Non-Commercial Advertising

1. Non-Commercial Advertising

2. Who uses them? • Political parties • Pressure groups or organizations • Government agencies • Campaigning groups • Voluntary agencies • Charities

3. Shared Ideas Among the Groups • The groups do not exist purely to make money, although fundraising may be an important part of their work. • They aim to change aspects of society, behavior, or attitude. • They all use the media and media techniques to spread their messages as effectively as possible.

4. What is charity? • the giving of help to those in need • a kindly or generous attitude towards people • an institution set up to provide help for the needy • a non-profit organization that solicits and is able to accept donations or gifts from individual and corporate donors • a private, non-profit, philanthropic, human health and welfare organization

5. Charity Campaigns • There are currently over 190,000 charities registered in the UK. • Between them, they raise over £42 billion per year. • Many of them are very small organizations. • The majority bring in less than £10,000 per year. • Around 8% of all UK charities attract over 90% of all advertising income. • The bigger the charity, the more money it can spend on promoting its causes. • The bigger the charity, the more likely it is to benefit from commercial companies who want to spend some of their massive marketing budgets on “cause related marketing”—partnerships between businesses and charities that benefit both sides.

6. Making Appeals • The Children’s Society • A voluntary society of the Church of England and Wales • Set up in 1881, it campaigned to protect the rights and welfare of children in need and provided safe care homes for destitute children. • It now works to gain social justice for • runaways at risk on the streets, • disabled children, • refugee children, • and those in trouble with the law.

7. As you watch each Children’s Society ad, identify • the problem or concern about children that the ad asks you to think about. • the message behind the ad. • what techniques are used to tell the story—i.e. characters, locations, camera, use of sound and music. • what the viewer is asked to think and feel. • what the viewer is asked to do (focus of the appeal).

8. The Brief • Write out the brief the Children’s Society might have given to the advertising agency. • Try and sum up your suggestions as a simple instruction, e.g. “This ad must persuade people to give a donation by showing them how frightening life can be for homeless children.”

9. Conclusions • What can we learn about effective charity advertising from these ads? • Which of the three ads was the most successful? Why?

10. Another Campaign: The Brief • NSPCC: Crueltyto children must stop. FULL STOP. “Someone to Turn To” Research has found that children and young people who suffer from harmful behaviors such as abuse, bullying, and violence may bottle things up and be reluctant to share their problems. The “Someone to Turn To” initiative urges children and young people to tell someone if they are worried about abuse or any other harmful behavior, and to get advice and support from a range of organizations and groups, including the NSPCC, its 24-hour helpline, and a new booklet and website called Worried? Need to Talk? www.worriedneed2talk.org.uk The initiative will launch with a month-long TV advertising campaign, encouraging members of the public to take action and help the NSPCC to be someone to turn to for children.

11. Responding to the Ad • What is your first response to the ad? How did it make you feel? What, if anything, did it make you want to do? • Is there anything that surprised you about the ad? Why? • What are your ideas about what the ventriloquist’s dummy might stand for? • What is the effect of the ventriloquist’s dummy on you, the viewer? • How might the TV ad tie in with the “Need to Talk” poster ad? • Summarize the ad in a single sentence.

12. Application • What more can you learn about advertising for charities from this ad? • In your discussion, try to use the language associated with the techniques of charity advertising: • Telling personal stories or fictional case studies • Shocking, inappropriate or violent images (shock tactics) • Positive images to aim for • Make the viewer identify with a victim of abuse • Lyrics from a popular song • Celebrity endorsements • Direct appeals for money • Direct address to the viewer

13. Drop the Debt • These three ads are all part of the “Drop the Debt” campaign that ran during the late 80s and early 90s. This campaign aimed to encourage rich countries to help fight world poverty by releasing poorer countries from debt. • Each ad comes from a different perspective, tells a different story, and uses different marketing strategies and advertising techniques to make its case. • The three ads are • Bury the Debt, Not the Dead • Now Wash Your Hands • Write to Your MP (Member of Parliament)

14. “Make Poverty History”: A Modern Drop the Debt • A marketing idea so powerful it was able to unite hundreds of organizations to make the biggest cause related marketing effort ever. • An advertising agency being asked by a small group of charities to come up with something that might help bring about the end of poverty in the third world. • A campaign to encourage a generation to believe it could be a great generation. • The creation of the largest anti-poverty campaign the world has seen.

15. Marketing “Make Poverty History” • Created by influential advertising agency AMVBBDO. • Developed the idea of the white “Make Poverty History” wristband and helped to orchestrate and promote a global campaign culminating in: • “Click”—a TV ad aired simultaneously on 77 commercial UK TV channels on 31 March 2005 as part of the “Make Poverty History” campaign. It was the first time any ad had “road blocked” commercial TV in this way. The advertising airspace was donated free from the TV channels. • 10 Live 8 concerts all over the world on 2 July 2005, watched by 3.8 billion people. 1,250 musicians pledged their support to the cause. • G8 lobbying resulting in doubled aid to all developing nations. • 100% cancellation of the debts of 18 of the world’s poorest nations.

16. What did you learn? • Discuss the strategies for campaign advertising that you learned about today that ARE effective and that are NOT effective. • Make sure that you write these ideas in your notes, as we will be using them during the next class.