Test on Advertising (Part 1)

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Look at the following ad: http://brokenteens.org   

What kind of ad it? Pay attention to the use of sound, to the use of colours, to the movement of the images.  What is the effect of all these elements? Then take into consideration the "protagonists" of the social ad (age group, physical appearance, etc.) In what way is the choice of the "protagonists" linked to the addressees of the ad?  These are just some questions to help you analyse the ad.  Do not feel constrained by them.

Now look at the following images meant to fight binge-drinking.  Which one do you find most effective?  Why?  If you were asked to devise an ad to raise young people’s awareness as to the dangers of binge-drinking what would your image be?  What would your slogan be?

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Now look at the following social ad.  It is French.  What dangers does it highlight as to binge-drinking?  Do you find it effective?  Why (not)?

24 Replies to “Test on Advertising (Part 1)”

  1. this is a beautiful campaign against abuse of alcool among young people.
    the ad is accompanied by a catastrophic music which gives to i a deep tone. It starts low then it increases and becomes quicker and violent in a sort of crescendo ; then in the end it turns quite again. 
    the impact given by the music is very strong , it highlights the importance of this issue even without the use of words.
    we see a series of guys who smash a bottle of glass on their head. Their movements are slow and slackened but in syntony with the course of the music, in this way the spectator's attention is stuck.
    in fact we can perfectly  see the slivers of glass dashing out and the painful faces of the young protagonists. there is nothing around them but a black background which is a synonymous of death, of a life damaged by the use of alchool. they are adolescents because the ad is addressed to them.
    in the end appears the slogan of the ad : "teen drinkng causes damage on brains". the red words  remind us the colour of blood and they are linked with the previously actions of " smashing bottled on the heads".
    but after the logo the ad is not over because you have to click to go ahead and read a list of serious consequences caused by alchool.
    the structure of the ad is very efficient, impressive and provocative.
    to me the most effective image is the second last one. it is split into two sections: at the top of it there is a happy girl with some alchool drinks whereas at the bottom she is lying on the ground maybe in a faint.
    the slogan says: "don't turn a night out into a nightmare" . i like it because it is  simple and in two images it shows how alchool could be dangerous if you abuse of it. 
    in the last video we see a party on the beach. A group friends enjoys the party by dancing, singing , laughing and drinking. at the beggining it seems quite and funny but it degenerates, it turns out in a disaster.
    a drunk boy tries to rape a girl, another one drowns in the sea…everybody loses control because of alchool abuse. unfortunately this happens every saturday night among youths of 13 or 14 years old too!
    their aim is reaching the buzz and having fun in extreme ways, the problem is that they don't have real reasons to do it but  we would must get to the bottom of the problem before judging them.
    Maybe by analysing our society and his contradictions would be the first step. 

    Elisa 

     

  2. This is a social ad against the abuse of alcohol among teenagers. The sound is very important; this is a music used in teat her or in films, when terrible things are happening. I think this is directly linked with what happen when young people dink.
    More significant is the pause (no music) when a young girl look in the camera, and it seems she is looking us, and than break the glass bottle with her head. In this moment we can see fear and sadness in her eyes. The music is violent, like the impact of alcohol in the brain.
    The background is black, symbol of something catastrophic, maybe to emphasize the figure of these teenagers that are throwing away their lives. At the beginning movements are slow, and we can see the expressions of these young, then faster, like the music. All these elements stimulate the viewer’s attention and give a sense of anxiety that make us reflect upon this serious problem.
    The protagonists of this ad are young people maybe between 16 and 20 years old. They are common people, I think, because this social ad is addressed to teenagers in general, not only rich or poor!
    But the ad does not stop here, because, if you click on the side, you can see the images of teenagers while are breaking the bottle, accompanied by sentences that explain scientifically the effects of alcohol abuse.
    I find effective all these images, but if I had to choose, I would choose the third one. In my opinion it is strong because we can see a girl before drinking alcohol, and after have done it. It is impressive because probably she fainted and we see the injures caused by alcohol.
    Alcohol really caused devasting effects!
    The slogan is important because a night could really become a nightmare if you drink too much.
    If I were asked to devise an ad against binge-drinking, I would simply take a photo of a car accident and the slogan will be “alcohol kills.”
    The French social ad is against abuse of alcohol, and I think it is really close to reality. In fact we see a group of young people having a party, they are happy and all seems good. But then, because of alcohol, this party become a tragedy. We see sexual violence, a girl drowning and young drunks losing the control of themselves. It is very effective because, as I said, is closer to reality, and we had to fight this serious social problem!!

    Arianna

  3. This is a social ad against teen drinking.
    During this social ad we can see many teens smashing a bottle on their head. The image is dark and black is predominant: only the clothes of the teen have sparkling colours. The soundtrack is predominant and it is close to the act done by the teens: it is quite threatening.
    The images are interrupted and started in a mechanical way; they mirror to the effects of alcohol on the human body: the slowliness of the activities of our brain…
    This choice of the “protagonist” is certainly linked to the addresses of the ad: they are common teenagers; they look good and we cannot imagine that they could ruin their life because of binge-drinking.
    This ad, in my opinion is well built. The slogan appears only in the end but we can understand immediately the message. It is a social ad created for the computer where teenagers spend the majority of their time.

    I find most effective the third one because of the strong of the images…it realises immediately the effect that drinking provokes.
    In my social ad against binge-drinking I will use a ghoulish image:
    An image of the funeral of young and beautiful girl. Into the coffin the girl is disfigured and has a bottle in hand…we see her family crying on her coffin and the slogan will be: DRINKING KILLS YOU!

    The French social ad is very effective because shows the real effects that binge-drinking can provoke.
    We see a beautiful party on the beach, boys and girls are happy but suddenly it turns into a disaster…we see a sex abuse, a girl drowning and boys who loosing their control.

    It is the tragic destiny of every Saturday night…unfortunately this ad is very close to reality!

    Chiara B.

  4. It is a social ad about the effects of alcohol on young people.This social ad shows boys and girls that smash bottles of glass on their hands. In this ad the sound is a very important element: at the beginning we have a high sound; at the and the sound becomes gloomy and melancholic. The music is a sort of crescendo. The music gives us a very strong inpact also without the use of words. The  movements are slow but they are in syntony with the sound of the music. The protagonist of this social ad are teenagers between 15-20 years old. They are common peolpe because this social ad is addressed to teenagers in general. Teenagers  are unfortunately the first victims of the effects of binge-drinking.
    This social ad underlines that drinking alcohol causes brain damage, particularly in young people. This ad has a very strong moral message, we can read at the and of this social these words: "TEEN DRINKING CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE ".This is the slogan of this ad that  appears only in the end but we can understand immediately the message.In this ad also the colours are very important :the black is predominant but the clothes of teenagers have sparking colours. I thik that the music and the colours give a sence of anxiety the make people reflect upon this serious problems.
    I think that all these images are effective but perhaps the third one is the more effective. This image can be divided into two parts: the first one shows a beautiful girl having an happy smile.She is dancing with their frinds and she has in their hands a bottle of alcohol.In the second part we can see the girl that is lying on the ground maybe in a faint.
    The slogan says: "don't turn a night out into a nightmare". In the Franch video we see a party on the beach. A group friends enjoys the party by drinking.dancing, singing and laughing.  At the beggining  seems that    the situation is quite and funny but it degenerates, it turns out in a disaster.We see sexual abuse, a girl drowning and young drunks losing the control of themselves. The slogan says:"COMAS ETHILIQUES, VIOLENCE, ACCIDENTS, ABUS SEXUELS……."
    Unfortunately this ad is very close to reality!
    Anika

  5. This is a social ad because it deals with a social problem: alcoholism among teenagers. I liked it because it is effective and strikes the viewer attention, even if it does not tell a real story.
    We cannot see the setting because the only thing we can see are the young boys and girls that smash bottles onto their heads. There are not lights, but to me young boys and girls seem to shine: they shine because of their youth, but we can see that, when they fall onto the ground, their “light” dissolves, as if they had killed and spoiled their adolescence.
    The guys are also very handsome and the girls are pretty. They have no particular dressing or hair style: they are all different!!!! This difference underlines the fact that everyone can fall into the trap of alcoholism, not only poor people, but also rich ones; this is important because it is useful in order to raise the attention in ALL adolescents, not only in some of them. To me also parents could be the addressees, even if it is addressed mainly to adolescents.
    The fact that you have to click on a button to see the whole spot is linked to the great/huge use of the PC by adolescents: they can find this as while surfing the net and get involved in it; in fact it creates expectations. When all the guys have smashed the bottles onto their heads, a girl appears, she is the last one and she smashes the bottle onto her head as well.
    All the scene is a slow motion in order to make the viewer notice all the peculiarities of the face of the girl and of the shattered bottle in her hand. When she falls onto the ground the button appears and you are spurred to click on it because you have to see how the ad finishes.
    I liked this ad because it is different from all the commercials we have seen this month, for the use of music, of colours and for the different kind of addressee. Moreover the sentence I liked most is “when you drink it is not only the law the thing that you are breaking!”
    The ad that I found more interesting is the last one, because it strikes attention with the use of colours and of irony of the sentence “Binge drinking, fun isn’t it??”
    If I had been asked to ideate a possible ad against binge drinking I would take a photo of a man that went into a ethylic coma and I would write just “Almost dying”.
    The video is very effective because, when the atmosphere changes, you do not really understand what happens; it is as you were losing consciousness as the protagonists do. The music conveys the idea of something that happens that you cannot stop because you do not really realise what is happening. The whole situation makes the viewer understand that alcohol turns relaxed and funny situations into nightmares.
     
     
    Stefania

  6. It is a social ad, because it takes into consideration a terrible social problem of our society: teen drinking. It does not sell material objects, but it focuses on health protection.
    The commercial has a strong impact, from the very first second: we see, in sequence, a lot of teenagers, both boys and girls, who smash a bottle on their heads. We immediately understand what the ad is about; the red slogan tells us “Teen drinking causes brain damage”. The colour red recalls the colour of blood, so death and it is in contrast with the dark background (black), even if both black and red can be considered “alarming” colours. The “protagonists” are all young people (teenagers) of nice physical appearance. Addressees of the commercial are themselves and all the teenagers who have already done this experience or/and who have not yet. After the slogan, through a click, we can read some sentences about the negative effects of alcohol. It is a commercial made for computer users and this choice explains also why addressees are teenagers. The music, probably classical music, is linked with the images and the slow motion, because it has a dramatic tone, especially when a “protagonist” breaks a bottle on his/her head.
    I find the third image from the top the most effective: as a matter of fact, I do not like it very much graphically speaking, but I think the slogan is quite exhaustive. This ad plays on words and this is its strong point: “Don’t turn your night out into a nightmare”. If you abuse of alcohol you run the risk to turn your good time (fun, amusement) into bad time (you can foresee what is all about).
    My image would be an empty bottle made of broken glass. The background would be completely white. My slogan would be “Fragile. Handle with care. Before it is too late.”
    The social ad against binge-drinking highlights dangers as ethyl coma, violence, accidents, sexual abuses. Alcohol abuse can cause all this!  I find this ad very effective, because I like a lot the parallelism between alcohol effects and music. People lose control of themselves and music “loses control” of itself. It is a sensational development!
     
    Tiziana

  7. “Teen Drinking” is a social advertisement because it focus on and underlines one of the social problems of our society:alcoholism among teenagers.
    The ad is divided in two parts:in the first one ,there is an epic music,that with a crescendo catches the attention of the viewer.The protagonist are a group of teenagers,who smash bottles and glass containers on their head.It is a metaphorical image,a link between alcohol and destruction.The ad underlines how drinking can be dangerous ( and here there is the use of slow-motion to focus on the protagonist).In the second part there is no music,but threedimensional images with some question that help us to analyse and understand the social ad.The background is black,bare and essential maybe to represent the emotions and feelings of a drunker.It is impressive but even demanding to watch because it wants to make you perceive the problem of  alcoholism as real.
    In my opinion  the most effective  ad to fight binge-drinking is the third one.It is divided in two parts:in the first image we see a young lady,who smile and drink with his friend ;in the second  she is dead or unconscious (we do not know) because of alcohol.
    The slogan is vey impressive “DON’T TURN A NIGHT OUT INTO A NIGHTMARE!!!” and more significant than the images.
    For my personal social ads I would use a big bottle with a  black background.Inside the bottles a series of images of dead people causes by alcohol with a minimalist slogan “THINK”.
    The other social advertisement is even against alcohool.The first thing that catches  the attention is the  music :a latin-caribbean music (that’s just like party) underlines with a decrescendo the effects of alcohool.The protagonists are a group of  young people and in few minutes we can see all the effects of alcohol as sexual violence.Very inpressive and strong!!
    Nazzarena
     
     

  8. The theme of this social ad is alcohol. It is well-known that this is one of the most serious and biggest problems  in our society, which is spreading all over the world. This ad is definitely addressed to teenagers and they are the main characters of the ad: they wear casual clothes ,they look normal, they can be the boy or the girl next door. As a young woman, I can wear their shoes, they are like me, they are not people I look up to, they are approachable. I feel I can share experiences with them. In the ad they are smashing glass bottles onto their heads, and the viewers can perceive the pain and the strong effect that the glass has to their health; the classical and “creepy” music emphasizes the agony of the ad. The background is dark, dull ,it may be because advertisers don’t want to cast light on the set of the social ad, even because this is not the aim. The movement of the images is in slow motion because the abuse of alcohol has long-time repercussions on your brain. The ad is made up of several scenes: the first one rapresents teenagers smashing bottles, then the images stop and there appear phrases or statistics about the abuse of drinking; the peculiar element is that only through the help of the mouse you can continue watching the ad. Therefore this social ad is made in order to be broadcast in the net, because young people are almost addicted to computers.
    The French commercial is very very strong and communicative: the set is a tropical beach, there are a lot of young, good-looking and hip people and they are having a party; they are eating, dancing, entertaining themselves and of course there are drinking. On the background there is a mandolin, it is a very soft, relaxed and chill-out music. Suddenly there is sequence of  negative action brought about by alcohol:a girl is drowning, another one has been raped and then a guy is collapsed. What is the meaning of this ad???? At the beginning drinking is fun,you became more out-going,likable and popular; but then you are in a whirl: you head starts pumping, everything around you is turning and then you lose your senses. Drinking is wrong and it kills
    Valentina  

  9. They are both social commercials. The first one addresses teenagers mainly, but also their parents and other adults. They want to raise awareness as to the problem of drinking among young people and highlight the negative consequences of taking alcohol when you are young. To me, this commercial can have a strong impact, thanks to the dark, bare background, the rising music and the actions of the protagonists. We see young girls and boys smashing bottles on their heads, one after another in slow motion. I was impressed by all those little pieces of glass and I linked them to all the damages that alcohol causes to brains, especially young brains. To get to the end of the commercial you have to click and you see other images and writings that explain why drinking is a terrible addiction for teenagers and why we do not have to ignore it. They want young people really to reflect on it, because life is unique and the future is the mirror of our present actions. I think the slow motion in which the protagonists smash bottles emphasizes the possibility of young people to choose not to drink just for being part of the group or having fun (binge-drinking): it is another chance, a moment of suspension. I like this commercial because it is harsh but honest and catches the attention. I mean, it is not the usual way to tell teenagers “Do not drink!”, but it makes you reflect on this social problem that involves all of us.
    The images meant to fight binge-drinking are strong and cruel. I think the most effective is the one that says “Don't turn a night out into a nightmare”, but all of them show clearly the devastating effects of alcohol: people drink in order to have fun, be more self-confident and friendly, but there is your own life at stake. Do not take your health for granted. Also the ad that says “you booze, you looze” is striking: you are not a winner if you drink so much that you can not even understand any more what is happening around you, if you lie on a bench conscienceless and alone.
    If I were asked to devise such an ad I would put a bottle, that looks like a human figure, lying on the ground and some fluid coming out, that could be alcohol but also a metaphor for blood. And my slogan would probably be “It's just a bottle, isn't it?”
    The French commercial is extremely effective to me, because it highlights how alcohol can turn a nice party on the beach into a violent event. Also the music conveys this message, as if it were damaged just like the atmosphere of the “party”. In the end there is written that alcohol can cause ethyl coma, violence, accidents and sexual abuses.
    This problem is always present and is everybody's duty to do something about it.

    Erica

  10. The commercial we watched is about Social Advertising, that I think is the only form of advertising which is still “pure” and “innocent”. It is about  TEEN DRINKING , which nowadays is a real social plague!
    When the ad starts to play the movements of the protagonists are very slow, and the music is low.
    They are smashing bottles on their heads. This is the first sequence of the ad. In the second one, the music become higher and slower ,their movements become stronger and they seem to go crazy.
    These are the negative effects of alcohol in take.
    The characters  show the addressees of the ad, (young people) what the result of drinking is. Tha most important part of the ad is the last one, where you have to click on the screen to show motion.
    Here , there is the message  and this is why you have to stop in front of it; the creators of the ad thought that  stopping at each image would be easier to catch and to understand words and moral message. In this way you have time to reflect upon it!
    “IF YOU DRINK, THE THING YOU BREAK IS NOT ONLY THE LAW”.
    These were the words which struck me the most.
     
    I really like the first image :U BOOZE, U LOOZE!
    I think it is the most effective because of  the words the creators put  down below.
    Respect , Dosh, Mates, Choices, Future, Looks, Life… you lose every kind of thing linked to these extremely powerful values… if you drink alcohol!
    In my opinion, it is not an ad that  leaves an impression of you, it is simply an image that makes you thinking about.
    We don’t see  the face of the boy/ girl in the ad. Everyone of us could be the characters of the ad, everyone of us could lose his/her values in each moment.
     
    If I were asked to devise an ad…
    I would  put two identical glasses together , one close to the other.
    They would be transparent. One of the glass would contain pure vodka, the other one would contain pure water.
    “THERE IS NOT JUST ONE WAY TO STOP YOUR  THIRST OF  AMUSEMENT.
    THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE.   AREN’T THE GLASSES THE SAME?!”  THINK OF IT.
     
    I find the French Social AD, effective but not perfect.
    I think the bad effects of alcohol  are shown too much late, we watch people starting to feel sick  only on the 23 seconds of the whole ad.
    Someone who is watching television, could change the channel  without really understand the message of the ad. More over, he could even understand the opposite.  “What a beautiful ad for the new alcohol drink”. This could be his comment  watching it for the first moments.
    Jessica L.

  11. The first social ad on alcohol is involving and interactive.
    It is supposed, and actually it does, to puzzle you at first and than involve you, with the sound, the slow motion and the accelerated images, in the tragedy of many young people of our age. In fact the protagonists of the spot are simply good looking guys and young people who may represent whatever age between 18 and 30. That is also the age of the addressees. They wear on normal clothes and belong all to the same social class. The colour of the last words, the slogan, is obviously red on black background and resemble blood.
    As we already said in class, such a kind of advertisement are meant to make you feel involved, to make you discover, little by little, what are the aftermath and dangers of drinking alcohol too early. As to the images on booze-binging, the first two images are the most down-putting. There the most disgusting effects of alcohol are showed and it seems it make you loose your human nature: you turn into either a beast or a non-thinking being. You fall in a vegetative state, and be you the most charming, interesting, fashionable, self-controlled person, there is no way you can escape from the tragic consequences of getting drunk.
    Although the images are impressive, I think that the last images is actually somehow effective. Among people, especially young people, irony is considered as a “cool” feature, whereas being compared to a beast may be offensive. As a matter of fact, the “what’s your poison” Ad is, in my opinion, cooler as the first and the second. The third one hinges around a pun (night out – nightmare), which sounds too poor as device to catch our attention. However all of them are softening the problem of binge-drinking, they try to face the problem too smoothly.
    The French ad, again, results to give a practical and in-depth example of what actually can happen. It is another shock advertising.
    If I had to devise a social ad against binge-drinking I would choose to play on human psychology. Whenever we commit a big mistake because of our recklessness, we start going back with our mind to the point we went wrong, and tell ourselves: what if I hadn’t done like this? I wish I could have acted differently…if I could change the past… and so on. I would show a group of young people, who after enjoying a party with lot of alcohol, they kill themselves in a car-crush. Than the time goes back and the driver thinks about what he did, and all the other guys think to when they pushed him drinking, despite him not willing to do it; all of them have pangs of consciousness, and cry their own death. The final slogan is obvious.
    I reckon someone has already taken into consideration such a script, but it is unquestionably effective.

    (I caught up with The Guardian post too)
    Stefano P.

  12. This commercial deals with alchohol and teen drinking, which is a huge problem. In the ad we see almost 15 teens smashing bottles on thier heads: they are not drinking, but they are destroying there bottles, hurting them selves. The ad consists of teens shattering bottles by something them on their heads. They are hurting them selves, for sure, and they are causing the same damage as if they were drinking. You can watch splinters of bottle going everywhere, together with music, which has no words and consists only of struments, when the music has a crescendo, it slows and images are presented in slowmotion,it has a strong impact to see how it hurts.
    After this fast sequence of images, the commercial turns into a series of slides, where next to the boy or the girl, there is a sentence or more than one. We can see this red sentences against a black background and others in white (statistics and information on our brain). The protagonists are teens between 16-18, I think, they are all dressed alike, jeans and t-shirts and before they smash the bottles they seem all astonished. It is clear the choice of the protagonists, the problem is teen drinking alchohol and what other better way to show the problems ti may cause you, than through a commercial acted by teens that are just like I am? This social ad on alchol really impressed me, at first glance I did not understand what the spot was about, but once I understood I thounght it was a great idea presenting the problem like this. Maybe there are different ways to raise awareness as to the risk of binge-drinking, but in this case, since it is a commercial thought for computer users, I think it is really well done!
    As far as the images, the one that stricked me most, is the one with the girl lying on a bench, because it seems that she has compleatly lost her senses, she is totally k.o! The bottles, under her seat, and people walking around, without caring about her. I do not know, but it impressed me so much! If I were asked  to devise an ad against binge-drinking, I would just take some examples, as Arianna said: accidents or testimonies just to make people realize that drinking is not ''great'' it is dangerous to you and to the others.
    The French ad is really effective, but it is true: i mean this is what happens, you first start having fun, than everything degenerate into something else. As the slogan says, abuse of alchohol may cause coma, violence, accident and sex abuses. Something I liked was the music, which is lively when the guys are having fun, but than it slows and slows, until everything becomes a ''disaster'': it is really effective!

    Sara M.

  13. This is a social ad about teen-drinking. It's simple, repetitive in images and sounds, easy to understand and remember, thus effective. The slogan is "Teen drinking causes brain damages", the message is clear. The guys in the video are shattering bottles on their heads, which is actually playing with the meaning of slogan: it is true that drinking causes brain diseases, but the slogan dindn't mean such physical diseases as smashing a bottle like that!

    The ad consists of three parts: the first one is made up of the video where the actors smash bottles on their heads: we don't understand why, until the second part comes: the slogan, revealing us the bare message andthe subtle play on words. The third part is the online campaign consisting of a series of frames displaying the moment when the bottle hits the head, and an effective and true sentence about alcohol effects on young people. In order to see more frames we have to click on an arrow, the frames are presented individually from the less striking to the more effective one. In every part of the ad, black is the dominating colour: it is the colour of the background, in order to focus our attention on the subject (as a matter of facts, the slogan is red). the music is simple and only instrumental, it goes with the images: there's a crescendo in the volume and in the rhytm, as the video passes from slow-motion to real-motion, thus provoking anxiety and expectation for something striking to come. The actions of the people are always the same: the bottle comes from the left side of the screen, shatters and the boy/girl falls to the groung at the right side of the video. The movement may be alike to underline that these guys are all the same, they want to be like models, be pretty and admired, popular! As a matter of facts we do not see nerds or losers in the video, only "cool" guys, the ones you use to look up to if you want to be popular and cool. 

    I like the second picture, the one displaying a girl lying on a bench: it is striking and effective, it leaves you breath/speechless. With images like this, you have no nedd to use slogans. I think that images of the alcohol effects are far more effective on teenagers than symbolic pictures or slogna, see the fourth ad..

    I think I'd use a striking image to raise teens' awareness about binge drinking, i saw a photo of a person whose face was bruised by a car accident once and I've never found something more effective since then.
    Let them see the striking reality, no slogans, maybe just few words, keep it minimal, it's better!

  14. This is a beautiful campaign against abuse of alcool among teenagers,the sound has a crescendo and at the end it stops for a momente so we can focus our attentino on the girl and it goes on again but more slowly.
    The background is black and the protagonist of the ad are wearing a coloured T-shirt.
    The images start moving faste ras the music speeds up, when it stops the image starti going in slow motion, I think this effect is brilliant because it catches our attentino and in the end you can understand  the message of the ad.
    The “protagonists” of the ad are teenagers, they are good looking, they are like us, normal teenagers, in the ad they smash their heads with bottles, at the beginning I tought that they are breaking bottles in order not to drink but in the end I understant that it is the alcohol that “shatters” our brain irreparably. Advertising agents chose these protagonista because this social ad is addressed to teenagers so it is better that teenagers talk to teenagers.

    I find most effective the last image with the four drinks, it is simple, there is only the four drinks in different color, under them there is the slogan :”What’s your poison?”, the background is white in order to evidente drinks and we can pay attentino in what is write within the glasies:”Punch up, Visit A&E, Liver damage, Arrested”. Here you are curious to read even the explanation at the bottom of the poster and this is important because explains even the choice of the 4 drinks, in fact the pharse says:”If you drink more than 4 drinks […] you are qualified binge drinker.”
    If I were ask to devise an ad to raise young people’s awareness as to the dangers of binge-drinkinìg, I would use an image with twoyoung people in bad conditions after a drunkenness and the slogan:” Do you really want to become like them?”

    This French social as is against alcohol abuse. At the beginning it shows a group of friends having a party on the beach, they have fun but they unfortunatelly abuse of alcohol, in the end we see the damages..sexual abuse, a girl drowing in the indifference of the other people, boys losing control, etc.. I think it is effective because is close to reality..

    Lory

  15. Elisa, thanks for our analysis.  In the end, though, you tend to generalize. I would not say that all adolescents between 13-15 get drunk every Saturday night.  Some of them DO have parents who look after  them.  This is the reason why I would appreciate an idea of yours to stop or better curb binge-drinking.  What would you do to “persuade” young people as to avoid abusing alcohol?
    Arianna, remember that “soundtrack” is the word you should use, not “sound”.  You may use “sound effects” but to render the Italian (effetti sonori), whereas soundtrack translates “colonna sonora”. There are a few mistakes you could have avoided (“s” third person singular seems to be the thorn on your side! J)
    Chiara, your suggestion is certainly meant to have a great impact on the viewer!
    Anika, I would appreciate if you could come up with a suggestion of your own as to a possible social ad addressed to binge drinkers or potential ones!
    Stefania, the “on the point of dying” slogan is really powerful. 
    Tiziana, I love your slogan, “Fragile. Handle with care. Before it is too late”.  As to the image you like most I would really love to know why you do not like the graphics.  I am curious.  Please let us know.  I agree with you and I would love to know whether we share the same opinion on this.  As to your views on the powerful use of music in the French social ad, I couldn’t agree more!
    Nazzarena, I love your minimalist image and slogan “THINK”, really powerful.  As to the considerations you made as to the use of music in the French social ad (the way music changes as to the change in mood and situation), you are right to say that the effect is really striking.
    Valentina,I like this consideration of yours: “At the beginning drinking is fun,you became more out-going,likable and popular; but then you are in a whirl: you head starts pumping, everything around you is turning and then you lose your senses. Drinking is wrong and it kills you”.  You did not choose the image and you did not come up with a social ad of your own to curtail binge-drinking. L
    Erica,I like the considerations you made on the images I posted.  You did not limit yourself to choosing the one you liked the most, you also made some interesting observations to the others: “Also the ad that says “you booze, you looze” is striking: you are not a winner if you drink so much that you can not even understand any more what is happening around you, if you lie on a bench unconscious and alone.” I love your social ad as well, rich in symbolic value. JFinally, I do share you view when you state that we are all responsible for whatour teens are doing! 
    Jessica, thanks for explaining why you chose the first ad.  By the way, let’s make sure that you all know that DOSH is a slang word for MONEY! You made a point when you underline that the boy’s face is not made visible to us because all young people could be that boy! Your criticism of the French ad is certainly to the point.  I had not thought of it myself.  Thanks for making me realize about that faulty aspect.
    Your social ad is really effective, please, if you have not read Jessica’s have a look at it:
    If I were asked to devise an ad…
    I would  put two identical glasses together , one close to the other.
    They would be transparent. One of the glass would contain pure vodka, the other one would contain pure water.
    “THERE IS NOT JUST ONE WAY TO STOP YOUR  THIRST OF  AMUSEMENT.
    THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE.   AREN’T THE GLASSES THE SAME?!”  THINK ABOUT IT.
    Stefano, just like Erica, you made various considerations on the images and I appreciated that. You pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of the slogans and images.  Well done.  Your social ad is effective too.
    Sara, thanks for your observations.  Mind you, the past of strike is “struck”.  I did not understand what your social ad to fight or curb binge drinking would be like.  Can you specify, please?
    Davide, you are right that sometimes images are so powerful that they do not need any slogan to accompany them.  However, I think that a powerful slogan sticks in your head and lasts longer and on top of that it avoids any sort of misinterpretation.  It makes the message clear and to the point.  You did not make any comments on the French social ad L
    Lory, I like your social ad too! Direct comparison is not always effective, but in this case I think it works.

  16. maybe i have generalized, but now  binge drinking is became a common disposition among more and more young people. I think that the real cause is not always a bad education but dissatisfaction and boredom among lots of adolescents. I think that this frustration is caused by "having too much", everything seems to be guaranteed therefore things lose their worth and adolescents do not recognize what is really important anymore.
    therefore drinking is became something cool, lots of time i heard young boys and girls boast each other for their " alcoholic goals" !
    Besides almost everybody do not know the consequences caused by abuse of alcohol because there are few informations, few social ads about it and few help by those who have the power to do something, but those unfortunately use cocaine ..so what examples can young people have by this society? I do not want go beyond political matters, but this problem has deep roots, because if young people behave in this way there are serious reasons that are brought about by our materialistic and hypocritical society that teach us being fashion and cool.
    my conclusions could be considered pessimistic even if I prefer saying realistic. However making aware by broadcasting social ads is certainly a positive step to help young people, but not about alcohol only. Young people need to be informed about everything : politic, social and enviromental problems. I am sure that if they are aware of what is happening lots of problems would disappear.

    Elisa

     

     

     

  17. DEAR ELISA,
    THANKS for your reply.  It really touched me. I agree with your points and to a certain extent I share your worries and concerns.  You have not however suggested a social ad of yours. COULD YOU POSSIBLY DO THAT?

    YOUR TEACHER OF ENGLISH

  18. I want to apologize about the social ad,however this is my choice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5JHDupR24; it is a very simple and cheap, it is called “Human Puppet” but it really impressed me because it looks a like a video recorded by teenagers during a party. It can really hit the nail on the head,  it is very convincing and it is going to succeed among young people. My slogan would be “Alcohol is not killing you,it is burying your future”,  we have to alarm and even to scare them and make them understand that it is wrong! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5JHDupR24I found even this campaign against alcoholism, which is really efficient.
    Valentina

  19.  This commercial has had a strong impact on me. It reveals the danger of drinking. During all the ad there is a song, only in the last part and when there is a slow-motion image it stops. The music starts slowly but then it has a crescendo. It is a dull sound and creates deep anxiety. The protagonists are all young people, they don’t have an expressive face, they seem to be astonished. They only do simple movements and smash a bottles on their head; the bottle shatters with the contact on the head. At the beginning the movement of the figures is slow, but then it becomes quick. We are “bombarded” with a lot of figures who smash their head more and more. Only when we read the phrase at the end “drinking causes brains damage”, we associate the images of smashing with brains damage. The colour used in the phrase is strong, it is red; it conveys the image of blood and death. The idea of slow motion with the last girl, creates anxiety and I perceive it as the slow damaging of ourselves. The background is black and it is associated with death and danger. The advertiser uses the idea of the click of the mouse because the spectator is more interested in going on.
     
    I find most effective the next to last cause of the slogan and the image. The slogan says:” don’t turn a night out into a nightmare”. I think it is really effective also because it is used the assonance. The image is bloody but shows the reality. It shows what can happen if we drink. Alcohol is one of the worsest  thing of the world: it provokes damage on ourselves and on the other. When teenagers drinking, don’t think about the consequences, they want only have a fun. In some way I criticize also myself: I don’t hide that sometimes I drink, but I know my limit, instead of some young that drink up to feel sick.
     
    The French social ad is against alcoholism: it describes a classic scene of  teenagers that want to have fun and start drink. It shows the consequences of it, that could be everything ( violence, sex abuse, accident, losing control…). It shows the reality and the real life of teenagers so it is effective and strikes our minds.
    Giulia

  20.  The commercial can be considered social advertising since it deals with a social problem, the one of binge drinking among teenagers. It does not sell any product in fact, but wants to raise people’s awareness as to this plight. I think this commercial is really effective: as a teenager in fact, I was stunned by it. The message of binge drinking as a social plague is surely rendered by many elements of the commercial that create an atmosphere of tragedy and sadness (almost of madness linked to brain damages). These elements are mostly the music, which sounds like an opera tragic play, the dark colourswith the shadows that cover the characters’ faces and the climax of crescendo that starts with a slow motion movement, rises and becomes louder in music and faster in movements to decrease again in the end. The protagonists of this commercial are teenagers, both boy and girls, that smash alcohol bottles on their own heads and fall down to the ground. The action is repeated by each character and the images are shattered by this fast repetition.
    Among the four pictures I choose the third one. What moved me inside is mostly the image of her body laying on a bed of glass pieces from the smashed table. Moreover I think the slogan with the play on words between “night out” and “nightmare” is really stunning.  In my opinion underlining the fact that a party can turn in a tragedy because of alcohol is the right way to take the issue, because when you get drunk often you do not imagine what the consequences can be:  I would show images of the funeral of a young boy that had been driving drunk. In fact, nothing is more moving than seeing the faces of parents and relatives destroyed by the sorrow of having lost their kid.
    Regarding the French commercial I have to say that I don’t find it much effective. Instead of showing a tragedy in fact, it seems to mock it. I am giving a personal feedback so I am not saying that is a bad made commercial, just that as a teenager I would not be caught by it!
    Gloria
    Ps: I apologise for the delay but I didn’t see that there was this first part!!

  21. Teacher, thanks for your considerations about what I have written before 😉
    About the image I like most: I do not like the graphics, because it seems too real, but, at the same time, unreal to me. It is too directly connected with the social problem we are talking about and people does not dwell on it to reflect upon. We need to be stimulated by abstract images in order to be "captured" by an ad. In some way, the fourth ad is perfect. I do not know whether I have explained it well!

    Tiziana

  22. The  slogan of this social ad: "Teen drinking causes brain damage" is strong connected with images, where teenagers smash bottles on their heads and a red liquid sprinkles and reminds us blood.
    Also the music is linked with images and the slow motion. We are shocked by the dramatic tone of music and by the acts of the young people. But in this way it wants to catch our attention on this social problems: alcoholism among teenagers.
    It wants to show, in a strong way, the effects of going on the boze especially at our age. For this reason the protagonists are teenagers, young people like us.
    This ad is for the net because if we click the button we can read other aspects of alcoholism and I think they chose the best way to explain it to teenagers, because nowadays we communicate a lot through the net and we surfed it a lot.
    I really like the image that deals with "poison". I think that is a strong image full of truth because these coloured spirits have terrible effects on our body and on our "own world" and it is well showed in the French social ad; we can be completely different if we chose to drink some "poison", we can turn literally but not into a beautiful princess but maybe into the dragon.

    Sabrina

  23. This is a social ad on binge drinking among teenagers. the scene is quite impressive: the background is dark, in order to focus our attention on the protagonists are these teenagers who smash bottles on their head, in the end we realise what is the ad about; it appears a slogan tha says "alcohol damages your brain" and that is why the protagonists smash bottles on their head. All the movements are in slow motion, the choice is not casual; the director wanted to emphasized that damages on our brain may "appear" even after years. Sounds and  colours remind me a horror movie, when something creepy is going to happen. The protagonists are young boys and girls in their teens; the director choose young people in order to get closer to teenagers who will get more involved if they see their "mates".
    It impressed me a lot the third images. I could not believe that young people need to get drunk in order to have fun. Teenagers have to reflect on  the consequences of the choice of getting drunk. Girls might be more exposed to sexual violence and boys might be more violent, get involved in fights and they might be sent to prison.
    This video is simply perfect; it gives you the idea of what alcohol cause! We are on a beach where people are having fun: the are playing the guitar, laughing… and most important, they are drinking a lot of alcohol. Suddenly the situation changes: two boys starts a fight, another one abuse of a girl, a girl is downing… this ad highlights how an happy and joyful situation can become a nightmare and all because of alcohol!
    Chiara F.

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