Task 2 - Forms of Television Advertising - AS1

Adverts can take place in many different forms, these include:

• Realist Narrative
• Anti-Realist Narrative
• Animation
• Documentary
• Talking Heads
• Stand Alone
• Series

Each form of advertising have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Realist narrative: An advantage to realist narrative advertisement is that the whole point of the advert is to apply to real life. I believe this is an advantage within itself because people can relate to it due to it applying to their lives and they understand that the issue is very likely to happen or to be present within their daily routine. However, the disadvantage to realist narrative is that majority of life's occurrences are depressing therefore it's likely to distress the viewer. An example of this form of advertising an 'Anti-Smoking Commercial'. This advert is effective for both teenagers and adults because it shows the teenager that you should learn to think for yourself instead of just follow what your friends are doing, it's effective from the realist narrative perspective because it showed an innocent boy, following the girl that he likes, which is often the case and vice versa for the sexes. This advert also shows adults how teenagers think and act nowadays, making them more aware of their children or the younger generation in general.

Anti-Realist Narrative: An advantage to anti-realist narrative is that due to the impractical nature of the actual advert; people are more likely to remember it or discuss it with their families/friends. On the other hand the disadvantage to the advantage would be people will be unable to take it seriously because the unfeasible nature doesn't apply to peoples lives leading them to make fun of the advert instead. An example for this form of advertisement would be the 'Skittles' advert. This is effective because the old saying of "Everything i touch, turns to gold" is changed to say "Everything i touch turns to skittles". Gold is seen as a very prestigous element therefore they are making skittles equivalent in value and making it seem as if skittles are everything that everyone wants to have. It's the new gold.

Animation: Animation has grown from a child's perspective making the advert easy and fun in order to engage their target audience. However, over the years animation has gone from being just for children to also adapting to adult behaviour but still being easy and fun. Therefore the advantage to animation is that it is a simple way of engaging to to their audience. On the contrary, animations still don't apply to everyone, a lot of adults feel as if they are being patronised due to the original heritage of the animation and it's purpose being for a child therefore it fails to cater for everyone. An advantage of this form of advertising is the 'National Accident Helpline' ad. This advert is effective because of the theme tune. It's a remix of 'I heard it through the grapevine' - a popular song from the 1960's, also, the advert is fun and in the same animation of 'Wallace and Gromit' a beloved, British favourite that is enjoyed by both adults and children.

Documentary: People don't tend to believe things without proof any more, humans as a species aren't as naive as we used to be therefore the advantage to documentary would be that it offers facts and figures which people like as it provides evidence to the cause/matter that they are trying to reveal. In contrast a disadvantage for documentaries would be not everyone enjoys statistics so they might end up finding the advert boring. An example for this type of advertisement would be the 'Water Aid' advert. This advert is effective because like I said it provides statistics and provides graphic images and information that would made the viewer feel sympathy for the children therefore making them think and process the information of the advertisement and helping them remember it.

Talking Heads: An advantage for talking heads would be that because the visual of the shot is a close up it's as if the person is talking directly to the viewer so there's eye contact involved which engages the viewer and in a way makes them feel special because of the effect of the non-verbal communication. Also, advertisers tend to use a well known celebrity a lot of the time to make it seem as if they are supporting the cause or using the product to encourage you to mimic them in their actions or people that have used their product. A disadvantage of talking heads would be like i said before, people aren't as naive and they used to be so they would believe that the celebrity/person that used the product are just promoting the product instead of being genuine. An example for talking heads would be the 'Money.co.uk' advert. This video isn't that effective because it doesn't have anything else to it besides the persons head and them holding up a banner or something, it doesn't directly engage with the viewer excluding the fact that there is a lot of eye contact in this advert, there's nothing that would make the viewer remember the video.

Stand Alone: An advantage of a stand alone advert would be they are known to be unique due to how they get their message across. They get their message across by bringing a new advert our every year, similarly like a series advert. The disadvantage of a stand alone is that people would expect more from the company every year. An example of this type of advertisement is the 'Honda - The Cog'. This advertisement is effective because it anticipates the entire purpose which engages the viewer to want to carry on watching to see the end result.

Series: An advantage of a series advert is they tend to become popular and they reach high levels of success. But a disadvantage is they create high expectations every year then if they fail to meet them expectations they can make the viewer unhappy, however that in a way is also an advantage because they still get people talking about it. An example for this type of advertisement would be 'Farmers Commercial'. This is effective because it tells a story in the actual advert, therefore the viewer is as engaged as they would be while they would be watching a movie for example.