Shelter Advert Essay

Shelter is a charity for homeless people, who tend to focus more on low-income people. This particular campaign came out in 2011, during this period the conservative co-emission government decided to cut the spending by 60% which led to a catastrophic effect on lower income who couldn't really afford it.

Normally adverts that display homeless people depict them on the streets, which isn't typical in this advert. This re-enforces the idea any ordinary person being able to experience homelessness. All posters are in the same format, the framing is identical in all three. All models are matched up with a close up shot where they're all eye-level and looking back at us, the direct address shows that they're equal to us and that we're on the same level. We have both genders which connotes that any gender can experience homelessness.

The first woman worrying about being in-debt, the man in the middle is having troubles with his landlord and the last girl is worrying about losing her job. All these scenarios could happen to any of us; unfairness from landlords, losing jobs or being in debt. The colour red in the transparent writing helps get across urgency and danger it also links the slogan to personal stories. We also see the use of personal pronouns ''Losing your Job'' ''We'' ''Your Home'' helps us feel empathy with them. Shelter have deliberately used ethnically ambiguous models and possibly of an ambiguous age too but we can't really tell this could all tie into how these features don't matter and how we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. 

Shelter re-enforces it's charity branding by featuring it's logo at the bottom right next to it's website link. Above the website link and logo we have a faux search engine with typed words which instructs us on how to get more help. The campaign makes a significant impact by showing us that help is just a click away. The advert presents homelessness as if it could happen to anyone. There are two main audiences here; the primary audience, who are basically people in similar situations who are at risk of being homeless. Then we have the secondary audience who are basically people available to help and donate.

In terms of context, back in 2010 the Government's reviewed spending and cut it by 60%, which had a catastrophic effect on homeless people. The annual budget was £33.6 billion but the Government thought too much was being spent on housing so they cut council homes. Funding for social housing got cut by 60% with new tenants paying higher rents. This meant less housing for people in need, more people on the streets.

The advert was made as a direct response to a study brought out in that period which basically stated that 50% of people do not seek help when facing housing difficulties. The main focus were on a series of posters pinned up across different towns that were identified to be facing homelessness. The objective of the campaign is for the combined impact of the headline and image to resonate with people who are experiencing these problems and tap into their concerns, driving them to seek advice on Shelter's website.

Comments

  1. A good essay in which you analyse media language used in the adverts, such as image, layout and copy. You consider representations or lack of, and you give context. I'd like you to try to link the context more closely to what is seen in the adverts, as the structure feels rather disjointed at present. Also add a conclusion. 10/15

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