Saatchi & Saatchi Operation Black Vote Campaign

I found this campaign on Creative Review's blog page.

It initially grabbed my attention because Sol Campbell (top) is involved in it. The ex-Arsenal and Tottenham footballer played 73 times for England, and in March 2014 he claimed he would've been the England captain for more than 10 years if he was white, see this article by The Independent.

Clearly Campbell is using his position as a (somewhat) well-known public figure to try and raise awareness of and tackle racism, which is good and necessary, especially seeing some of the comments on The Independent's article.

Saatchi & Saatchi did the above campaign for Operation Black Vote, which is an organisation that aims to get black and ethnic minority people to vote in the general election. A campaign about this topic needed to be careful because of social sensitivities about race, and I really feel this campaign failed to be this.

Some of the comments in the Creative Review article suggest that this was campaign was intended to be controversial and "edgy" to get public attention, which I can only assume is the case, and because of this I feel that what the campaign was saying is completely overlooked. Using the term "coloured" is now politically incorrect (as explained by the BBC here), so I find it particularly strange how the world "colour" is used, and it is an indication of how little attention and care Saatchi & Saatchi paid to the campaign.

I also find the inconsistencies in the imagery odd. The photo of Sol Campbell is by far the most striking of the four, but the one of Tinie Tempah is so completely different, if you took it out of the context of the campaign, you wouldn't necessarily know that the image was produced for a campaign about race.

One commenter said this; 

'Can you imagine if white people blacked up with the same text, ie, taking the white out of Britain, they would be branded racist. Hypocritical advertising campaign that just encourages a colour divide. An us and them campaign, how divisive. Everyone with the right to vote should do so if they wish, people of all colours and genders have fought for rights/votes on behalf of us all, so those who don't vote should always be encouraged, but not in this way. Shameful and racist.'

I completely agree with them. 

Campaigns like this back up the conclusion of my essay about anything being justified in adverts for good causes, specifically my point that effort isn't often put into the causes the First Things First Manifesto claim it is.

Coco-Cola and McDonalds Print Adverts

I looked for Coca-Cola and McDonalds adverts that were the most creative, and found the some recurring themes in the below examples.

Use of the Logo/Identity

Coca-Cola makes use of the strong brand recognition it has through the colour and typography in this advert by re-arranging the letters to create a smiling face when zoomed in. Because you automatically associate the advert with Coca-Cola because of the colours and shapes, you associate happiness with the brand after seeing the smile. This is an example of one of a false need that you want to fulfil to make you happy, as talked about by Herbert Marcuse. 

McDonalds know that young children would rather eat their food than a sandwich, and know that parents know this too. By putting their logo and packaging on a sandwich which we know is for children through the connotations of them being cut triangularly, the fact that there's only two whereas an adult would tend to eat more, and more obviously the use of the word 'mom', they try position themselves alongside parents rather than against them. This makes parents more open to going to a McDonalds with their children.

Negative Space

Similar to how Coca-Cola linked their brand with happiness in the first advert, they do the same here with the idea of Summer and holidaying. It uses negative space to create the bottle shape, which adds an extra level of recognition to the colours, and an extra relevance to the placement of the sandals.

McDonalds use of negative space is a lot simpler, with the burger being representative of the moon. From a distance or at a small size the text is unreadable, and the contrast of this against the burger has a lot more presence about it. When you get close enough to the text to read it, it adds relevance to advert, so it works on two levels.

Using the Product to Establish Trust

This Coca-Cola advert uses the bottle in to show how it's been around for years and hasn't changed. Illustrating this through various technological ages works well as it simplifies the brand down to nothing more than just a drink against the complex connotations of technology. This removes it from the context of the big multi-national corporation, making it appear more innocent, trustworthy and likeable in the eyes of the consumer.

The McDonalds advert uses the product in a way that shows the brand itself is up-to-date by keeping up with technology. This keeps young people wanting to eat there after they outgrow the Happy Meals, as this sort of advertising makes clear that it's more than just a place to eat, it's more of a lifestyle decision.

Reactions to Charity Print Campaigns

I looked for examples of charity adverts that promoted the same or similar charities through guilt and/or fear in different ways and ran a survey asking people which ones made them feel guiltiest or most frightened and why.

I chose these adverts to test colour images against black and white images. 70% of the people who answered my survey said the left advert was most effective, with the reason being the brutal imagery. One of the people who thought the right image was most effective thought so because of the ghostly image. 

Conclusion: People chose the left image because of the content of it, which doesn't really help me. Someone said that the ghostly look of the right image was effective, which is useful, but these responses showed that the content of the image was more important than the styling of the image.

These adverts were chosen to test the influence of celebrity endorsement. I researched the woman in the left advert to check she wasn't a celebrity, and it turns out she was the actress for Will Smiths girlfriend in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I wouldn't class this as celebrity as such, especially compared to Pamela Anderson. 85% of my answers said they thought the right image was most effective because it's easily and instantly understood.

Conclusion: The reasons for it being more effective are unrelated to the people in the adverts, so in that sense it wouldn't seem like it makes little difference.

I chose these to test if leading questions were more effective than statements or key words. The response to this was split 55%:45% in favour of the top one, with reasons being that it was thought-provoking and it felt quite dark. People that thought the bottom one was most effective referenced the sad look on the dogs face.

Conclusion: Based on the fact that no-one who thought the bottom one was most effective mentioned the text in any way, whereas some people mentioned how the top advert made them think, I would suggest leading questions are more useful that statements.

These adverts were testing how the amount of text affects the effectiveness of a guilt/fear campaign. 85% Thought the bottom one was most effective, one of the reasons given was that "less text makes me think more", which is pretty perfect feedback. The reason given by a person who thought the top one was more effective was that the eyes that made them feel guilty.

Conclusion: Less text is better because it's the images that make people think. The people that thought the top one was more effective thought so because of the content of the image, not the text.

This was to test if verbal arguments were more effective than statistical arguments. Everyone who answered my survey thought the bottom one was more effective because of the way it humanises a problem, and it was much clearer than the top one.

Conclusion: If you have statistics, use them.

Practical Response Proposal

The conclusion of my essay was that the role ethics has in charity advertising is to overpower contradictory viewpoints, ones that disapprove of guilt and fear tactics, because charity advertising is still advertising.

My practical response will reflect this by subverting the examples used in my essay with examples of advertising for Coca-Cola and McDonalds, two companies that characterise perfectly the sort of companies that the First Things First Manifesto encourages people to avoid working for.

By doing this I hope to show that using other tactics for charity advertising still sell a charity effectively, and that the tactics charities use would show corporate organisations in a bad light if they were to use them. This would support my conclusion that ethics overpowers the idea that any sort of advertising is still advertising, and that any ethical approach by a charitable organisation is always accepted.

Level 5 Essay Evaluation

What Went Well

The research I did prior to writing the essay was very varied, despite it being mainly book-based. I tried to stay as logical as I could in the order in which I researched the individual topics my essay covered, and I think this is reflected in the clarity of the arguement my essay presents.

When writing the essay after doing my initial readings, I felt like I had a perfect balance between theoretical research and practical examples. This meant that I wasn’t struggling for things to say, and allowed me to be critical and concise at the same time, which was important given the issues I was having staying within the word count at times.

What I'd Change

I’m genuinely very happy with my essay, and every stage of the process went well. The major improvement in my attitude this year has meant that I’ve been putting more effort into my practical briefs. Going back to doing something academic such as a COP essay has been a nice change from that, which is why I’ve embraced it so well. In this respect the main thing I’d change is my attitude towards COP last year, as if I’d been more productive last year, maybe I’d have had a better idea of what I wanted to do this year. I can’t complain about this too much because of how well it’s worked out for me both in terms of this year and setting myself up for next year, which I am genuinely excited for.

General Comments

I do now feel that my personal stance on the First Things First Manifesto is justified because of my essay, so on a personal level, the essay was successful. 

On top of this I also feel the massive turnaround I’ve made in COP is somewhat symbolic of the year I’ve had in terms of improvement given my poor essay, practical response and grade in COP last year, and I can only see this improving into next year.

Level 5 Essay

Studio Task 5 - Writing and Formatting Correctly

Dissertation 1 - Abbas Mushtaq, BA (Hons) Graphic Design 2013/14 - Diffusion of Style in a Global Culture

• First page shows name, course, year, essay title and word count.
• Contents page breaking essay down into sections. 
• Quotations are called "Illustrations" and are listed at the front of the essay in a separate section.
• Sans serif headings with serif body text.
• Large line spacing between own text, small line spacing between quotes.
• Introduction talks through the contents of the essay chronologically.
• Quotes have single quotation marks not double and are given a new line and indented.
• Ideas within text are cited, not just quotes.
• Citation has square brackets and capital letters.
• Image are assigned a figure and placed in an index in the back. They are referred too in circular brackets by (Fig. 7).
• Chapters are of varying length.
• Repeated citations tend to stay within the same chapter, apart from the conclusion, which uses citations from all of the chapters.
• Images are large and spaced out when assigned figures.
• Conjunctives and commas are used to form larger sentences which makes the arguments read as more intellectual.
• Very formal, 'if one is of the opinion' rather than "if you're of the opinion".
• Noticed no spelling mistakes.

Dissertation 2 - Nathan Bolton, BA (Hons) Graphic Design 2013/14 - Is Print Still Relevant within the Digital Age?

• Inconsistent use of capital letters in title.
• First page shows name, course, year, essay title and word count.
• Contents page breaking essay down into sections. 
• Quotations are called "Illustrations" and are listed at the front of the essay in a separate section.
• All text is sans-serif.
• Consistant large line spacing throughout document.
• Introduction gives no indication of content to come.
• Double quotation marks are used.
• Quotes are given a new paragraph but no indention of change of formatting.
• Citation has circular brackets and uses lower case letters.
• Single quotations are used for quoting sources within own text.
• Image are assigned a figure and placed in an index in the back. They are referred too in circular brackets by (Fig. 7).
• Sentences are often quite short rather than being joined together, making it feel somewhat disjointed in places.
• Images are large and spaced out when assigned figures.
• Subjective language is used occasionally; 'Whilst it looked great'.
• Noticed no spelling mistakes.

Dissertation 3 - Beth Hayden, BA (Hons) Graphic Design 2013/14 - Due to current methods of production, distribution and social practices, do fanzine have a place in today's society?

• Introduction talks through the rest of the essay.
• All quotes have double quotation marks.
• Quotes pulled out of the text as arguments have smaller line spacing.
• Circular brackets are used for citation, as are non-capitals.
• Some quotes are also used within text, cited in the same way.
• Many sentences are quite short and blunt.

Conclusions

Given that the first essay had a more academic tone to it than the first two, I would've thought that more time would've been spent researching the formatting of it, but the formatting of the citations was different to the other two, so this is something I'll need to look up.

The introduction to an essay should talk briefly about what content of the remainder of the essay is going to be, which makes the reader more prepared for it.

Images aren't to be put within the text, and should be placed after the conclusion.

The text should have large line spacing, and the formatting for the quotations should be clearly different.

Using longer sentences makes the essay sound more academic, and using subjective language should be avoided.