A brief for an awareness campaign
For my project, I have chosen to create an awareness campaign, about child abuse, which can come under the marketing and advertising part of the course. My campaign is going to be mainly focused on sexual abuse, as it is quite a sensitive topic and not many people choose to do it. I am aware that it is going to be challenging, and that I would have to use some very effective techniques in order to give out the right message. The main aim is to educate people and inform them about what is going on in the world, as well as marketing for the charity organisation.
These are very covert marketing techniques, as it is quite subtle and focused on the organisation’s activities rather than the organisation itself. The project is going to be consisted of 4 posters that could be used in either magazine pages or on billboards. They will all have the same layout as well as the same idea, to make it as simple as possible for readers yet effective. Enigma will play a big role in my posters, as they will all be linked, as if it is like a series of pages and they all complete each other.
By looking at advertisements by organisations such as NSPCC, I have realised that the use of dull and dark colours are very common, same as the close up shots. However, my use of innovative ideas will make the campaign more appealing, and the enigmatic factors will attract many readers. I will use the idea of including a child’s picture in the poster, however unlike the others I will use as much bright colours as I possibly can, that will then be contrasted with the background. The main background is going to be an old diary opened, in quite gloomy and dark colours.
The wordings “dear diary… ” are going to be used on the first three posters. The diary connotes that it is real life events, and just like how the book is opened, a person is opening their life for us to look at and go into it. Diaries are usually symbols of truth, as they are very secretive and owned by one person, so the fact that it is the main background connotes that the organisation is very honest about its activities, and that it is simply showing the viewers nothing but the reality.
In the middle, there is going to be a very simple, yet colourful picture of a child, each one showing the situation developing, and then followed by short sentences beneath it, symbolising the child writing in their diaries. It shows a sequence of events as it starts by a picture of a girl happily sleeping in her bed, with the word “My first night in my new bed. he said I was a princess”. The enigma in the text makes the audience wonder who the “he” is and what the advert is about.
The second poster shows a little boy at the park smiling and enjoying his time, however this time there is a hand holding onto his hands. It is then followed by the words “went to the park today, he played with me on the swings”. There we can immediately feel the enigmatic meaning of the next, where the audience feel the worry and almost know what it really wants to show, especially with the pun on the word “playing with me”.
Even though it builds up tension, the readers would still want to get to the end and know what it is about. The third one is a picture of a little girl with two man hands on her shoulder, and again with the words “He said no one would understand… he is my only best friend”. Now, it gets clearer to the readers, as the point would have been successfully showed. The last picture consists of the organisations name, followed by some facts, a helpline and then the slogan which is “This smile… this child… ead between the lines”. The slogan refers back to the smiles of the children in the pictures, and the appearance of a diary supports the idea of reading between the lines, in order to find the truth. The logo of the organisation is going to be placed on every single poster, adding to the confusion and enigmatic effect, but also helping the readers to understand. The advert is very disturbing to readers, as they are seeing innocent childhoods being taken away without realising, and how brainwashed the children get.
The contrast in colours shows the active and bright life of children however surrounded by the gloomy colours connoting the dangers around them. The idea is targeted to a more educated, and clever audience, as it is based on challenging the readers to get to the point instead of giving it to them. This means that the advert is targeted at ABC1 audience from both genders, however since it is common for children to get abused in the lower class if society, then the advert is very important to appeal to them too.
So overall it appeals to both ABC1 and C2DE audiences, with a very wide range, starting from young children to old grandparents both reporting the same problem. The billboards are going to be created using the same pictures, however with all of them stitched together, making it seem like a storyboard. It could be placed anywhere, however it would be best put at a place such as a shopping centre where viewers can stand and read all of the writing.
Stickers are also going to be created with the logo of the campaign and distributed around. I am working in a pair with Kirstie Browne, and we have both decided to equally divide the work, and use a program called “Easy media creator 10 Suite” to help us create our posters, and make them seem professional. We will start by taking the pictures we need on digital cameras then use them for our final piece. The organisation that we will most probably choose is going to be “NSPCC” as it is mainly focused of the sexually abused children.
