An investigation into the representations that NSPCC (Child line) has created through media advertising and the impact the institution has on its target audience?
In September 2008 the NSPCC raised awareness of children by starting a Child’s Voice Appeal campaign, this was a £50million pound fundraising scheme; which would help to expand its helpline and child line services. This allowed the target audience of children and young people to call child line if they had any concerns and talk to someone if needed. The Helpline was also targeted “for adults concerned about the safety or welfare of a child” (NSPCC). The use of media advertising has a huge impact on the target audience by using three media platforms, one of them being “developing and launching new features on the Child Line website” Children can now receive live, confidential online counseling through ChildLine.org.uk. Seeing the impact in which it has on its target audience is very important not just for the institution but personal awareness.
The main focus of Child line is to protect children by creating a free NSPCC Helpline, which would be useful for children to contact in any place available with a telephone “NSPCC Helpline provides specialized support, advice and information”.NSPCC media advertising is mainly created through television adverts; there are many different adverts that represent different aspects of what children may need help with for example bullying.
In January 2010 [“An urban soundtrack mixed by Paul Hartnoll was created for NSPCC latest TV campaign”] (Guardian). The successful campaign which Saatchi and Saatchi created, a well-known global advertising agency that focuses on different companies advertising such as T-mobile and Asda who are globally well known. Saatchi and Saatchi developed on two adverts for NSCC interestingly “weapons of love” is targeted at adults and whether their hand “Are Weapons of love?” and a newly released advert which the Guardian regard as “aiming awareness of NSPCC child line support services” which would be available through different methods. The video footage features children answering questions on the strap line of “How U feelin?” The question can be seen to target young people and children for the way it is written as “U” and “feelin” emphasizes slang that is used to be young people rather than an older generation, having modern contemporary examples of support will make children feel more comfortable to respond.
The campaign aims to “grab young peoples attention and show them that child line can help them express how they are feeling” said Paul Silburn creative partner of Saatchi and Saatchi. The video of montages connotes children’s views and feelings of bullying and abuse, the use of urban street themes and a remix of music linked to angle shots of children in a dark setting connotes sadness created within the campaign of different children’s emotions. As the beat speeds up, the images go in time with the beat which give the opinions of children. The NSPCC mainly focuses on the ending which shows a website address and telephone number, this can connote the vast development of children by using the Internet and telephone at such a young age. This highly relates to the term web 2.0 a way in which people with “no specialized technical knowledge to create websites, uploading images, information”,videos and many other tasks. The internet is seen as a source of self expression and education that “regular people” can use by themselves without having expert help so when using and interacting with the website and contacting NSPCC the target audience can do this without any help. This can link to the ideas of face book, my space and you tube where NSPCC uses this as an advertising tool for its audience to read more about and allows NSPCC as a campaign to adapt on worldwide publicity for example www.facebook.com/nspcc.
The website is not seen as a distressing and shows a lot of social awareness which allows people to come over their fears, within social context the website enables young people, children and adults to interact with other people with the same issues or problems that they need help with. As the website states: “Why not post it on the message boards and join the Child Line community?” The institution decisions on creating a social community of people, by people being able to relate to each other by using blog posts, message boards and also by advertising using all three media platforms. Blumer and Katz audience theory can be associated with the use of the NSPCC website as it allows children and young people to play games and socialize in many different ways, this is also why the institution uses different ways to make to the target audience feel more comfortable with their campaign and can attract more people to not only get advice and help but to donate which is what the campaign mainly needs.
As advertising is a key component to making the NSPCC campaign successful, the institution needs to make sure they show as little distress within their campaign as possible, however they still show a realistic view as people are able to post their views and queries on the website. The website has arguably been seen not to use statistics as a method to attract its target audience, attracting the target audience is very important as it is a way to make the campaign triumphant and increase viewing statistics and the demographics. Evidence from The Guardian shows that the advertising Standards Authority has banned an ad campaign by the NSPCC, "1 in 6 children in the UK are sexually abused. Help stop it", which was argued to be a decade out of date; as the NSPCC cited a copy of a study conducted in 1998-99 and published in 2000. Within social context this can create a fear within society known as moral panic but mainly a negative impact on the target audience as this can cause unenthusiastic reactions from children.
As society has adapted over time with web 2.0 technologies there is more of a shift towards children’s independence, which does not have the involvement of adults. The main focus for NSPCC is the engagement of children, by specifically having advertisement campaigns aimed at its target audience. Within wider context of social behaviors and society this shows the idea of children being able to have the independence to use the web and technology to adapt their knowledge on a variety of subjects.
In September 2008 the NSPCC had made a campaign which was named ‘NSPCC Butterfly’ the aim of the campaign is to show that the main focal point being the butterfly goes around the city in search of children in need of help and advice. The advert ends with the strap line “Help us listen to every child’s voice”; Saatchi and Saatchi, which focused on the orbital campaign, they were both presented in such a way to not create distressing or misleading information for the audience, mainly being children. This has been the importance within the way the NSPCC presents the different campaigns (making the target audience feel more comfortable). Both campaigns connote a happy and positive environments which creates a sense of joyfulness and warmth as they show that either peoples views count or help is always available which is connoted as the butterfly. The campaign is seen as very child friendly as the institution has focused making children aware that help is available and can make them feel more comfortable as the main target audience........(need to look at books that will help with more research)
The way in which NSPCC’s campaigns have been successful advertised, is through a company called Metrica an “award-winning, global media analysis and evaluation company”, they focus on NSPCC campaigns, by reviewing and analyzing present and past campaigns “ensuring that targets were achievable and realistic”. This way the institution is able to not only take the publics opinion but a well known company which focuses on analysis. The reason behind NSPCC being linked “closely with Metrica meant they were able to set specific targets for this campaign”-Vindy Bains (coordinator of NSPCC). Metrica completed a lifestyle survey of representative sample of the UK, which enabled them to assess the populations consumer behavior. They measured effectiveness at reaching people with money for charity, parents with children, and All UK children. Statistics showed 45% of each group demonstrated effectiveness of meeting media targets. This overall shows the idea that media advertising and the impact it creates on its audience is very vital for the institution as they feel it has an impact on the way in which people feel about the NSPCC as the secondary sources show.
However Moral panic can cause a huge impact on the media advertising in general, in the late 1980‘s NSPCC a problem occur of alleged satanic abuse. “NSPCC provided a publication know as satanic indicators to social services, which was blamed for by some social workers panicking and making false accusations. In Rochdale 1990 up to 20 children were taken away from the homes after social services believed them to be involved in satanic ritual abuse” – Wikipedia. Although the allegation were found out to be false, this connotes how Stanley Cohens moral panic theory can create a sense of false belief within society and creates a negative impact on the institution but mainly on the target audience. It can be argued that by the NSPCC having negative Media advertising which can be shown through newspapers and other media platforms such as the internet, it can be seen to cause the public to no longer support the institution which is why it is important for not only the institution to recognize this but having an company looking into the flaws which have occurred can allow NSPCC to work on their negative aspects from a second opinion. Although moral panics is an example of negativity to the media NSPCC as an institution has used second opinions from different companies such as Metrica and amber green a second internet marketing website who also contributes like Metrica.
To conclude NSPCC is represented within all three media platforms, allowing its target audience whether children or adults to come forward and know about advice and help that can be given, NSPCC has clearly thought about all aspects in which it should be presented and has created a growing positive effect on children as they can communicate with people that can give advice but also is a way to allow children to feel safe, the use of confidentially is the key to making the children feel safe and confident when they contact NSPCC. The NSPCC has received a lot of publicity from different social networking as in a social context people have got more involved: “The NSPCC has called a recent online campaign that raised money for the organisation "quite astonishing", thousands changing their profile picture to their favourite cartoon character”, this sense of community with people can be seen as positive aspect: Paul Amadi, NSPCC Director of Fundraising, said: "Social networking campaigns can have amazing reach and while the NSPCC was not behind this particular activity, we have been able to attract many new supporters which will help us in our work."(Reported: 15 December 2010, www.cafonline.org) – Support is given world wide and the NSPCC has become international by being linked with highly populated institutions. This just shows how powerful media advertising has become and the impact which it creates on different target audiences, not only does the institution have a huge impact but people within society can also create their own personal impact on different campaigns which can be adapted on and become very successful just as the Facebook campaign has shown.
Bibliography
http://www.saatchi.co.uk/en/work/NSPCC_weapons_of_love
http://www.saatchi.com/en/news/archive/saatchi__saatchi_uk_creates_new_childline_tv_ad_for_nspcc
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/18/orbital-paul-hartnoll-nspcc
http://www.socialbrite.org/sharing-center/glossary/
http://www.childline.org.uk/explore/bullying/Pages/Bullyinginfo.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/05/asa-bans-nspcc-campaign-abuse
http://www.iampanicked.com/glossary/moral-panic.htm
http://www.ambergreeninternetmarketing.co.uk/clients/case-studies/nspcc
http://www.metrica.net/documents/nspcc_metrica_casestudy.pdf
Research Essay:
Does it allow candidates to explore the 5 Key Concepts? (Rep, audience, narrative, media language, (ideology, technical codes) institution)
Does it negotiate an issue and/or debate? Is it contemporary? (Within 5 years from 2009) Is there a list of text(s)? (Bibliography)
Does it go beyond MEST3 topic areas? (Reps and New Media) Is it synoptic?
Does it answer the question ‘why’ rather than ‘how’? Does it encourage independent research and critical autonomy?
Is it truly individual?
Does it avoid the clich̩ Р(women in the media etc)?
Would it end up just being a list of facts?
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