FORMS OF ADVERTS

Forms are used in advertisements to structure the advert and keep the audiences attention. Through the differentiated use of narrative, an advert can either make the audience want to review the product or the opposite this is why many companies try to show the quality of their product through the shortage of time they are provided within an advert. Within the variation of adverts there are categories of demographic and psychographics that each advertisement and production aim to target within the market of their ideal audience. They produce this categories on the basis of audiences social class, life style and personality characteristics. By doing this they are creating an assumption that will help them produce products and brands that individuals will purchase and reflect their patterns of living. However, they will have to portray and convey the target audiences characteristics and construct clearly within the advertisement. There are many ways an advert can display the product or service, the following are examples of each:

Realistic – A realistic form would appear to be set in a real-life scene. The product or reason behind the advert would generally suggest it is a normal day to day activity. A realistic advert is an advert with a story, appearing to be both believable and realistic. The above would be an exact example of a Realistic form as it illustrates the view of a parent and represents the messiness of every child's youth, it is an easily relate-able advertisement and this is the reason it appeals to a greater audience. The demographic within this advert would be targeted towards C and below as it ideally tries to target towards an every day family life within modern society. However the psychographics of this advert would be Mainstreamers, as they seek security, tend to be domestic and favour value for money family brands. Practically describing what the entire advert aims to be as it typically portrays a working class family becoming messy within the garden and the parental figure being there to clean the mess up. This provides a sense of value for the warmth family gives, and will make audiences from these aforementioned categories relate to the production.

Non-realistic form – A non-realistic form would clearly state that it has a fictional story behind the advert by being situated within a surreal world opposite from reality. Unlike the realistic narrative, it would not show day-to-day behaviour. As well as this a non-realistic form may use special effects and CGI.As shown within this advertisement by The Guardian, we are engaged into the world of surrealism through the iconography of the actors dressed in animal suits representing characters from a fable, the three little pigs. Although this may be inferred as a non-realistic advertisement, what The Guardian have created is very smart as they have promoted their company and newspaper through the fast pace movement of social media and the way news is spread using different perspectives all across the globe. By advertising their newspaper this way it allows the audience to infer that they are very popular in the sense they can access many articles internationally and can raise awareness from being very wide spread. Through this advertisement, they have aimed to target various demographics of audiences such as A-C, however despite aiming their advert towards this demographic group they have also shown signs of mockery and contempt towards the higher management of newspapers and the hierarchy of the media as they are showing how different perspectives can change things. A disadvantage of portraying their newspaper like this is that people may get the wrong image of the company and think that they conspire to produce false titles and headlines too just as they have portrayed within this advert, as well as this by using a fable like advert people may not quite understand the message behind the advert and be confused by its uncertain overt message. 

Animation- An animation advert is just an animated production with the use of voiceovers and maybe CGI. This advert would contain no real actors. Within this advert, the only technique used is of animation and the addition of a music track playing whilst the image is moving. The music used creates an atmosphere for the advert as it illustrates the season of Christmas and the emphasis of being together with people you love, John Lewis tries to highlight the caring and nurturing side of their company as the advert practically relays to you that they are always thinking of their customer. Metaphorically speaking the rabbit could represent their company, and the bear would be the customers/ audience and the rabbit as shown in the advert provides for the bear. By using such opposing animals within the advert they could also be portraying the idea of different family types as this is an advertisement aimed at families for the Christmas season. Therefore the demographic of this production would ideally be any of the demographics from A - E as every category of audience has a family or someone they provide for, this is an advantage as they have not produced an advert aimed at only one type of audience. Each advertisement also aims for a psychographic, this is what audience their advert would reflect. Within this John Lewis advertisement, it would ideally be aimed at Mainstreamers as this category is domestic and lives within the basis of providing for their family. 

Talking Heads – People in the production or advert talk directly to the camera. Aldi performs a talking heads narrative quite well as they are a food producing company they use this advertisement to give their shop a well known image as they use a target customer and reveal what that customer thinks of Aldi and their prices. As well as this, within the advert we see the comparison of Aldi's version and the original and make it the audiences decision to decide whether they want to pay the extra pound or not by doing this they are appealing to those of the social spectrum who do not earn a lot of money and need to provide for their family within the money they can afford. The demographics of this advertisement would be specifically C - E as Aldi is quite a low end food market and has affordable products for the working class ideally. By doing this however they are broadening their capability of appealing to many demographics as they are just portraying their company as affordable to anyone. The psychographics of this advert would again be aimed at mainstreamers, due to their domestic nature and how they seek security. The only disadvantage of this advert would be that because they are comparing prices some audiences may prefer the higher brand. 

Series – A series advert is usually one which follows a story in each advert, it is a continued plot - it follows a progressive narrative over a long period of time shown within singular adverts. Occasionally this can last for many years. This is what we would call a series form, this follows a continuation of adverts that combine to tell a story whilst advertising a certain product. This creates a personal connection with the audience as you start to feel emotions towards the two characters - Adam and Jane- and begin to look forward to the next series advert, it began with them meeting to them getting married. This is a smart way to promote a product as it makes every demographic form an opinion about the advert and mark it as very memorable. The demographic of this advert would most likely be C and below as it generally aims towards the working class families and adults who are within the middle of their life supporting their family whilst trying to have a love life. It's relatable to those who find their significant other later in their lifes, as the advert supports this. The psychographics of this advert would be mainstreamers as they seek security as the advert blatantly shows and tends to be domestic. 

Stand alone- Most advertisements are stand alone ads which advertise a product or service and they do not link with any existing advertisements for the product or service the advertisement is providing. Within this advert above - the portrayal of cats wanting the milk with the humorous side of them having thumbs allows the product have a relation to many audiences. The overall idea of the cats being sneaky illuminates the nature of them as animals, however also promotes the advert as very stand alone and original depending on the influence cravendale milk can have. The demographics of this advert would ideally be C and below as it just portrays an every day life situation within an estate that most likely C demographics would live. As it represents graffiti on the walls it shows a society where it isn't priss and proper. The psychographics would be either mainstreamers or strugglers, as both categories are typically lower demographics.