On Saturday the 11th of November a commercial break was screened at 9am in between the weekly Saturday morning kids show Diggit, shown on London weekend television. Ten advertisements were shown in that 3-4 minute break. For my essay I will be analysing three of the adverts that were shown in the commercial break. One advert aimed at boys, one advert aimed at girls and one advert aimed at both sexes. My three adverts are Action Man Ice Extreme that is mainly aimed at boys aged 7-11 years old. My Baby All Gone that is mainly aimed at young girls aged 5-10 and my last advert that is Puppy Racers is aimed at both sexes aged 3-6.
The visual presentational devices of my advertisements consisted of many different aspects; colour was one of the key aspects in the adverts that were very important. In Action Man Ice Extreme the colours are very boy orientated; the main colour is blue and that is usually associated with boys. There are also other colours in the advertisement as well, such as whites and greys; the white and grey colours do not take away any attention from the blue, as the blue gives a certain image of the toy. The image the toy gives off is that the toy is very bold, bright and very exciting. This may be because the colour of the blue is very vivid and bold itself.
But My Baby All Gone is a complete contrast to Action Man Ice Extreme, as the colours are completely opposite to each other. The colours in My Baby All Gone all have a motherly and sweet look attached to them. They use soft pastels like baby pink and white, which are included in every shot of the advert. The colours are also on every object in the advert, this is to keep reminding you that this toy is motherly and sweet.
For the Puppy Racers advert it is a combined adaptation of both a boy and girl advert. The colours consist of yellows and greens in this advertisement. These colours are bright and alluring to keep your attention on the advert and not anything else. They also give off an image that the toy is bright, fun and it keeps your attention to the full. This is appealing to parents because every parent wants a game that will keep their child’s attention for a while. Also to give the image of the perfect family life the (real) dog in the advert was immaculately white, white as snow with no dirt on him at all which is not normal for a family dog. This gives the image that the family is happy and cheerful.
Also on my visual presentational devices I found that camera and editing was a vital device in getting the advert right. As it has to relate to the product the advert is trying to sell. Action Man Ice Extreme contains 20 shots. This gives the toy a fast, racy and brisk look. It also brings the audience straight to the point at a fast speed, this is a trick used to make the people watching stay and watch instead of turn over the channel. The camera angle used on the advert is mostly pan, as the camera goes along with action man itself, to give the illusion of speed.
My Baby All Gone is completely different to Action Man Ice Extreme. Even though the advert is shown over the same length of time, it only contains 6 shots. These shots are all close ups of the doll and are only from a few different views, such as from the left side and the right side. They are also very slow. This is done so the attention of the audience is always kept on the doll, and is never distracted with another object.
For Puppy Racers, 20 shots were contained in the advert. Most of these 20 shots were medium length and made the total length of the advert longer. But there were some fast shots contained in the advert as well. This was to emphasize the fact that the game is fast. Camera angles used in the advert were long shot and two shot. This was to get more people involved in the advert to make it look like lots of people played the game. My sound presentational devices contain many important subjects. A very important device was voice over and voices in the songs. In Action Man Ice Extreme the voice over seemed very aggressive, rough and shouting very loud. This emphasizes the fact that Action Man is a loud and boisterous toy, and that it is also rough and ready. This may be suggesting that the toy is for a loud and boisterous child that could deal with playing with such a toy.
In comparison with Action Man, My Baby All Gone’s voice over was sweet, loving, very motherly and caring. Little children singing the My Baby All Gone theme tune made up the My Baby All Gone song. The voices were quite irritating, but at the same time the songs repetitive manner plays on your mind, so you never forget the tune. This is suitable for the product because the doll should always be there with you like the song.
Puppy Racers voice over was a male voice that made you want to listen and watch the advert. In the middle of the voice over talking about the product, a group of children shout ‘Puppy Racers’. This brings excitement into the advert and maybe suggests the game is really exciting too. Music is another important sound presentational device. In Action Man the music in the background was very fast and racy. The music from the advert attracts the child’s attention to the television. Once they are watching, the influences of the music say the toy is cool, fast and exciting.
