Anti-Smoking Campaigns

When I was looking through charity campaigns that relied on fear appeals, I found that the majority of them combined fear and guilt, which makes it hard to assess the impact of the fear itself, which is why the "Would You Care More" WWF campaign was such a good example.

I found that a lot of anti-smoking campaigns focussed directly on fear though, often using imagery to scare smokers, such as in the examples below.

But the one campaign that stood out as fitting the description from page 165 of Age of Propaganda in terms of it doing the 4 things that make a successful fear appeal was this one from the NHS in 2007.

The quote from the book is the below;

"In sum, a fear appeal is most effective when (1) it scares the hell out of people, (2) it offers a specific recommendation for overcoming the fear-arousing threat, (3) the recommended action is perceived as effective for reducing the threat, and (4) the message recipient believes that he or she can perform the recommended action."

The appeal clearly scared people, with the campaign receiving 774 complaints to the advertising standards agency, with the Sky News reporting;

"The ASA said the posters breached its rules on causing 'fear and distress' and children."

Whilst it offers the admittedly loose recommendation of getting "unhooked" from the addiction to smoking, that action would definitely be an effective way to quit smoking, and the action of calling the phone number or visiting the website is very achievable.

The BBC reported that;

"The Department of Health said the campaign had been 'highly effective'."

and

"The Department of Health said an anti-smoking helpline and website had been contacted more than 820,000 times during the Get Unhooked campaign."

Harvard Referencing

BBC. (2007). Hooked smoking ads 'broke rules'. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6658335.stm. Last accessed 29th January 2015.

Sky News. (2007). 'Too Scary' Anti-Smoking Poster Banned. Available: http://news.sky.com/story/513615/too-scary-anti-smoking-poster-banned. Last accessed 29th Jan 2015.

WWF Would You Care More Campaign

The Campaign

I stumbled across the following campaign for WWF when I was doing a bit of research for a responsive brief, and thought that it could be very relevant to my essay because of how guilt-inducing it is.

This campaign is particularly relevant because it issues a direct challenge to the public, making them question themselves and in doing so making them feeling guilty for the answer that the campaign leads you too. The wording of the campaign is very reminiscent of the wording I used when I was speaking to a woman on the train as to weather she'd be more likely to buy a Big Issue magazine off a woman than a man.

I also feel that the Panda one in particular is particularly relevant to this because of how it's using the idea of taking advantage of someone else image to break down barriers, similar to the Bob Hoskins BT advert that Celebrity Sells references. Albeit this example is using the image of an animal not a person, but the same concept applies. By using the globally recognised symbol for conservation it makes you feel guilty for applying double standards.

WWF themselves ackwnowledge the importance of the Giant Panda to conservation by saying on its entry on their species index;

"The panda also has a special significance for WWF because it has been WWF's logo since our founding in 1961"

Going on to say;

"WWF’s founders were aware of the need for a strong, recognizable symbol that would overcome all language barriers. They agreed that the big, furry animal with her appealing, black-patched eyes would make an excellent choice."

The Agency

This campaign was designed by Ogilvy, an advertising agency based in Paris. When I looked into them further this example became even more relevant. The client list they display on their website include the following:

• IBM
• Phillips
• Netflix
• Coca-Cola Zero
• Nestea
• American Express
• Ford
• Allianz
• Dove
• Fanta
• Google
• Nestle

All of which are big corporate brands. But then right at the bottom was "Cheng Du". I happen to know that Cheng Du is a place in China where a large amount of Pandas live in the wild and in reserves. I know this because I am a Sheffield United fan, and we have a Chinese-based franchise called the Chengdu Blades, which made me inquisitive about where it was. I've always had an interest in animals, and when I was younger was specifically interested in Pandas, and so this turned out to be quite a coincidence. 

After clicking on the link and looking into the work Ogilvy did for Cheng Du, I found a very happy and upbeat social media based campaign called Pambassador 2012. Seeing some of the claims they made on their PR website (here), it shows how a campaign can still use a serious issue in a positive feeling campaign and still get it's results. The video below is from the Chengdu Pambassador YouTube channel.

Ogilvy's PR page claims that;

"The campaign drove a 30.3% increase in international visitors to Chengdu versus China’s national tourism growth of 1.2%. Global media coverage and high social media fan engagement attracted 255,000 worldwide applicants to live and work in Chengdu."

Despite such positive results from such a positive campaign, the same company used guilt as a method of advertising for WWF.

Other Campaigns For WWF

This is also a good example on that it uses guilt alone as the appeal, not a combination of guilt, fear, and shock tactics which is often the case.

When you compare the "Would You Care More" campaign to WWF campaigns that use imagery such as the below, it'll allow me to more clearly assess the impact of a guilt appeal.

Harvard Referencing

Ogilvy. (2015). CITY of CHENGDU Pambassador 2012: Into The Wild With Chengdu Pandas. Available: http://www.ogilvypr.com/en/case-study/pambassador-2012-wild-chengdu-pandas. Last accessed 28th Jan 2015.

WWF. (2015). Giant Panda. Available: http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda. Last accessed 28th Jan 2015.

One-Dimensional Man - Herbert Marcuse

Chapter 1 - The New Forms Of Control

Pages 4 and 5

"We may distinguish both true and false needs. False are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction may be the most gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has to be maintained and protected."

My Understanding

It is clear that we do need to do some of things we think we need to do, and some we don't. Some of those that we don't actually need to do are thrust upon us by society and the media, these are generally based on negativity. Whilst fulfilling these needs makes us feel happy, it wouldn't affect us at all if these 'needs' didn't exist.

Chapter 5 - Negative Thinking: The Defeated Logic Of Process

Page 123

"the equation Reason = Truth = Reality, which joins the subjective and objective world into one antagonistic unity"

My Understanding

You can get someone to go along with your message by trying to show subjectivity as objectivity by portraying it as truth, which is both reasonable and real. Logic dictates to us that what someone tells us must be true and real.

Harvard Referencing

Marcuse, H (1964). One-Dimensional Man. London: Routledge. 4-5, 123.

A Conversation With A Woman On The Train About Buying "The Big Issue" Magazine

On the train back from the trip to London, I was reading relevant sections from the books Advertising As Communication, and Celebrity Sells, and typing up the blog posts on them. About half way through the journey I heard a woman who was sat diagonally infront of me in the other isle say the following words to the woman she was with;


"It was actually quite a clever script that big issue girl had. It didn't really make sense. I should have said to her 'I'll give you £20 and you can take me to show me where you're sleeping tonight'. I suppose we did our bit though".


These two women were speaking very eloquently and had a few shopping bags with them, one of which was a Harvey Nichols bag. I would estimate that the woman that said the above words was about 60, and the woman she was with was about 55. Obviously she leads a vastly different lifestyle to the big issue girl.

After later reading the following quote from Advertising As Communication on the Socially-Mediated model of sociological research, and getting over the ridiculously useful and coincidental situation I'd found myself in, I decided to talk to her.


"A member of the audience, some research has shown, cannon be affected by the media if they do not fulfil or gratify a need. For instance, if a person leads an active, varied life, and is secure and stable, no amount of advertising which appeals to fears of loneliness or being a social outcast, or to social snobbery will succeed"


I got up and sat in the seat infront of me (directly across the isle from her) with the 2 books and explained that I was a student writing an essay on ethics in charity advertising, showing them the books as proof that I wasn't just being nosey. I explained that I'd overheard her say that the big issue girl had a "clever script" (which was understandable as we were on a quiet coach) and asked if she minded answering a few short questions for me. She said she didn't mind. I didn't type it up then and there as I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. Below is a brief recollection of the conversation I had with her. 

I tried to avoid asking her what the girl actually said, as I didn't this to affect my thoughts on weather it was a "script" or not. I wanted to take this womans word for it.


Me: What makes you call what she said a script?
Woman: It was very stereotypical of how you would imagine a homeless person would ask for money using the generic excuses of I've got no-one to turn to and no-where to go and it's cold and unsafe.

Me: Do you feel that she conned you into buying it? 
Woman: No

Me: Why not? If what she said didn't really make sense?
Woman: (Somewhat angrily) Because I know I've helped her find somewhere safe to stay tonight and she's not going to freeze or get stabbed or raped.

Me: So do you think if a man had used the same script as this girl, you'd have been less likely to buy it?
Woman: (Very abruptly) No

Me: When the girl was talking to you did you think about what life as a homeless person must be like?
Woman: No, I was just feeling upset for her and wanted to help.

Me: Do you think you felt more sorry for her because she was a woman?
Woman: (Very Abruptly again) I don't know, I've never spoke to a homeless man before.


At this point I felt like it was getting a bit intense and the woman was getting a bit annoyed with me, so I apologised and thanked her and went back to my seat.

Going back to the quote from the book, it sounds like she bought the magazine on the basis of what the seller said to her, which sounds like it was playing at the idea of being scared and alone. Given that this woman was on the train with a person I presume was a friend and was clearly financially secure enough to not have a need to be afraid of any of the things a homeless person would be. If the socially-mediated model is to followed, she wouldn't have bought it.

The fact that she'd never spoken to a homeless man before would suggest that her only opinions of a homeless mans worries would be the ones that have been portrayed to her by the media, which is why she hasn't spoke to them. The Socially-Mediated model of sociological research would suggest she has no reason too.

But as soon as an actual person spoke to her she decided that she was going to help. The fact that the person who spoke to her was also a woman can only have made her feel more sympathetic due to being a woman herself, and this is a good example of how the barriers between a message and an audience can be broke down through the use of a presenter, like the Bob Hoskins example in Celebrity Sells.


"Bob Hoskins was chosen to be the celebrity presenter to lead the 'It's Good to Talk' (for BT in 1995) campaign and he was a great piece of casting. At that time Hoskins was riding high on his performances as a gangster in films such as 'The Long Good Friday' and had great credibility with the male audience. Thus he was able to take the essentially instructional scripts and educate men as to the benefits of allowing women to talk for longer on the phone and further, how they too might improve their key relationships by doing a little of the same."


It shows how easily it can be for a 'regular' person to have an influence on the thoughts of an individual in a personal interaction. Yet alone how effective a trusted famous person could do this in an advert that portrays a 1-to-1 scenario like the BT Advert did (below).

Advertising As Communication - Gillian Dyer

Intorduction

Page 6

"Advertising's central function is to create desires that previously did not exist."

Chapter 4 - The Effects Of Advertising

Page 76

The Bypodermic model of sociological research suggests that:

"It is argued, for instance, that 'experimental' social and social-psychological research leads to a distorted view of the role that the media play in society. Research that looks for immediate responses to a single stimulus like an advertisement is probably over-simplified (although scientifically controllable) and inadequately conceptualized."

Pages 76 and 77

The Socially-Mediated model of sociological research suggests that:

"A member of the audience, some research has shown, cannon be affected by the media if they do not fulfil or gratify a need. For instance, if a person leads an active, varied life, and is secure and stable, no amount of advertising which appeals to fears of loneliness or being a social outcast, or to social snobbery will succed"

Although this is referred to as "optimistic research".

Page 80

"As early as the 1930's, literary critic F.R.Leavis accused the popular media, particularly advertising, of evoking cheap, almost mechanical emotional responses, and inculcating 'the choosing of the most immidiate pleasures got with the least effort' (1933, p.3). He warned that advertisements corrupted feelings, debased language, exploited peoples emotional needs and fears, and encouraged greed, snobbery and social conformity."

"his criticisms of advertising have some force and relevance even today"

Page 81

"Marcuse contends that the media define the terms of the way in which we think, and that their influence has to be assessed not in the strict sense of their impact on what we think about, but in terms of the way in which they condition our entire intellectual outlook"

My Understanding

There are numerous ways to assess the impact of advertising on people and society in general, all of which have different 'results'. You can't definitively say that advertising has a specific on someone or society, but you can use the outcomes of the different ways of assessing to validate or invalidate a certain viewpoint on advertising.

Chapter 7 - The Language Of Advertising

Page 147 

"The associations that words have can mislead people into thinking they are buying something other than what the product actually is or contains. For instance, orange squash is sometimes called orange crush which might make people think that the drink had more real oranges in it. The Trade Descriptions Act (1968) makes it an offence to offer goods or services under descriptions that are not accurate"

My Understanding

When advertising a product, you can't lie, you have to be honest. But you can use creative language to try and make the customer see the product differently. This isn't lying on your end, but more trying to convince the customer to lie to themselves.

Harvard Referencing

Dyer, G (1982). Advertising As Communication. 2nd ed. Suffolk: St. Endmundsbury Press. 6, 76-77, 80-81, 147.

Potential Further Research From Here

• Look at F. R. Leavis and Marcuse
• Find out if the Trade Descriptions Act applies to charitable donations
• Consider the differences between "give" and "donate"

Celebrity Sells - Hamish Pringle

Chapter 20 - Celebrity As Presenter

Pages 197 and 198

"Bob Hoskins was chosen to be the celebrity presenter to lead the 'It's Good to Talk' campaign and he was a great piece of casting. At that tiem Hoskins was riding high on his performances as a gangster in films such as 'The Long Good Friday' and had great credibility with the male audience. Thus he was able to take the essentially instructional scripts and educate men as to the benefits of allowing women to talk for longer on the phone and further, how they too might improve their key relationships by doing a little of the same."

My Understanding

Using well-liked and trusted figures to convey can change perceptions very easily and quickly of the those who like and trust the figure, which breaks down barriers for the company that is behind the conveyed message.

Chapter 28 - Celebrities Interacting

Page 257

"celebrity interaction works for KFC and Pizza hut...    ...the appearence of more than one star in the commercials gives a powerful endorsment and reassures people as to the calibre of the eating experience." 

Page 261

"Occasionally brands crystallize this world to their benefit by clever multi-celeb castings...   ...However, the all-too-costly Christmas ad featuring a 'personaliity parade' usually lacks an idea and has all the effect of a country town panto."

My Understanding

Celebrity endorsement only works if it's a relative endorsement based on a solid campaign. If the campaign isn't very solid, it becomes more about the celebrity than the celebrity endorsing the message.

Harvard Referencing

Pringle, H (2004). Celebrity Sells. United Kingdom: Lightning Source UK Ltd. 197-198, 257, 261.

Age Of Propaganda - Pratkanis & Aronson

Chapter 23 - The Fear Appeal

Page 162

"Fear appeals are powerful because they channel our thoughts away from careful consideration of the issue at hand towards plans for ridding ourselves of the fear. When illegitimate fears are used, the message promotes deception."

Page 163

"Experimental data overwhelmingly tells us that all other things being equal, the more frightened a person is by a communication, the more likely he or she is to take positive preventative action."

"What Leventhal and his colleagues discovered is that the people who had a reasonably good opinion of themselves (high self-esteem) were the ones most likely to be moved by high degrees of fear arousal"

Page 164

"Much research has shown that if recipients of a fear appeal perceive that there is no way to cope effectively with threat, they are not likely to respond to the appeal, but will just bury their heads in the sand - even those who have high self-esteem."

Page 165

"In sum, a fear appeal is most effective when (1) it scares the hell out of people, (2) it offers a specific recommendation for overcoming the fear-arousing threat, (3) the recommended action is perceived as effective for reducing the threat, and (4) the message recipient believes that he or she can perform the recommended action."

Page 167

"Given the power of fear to motivate and direct our thoughts, there is much potential for abuse. Illegitimate fears can always be invented for any given propaganda purpose."

My Understanding

The book suggests that using high fear tactics makes people more likely to change their feelings about an issue, but this is useless unless they give clear directions as to how they can do something about it. People with high-self esteem are more likely to try and tackle the issues as they have more confidence.

Chapter 25 - Guilt Sells

Page 178

"When we feel guilty we typically pay little attention to the cogency of an argument, to the merits of a suggested course of action. Instead, our thoughts and actions are directed to removing the feeling of guilt - to somehow making things right or doing the right thing. We fall into the rationization trap."

"Guilt can be induced by reminding the target of past sins that have long since been atoned for, by making small transgressions loom large, or by making it appear that the target is responsible for a crime that he or she did not commit. Once we are filled with guilt, our thoughts and behaviour are directed toward ridding ourselves of this feeling. The end result is, at best, the manipulation our behaviour and, perhaps at worst, long-term damage to our self-esteem.

My Understanding

Feeling guilty can make us think differently to how we'd usually feel because we feel the need to atone for something. By comparing our lives to the lives of starving Africans, adverts can create a feeling of guilt, which makes us more likely to comply to their requests.

Harvard Referencing

Aronson, E and Pratkanis, A (1997). Age Of Propaganda The Everyday Use And Abuse Of Persuasion. 6th ed. USA: W.H.Freeman and Company. 162-165, 167, 178.

Good: An Introduction To Ethics In Graphic Design - Lucienne Roberts

Page 66 - Confucianism

My Understanding

Confucianism comes from China during 500BC-700BC. While it has an old and non-western heritage, it's underlying principle is relevant to a modern day western society. The idea of confucianism is that working towards perfection is an ongoing process that develops over time, and this comes from the idea that the behaviour of people in positions of power will slowly affect the behaviours of others to match them. Assuming that the people in the positions of power act in a positive manner, this leads to a gradual improvement in society. 

This is relevant because in our society, possibly the greatest power over people is the media. The problem is that in a consumerist society where the media revolves around selling things, you can't be sure that this power is acting ethically or morally. It is a strand of ethics that's based on politics, the same thing that a lot of campaigns are based on.

Quotes From The Book

"His (Confucius) teachings have a political dimension, and are pervaded by the belief that personal perfection - mainly through a restoration of traditional values - can lead to an improvement of the general political situation."

"It is important to note that there are no rules to determine the right action. Instead, what is right can only be decided by taking into account the circumstances in which one finds oneself."

"Underlying its teachings id the belief that exemplary behaviour of rulers and teachers will eventually induce people to change their own conduct. These changes in personal conduct, in turn, will lead to an improvement of the general political situation."

Page 68 - Christian Ethics

My Understanding

The particular thing that's relevant about Christian Ethics are the philosophies of St Augustine. He placed a particular emphasis on the intentions of a persons actions rather than what happens as a result of them. 

He philosophised that human life is a punishment for Adams sin in the Garden of Eden, and that human nature is naturally sinful, which justifies this punishment. Given that the western world is essentially based around Christianity, the idea that we as a species are deserving of punishment is interesting.

Quotes From The Book

"Augustine notably emphasised the moral significance of motives over actions."

"Augustine saw human life as a punishment for Adam's original sin, and thought we could achieve redemption only through overcoming our natural inclinations towards sinfulness" 

Page 69 - Utilitarianism

My Understanding

In it's most basic form, utilitarianism is the idea that anything that adds to the total happiness of the world is a good and moral thing, and anything that subtracts from it is a bad and immoral thing.

The hole in this theory is that, in theory, it allows you to put one person through a lot of unhappiness in order to provide a slight boost in happiness for others. It tries to quantify happiness, which is what prevents it from problems

Quotes From The Book

"Utilitarianism is a theory about what is right. In its most well-known form, it provides an answer to the question 'What is the right thing to do?'."

"As a general rule, the right action to take is the action that maximises welfare"

"Utilitarianism does not distinguish between the pleasure of different persons: not only is the pleasure of the person who undertakes the action taken into account, but also the pleasure of the other people involved."

"Although the theory has been criticised on many fronts, among other for its disregard for people over abstract notions such as pleasure, its influence remains significant in contemporary philosophy and in the social sciences."

Page 69 - Kantian Ethics

My Understanding

Kant came up with the Categorical Imperative, which is the idea that you should only do things if they fit in with universal laws. Any act that doesn't fit in within this rule is immoral.

A more recent formulation of Kantian Ethics is that people shouldn't be a means to an end, but they should be end in themselves. You shouldn't use other people for your own benefit.

Quotes From The Book

"The motive 'I will lie' fails this test. If everyone was a deceiver then no one would ever believe anyone, and lying would be impossible. Accordingly, we have a strict duty not to lie."

"alternative formulations of the principle are often found attractive - especially Kant's idea that we should never treat humanity merely as a means, but always as an end in itself."

Page 71 - Kierkegaard and Nietzsche

My Understanding

Ethics and morality as a subject generally assign value to groups of people rather than an individual. This means that when people follow their individual impulses, they are attempting to get past ethics by justifying what they're doing by arguing that they're doing what they think is right.

Nietzsche criticised Christianity for using their morality as a way to protect weaker people from stronger people, as he thought it takes an unusually strong person to create their own morals, and these people are being held back by Christianity.

It's important to realise that freedom means that you have the right and ability to choose what you think is morally valuable.

Quotes From The Book

"given that ethics traditionally accords value to the collective over the individual, the individualistic impulse is developed by both thinkers as a kind of anti-ethic, or as an attempt to go beyond ethics."

"alternative formulations of the principle are often found attractive - especially Kant's idea that we should never treat humanity merely as a means, but always as an end in itself."

"In a world in which the only values are individual values, both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche thus suggested that it is necessary to overcome the external forces of social morality and to act 'authentically' on values to which you are absolutely committed. These values are part of your nature, and to act on them is to be free."

Page 93 - Conflicting principles

Quote From The Book

"For most of us, our ethical decision-making has something to do with striking a balance between living life to the full and not harming others. This sounds simple, but the detail of each situation will be different, subtle and shifting. Thinking about ethics requires us to welcome complexity and to be constantly asking questions of ourselves and others."

Page 103 - The discomfort of judging

Quote From The Book

"In the modern world the freedom of the individual is all-important. We don't like being told what to do and question the right of those passing judgement. Conversely, we want to live our lives with a good conscience and so look for mechanisms to facilitate this taking place."

Page 103 - Thinking relatively

Quote From The Book

"The result of this way of thinking is that a design project cannot be deemed good or bad in itself. It can be said to be good or bad when considered against the circumstances that created it, or by applying a variety of different criteria"

Page 177 - Ken Garland

Quote From The Book

"We have to take a pragmatic view. Start with the real world, not the ideal world, and we'll see how we can approach an ideal world from the real world. We mustn't give up. The temptation to slip into a cynical position on these issues is very strong, but with scepticism there is always a thread of idealism with in. If you are able to survive on a breath of idealism you should take deep breaths, because I don't want you to give up."

Harvard Referencing

Roberts, L (2006). Good: An Introduction To Ethics In Graphic Design. Switzerland: AVA Puplishing. 66, 68-69, 71, 93, 103, 177.

What Is Research (Parts 1 & 2) - My Thoughts

It was quite a while since part 1 of the lecture, so I've had a look through the notes from it, as it was quite dry and not very memorable due to the nature of the content of the lecture. So if I miss anything or say something that doesn't make sense that may be why.

Part 1 was very factual, whereas Part 2 was considerably more philosophical. While it didn't seem like there was anywhere near as much content in Part 2, I think it definitely think it merited being split into a separate lecture. Had it just been stuck on the end of Part 1 I think I'd have been quite bored and not in the right mindset to appreciate it.

I think I personally could've done with having this lecture a lot earlier, as it eased a lot of my worries about the essay I'll be writing. The idea that "Research is creating knew knowledge by using what is already known" isn't something that I'd considered up to now. I'd been worrying that I had to come up with a completely original idea for my essay, when this wasn't the case, something which Fred referred too directly.

The idea of constantly looking at research in different ways (as illustrated in the diagrams) was also something that made me feel more comfortable, as I was worried that I wouldn't be able to focus very narrowly on a particular subject, and so knowing that looking at a subject in different ways is an acceptable thing to do has made me feel a lot more comfortable about the task of writing an essay in general.

Part 2 was probably the most useful lecture so far in my opinion, although I didn't end up going to the one on ethics, which is annoying given that my essay is ethics-based. That said, I wouldn't imagine it would've been as useful without the understanding that I got from Part 1.

Given how poorly I did in my essay last year, I'm quite motivated to use these lectures to my advantage and do considerably better this year.

Lecture - What Is Research (Part 2)

Research is creating new knowledge by using what is already known.

Information is only as good as the way it's presented through language and imagery.

Information that comes from research is always functional.

Knowing that something.... - Theoretical
Knowing how something.... - Practical
Knowing where something.... - Contextual

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

- Albert Einstein

Research is an ongoing process, you must stop at some point otherwise you'll never get anything else done. 

CoP Essay - Progress and Tutorial

Pre-Tutorial

I went into the library and looked through some books on advertising for content that was particularly relevant to the way charities advertise. I took out three books:

• Advertising as Communication - Gillian Dyer
• Celebrity Sells - Hamish Pringle
• Age of Propaganda - Pratkanis & Aranson

Between these three books the topics I am particularly interested in are:

• Tone of voice
• Language and the law
• The absence of language
• Visual rhetoric
• Celebrity as presenter
• Celebrities interacting
• The fear appeal
• Guilt Sells

I also found paragraph 4 of the 2000 First Things First Manifesto particularly appropriate;

"There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help."

This combined with the 4th footnote of Michael Beirut's 10 Footnotes to a Manifesto could make for an interesting argument.

"This litany of gruesome products has one thing in common: they are all things with which normal people are likely to be familiar. Yet haven't such common products comprised the subject matter that graphic designers haven't tackled throughout history? What is our design canon but a record of how messages about humble things like shoes, fountain pens, rubber flooring, booze, and cigars have been transformed by designers such as Bernhard, Lissitzky, Zwart, Cassandre and Rand? What makes dog biscuit packaging an unworthy object of our attention, as opposed to, say, a museum catalog or some other cultural project? Don't dachshund owners deserve the same measure of beauty, wit, or intelligence in their lives.

I also had a look through the powerpoint from the lecture on ethics (the only one I've missed so far, annoyingly), and found a key point from Kantianism and Utilitarianism that I can use to triangulate an argument in my essay.

Kantianism

Act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as ends in themselves, and never only as a means to an end. If you use people for your own benefit it is not moral.

Utilitarianism

An action is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties. A rule is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties.

Tutorial

I spoke to Richard about the sources I had found and was planning on using, he was very specific about the FTF Manifesto being a strong opening to the essay, and discussing how its view and the footnote from Beirut's argument in his 4th footnote oppose each other with reference to the ethical standpoints in Kantianism and Utilitarianism. From there I should introduce some of the stronger references from the books I took out and use an example of advertising to relate them to the more general references made by Beirut and the Manifesto, all the time using the ethical viewpoints for triangulation.

Richard suggested than I use Benetton as the main example of advertising because of how they're a corporate company that have used a charity-like style of advertising in their campaigns, and I could compare this to a more traditional charity like Oxfam.

In terms of the practical element to the project, we discussed the possibility of advertising a multi-national company such as McDonalds or Coca-Cola in a similar in a similar way to how charities stereotypically advertise themselves, and then be able to assess how that affects the image of the company, if that'd make it a successful campaign or not, and how a charity might utilise the sort of messages they give out.