The Regulators.

The regulators.

The advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all types of media whether it be television, radio etc. Therefore when a company comes up with an advert to promote their products or services, before it goes public it must go through regulation with the ASA. The ASA ensure that every UK advertisement is responsible.

If you or anyone you know finds a TV advert offensive in any way ASA is also the place to go to, to make a complaint about this specific TV advertisement. the process is quite simple, you go directly to the ASA website and on the main page theres a subtitle for consumers with a link underneath 'make a complaint.' After this you have to check whether your complaint is covered by the ASA you can do this by clicking the link provided to see what complaints they cover OR give them a call and discuss it over the phone. After you have checked you can then submit the complaint online, over the phone or even write to them. The ASA will give you the name of the person who will keep you, the costumer in contact. Your information will be confidential to the advertisement you are complaining about unless told otherwise by the consumer. The complaint will be resulted in the advert being changed depending of how minor the mistake is. However if it is more major then the process will take slightly longer as an investigation will have to under go, meaning that the ASA will contact the parties involved the advertiser and if appropriate the broadcaster. They then make a decision as the whether the advertising codes have ben breached, if so the advert will either be amended or withdrawn.




In this advertisement theres seen to be a man who is speed walking down a street, then out of nowhere comes Mr T in a army tank. Mr T says "you a disgrace to the man race" and makes other comments. Mr T then starts to fire snicker bars at him forcing the speed walker to "run like a real man.'

This advert could come across offensive because Mr T is referring to this man as not a real man because of the way he's speed walking, "real men" are meant to run. Speed walking is seen as a more feminine way of working out therefore this could be offensive to not just homosexual males but males that "act" or prefer to be more feminine because Mr T is stating that they are not "real men." However some people may feel like this advert shouldn't have been banned simply because it can also come across as innocent, non-harmful humour.


After carrying out some research, the guardian news website has stated that "Mars has pulled a UK TV ad for Snickers featuring Mr T harassing a speed walker for being a "disgrace to the man race" after US complaints that it was offensive to gay people."

The Human Rights Campaign criticised Mars for perpetuating "the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable, but humorous".



I think that the regulators were right to ban this advert as the LGBT citizens feel discriminated against. Personally being apart of LGBT I don't feel offended by this advert, I'm more open minded. If people find this advert funny then shall be it however if a number of people feel offended by this advert then there's no reason why it shouldn't be banned. Another reason why I think the regulators were right to ban this advert is because this advert also promotes violence towards the LGBT community, Mr T fires him with snickers forcing to "get some nuts" and be more of a man.


To conclude.....................

Demographic Audiences.

Product name: Stella Artois.

Audience demographics:

This product's advertisement is specifically targeted at middle-aged men around 25-44 as this is an alcoholic product. Data has proven that those of a higher education are more likely to drink Stella, people such as lawyers, doctors or any manager of a large scale organisation as they are very-well paid professionals, this is because they are known to be 'reassuringly expensive.'



product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Audience demographics:

This product's advertisement is specifically targeted at young females around the age of 18-25 however cadbury say that their chocolate has changed from being targeted at kids to every family member allowing them to celebrate together. This advert has chosen Phil Collins, a british pop rock artist to promote their product meaning that they took geographics into consideration as he has sold this specific single worldwide therefore they have targeted an audience from multiple countries.




Product name: Think! Motorcycle safety



Audience demographics:


Many could argue about who this advert's target audience is. Some may say that this advert is specified at motorcyclists being more aware and safer on the roads and others may say that this advert is targeted at Vehicle drivers to be more aware and look out for motorcyclists. However this advert is targeted at pretty much anyone on the roads. Specifically young males, in their late teens to early 20's. This advert is not targeted at any specific area.

Persuasive Techniques.

Advert 1.



Product name: 

Pepsi Max.

Persuasive techniques: 

The techniques used in this advertisement are celebrity endorsement, this technique is persuasive because they have selected a very well-known popular R'N'B/Pop artist to sell their product 'Beyonce Knowles.' Celebrity endorsement is an effective technique to use as it allows the audience to imagine themselves becoming near enough similar to beyonce after they drink their drink. 

Product USP: 

This product's unique selling point is the fact that 







Advert 2.


Product name: Burger king "Texas Double Whopper"

Persuasive techniques:

Product USP:



*add another ad*

TV Advertising.

1. Explain what TV advertising is?

TV advertising is a way for companies or businesses to promote, persuade and grab the attention of a chosen target audience to either buy or use their products or services. However there are also campaigns such as "think" for road safety which promotes awareness on the roads.

2. View 3 different contemporary TV adverts and list three key characteristics of them:

• They are all specific, they have a specific target audiences, for example; Age, gender. Increasing their sale in products and number of responses they receive.


• They all aim to stand out and be memorable. They all want to be unique. In order for this they do things such as use creative and attention grabbing images, catchy song.


• They all have the intentions to show awareness, promote their products or services including a logo.


• They are all a similar length around 30-90 seconds.

Comparisons of 2 Advertisements.

These two adverts are similar in the sense that they are both adverts which are promoting the same product which is toothpaste. Although both of these adverts are selling the same product there is a great number of differences in comparison to the similarities. For example one thing that both of these adverts have in common is that they both use females models to promote their product. However in the old advertisement the shot used of the lady using the toothpaste was a closeup, this allows the targeted audience to stay focused and have a clear mind on what the advertisement is actually about. Whereas with the new advertisement there are a number of shots used, one in particular is a long shot of the female model. This shot may be used to confuse or trick the audience into buying their product it may also cause them to question what is actually being advertised.
Another similarity between these two adverts were that they both had evidence to back up what they were saying, that their product would leave you with clean White teeth. For example they both state that their product is clinically proven. The most obvious difference between these two advertisements were their products packaging. The old products packaging was plain, in other words boring, very simple and dull. There was nothing visually attractive or exciting that would personally grab my attention or draw me in and persuade me to buy their product. However in the new advertisement, its bright and colourful making it eye catching.
In the old advertisement facts were used, the male voiceover stated that "Gum infection is the cause of more tooth losses then decay itself." This allows the audience to be more open to believing in the product they are trying to sell. In the new advertisement they also use facts such as "clinically proven."

One technique that the new advertisement use is repetition, they repeat the words "White" and "instantly" this automatically plants the idea of their product "instantly" making our teeth "white." The old adverts fails to do this.

Advertisement Techniques.

In this short 44 second Cancer Research UK advert statistics are being used to show how many children have died from leukaemia. Shortly into this advert it is stated that "In the 1960'S only one in ten children survived leukaemia." It then states that "Today, eight out of ten children survive." This shows the increase of children which have survived this deadly cancer. The use of statistics are effective because this advert is very serious therefore people are drawn to automatically believe these statistics.




In this advert an anecdote is being used this is when a personal experience is being told, used of proof or evidence. In this advert Terrie gives "us" her advice on smoking, no one should smoke "And if you do smoke, quit." Terrie is stating this on behalf of her own experiences as we can see she suffered from cancer. This is effective because it shows awareness of the negative experiences you can come across if you smoke. Also someone who has suffered from cancer is informing us therefore there is evidence.



In this "Go Compare" advert, a series of repetition is used. The use of repetition is effective as the same words are repeated over and over again verbally drilling them into their audiences heads. He uses the word "Go compare" 16 seconds non stop throughout this advert. It is also allowing the author to emphasise on the phrase "go compare." Also adding rhythm to ensure people will not forget.




Facts occur throughout this whole advert. They state a fact then back it up with statistics so people
are forced to believe it. For example "In the year 2030 58% of adults will be over weight, according to statistics." In this advert cocoa cola state a bunch of facts and statistics so that they can go against them/break them at the end. For example they say that "100% of statistics are made by us and we are going to change that."




This advert uses a number of adjectives to emphasise how tasty their food is. Examples of words they use are "creamy" "golden" and "plump" these adjectives make the overall advert effective as it creates a vision for people on how their food tastes without even tasting it.