’ own websites. In September 2010 the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the body responsible for writing the CAP Code, responded to this formal request by announcing the extension of the ASA’s online remit to cover advertisers own marketing communications on their own websites and in other non-paid-for space under their control, such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas - except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising - are excluded from the remit. The extended remit came into force on 1 March 2011, following a six month period of grace to allow the ASA and CAP to conduct training work to raise awareness and educate business on the requirements of the CAP Code.
