A comparative and analysis of a selection of adverts

produced for television.

 Companies use different persuasive strategies in their adverts

made for T.V in order to sell their products. Companies also aim

their adverts at different audiences and age group. 

The Guinness ‘Evolution’ advert is a high budget, high production

advert with a clear concept. The advert is aimed at mostly men

ranging between the ages of 25 to 40 and because it is an alcoholic

product in the advert itself the actors have to look at least 25

because of the product they are advertising. The advert also uses

inversion to sell the drink as most men know it takes a while for

Guinness to settle explaining the Guinness tag line ‘Good things

come to those who wait’ therefore turning the negative which is the

wait into a good thing.  

Humour is also used in the Guinness advert as a persuasive strategy

throughout the advert, at the start of the advert when it shows the

three men in the pub it is setting the audience up for a joke because

it is common for jokes to start off with the line ‘three men walk in to

a bar’ and at the end of the advert there is a diegetic sound of a

mud kip making a BLARH sound as it drinks the dirty water which is

also funny. These parts of the advert make the audience laugh and

remember that part of the advert and the product. The tag line is

also an example of the use of conformity because it is a common

fact that Guinness takes ages to settle and it is something people

can relate to, but here it is made amusing and clever and as

such attractive. The clever concept would appeal to C1 to As while

the Humour would appeal to E-D1s. 

There is no diegetic sound throughout the ad until the end with

the mud kip, the only sound we hear is when the men are frozen

within the ice and the and the cracking of the ice and the sound of

the cold breeze makes the audience think of having a cold beer on a

hot day and uses gluttony as a persuasive strategy. The advert also

uses non diegetic music called ‘The Rhythm of life’ as the adverts

soundtrack to grab the viewers attention because it runs parallel to

elements of the screen action and to show what type of mood the

product will get you in.   

The camera shots used throughout the advert also expand on the

comedy as a lot of close ups are used on the men showing the

confused facial expressions which is quite funny and the long shots

and the extreme long shots of all of the buildings disappearing are

shown like its the men’s perspective but on a grander scale. The

Guinness advert also uses conformity as a persuasive strategy

because the beer is such a popular brand consumers trust it and

know what they are getting when buying it and can relate to the

pleasure the three men are getting out of the product. 

Cillit bang adverts are extremely different to the Guinness

‘Evolution’ advert and the main difference is that Guinness had a

huge budget while the Cillit Bang advert had a much lower budget

and that is clear through the way the advert’s production.  There are

limited camera angles and the cheap look of the fake kitchen used

in the advert contributes to this. In the Cillit bang advert is clear

that the product is aimed a consumers in the D-E band of S.O.C

while Guinness is aimed at a much wider audience. The advert plays

on maternal and paternal love because it shows dirty surfaces full of

germs that children could get sick by unless their mother protects

them by cleaning it with Cillit Bang.

There are a lot of close ups of the product so the audience can see

and remember the eye catching bright pink bottle, the advert is

mostly aimed at mainstream women because the advert shows a

woman cleaning. The advert like the Guinness advert also uses

humour and inversion through the person presenting the product

Barry Scott, they have taken a loud annoying presenter

and exaggerated it making the advert more funny and memorable.

The advert also uses both non-diegetic and diegetic sounds. A lot of

the time it is Barry Scott talking about how good the product is while

showing it off and the non-diegetic sound track also shows how low

budget the ad is because it sounds like cheap elevator music.       

The Honda ‘Hate something change something’ advert is a high

budget advert similar to the Guinness by using humour as a

persuasive strategy because it shows the animated animals

destroying some old tired denial engines, this is also an example of

nostalgia because it is reminiscent of the sixty’s Psychedelic

animations as the colours are so bright so it is clear that it is aimed

at people during over the age of 40 who were perhaps 60s

babies. It’s strange that an advert for adults is aimed at consumers

over the age of 40 even though looks like a children’s animated film

this again is another use of nostalgia because its like an old Disney

film and with loads of animals, it is similar to Snow White because of

all of the animals dancing along to a catchy diegetic sound track

and this invokes fears for consumers children and the future if they

don’t do something about the pollution so the ad implies maternal

and paternal love. 

Because the advert shows old beaten up diesel engines polluting

the natural area it becomes clear that the advert is aimed at

reformers who want to help stop pollution. Even though the advert

is a high budget advert it has very limited camera angles like the

Cillit Bang ad. In the Honda ad all the camera seems to do is pan so

its like it is taking us on a journey or telling us a story so it does fit in

with the idea of an old Disney film and the journey Honda went

through listening to their consumers and developing an Eco friendly

diesel engine.   

Another persuasive strategy used in the Honda advert is maternal

and paternal love like in the Cillit bang advert because it is aimed at

consumers who may have children and will want them to grow up in

a nice bright place with no pollution.

Another advert that is animated like the Honda advert is the Cresta

drink advert with the cartoon polar bear. It is clear that this advert is

aimed at children because it is animated character to represent the

brand and a strong persuasive strategy in this advert is Humour,

when kids see the bear on television going crazy after taking a sip

it encourages children to nag their parents for it and so they can

take it into school and pretend to be the bear after drinking the

Cresta drink. Another persuasive strategy used in this advert

is celebrity endorsement mainly because children made the bear

famous by doing impressions of him, the bear was inspired by Jack

Nicholson the film star because he is quite cool and crazy and was

big when this advert was aired so many people knew who it was.

The advert uses mostly diegetic sound effects when the bear is

going crazy but a the end of the advert a voice over is used aimed

at the parents of the kids watching the advert and who will probably

end up buying the product, it’s clear that its aimed at adults

because the voice changes to a more formal and more ‘expert’

voice and it talks about the variety of flavors and availability. From

the advert quality like the sketchy and rough look to the ad, the

limited camera shots and the lack of colours the advert comes

across as being low budget like the Cillit bang advert. However it

kind of adds to the style of the ad, the lack of colours works well for

the polar bear and the cool look of him and when the product is

shown it is bright red and is very eye catching and that appeals a lot

to children. The only camera shot through out the advert is a long

shot showing how empty the scene is and exaggerating of the drink

and the bear’s reaction.        

Like the Guinness and Honda adverts another high budget advert is

the Kerry Katona Iceland advert however unlike the other two

adverts the main persuasive strategy in this

is celebrity endorsement because the advert uses three well

know celebrity Kerry Katona, Coleen Nolan and Jason Donovan. The

use of celebrities endorsements is so that it makes the advert more

suggestive and if a consumer was watching the advert and saw a

celebrity they like using or doing something it will make them want

to do the same in order to suggest they are like the celebrity. The

advert is clearly a high budget advert from the fact that it

uses celebrities and the props and location of the advert look

expensive and the food looks very tasty and the use of the purple

and gold colour pallet makes the place look classy so from all these

things adds another persuasive strategy that is gluttony so people

see the advert and want to have the things in it however they don’t

need it. The camera shots also reinforce this because there are

loads of shots of all the well-prepared food and the amazingly cheap

prices popping up as on screen graphics next to them.       

Just like the Honda advert the Iceland’s advert soundtrack is

diegetic because the three celebrity’s are singing along to the

advert, this again expands on celebrity endorsement because they

are singing and dancing to a song and so generate the idea

of Christmas musical movie, making us feel warm and positive and

so more inclined to view the product positively. It is clear that the

advert is aimed a mainstream consumers wanting to buy great

food incredibly cheaply However it is also heavily aimed a single

mums because both Kerry Katona and Coleen Nolan are famous

single mums, in terms of S.O.C it would be aimed at D1-E because

they would earn less and want to find a cheaper source of food.

The narrative to the advert uses sex appeal in the advert because

both the single mums are after the celebrity male and are using the

food to keep him at the party, which could actually be seen as a

negative stereotype for single mums.         

The Arial advert is a high budget production but it’s different to the

Iceland advert, a persuasive strategy use in it is maternal and

paternal love in one close up it shows a slow motion mid shot of a

mother playing with her children surrounded by white sheets, this is

very stereotypical women role at home looking after the kids so a

target audience for this advert could be mothers. This advert is

aimed at Aspires because throughout the advert it shows successful

people and living in big houses in the middle of countryside it is like

the advert is aimed at people who aspire for this type of life this also

links to another persuasive strategy, which is personal success.

   The advert comes across as raciest because of things like the

colour pallet which is for the most part white because they kept

saying that white is a pure colour and every actor in the advert were

white and the use soft focus and over exposed image backs it up.

Like the Iceland advert the Ariel advert appeals to all our senses like

the touch when we see the boy rip the icicle from the pole and the

old woman squeezing the lime. Security is used as a persuasive

strategy used in the advert because the location of the advert is a

peaceful countryside the people look safe and like they don’t have a

care in the world, the target audience for this advert would house

wives or mothers in the category of CI-A so the advert is implying

that it can give people a better life.          

In the advert there is a softly spoken woman voice over throughout

the advert like with Katona in the Iceland advert again showing that

it is aimed at a female target audience, there are no men in the

advert this could mean that the advert is stereotypical as well as

racist because it is suggesting that the men are of working while the

women are at home with their children. There are a few rotating

shots in the advert for example there is one of a cloud this may

represents a washing machine because the product is washing

powder also at the end of the advert there is a spinning

green Arial logo.

In conclusion each advert uses a wide range of persuasive

strategies and have a different target audience. I think the most

common persuasive strategies used in the advert are humour

because it was used in most of the adverts like the Honda, Cresta

and Guinness advert.

Louis Lydon