Advertising

• What is being sold? Research company background, type of product and price.
• Who is the target audience? Explain.
• What representations are evident in the advert?
• Why have such representations been employed?
• In what ways do the adverts appeal to the target audience?
• Are the adverts successful? Explain your answer.

About old spice: 

Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice is the quintessential men’s grooming brand. With more than 70 years as an American icon, Old Spice is the authority on the male grooming experience and has leveraged this heritage to become the No.1 selling anti-perspirant/deodorant stick and body wash brand with guys of all ages. Old Spice brings authenticity, performance and confidence to male grooming and offers a wide product portfolio for today’s man, including anti-perspirants, deodorants, body washes, body sprays, after shaves and colognes. 

History of old spice:

The first Old Spice product, called Early American Old Spice for women, was introduced in 1937, closely followed by Old Spice for men in 1938. The Old Spice products were manufactured by the Shulton Company that was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz. Early American Old Spice was developed around a colonial theme. When Old Spice was introduced, William Lightfoot Schultz was interested in maintaining a colonial framework for those products and chose a nautical theme for Old Spice. Thus, sailing ships, in particular colonial sailing ships, were used as a trademark. Through continuous use and advertising, the various ships have become a valuable trademark identifying the Old Spice product for men. 

Price: Old spice price varies depending on the size and model of the deodorants, body washes and body sprays. The price range varies from £2.99- £10.99. 

Target audience: The target audience of this product is based on the age range 10-30's. This is because, the advert for this product shows an attractive man with only tight jeans on and he is talking about women and how this body wash will make you attractive. Therefore, if men see this advert and think that they want to be smelling  nice and feeling/ looking attractive towards women. Also, because the price range is quite low it it will appeal to the younger age because it is affordable. 

About Lucozade sport drink:

The product was first introduced in 1927 as 'Glucozade' by a Newcastle Pharmacist. In 1938 it was acquired by the British pharmaceutical company Beecham's and was sold to the sick as an energy drink called 'Lucozade'.

Until 1983 the product was sold as a carbonated, slightly orange-flavoured drink in a glass bottle that was sold by pharmacists. In 1978 it was rebranded as a 'pick me up' and then in 1983 it was sold as a sports drink. The company then switched to plastic bottles and sold a range of flavours.

Lucoazde is a popular sport drink used by many people in different sports. The target audience for this product would mainly be for people who do exercise on a regular basis. Lucozade is targeted at athletic people that participate in sports such as football. This is shown through different advertisements. For example, this advert targets footballers because a footballer is the focal point of the advert. The majority of the Lucozade adverts have males on them which shows the target is mainly men as well as athletes. The exception to this is the advert for Lucozade's 'Pink Lemonade' flavour which is advertised with a woman on the poster. In the advert, footballers are represented as drinkers of Lucozade. It presents Lucozade as being a healthy drink that is beneficial to athletes and makes them better at what they do.These representations have been employed in order to promote the drink positively to a wide range of people. Using a footballer appeals to football supporters and players, which is a vast amount of people.The adverts appeal to their target audience by using the face of a well-known sport's personality, this brings in customers that are fans of that personality and will therefore boost sales. I would say that this advert is not particularly successful because the majority of the advert is taken up by the face of Gareth Bale and there isn't a major part to do with the actual product of Lucozade. However, because of the colour scheme of the advert it is noticeably to do with Lucozade.

Shelter is a charity that give advice and support to people facing housing issues of homelessness. They have steam of solicitors that offer free legal advice and will attend court to help people who have either already lost their house or are facing eviction.

The target audience for the advert is people that may be or already face homelessness. This is seen where the advert gives website addresses and offers advice. However the advert is also targeted at people who are not facing either of these. It is targeted at these people so that they donate to the charity. This is made clear where the advert says 'to donate...' and gives a phone number. 

In the advert there aren't many representations as far as diversity, but it does represent that anyone could be at risk of homelessness because the people in the advert look like 'average' people; this may motivate people to donate because they may realise that it could be them in that position and so they want to help more.

The adverts appeal to the target audience because the large red writing instantly draws anyone in the read the poster further. This is important because the advert has a wide target audience consisting not just of people that need help from the charity but also of people that may donate.

I think the adverts are successful because they are emotive as it makes the people in the poster look vulnerable and the person reading it feel vulnerable. I think it would successfully make people aware that the charity is there to support those in their time of need. I think it would also attract people to donate because of the way the advert makes you feel.