styles of advetising

             There are many different styles of advertising that help a company make their brand well known and memorable. They will use various different styles of advertising to appeal to certain audiences, making their company name stay in the audience’s head. This is because certain people will have their preferences on adverts and will like some more than others.

            Firstly, I will analyse the way in which humour is used within advertising. Below is an advertisement for Barclays, in which a boy is seen to be overpowering a man much older than him. The boy looks like a sort of debt collector, keeping eye contact at all times with the older man, and talking very seriously. This is then contrasted as the boy, as he is young, has a high-pitched voice; this is an uncommon situation to be witnessing and this makes it memorable. This is a good example of a humorous advertisement as it is very unexpected which, also, causes it to stay in your memory. This advertisement could have easily went the opposite way and people could have not found it funny at all; they may have thought that the dry humour within the advertisement did not go down well thus not wanting to purchase from the brand. I feel that the idea and concept of the advertisement is good and if I needed what they were selling; they were advertising a service that lets you pay a friend back, or vice versa, through an app they have created.

            Another style of advertising that is used is the opposite of humour and is horror. This is a way that targets an audience that gets a thrill out of being scared through this genre. The advert I have chosen, which I feel shows horror best, is the below advertisement by Dulux; the advert shows a man walking around his, rather dark and scary looking, house inspecting a noise he can hear. This noise is of a woman singing operatic style. He then turns, sharply, to be face to face with this ghostly looking maid. She chases him throughout the house although gets stopped by a newly painted wall. The motto then reads “nothing repels like Dulux wash & wear advanced”. This sends the message across that the paint is so strong and long lasting that even ‘ghosts cannot get through it’. This style of advertisement will stay in a person’s mind as it creates an emotional response and it is different to other adverts. It leaves the viewer feeling scared, making them remember their emotion and the company name. Also, this advertisement works as a horror as it has all the conventions that a horror has: it is dark, has dramatic music, there is a ghostly figure, and it is night time; these all go together to create suspense. On the other hand, there are down sides to choosing a horror as the style for an advertisement; first of all, it would scare children so you would have to put it on after the watershed. This limits its air play as it can only be on at certain times. On the other hand of this, it does not matter as children will not be the audience for purchasing paint. I feel that this advert works very well and is successful as it stays in the viewer’s mind, prompting them to purchase the product.
          

Parody adverts are a way that a company can take another media that already exists and make it funny with their own take on it. The advertisement that I have chosen, below, is a Tango advert; this is a parody of another advertisement by Sony Bravia. In the advertisement by Sony Bravia, there are thousands of bouncy balls going down a large hill, with all different colours being dispersed everywhere; this advert by Tango took this idea and decided to, instead, through thousands of colourful fruits down a hill and watch them disperse and smash into the surroundings. They then end up piling on top of a lady who is holding a Tango bottle with the slogan “it’s clear when you've been Tango’d” appearing. A positive point to parodies is that they take a well-known advertisement and create their own version; this is good as everyone will understand what it is supposed to be a parody of, and people will remember it as they have seen it before. Also, parodies provoke an emotion of happiness, which all audiences appeal to. Everyone likes to be happy and this advertisement has no age restrictions, so it can be played at any point during the day on any channel; the product itself also is targeting all audiences as everyone purchases fizzy drinks. This style of advertising is successful as the audience will link what the parody is of with the brand and vice-versa. It is good for all parties involved as they all get exposure to potential buyers. I feel that this advert has been made very well and it sticks in the viewers mind as it has a sense of humour to it. It stays in the viewer’s mind and they will be subliminally reminded of the company when going to choose a drink. 

          Shocking adverts are created to provoke an emotional response from the audience and they are usually adverts such as charity ads or crime appeals.  It brings about a sad atmosphere, directly talking to the viewer and making them feel guilty about what they have and someone else doesn’t have. This makes the advertisements memorable as the viewer will not be able to easily forget this feeling as it is long lasting and they could be thinking about it all day long. The advertisement I have chosen to analyse that is shocking is from Think and it is a road safety advert about drinking and driving. It shows two men sitting in a pub, when one looks at a lady and it is clear he is drinking beer/already drunk; the woman then flies across the pub, and the two men jolt forward. The woman’s body is tangled on the floor, with the men being battered and bloody. The Think company slogan appears and it is clear that it is an awareness advertisement. This provokes the audience to feel as though it could happen to them at any time and it makes them sad as they know it happens to others. The fact that it is very graphic shows how it can be very disturbing in real life so it is important to watch and learn. This advertisement is successful as it is direct to the point and sends across the message very well. It has an impact as it contrasts between everything is happy one minute, and then it suddenly changes in an instant; this is how it would happen in the real world too. 

          Finally, sex appeal is used within advertising as it appeals to both men/women and it keeps them watching until the end of an advertisement. This makes the advertisement very memorable as it will stay in the viewers mind because both men and women think about sex appeal throughout the day. An advertisement I have chosen that shows sex appeal well is the following Snickers advertisement. It shows various semi-naked women (in bikinis) washing cars in slow motion; there are many close ups to various features of these women. Then, as the advert proceeds, it shows a man throwing mud over his car, just so that he can go back through to the place where the women will wash his car. The camera then pans out and there is a whole line of dirty cars waiting. Even the music to go with the advertisement has sex appeal as it sounds very arousing, with lyrics of “oh yeah” and “your love is making me feel dirt”. This advertisement is aimed at men, as it is a man being surrounded by loads of women. Men watching this advertisement will watch until the end as they get distracted by the women and forget that it is an advertisement. It is then a surprise when it comes up saying Snickers and this, along with the fact that the women are semi-naked, is why it is memorable. The only thing wrong with this advertisement is that it will have to be shown after the water shed, as it is too explicit for children. Other than that, I feel that this advertisement is very successful and memorable.