Non-Profit Ad Campaigns
Although advertisements are often used to promote a product or service, non profit organisations may also use them to raise awareness of their cause and increase donations.
Product advertisements are often fun/light-hearted so that you make a positive correlation to the item. when you next see it stores, you might think "this is that snack with the funny ad" and be more inclined to buy it. Advertisements for non profits are - more often than not - much more serious and to the point. considering that most non-profits are for charity, raising money for the disabled, less fortunate, endangered or generally pushing for social change, they will want their ads to be impactful, short and effective at conveying a message.
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the effectiveness of non profit advertisements is based on how well the ad can alter peoples opinions, encourage participation and raise awareness.
Codes & Conventions - print
Main image:
advertisements often convey their message through images, typically one main image that makes up most of the ad. for product advertisements, the image is usually upbeat and positive, or at least a positive depiction of the product they wish to sell to you. For non-profit ads, the main image is usually moving or upsetting in some way to garner sympathy from the viewer -this more often than not illustrates someone who is being affected by the issue they're trying to raise awareness/funds for.
Call to action:
Non-profits usually include some kind of call to cation, whether that be supporting the cause, visiting a website, volunteering, donating or a combination of them.
Evidence, figures & facts:
in order to re-enforce the message and further convince the audience in participating, facts and figures can be used to demonstrate the significance and even severity of an issue.
Emotional appeal:
as a general rule of thumb, you should make the audience sad so that they feel compassion and are more likely to help with the cause. This can be achieved through imagery, editing, colours, text and wording.
Print Advertisements
emotional appeal
Call to action/contact info
Main image
logo
This advertisement is calling for material donations to aid the less fortunate. it is simple and to the point, with very minimal text and an impactful main image that highlights what these children are without and where your donations may end up. the "contact us here" bit is located in small- but readable- text at the bottom, the main thing that's going to catch peoples attention is the image. not only is it a great illustration of why donating may help, it also plays with peoples emotions. most people are instinctively going to feel sympathetic seeing a sad-looking child with less opportunity and resources than themselves. Since they're not trying to sell a product or service, they don't need to use lots of text or flowery language to convince you to buy it- the message is conveyed much better in concise words. the emotional appeal of "little needs" solidifies that these material donations aren't WANTS but NESCESITIES - this is further reinforced by the use of "can" in "material donations CAN make a difference" not might, not sometimes, CAN.
I really like this advert and how they've managed to convey their message in a creative and effective way. the organisation is asking people to adopt more dogs, since hundreds or even thousands are put down to fee space in shelters every week. this ad has more text than the previous, though it is still small and concise. the contact details act as bars on a cage, with each person taking one freeing the dog a little more. I like how representative this is of the cause, since everyone that takes a number to adopt a dog frees the poster dog a little more. It is sure to leave a lasting impact on anyone who sees it out in public, again playing with people's emotions. nobody likes to see a sad dog in a shelter.
facts and figures
call to action
main image
Another concise and effective advert. They're riffing on the "its coming home" chant commonly used by English football fans. Football hooligans in England have also garnered a reputation of being aggressive, violent drunkards who subject their wives to domestic abuse. the "HE'S COMING HOME" and the union jack are the largest and most noticeable things, most people will immediately make that connection and understand what it means before even reading the domestic abuse stuff in smaller text at the bottom. This is some of the largest text I've seen looking at these kinds of adverts, making it really difficult to ignore. its definitely an effective way of grabbing peoples attention, especially since the phrase is only two letters off being its coming home, which is widely recognisable to most people in the country.
main image
This is one of the most straightforward ads I've seen, yet its very effective. the charity is aiming to provide clean, accessible water to deprived areas. there's a lot you cant do without water, which this ad highlights. it shows people what they take for granted every day, something as simple as cooking pasta is impossible without readily available water. the main thing is its symbolic. people that cant easily access water aren't upset that they cant cook spaghetti, they just want the water. it puts things into perspective for US as the viewer.
Print advertisements for non-profit causes often follow the general rule of being eye-catching, to the point and impactful. This is done through clever wordplay or some kind of slogan in large text to grip the audience's attention, followed by further information in smaller text near the bottom/beneath the larger text. unlike product advertisements, non profits tend to to have their company's name or logo much smaller and out of the way, since their message/movement is the main thing they're asking you to subscribe to - not the brand. another key thing is that they often add full stops at the end of their slogan or statement/more information part, as this adds gravity to the sentence and makes it feel more serious. All of these ads want you to take them seriously, with simple fonts, simple colours, simple design - large impact on viewer. All of the adverts I've looked at use sans serif fonts.
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Codes & Conventions - Video
Camera angles:
Often these kinds of adverts use close ups to capture the emotion on peoples faces, lots of long static shots as well as minimal editing. usually it depends on the non profit and what the cause is/how serious the advert is trying to be.
Music & audio:
the music is typically sad, melancholic and moving in order to tug at the audiences heartstrings. may feature someone speaking at the camera/audience, like a narrator.
narrative & imagery:
slow paced, the kind of advert that "makes you think". often there's a underlying narrative that's revealed near the end - this is normally the reveal that the character suffers from whatever problem the non-profit is trying to raise awareness of. also usually has a demonstration of how the non-profit can help the people suffering from the issue.
facts & figures:
in order to re-enforce the message and further convince the audience in participating, facts and figures can be used to demonstrate the significance and even severity of an issue.
Video Advertisements
This advertisement is for the save the children charity, advocating against child marriage, child soldiers and general world conflicts that put children at risk. the camera stays roughly the same the whole way through, a mid shot of a child who is affected by these struggles walking towards the camera. she is walking through distressing situations while describing what children like her go through, before talking about how she wants to learn, grow and be happy. there isn't a lot of music but what is there is melancholic, sort of uplifting as well as serious to reinforce the importance of the cause.
At the end of the ad, the camera gets closer to the girls face and fades out to reveal the logo and call to action. I think this advert is fairly effective although it could've done more with the premise to create sympathy for the kids.
This advertisement is for the non profit Sandy Hook Promise, an organisation founded by family of victims of the sandy hook elementary shooting. Their aim with this advertisement is to show the contrast between what school should be and the reality faced by American children. the music starts off like a normal, upbeat advertisement for back to school gear, before devolving into an eerie drone as the events in the ad get darker. the music cuts out entirely at one point to focus on the shooters footsteps, helping viewers put themselves in the children's point of view and sympathise with them.
This ad, much like the previous, involves a lot of close up/mid shots of the children, really letting you see the emotions they're feeling.
The end of the ad cuts to black as text shows up explaining their message and aim as a non profit. there's also a call to action with "learn more at.."
I think this advert is very effective in what its trying to do. it subverts expectations, making the ending feel much more impactful due to the unexpected nature.
This advertisement is for Marie Curie, the end of life charity. The ad presents us with multiple different people who are all struggling with a terminal illness of some kind, and the issues they might face as a result of their illness. For example, one woman asks the Marie curie helpline for advice on how to tell her son she's dying. the ad is very slow paced and reflective, since they're tackling very sensitive issues (as is the case with most non profit advertisements). the music is slow and melancholic without being super depressing and sad sounding. yet again the end of the ad cuts to a solid colour with text, a logo and a call to action, something i have witnessed in most of the ads I've watched for research.
From looking at these kinds of advertisements, I can gather that non-profits often include intense or emotional scenes in order to make the cold, dead hearts of the public feel something. To achieve this they use a lot of eye contact with the camera, close ups of peoples faces displaying emotion and sad/uplifting/melancholic music (often features a piano). They want you to sympathise with the people affected in the advert so that you better understand the non profit's cause and are more moved to aid their mission by donating, volunteering etc.
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All of the adverts I analysed included some kind of end-card, where the end of the video would fade out/cut to a solid colour (usually black or white) while text appears on screen. this is usually a call to action and some kind of information about the non-profit. I intend to incorporate this into my own video advertisement.
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I'll also try and include elements of the style such as getting clear shots of the emotions on my subjects face and simple, royalty free music - something with a bitter-sweet sounding piano to give it that nostalgic feel.
The original plan i had for my advert was to make it kind of satiric and humorous, since i believe that is what would best attract the primary audience- gen z. However, looking at other Non-profit ads, they all seem to take their cause very seriously and like to have a lot of dramatic shots.
I'm still going to keep the over the top, satirical feel since its hard to avoid it when you're making a serious advert about silly internet videos, but I'll try to make an effort to emphasize the importance of our cause with some emotional beats.
Technical Research
In order to create my advertisements I'll need access to photoshop and premier pro.
for the landscape print advertisement, ill use the dimensions 247.25 inches x 117 inches since that's a pretty standard size for a billboard. most ad campaigns have billboards so as many people see it as possible.
I poses the basic skills required to create the print and video advertisements, such as:
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placing and editing text on photoshop
Here I have demonstrated that I can place text, as well as change the colour in multiple different ways, change the spacing between letters, make text different sizes and shapes, underline text, make it bold or make it italicised. I can also import fonts from the internet, shown by the blue-green gradient text. (this is the font)
2. Creating a custom sized canvas (247.25 inches x 117 inches)
3. Colour grading clips to convey a different feeling
BEFORE:
4. Fade clips/text/images to white
