Television Advert Analysis

Television Advert Analysis

This is an advert for the Unilever product; Lynx body spray. The advert is being used to promote Lynx and raise the idea that Lynx smells good and attracts lots of girls, this is done to ensure focus towards their primary audience. In the advert there are thousands of girls running and travelling the world in order to reach this one man, who is standing on the beach spraying himself with Lynx. This gives off the impression that the smell of Lynx is irresistible and can be smelt from all across the world as it is so strong. The use of the orchestral music provides an intense, battle scene-esque, build up which also can relate to the amount of people in the advert as an orchestra is made up of lots of people working together to follow one conductor, almost how all the women are working together to follow this one man. The use of bikinis was done on purpose and apparently the producers of the Lynx adverts were honouring the sixtieth anniversary of the bikini's introduction into modern usage.

Demographic refers to types of people and 'selected population characteristics', we can talk about target audience and key consumers by looking at demographics. Commonly studied demographics include; age, race, gender, social status, location, etc.

The demographic primary audience in this advert is teenage boys aged around 16-23. The use of the bikini-wearing females draws in more viewers as they are intrigued and interested in the visuals on screen. This is done as it is typical for young teenage boys specifically to be interested in models wearing less clothes, so they will watch it the whole way through and may think that if they buy Lynx then they will get the girls. On a whole, Lynx is regarded as a cheap and simple brand therefore interesting the working class and members of society in the social grades of D and E. Lynx would be seen as not good enough for upper class workers.

The demographic secondary audience in this advert is men as a wider population from the ages of 16 and up. Again the use of female actresses in bikinis is an eye catcher for the men and they would continue watching it as they enjoy it and the on screen visuals. They will purchase Lynx as they think it can work wonders and get them all the girls.

Psychographic is a term that describes consumers or audience members on the basis or psychological characteristics initially determined by standardised tests. These characteristics are usually dictated by where a person is living and the conditions of their habitat. Some categories include; values, morals, opinions, lifestyle, etc.

The psychographic primary audience in this advert is the mainstreamers. The mainstreamers make up 40% of the world's population and they are seen as 'the norm' among society who just go with the flow and follow the lead of others. They would seen a big brand such as Lynx and simply buy it due to the name of the brand and the sheer popularity it holds. They wouldn't necessarily be interested in the video advert as they would consume the product regardless.

The psychographic secondary audience in this advert is the individuals. The individuals are often hard to classify and are seen as the youngest of the psychographic audiences, they are also seen to be of a lower class. Due to their young makeup, it is unlikely they would have much finance behind them and would therefore be seeking cheaper products such as Lynx. They also wouldn't necessarily be interested in the video advert as such but more would consume the product due to it being well known and seen as cheaper/ lower class.

The advert was first aired on British television on ITV during the England v Sweden match in the FIFA World Cup. This was the first and only time it was aired due to a marketing strategy to get people searching for the advert and product online. The advert was specifically placed at half time in order to 'give fans a break on the football' and have them distracted by Lynx. The placement of this ad was done in order to help reach their primary targets, as millions of people and in particular men were watching the football and therefore were going to see the advertisement. The match kicked off at 3 o'clock meaning the advert would have aired any time between 3:45 and 4:00 which is a prime time for people to be watching the television. Lynx used the huge popularity of football and in specific England's team to ensure that they got maximum viewers possible for this one-off advert. This would have cost the company an awful lot of many due to how prime this time on television is because of the football. Lynx were not an official sponsor of the World Cup either, meaning they would have had to fight to get their advertisement space and spend even more money, especially given the length of the ad. Although I can't find exact figures online, looking at similar shows and the cost of airing during peak time on the ITV, I would assume Lynx paid anywhere between 20-60 thousand pound.

This advert takes the form of an anti-realistic narrative due to how extreme the situation is and how unrealistic it is that someone would smell Lynx from so far away and that thousands of girls would traverse the world to get to this one man. The visuals however are realistic due to it being real people and locations however the plot can be seen as a fantasy narrative. The whole advert can be seen as being live action due to this, but upon further research I discovered that CGI was used to save time on having all the girls be in one location at the same time. Instead they had 110,000 girls run and move in front of a green screen and using special effects they added them into the scene. Some of the girls that you see up close such as the main one at the start and the few at the end on the beach would have been real as there wasn't many of them and their faces could be seen up close and clearly. This advert can be seen as part of the overall series of Lynx due to all of their adverts being based around the same idea that someone sprays Lynx and are then followed by lots of girls. Another example is the Lynx Angel advert where thousands of angels fall from the sky and make their way towards one man wearing the body spray.

In terms of style, this advert could be seen as a humorous take on a serious advert due to how serious the characters in it are but with the overall message being somewhat humorous as the serious and stern girls are chasing towards one man. This advert could also be seen as surreal due to it having a non-clear message towards what the product is being advertised with the only mention of the product being right at the end of the whole video. The way this advert is done would have people envious of this one man due to him getting all these girls chasing him from around the world.

AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire and action. Attention relates to how well the advert attracts their target audience and potential consumers. This advert's main strength is it's use of strong visuals which do indeed attract the attention of the viewer and draw them in to watch more. Due to this advert being aired only once it was crucial that the advert attracted attention so that people wanted to consume the product and look up on the internet more information about it. Interest relates to how interested the audience would be in the advert and usually the ads with professionals or experts does this best as people trust what they say and want to use the products they do. In terms of this advert, there aren't any experts to sell the product, however the product sells itself by the message it gives that Lynx attracts women and men want to copy this and attract women themselves. Lynx is known for being a low price budget which would interest consumers even further. Desire relates to how the advert convinces the consumer that the product is something they need or want. In terms of this advert, the use of having this man chased by the women creates a desire for viewers who want to stimulate his experience themselves. Lastly, action relates to how the consumer is guided to take action with phrases such as 'Hurry, act now!' and 'Limited time offer!'. In terms of the Lynx advert, there is no speech of any sort and no messages of action telling people what to do, as Lynx is a constant product that always has products available world wide and know that people will purchase it no matter what.

Lynx is a brand is known globally and sells products world wide. In other countries outside of the UK (and also Australia), Lynx is known as Axe but it is the exact same product just renamed. This was due to Axe being registered by another company inside the UK and Australia so it was changed to Lynx. Due to this exposure, most people around the world know of Lynx/Axe and would therefore buy the product due to its popularity and also because people are more likely to consume and trust brands they've heard of before. In terms of a product, Lynx is an item used multiple times daily whether it be the body spray or body wash. This means that it can be consumed by literally anyone as everyone uses deodorant/spray and washes themselves routinely. When it comes to similar products, Lynx's only real competitor is the company Sure, who also produce cleansing products and body sprays. However, in terms of availability and value for price, Lynx reins supreme and is why it is deemed to be more successful and bigger than it's rival.

There are two main organisations in charge of regulating advertising content in the UK. The job of these two organisations is to create rulings and regulations for adverts to follow, in order for them not to be seen as inappropriate or offensive. They also monitor all adverts to check that the advertising rules aren't broken. The first of the two organisations is the ASA, which stands for the Advertising Standards Authority. It is a self-regulatory organisation meaning that it independently decides upon the rules for companies to follow when advertising and it is also a non-statutory organisation meaning that it cannot interpret or enforce legalisation. However, its code of advertising reflects legalisation in many instances. The ASA is not funded by the government, but by a levy on the advertising industry. This means that they are funded by advertisers and rely solely on income from companies paying for advertisement - 1% of any advertising cost goes towards the ASA. The ASA makes sure ads across UK media stick to the advertising rules which are written by sister organisation CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice). The other organisation is Ofcom, which stands for the Office of Communications. It is a UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. This means that it is government funded and doesn't have to rely on funding from companies paying for advertising.

Unilever Product Rebranding

Advertising Documentary: Questions

1. What is the purpose of advertising?

Advertising is used to make the public audience aware of a particular product in hopes that they then consume the product.

2. What is a target market?

A target market is a particular group that a product is aimed at, usually because they are most likely to consume said product.

3. How does advertising work?

Advertising works by spreading awareness of a product via media. It creates an emotional need in the target audience done through the Unique Selling Proposition.

4. What is reach?

Reach is how far the advertisement travels in terms of geographically and how many people see the advert around the world.

5. What is frequency?

Frequency is the amount of times an advert is shown in order to promote a product.

6. What kind of things does an advert spend its money on?

An adverts cost is primarily split into two parts being the production of the advert and the ways of promoting the advert. In most cases the production of the advert takes around 10-15% of the cost with the ways of promoting (such as TV adverts, magazines, etc) taking up the rest.

7. How important is the USP?

The USP stands for the Unique Selling Proposition. It is used in order to help market an advertisement and focuses on the concept of the product being unique and causing consumers to purchase it.

8. Why might an advert campaign fail?

An advert may fail due to a numerous amount of reasons. One is that it may break advertising guidelines causing it to be removed from medias product and lead to a waste of money. Another could be that the product doesn't generate enough reach or frequency thus leading to a low number of consumption resulting in the product failing.

Depict Evaluation

What was the task?

Our task was to create a 90 second short that could be entered into the Depict competition. We were put into groups of 4 and we had to create an idea, story board the idea, fill out other pre production documents and create a film. We had to make sure our film was suitable for people to watch and followed all the rules on the Depict website which we checked before starting.

What was your idea?

My group all started brainstorming ideas straightaway by story boarding and discussing amongst ourselves. We all agreed that we wanted our film to have a deeper meaning and be more focused around a real world problem. We decided the most relatable thing would be to focus on the idea of being lost and not really knowing yourself fully which everyone in the group agreed on as it had had an impact on all our own lives in some way. We decided that we didn't want it to be the main focus of the film though as we didn't want it to be too depressing. We thought the idea of having someone 'lose their reflection' would work well and so decided to expand it further and have someone literally 'turn invisible'.

Pre-Production Paperwork