How is media language used in the Shelter advert? Refer to the social, political and cultural contexts in your response [15 marks]
Approx 500 words
Shelter is an organisation that aims to prevent homeless by giving advice, helping people behind on their payments or helping already homeless people. This specific campaign was spawned as a direct response to the CSR when they cut social housing by 60% in 2010.
The advertisements use a multitude of language to attempt to shock the viewer, as do many charity ads, they are supposed to be a shock to the viewer to compel them to seek help if the situation is any way familiar to the viewer. One way they attempt to do this is by having the text overlayed, on top of the faces, in a transparent red color. This is not only done to have an allusion to blood, which could connote that the lives of your family/ your own life is in your hands, but also to give the text/reader a sense of urgency or emergency. The rest of the text at the bottom, namely the website and name, are also in red and this is done for the same reason; to make sure it sticks out as it is likely people will not stop to stare at these ads but instead will merely glance at them while they are walking / driving. Furthermore by also placing the website and search bar in red, the text is giving you direct instructions on what to do and by placing these in red it makes these instructions a almost urgent or important.
The advert makes use of a intimate extreme close up, of forlorn and melancholic faces, allowing us to almost sympathise with the people we see on screen by associating the heart wrenching messages with their faces. The faces themselves are also extraordinarily average, having no particular features to help them stand out, this could be done to make them seem familiar and realistic. This could be used to manipulate a part of the audience to donate or seek help or it could be to help the messages stick in our heads, making the effect of seeing multiple of these ad even greater. Alternatively the use of these faces could be to eliminate the social stigma that homeless people, or those that could be facing it, are particularly different to people in regular society. This would enforce the message this this could happen to anybody prompting those who fear being looked down up to instead ask for help without fear of being stigmatized.
Approx 500 words
Shelter is an organisation that aims to prevent homeless by giving advice, helping people behind on their payments or helping already homeless people. This specific campaign was spawned as a direct response to the CSR when they cut social housing by 60% in 2010.
The advertisements use a multitude of language to attempt to shock the viewer, as do many charity ads, they are supposed to be a shock to the viewer to compel them to seek help if the situation is any way familiar to the viewer. One way they attempt to do this is by having the text overlayed, on top of the faces, in a transparent red color. This is not only done to have an allusion to blood, which could connote that the lives of your family/ your own life is in your hands, but also to give the text/reader a sense of urgency or emergency. The rest of the text at the bottom, namely the website and name, are also in red and this is done for the same reason; to make sure it sticks out as it is likely people will not stop to stare at these ads but instead will merely glance at them while they are walking / driving. Furthermore by also placing the website and search bar in red, the text is giving you direct instructions on what to do and by placing these in red it makes these instructions a almost urgent or important.
The advert makes use of a intimate extreme close up, of forlorn and melancholic faces, allowing us to almost sympathise with the people we see on screen by associating the heart wrenching messages with their faces. The faces themselves are also extraordinarily average, having no particular features to help them stand out, this could be done to make them seem familiar and realistic. This could be used to manipulate a part of the audience to donate or seek help or it could be to help the messages stick in our heads, making the effect of seeing multiple of these ad even greater. Alternatively the use of these faces could be to eliminate the social stigma that homeless people, or those that could be facing it, are particularly different to people in regular society. This would enforce the message this this could happen to anybody prompting those who fear being looked down up to instead ask for help without fear of being stigmatized.
A well written analysis in which you draw on contextual information and unpick messages and meanings in the advert, with reference to image and text. V
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