The CCF advert
The headline in the CCF advert is very simple. It uses the girl’s name to make you think more of her as someone like us. It expresses the parent’s feelings through the headline. It is bold but not that big. There is a use of assonance in, ‘mother…father… love her.’ It makes it stick in your mind. I think the Oxfam headline is overall more effective and interesting, the use of puns makes you think when you’re reading it. In both advertisements the headline and caption are the same thing. The caption in the Oxfam advert read, ‘look me in the eye and tell me that arms controls are tough enough,’ assonance is used as a technique. It makes it sound more interesting and makes it more memorable. Alliteration is also very easy to remember. ‘The,’ ‘tell,’ and ‘that’ are all examples of alliteration.
The caption in the CCF reads, ‘Amie has a mother and father that love her… so why does she need a sponsor like you?’ This is a rhetorical question, which is answered in the text. These kind of questions make the reader think, ‘why?’ As a caption I think the CCF advert is more affective because it makes the reader want to know the answer to the question and makes them want to read on. The logo for Oxfam is very well known and recognisable. It is placed at the bottom right hand corner of the advertisements. It is the word Oxfam, but the o looks like a globe. The globe represents that Oxfam is helping people world-wide.
The logo for the CCF is simple. It is ‘CCF’ in bold writing with three images of young children on either side. The Oxfam logo is more affective because it is something you look at and you instantly know where it’s from. The slogan for the Oxfam advertisements is, ‘Cut Conflict Campaign,’ this is alliteration and affective because it is noteworthy. The slogan for the other charity is, ‘Christian Children’s fund,’ which again uses assonance, but is abbreviated to ‘CCF,’ which is much easier to remember.
The small print for Oxfam uses a number of techniques such as alliteration, ‘murder’ and ‘maimed’. These are emotive words, which make the reader feel guilty and sympathetic. It also uses repetition such as ‘in the eye’ and ‘tough enough’. Again this is very persuasive and easy to remember. The CCF uses alliteration such ‘Christian Children,’ ‘self-sufficiency,’ ‘Eastern Europe,’ ‘Education Eventual,’ and many more. It makes the advertisements catchier.
The objective information used is ‘they live in Gambia, one of the least developed countries on earth.’ This is a true fact. Subject information is ‘The family simply don’t even have a crust of bread to share!’ This kind of information is emotive language and tries to make you feel sorry for the girl. One important fact about the advertisements is ‘just �15 a month can give a child a decent future’. This is true because money is life and with it you can buy things like tools and seeds, which would help feed them.
Oxfam also uses objective statements such as, ‘guns can be easier to buy than tools in some countries.’ This is because in some countries you need a gun to protect you. This makes the reader want to stop the fear and do something about it, so people will not have a fear of death without a gun. It does not have subjective statements because they are trying to fight against Tony Blair and he knows what is right and wrong. Facts are more powerful than opinions because a fact is something that can be proven when seen. Your opinion is what you think, there is no right and wrong, it is your view on something and other people may think about it a totally different way. The reader wants to know something about not what another person thinks about something.
In both adverts the images of the girls are being exploited. This is because of the way they are being presented. The Oxfam advertisement makes her look badly hurt and the CCF makes the girl look very upset. This is wrong because they should consider the feelings of the girls. It is also manipulative in both cases because in the Oxfam advertisements they are making people think that everyone is hurt like the girl in these countries. The CCF advert is making people thinks that all the children are unhappy with what they have out there. By exploiting the pictures it makes the reader fell they have to do something urgently and fast, but sometimes it makes the reader turn away from the advert because they think, if the picture is exaggerated than all of the text will be as well.
