Tuesday, 14 April 2015

M&S Food TV Ad 2014 - Adventures in Ice: Pie Analysis

Advert Analysis
Introduction

The advert I chose was the “M&S Adventures in Ice: Pie”. I choose this because I’ve seen it on TV once or twice and I can remember it really well.

Tone

The tone of the advert is very relaxing and homely. It is relaxing mainly because of the audio; the audio was relaxing as the narrators voice was smooth and the adjectives used brought about a lot of tasty imagery. Soft music in the background also helps the audience relax and get into a state of rest and possibly hunger. The lighting and set design in the video focuses attention to the important objects in the shot for example; the image below shows an egg yolk being spread by a brush. The egg yolk is bright yellow which means it is the first object the audience gets drawn too; the white brush is a darker white which would mean it is the second object that the audience gets drawn too. Finally the background is pitch black which means the other colours are more prominent and noticeable.   



The beginning of the video sets the tone as a grand set is shown, here it is:
The audience might be led to believe that this set is a snowy tundra with a snowy mountain when in fact it is only icing sugar.

Target Audience

I believe the target audience of this advert would be anyone who might buy at shops such as Iceland, Sainsburys or Somerfield regularly and wants a change. This will appeal to them due to the fact that this advert makes M&S seem classy and sophisticated in comparison to Iceland and Sainsburys.

This slide in the advert will further appeal to that demographic due to reissuing the viewer that the food is cheap:
The target audience may include people from a middle and upper class background as it tells them that they would have the same quality of food(like a posh food shop) and have the added bonus of being cheaper than usual.

Language

The language used brings about a lot of imagery. This is to make the reader hungry and more attracted to the idea of buying food at M&S. Most of the language is posh and not much slang is used; this is to keep up the appearance of an upper class advert.
   
Ad Guidelines

This advert does not really promote a healthy lifestyle as it sort of encourages people to be greedy and to want the food for themselves. The unhealthy aspect comes into play when you see foods such as icing sugar and bacon which are both equally fattening; the advert subliminally tells the viewer to buy the food. You can also see that nearly everything is being grilled in the advert which is also not healthy.




Do I enjoy the advert?

I do enjoy the advert due to a number of techniques; one technique would be not showing anybody and only focusing on the products. I enjoy the way they put emphasis on the products by mainly making the set dark. I like the cinematic feel of the beginning of the advert. Finally I enjoy the narration due to the fact that the narrator’s voice makes the advert seem classy and puts the viewer at ease. I would definitely use the technique of only focusing on the drink and not anybody else; in fact I may not use anybody in my advert. I also would try to capture the cinematic feel of this advert.

Market Research-Three Drinks Brands

Three Different Healthy Drinks


  1. Innocent Smoothies


Branding


   
Firstly the logo looks as if it were drawn by a child, this drawing connotes innocence due to it looking like a childs drawing and children are often associated with innocence. The logo’s drawing looks like an angel due to the halo located above the character’s head; this denotes innocence due to angels often being associated with everything pure and clean.


As you can see the website also radiates a feeling of positivity due to the smiling people and goofy objects located on the bottom row. Innocent sells healthy smoothies, because this is the case one of the main elements of the website is trying to live a healthy lifestyle. An example is the segment that states “January is hard, show winter who’s boss” this connotes a feeling of determination which is often associated with exercise. Also the man in the picture is wearing a hoodie which connotes a sense that he has to wear something comfortable to exercise.


Another element of the site is ‘fair trade’; we can see this with the man on the left segment who looks like a worker with a field behind him. He is smiling so this may connote a sense that he is getting a ‘fair trade’ for his fruit.


Advertising


These are two advertising posters that can be found in cafes and shops selling Innocent products. Both these posters have an underlining theme of all natural and freshly made fruits; we can see this with one subtitle which states “acai comes from a tree not a laboratory.” and “We crush all of this(arrow pointing to a pile of fresh fruit)...into this(pointing to a Innocent smoothie carton).”. Because of the ‘freshly made’ themes both these posters connote a sense of living healthily and a healthy diet.
This advert takes more of an comedic approach rather than the heavy handed approach of the previous two adverts. Firstly we see the rabbit talking(rabbits have a mostly healthy diet due to being herbivores) about Innocent contributing to “2 of my 5 a day”; this could connote to readers that they may not have to eat fruit if they have two innocent smoothies a day(there is also a subtitle on the bottom that tells the reader this piece of information). The comedic element of the poster is the the bottle making a comment that implies that the snooze button on an alarm may be the best invention ever; this aspect is to attempt to make the poster funny and relatable.













Packaging Elements and Colour


These are Innocent’s main bottles; the design of the bottle connotes innocence due to the small size and light coloured packaging. Each bottle looks similar, because of this the bottles rely on the colour of the actual drink liquid and then after noticing the colour the potential customer may read the flavour subtitle on the front of the packaging.
On the actual label we can see that Innocent are further trying to cement their brand as a healthy drink as the subtitle under the name is “pure fruit smoothie”; the term pure fruit denotes that the drink is healthy and could be used as one of the five a day.









Language
The language used on the label suggest that Innocent is a brand trying to live up to it’s namesake; for example the box with a yellow outline’s heading is “an innocent promise”. it then goes onto list things that Innocent promise never to do; “we’ll never use concentrates, preservatives, stabilisers or any other weird stuff in our drinks.” is what the text states. The language connotes that Innocent can be trusted and is a friendly face in contrast to the mostly faceless drink industry; we can see they are trying to be friendly due to stating “or any other weird stuff in our drinks.” after a string of complex chemical names. This shows us that the company understands not everybody will understand the terminology and instead cuts right to the chase.


Another use of attempted bonding with the audience is with the use of humor right at the end of the text which is “And we promise to brush our teeth twice a day.” This is just humor and an attempt to form an emotional connection with the audience by making them laugh.








Price
(Tesco)
(Sainsburys)
(Waitrose)
All of these prices are £1.80 or £1.79, this is surprising due to healthy and organic products normally being rather expensive(for example a healthy bottle of juice may be £5.00 while a bottle of Coke may be £2.50). Also for these three examples there seems to be a deal that offers two or three bottles for the price of £3.00. This may appeal to people who are trying to save you money and want to eat and drink healthily.

Target Audience


If we compile all this evidence together we can tell that one of the factors of targeted demographic must be fit or at least active; This is due to the drink being a fruit smoothie also due to some of the words and phrasing such as “we’ll never use concentrates, preservatives, stabilisers or any other weird stuff in our drinks.”


The ages of the target audience could vary as the drink is small and called Innocent which would also suggest that some of the audience could be children.






2. Volvic

Branding


This is the Volvic logo it’s imagery is a mountain but could possibly also be a volcano due to the dip at the top of the mountain as well as the name Volvic. Around the logo is a water spouting in a circle this is just in reference to Volvic being a water company. The logo’s mountain and water spout connote a sense of clean or cleansing water; this is due to mountain water often being associated with cleanliness and often being portrayed with a purifying effect on people. The volcano aspect could connote a sense of freshness due to volcanos normally destroying old land only to be replaced with a fresh new land.
The website backs up the fact that the mountain is in fact a volcano. The website plays on the themes of a volcano due to a number of factors; one factor being the countdown timer that is stating when the volcano will erupt. There are also themes of ‘freshness’ and ‘cleanliness’ due to the lush green fields on the volcano and the plants growing in the foreground.


Below is an image of the volcano erupting; as we can see there is not lava but in it’s place is water. Around the volcano are a group of people holding bottles and musical equipment; they seem to be celebrating the volcano erupting.
The phrase ‘Join the celebration’ below the counter also reinforces the fact that it isa time for celebration.


Volvic has also released a number of other drinks under the Volvic brand, the most notable being the ‘Volvic Juiced’ line of drinks depicted here:
These drinks help cement Volvic’s reputation as a healthy drink. It also helps volvic stay unique and varied as people may only see Volvic as a plain water product.


Advertising
This is a still shot from one of Volvic’s TV adverts. As you can see the characters are puppets and the environment they are in seems to be made from a soft felt material. This advert could appeal to children due to it’s fun nature; it may indicate to children that water(but more specifically Volvic) is not just a boring adult drink but it can also be a fun drink for children. The characters are also fun and non-threatening; this is further sign the advert is aiming at children because if it were adults then the characters would look a bit more realistic and possibly be in cgi.



Volvic also has a more adult themed TV advert as we can see the beginning of the advert depicts a dry and grey earth. It looks like it has been baron of water for a while. Below is the end of the Volvic advert as we can see the earth is a lot greener and there are more brighter colours; this denotes rejuvenation and regeneration. The second shot shows a volcano with the phrase ‘Unstoppable Volcanicity’ which might mean that the Volvic drink will have an unstoppable refreshing taste and effect on the potential buyer.



















This last advert connotes sense of a healthy and green lifestyle. It depicts a toppled Volvic bottle with the water inside it producing plants. The phrase ‘Volvic Regenerates’ further cements the fact that this drink will help you feel fresh when you are exercising or if you are in a tense situation.


Packaging Elements and Colour/Layout


This is Volvic’s label on it’s bottle. As you can see it’s rather plain and colours are light but it does not stand out that well. The blue sky sort of blends in with the water in the bottle; this creates a sort of illusion that may capture a potential buyer's attention a couple of seconds more than an average water packaging.



This is a label from one of the ‘Volvic Juiced’ drinks. This label is much more bright and stand outish compared to the previous one. The label has a more graphics on it for example the strawberry splashing into the water is very detailed. The flavour is in small text located below the image; this may be because Volvic think that the consumers may identify the flavour with the image of the strawberry and the colour scheme.


Colour wise the Volvic plain water bottles don’t have any other colours apart from light green and light blue. Colour’s only really come into play with the addition of the ‘Volvic Juiced’ series as the colour of the drinks help customers understand which flavour each drink is. For example the strawberry image above is mainly red and strawberries are mainly red.


Language


The language on Volvic packages are very limited only to name and maybe the flavour name. In the image above we can see an offshoot of regular Volvic drinks; the main phrase used is ‘a touch of’ this means it keeps still tastes like water but with only a slight difference with the additions of lemons, summer fruits etc.
Price

















Price wise a single bottle of Volvic seems to be priced within the 60p-65p bracket. This may be because Volvic wants their product to be accessible and affordable to a wider market. This could be to promote healthy living a 65p is cheaper than most fizzy drinks; it could also be because Volvic understands water can literally come out of the tap so they sell water cheap to sell more bottles and to not come under criticism for the price.


Target Audience


Volvic seems to be targeting everybody with their advertising, adults and children. Volvic’s main themes seem to be rejuvenating and refreshing because of this the drink may be automatically attractive to those with an active and healthy lifestyle.












Oasis


Branding
While not possessing an actual logo(image) the way in which the Oasis brand name is styled contains a big connotation. The connotation is that the ‘O’ in the Oasis looks wavy at the sides of it; this is sort of like seeing a mirage in the desert. Mirages often tend to be Oasis’.


Considering all of this the name Oasis is very inventive as Oasis’ are known to be rare and a treat for thirsty people. Runners or people that are thirsty may see the drink and picture fruit; this will lead them to believe that Oasis would be healthy then alternative’s such as Coke, Pepsi or any other competitors.


Oasis does not have an actual website but they do have a sub-section on the Coke website; below you can see what the section has to offer. All we can see is ingredients and nutritional properties; this will be good for customers who just want to get down to the actual properties of the drink.
  











Advertising
Here is an advert that would be shown after the TV show “Celebrity Juice”. As you can see the drink itself is positioned directly in the centre of the set with a number of prop objects and food surrounding it. The phrase “It’ll go with anything” is shown below the Oasis name; the phrase connotes that you can have any food with the drink but the foods surrounding the drink are mainly healthy in nature. This further connotes that the suggested food would be healthy.
Packaging Elements and Colour/Layout
As you can see the average Oasis bottle is very colourful; it should be noted that the bottle is also smaller than other drinks bottles. The colours can be attributed to the fact that the drink is trying to advertise itself on flavours and one of the best ways to do that is to help the customer colour associate with actual fruits. The size could either be because more drinks could be brought if the consumer takes a short amount of time to finish the first drink and then wants another. Or this could be because the Oasis company wants to connote the fact that the drinks should be consumed in moderation so the size bottle they provide you with is the ideal amount you should have. The former is more likely.   


Price
You can see that Asda and Morrisons offer the drink at the same price and offer a 2 for £3.00 deal. Tesco offers 4p less than the competitors  but does not offer any “2 for 3” deals.This is because the bottles are small and selling them for the same amount as a large coke bottle would not be good for business


Ethical and Economic Constraints of Developing a Brand

Ethical Constraints of Developing a Brand
The main ethical constraints of developing a brand would mainly revolve around aspects such as the environment,  work conditions, honesty and factual correctness.

When companies brand themselves with being 'green' and environmentally friendly they have to make sure they do not destroy land that is preserved or contains endangered life. The tactic some companies use is called 'Green Washing' it is called this because you may get brands that pride themselves as being good for the environment and for doing good deeds such as planting a tree for every tree cut down in the rainforest. These tactics may be shady though as we do not get the other side of story from their advertisements and the company could be more bad then good for the environment. While the Green Washing tactic is used a lot the governments of the world have commissioned programs and institutions such as the 'Federal Trade Commission'(USA), 'Norway's consumer ombudsman', 'Canada's Competition Bureau' and 'The Australian Trade Practices Act'. All these these institutions help ground the advertisements by implementing fines ands other penalties.

Brands such as H&M, Gap and Hershey's have to sometimes outsource jobs to third world companies; these are normally jobs in a garment factory, coco plantation among other facilities. These facilities are known for occasionally getting into trouble with the law over their human rights abuses such as overwork, unfair wage pay and not up to date living conditions. The public doesn't generally think about these aspects of certain products due to being more pre-occupied with shopping or just simply not knowing about what happens behind the scenes of producing and or manufacturing of certain products.


The Advertising Standards Authority 



The Advertising Standards Authority was founded in 1961 and it is a British self regulatory organisation which mainly focuses it's gaze onto the advertising medium. When the ASA finds an advertisement, sales pitch or direct marketing attempt their main goal would be to find out if the ad directly complies with it's own set of guidelines.  Much like the organisations previously mentioned the ASA holds each ad to the effect of finding out if the marketers hold accurate claims as to whether or not the advertisements can prove all claims which could be directly or subtly implied to the audience. Notable cases include a suit against Apple Computer's claim to have the "the worlds fastest personal computer" the computer was judged and found to be unstable and Apple retracted the claim. 

Food wise the ASA is very strict as to how some food products may advertise and showcase their products. For example some critics of certain fast food brands have called for the banning of material that could effect a child's health in a negative way. From 2007 and onwards the ASA have been stricter on soft drink and fast food companies; these rules normally apply to under sixteen 







 

Monday, 23 March 2015

Cat Walk Cycle

During this and the previous lesson we had to create an animated gif of a cat walking.

It involved tracing an outline of an already exsisting template and editing it to make the cat look different, here is the end result.

Cat Ball Gif



Step By Step Process:

  1. Firstly I downloaded the images of the original video.
    2. I then Resized the document to fit the images' size. 
    3. Next in Adobe Flash Made a layer named "Cat Gif" and then added 71 separate blank keyframes.

    4. After this I placed each image in a separate frame.

    5. Next I created a new layer named "Design" this is the layer in which I will draw the coloured ball.

    6. After this came the process of colouring in the ball for each frame. I used the paint bucket and brush tool.

    7. Lastly I exported the sequence as an animated gif; I made sure to select the "256 Colours" option to make the sequence smoother.
      8. I then decided I wanted to add more to the cat gif so I added a outline to the cat's upper body.
     9. Here is version one with the gif in the background.











Facial Expressions

Facial expressions
I used flash to import the actual photo of myself. I then used a blank keyframe and a onion skin layer to trace over the photo.
Surprised
This is the 'surprised' expression I traced from a photo of myself.
Annoyed 
This is the 'annoyed' expression I traced from a photo of myself.

Happy 
This is a 'happy' expression I traced from a photo of myself.