Radio and television advert
In this essay I will be looking at two adverts. One from the television and another from the radio. They are both the same advert from RSPCA’s “swim”. I will give a balanced discussion of the television and radios advertise. I will discuss the strength and weaknesses of both radio and television advert. I will consider the way language has been used to create effects. The way each media form was used effectively. How the charecterisation of the dog was created. The aim of this essay is to compare and contrast the radio and television versions of the RSPCA advert “swim”.
In order to create a successful advertisement, radio advertisers use different techniques. This involves; the average length of an advert; the types of adverts found on radio; the different styles of advert and the way the language used in the advert tries to attract the target audience. The average length of an advert is important, because if the advert is too long radio listeners may tune into another station because the advert is long and boring, but if the advert is short and sweet (short and simple), then people tend to like it. Average adverts are mainly thirty seconds long.
Note that when you listen to adverts on the radio the long adverts are important, and the short adverts are not that necessarily as serious. The types of adverts found on radio are important because they want to make sure that it isn’t an advert that is selling something, like cars or videos. They also have to make sure that it is unusual and that it is different from all other adverts so that people will listen to it. I have come across so many different radio adverts. They are mainly product, services and information adverts. Product adverts are like adverts to sell videos, games, and food etc. service adverts are like banks giving loans or a supermarket introducing home insurance. Information adverts are like congestion charges, mainly something to do with the government.
The way language used in adverts to attract the target audience is the vital piece, because if this wasn’t there then nobody will listen to the advert. If the advert is for kids then this is where diegetic sound comes in. diegetic sound is used in every advert that I have heard. Take “The Simpson’s” advert for example, we can tell that it is for Simpson lovers and kids because the use of diegetic sounds. In the advert they put the Simpson’s theme tune in, sounds of a fight scene. Nearly quotes of the video that they are selling. That is how they attract the target audience, by using diegetic sound.
RSPCA broadcasts a group of 3 adverts. I will be looking at the second advert “SWIM”. This advert gets increasingly shocking, because the first advert is a drive, which is when a dog gets run over by a car. The second advert is swim, when a dog gets put in a sack and then thrown in the canal by it’s owner. The third is injection, when the owner takes the dog to the vets to put the dog down. The advert grabs the audience’s attention by just using one voice, which is the dog. There is no diegetic sound, because without it the advert is powerful. The advert grabs the attention of the audience by using pathos. Pathos means, sympathy to the dog due to their greater understanding of the event. This comes in when the dog gets put in the sack. It is here where the audience knows that the dog is going to die.
At the end of the advert there is a woman voice over, it is well known that when a women does a voice over most people tend to listen. The advert has got no fancy sound track, that’s what makes it more appealing. When there is an advert on the radio, most people just tend to listen to the soundtrack that is being played, and at the end they try to think what the advert was trying to say, but the RSPCA advert “SWIM” only has one voice, the dog. This is done so that people just listen to what the dog is saying, and trying to concentrate on what the dog is trying to mean. After the dog it is followed by the female voice over, which makes it a strong issue.
We feel sympathy for the dog in the advert because of the way the narrator for the dog uses language. In the advert the dog is all happy because he is going for a walk with his owner and his brother, but things slightly go wrong, as the dogs are forced in the sack and then ready to be chucked in the river by their owner, “our best puts us in a sack”. The character of the dog is revealed to us by the use of language. It is hard to believe that a dog is talking, because it is the voice of a man, but when you keep on listening you figure out that it is a dog. It would’ve been hard to figure out that it was a dog if they didn’t think like one, because dogs in cartoons call their owners “best friend”.
We re made to feel that the owner is powerful through the dogs use of language, because in the advert the dog say’s “we are going for a swim”, which means that the owner is taking them for a swim; this assumes that the owner is powerful. There are many devices used to make the audience have an emotional response. One of the devices is to put the dogs in danger. When the dogs are in danger the audience will feel pity and anger. The length of the advert does affect our reaction, because it is kind of long which makes it boring, then people just switch off, but if this advert got the target audience then it doesn’t really matter.
In this advert there is direct appeal. This appeal is at the end of the advert where the lady says the slogan. “If you give a DAMN, don’t give a pet”. This is direct because in the slogan the RSPCA use the word DAMN. If they didn’t care then they would use some other word then they would use some other word instead of damn. The advert would sound something like this; if you care don’t, don’t give pet. That sounds like it isn’t that big of deal, but the fact that they used damn makes it more direct and appealing.
