Of the two Teacher Training Agency adverts that you have analysed, which one do you think is more successful – and why? I am comparing two teacher training agency adverts to see which one is most appealing to its target audience. Firstly I will discuss the images and camera shots shown in the two adverts. The “those who can, teach” advert, which I will refer to as the first advert, begins by showing a close up shot of a fly. I believe this is done so we can see the fly in great detail thus making it more clear to the audience, that in the next image when it shows TV sets all showing the same images on their screens, piled on top of next to one another, that they symbolise “how a flies eye works”.
These images give me the opinion that they are focusing on the school subject, science/biology. This would make sense, as there is a great shortage of science teachers. The next image shows, two numbers, one being mean to the other. This is a pun because the number being mean is also the mean number, in a mathematical sense. Again it is my view that they are focusing on maths because it is a subject that has a shortage of teachers. A young baby is the image we next see. The shot is first taken as a medium close up but then later zooms out to a long shot to reveal that the baby is in a test tube. This is effective because it is done to represent two different types of baby, a natural baby and a test tube baby. This is a good way in which to contrast the two babies.
I believe that this image represents re and biology. This again could be because there is a shortage of science teachers. Another image is one of an old man covering his arm with his opposite hand. This image begins with a point of view shot because the camera focuses on the man’s face. Secondly his arm covered by his hand, then, again focuses on his face, followed by the camera focusing back down on his arm where he moves his hand to reveal a series of numbers on his arm, which consequently suggests he was affected by the holocaust.
In my opinion this image was shot like this so to reveal the man’s history in stages so that the audience would make assumptions and realise at the end that everything is not just what meets the eye. The shots are all done from the view of a child because the shots look up and then go down back to eye level. This suggests to me that it is done from the view of the child because the innocence of children not realising the hurt the man has gone through and the need for some one like a teacher to explain this horrible past and how to help prevent it from happening again. This is similar to the baby images as they both cover world and moral issues and evoke sympathy from the audience. These images attract people to teaching because it is suggesting that if you teach you have a chance to help change the world, for the better.
The next image shown is a photograph being developed by hand in a dark room. The photograph is of a teenage boy in a school uniform. This image symbolises how teachers help children to develop and that a child’s teacher has a huge influence in a child’s life. The final image is of a blue sky with white clouds. In my opinion this symbolises opportunity and good things to come, which again entices you into teaching with the belief that every day will be a sunny one.
All these images shown, emphasize what a person has to give; and that perhaps and that perhaps the viewer should give something by teaching These images really play on ones emotions and have quite a deep, calm, but yet shocking impact. The “use your head advert, which I will refer to as the second advert, begins by showing a big close up of the clock which reads 6.30, in order to make sure the reader knows its early morning. The viewer is then shown the image of a man getting up and leaving his head at home, followed by him getting dressed No head equals, no personality, thus hinting that all jobs except teaching, don’t require you to bring your head to work or for you to have a personality. This is done in order to portray teaching as the superior, intellectual, and worthwhile job.
As the man gets dressed he puts on a grey suit and you notice that he lives in a flat. This leads you to believe that he is a young professional and probably has a boring office job. The fact that he comes across boring is again emphasised by the colour of his suit. The fourth image is one of a headless TV presenter laughing. We know this because there is a little clock in the shape of a sun in the corner of the screen hinting that it is a breakfast programme, similar to GMTV. This image symbolises that TV is an even better job than being a TV presenter.
The next image shown is of: a lot of men and women; walking through a street; going to work; all with no heads; all walking in time and all wearing variations of grey. This image automatically appears very dull, drab and boring; due to the main colour being grey, the people having no individuality and act in a drone like manner. A similar image is then shown, except instead of people walking through a street, they are walking through a tunnel. This is done to show that this kind of behaviour happens everywhere.
A woman doing a presentation to a group of people, sat round a conference table is the image we next see. All he people in this image are dressed in variations of grey and have no heads. They all appeared to be bored and the woman giving the presentation does not appear to have their attention. You can tell this by the people’s body language, even though they have no heads. The point of this image is that all other jobs besides teaching are un-interesting.
The viewer is then shown an image of a woman photocopying. This shot is taken as a medium close up in order for you to focus on the repetition of the woman photocopying. The point of this is that the viewer cannot escape from watching the woman photocopy each piece of paper, which is extremely boring. To emphasize this the image stays on screen for quite along time. The purpose of this image could be to scare the reader into thinking that that could be them one day, and that it connotes the fact that all jobs except teaching are as boring as photocopying endless pieces of paper.
