What do these terms mean? And how are they
related to advertising?
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Definition
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Legal
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Relating
to the law
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Ethical
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Relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with
these.
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Recap
– who are the ASA? What do they do?
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Read
through the ASA codes specially aimed at charities. Highlight and summarise the
key findings that charity advertisements must adhere to
Charity
advertisements: An understanding of advertising content
Read and highlight the
information below. Summarise what you have learnt in the table.
The Ideal Victims
●
Charity campaigns constitute a very unique type of advertising,
since they attempt to generate action on the behalf of the sufferers.
●
In order to serve this cause, these texts attempt to manipulate
the audience’s internal emotions and intend to generate responsibility and
feelings of compassion or sympathy using images of suffering others.
●
According to Kinsey(1987) advertisers have a longstanding
awareness of the fact that images of particular sufferers can be especially
effective in getting audience’s attention.
●
Taking into consideration the fact that the proximity created by
the media constitutes both social and physical approximation, and donating is a
form of pro-social behaviour (any action intended to help
others - the desire to help others with no expectation of reward), spectators may feel more
inclined to donate when particular sufferers are presented.
●
Christie (1996: 384) defines the ‘ideal victim’ as a ‘person or a
category of individual who when hit by crime, most readily is given the
complete and legitimate status of being a victim’.
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Höijer (2004: 517) notes that in general, children, mothers and
the elderly are more suitable as ideal victims than men, since solely in the case
that victims are identified as genuine and real, and thus are connected with
innocence, they comprise candidates for compassion.
●
Pictures can generate compassion for two reasons: these victims
are perceived as more vulnerable by respondents and thus deserve their help, or
respondents may feel more compassionate about these sufferers through their own
experience of being more open or vulnerable.
Negative versus
Positive Appeals
●
A considerable number of consumer research studies agree that
negative information and images are more attention-grabbing and convincing than
positive communication efforts
●
The effectiveness of negative appeals is mainly attributed to the
fact that they are more likely to breach spectator’s expectations, by moving
beyond messages that are framed in a positive way, thus generating greater
scrutiny
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These appeals render the viewer a witness of the horror of
suffering
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When people are confronted with threats of undesirable future
social alterations, they tend to adjust their behaviour in an attempt to deter
the threat, which most of the times leads them to support the cause of the
charity
●
On the other hand, the use of negative appeals has been the
subject of severe criticism. At the centre of these critiques is the argument
that these images, by dehumanizing the sufferers, are for the most part
responsible for causing sentiments of compassion fatigue to the audience
●
However, despite criticisms against them, evidence suggests that
this is still the most efficient way of appealing for imperative action – hence
its long-lasting existence in the public communication of suffering
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‘Positive appeal’ campaigns reject the representation of sufferers
as helpless victims and focus on their agency and dignity.
●
Advertisements incorporating positive messages are more effective
since they result in the spectator feeling more favourable towards their
subject
●
Moreover, positive appeal images offer the spectators the
opportunity to watch the results of their actions. Getting to see that their
actions can actually lead to substantial change in the sufferers’ lives, highly
motivates viewers to undertake the actions suggested by the advertisements
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However, ‘positive appeals’ approach is not without disadvantages.
It has been argued that these images as well, generate a different type
of-compassion fatigue. Showing smiling faces of children, creates an impression
that ‘everything is already taken care for’ (Small, 1997: 581-593), while these
images may ultimately lead to inaction based on the assumption that ‘these are
not really people in need’
Type of Action
●
Most times charity advertisements request for monetary donations
so as to fund the work of NGOs. These requests can be segmented into requests
regarding a specified amount, requests for an unspecified amount, requests for
a bequest etc.
●
Loyal donors that develop long term relations with aid
organisations are more likely to respond positively to any type of request,
than those who are uncommitted
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Requests for money that do not specify the amount are less likely
to generate positive responses, since donors consider them as less concrete and
trustworthy.
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When the donor is only given the opportunity to respond to
suffering by offering money, this could impede his/her moral response.
●
Particularly significant to the issue of audience’s reaction to
humanitarian appeals is Cohen’s research on denial (Cohen, 2001; Cohen &
Seu, 2002). Taking a different approach, Cohen focuses on what he calls the
‘black hole of the mind, a blind zone of blocked attention and selfdeception’
(Cohen 2001: 6), referring to the different ways of avoidance people use to
shelter themselves from unpleasant realities and their responsibility towards
the sufferers. Following Van Dijk (1992), Cohen crucially asserts that denial
may appear in different forms: from defensive strategy to a strategy of
normalisation and neutralisation.
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The
Ideal Victim
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Children, mothers and the elderly are more suitable as ideal
victims than men, since solely in the case that victims are identified as
genuine and real, and thus are connected with innocence, they comprise
candidates for compassion.
A person or a category of individual who when hit by crime, most
readily is given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim
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Negative
versus Positive Appeals
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A considerable number of
consumer research studies agree that negative information and images are more
attention-grabbing and convincing than positive communication efforts
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Types
of Actions
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·
Loyal donors that develop long term relations
·
Requests for money that do not specify the amount are less likely
to generate positive responses
·
When the donor is only given the opportunity to respond to
suffering by offering money, this could impede his/her moral response.
·
‘The Black hole of the mind, a blind zone of blocked attention
and selfdeception’
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Look
at the following charity advertisements. Using all your knowledge of
advertising – legal and ethical issues, the law, advertising techniques, the
4Ps, USP, advertising content – annotate why these charity adverts were banned.
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Analysis
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The
most powerful heart breaking engagement is not only the terrible emotionally
scaring image but also the headline stating ‘There are no sliver spoons for
children born into poverty’. By that headline it reminds people that along
side adults, children- new born’ are faced with infectious deadly insects due
to being born into poverty. By using an innocent, vulnerable baby it will
attract parents mostly as they should be old enough to give unlike teens and
younger. Over the years violence and torture is been shown and presented to
younger and younger adults and children on a daily it becomes the norm not
shocking enough as they have seen it before, due to that happening Barnardos
have taken it a step further to really pull on everyone’s heart strings to show
the importance to give.
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The most powerful heart breaking engagement
is not only the terrible emotionally scaring image but also the headline
stating “You wouldn’t let your child smoke’. From that we desperately need to
question whether being as parent is smoking really going to benefit and
inspire you child to follow your tracks. Not only is your health being
affected but also you are putting your own innocent vulnerable child’s life
in danger. Why if we chose to remove smoking to help our health then why are
we eating meat? Nor does that increase heart disease but also increases the
risk for cancer. How far will you go to protect not only your but also your
child’s life. This is the message you receive from this adverts.
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ASA 2012 Report
People
in the UK had a number of concerns about charity adverts they saw on TV; these
were:
•
Can
go too far in their portrayal of violence, suffering or hardship
•
Often
make people feel guilty or uncomfortable in a way they considered
inappropriate, especially ones [that are graphic] distressing and even
offensive
•
[Graphic/shocking
ads] are particularly problematic if encountered unexpectedly or repeated
excessively
•
Targeted
their children (in particular anim al
welfare ads) and put pressure on parents to donate money or do something about
the issue
•
Appear
on children’s channels
•
Prompted
children to ask parents to adopt pets from shelters
•
Affected
children emotionally or led to conversations that were not necessarily
age-appropriate
Look
back at the advertising techniques that are successfully used in adverts. Which
ones do you think apply specifically to charity adverts? Why?
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