Hi,
On Friday, we achieved three main aims:
1) We studied the Advertising and Marketing questions for the past few years, and discussed how we might approach them: http://www.allisonmedia.net/downloads/AS-A2/Med_2_A&M_exam_questions.pdf
2) We revised the Advertising Techniques and Lines of Appeal worksheets and applied them to a range of ads, concentrating mainly on the Coke campaigns: http://www.allisonmedia.net/Media/Ad&market.htm#theory
3) We discussed the idea of brands and products, using the Brand Values and Brand Profiles hand outs from the link above.
It seemed from marking your essays that the main task for work at home is to thoroughly research a brand and the way that is has been advertised- you need to understand a range of techniques which go together to make a campaign, rather than just knowing one or two adverts. Homework is therefore:
PART 1) Research the Coke campaign in detail. Use http://www.tellyads.com/ to watch the TV ads, but also there are some very useful links here: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/av_advertising.html . We looked at the way that Coke uses Christmas in order to associate its brand with family values and happiness- the story of how this developed is told here: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html . This will be helpful to learn about Coke's overt advertising, but you also need to try to find 3-5 examples of Coke's covert advertising, eg sponsorship of sporting events, work in the community, plugs etc- Wikipedia will help for this, but there will be lots of examples in the world around you also.
YOU NEED TO KNOW: at least 5 ways that Coke have tried to appeal to audiences and sell their products. Consider overt and covert techniqes, and how Media Language, representations, values and ideology etc can be applied to their campaigns.
PART 2) Research some criticisms of the Coca-Cola campaigns and approaches, as well as attacks on big brand advertising generally. An excellent intro to this is on the site here: http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=11807 - read the alternative Company Report in particular, but you should also look at http://www.adbusters.org/ for some oppositional views of the issue.
PART 3) Repeat PART 1 but for a social campaign- probably the easiest to do is Barnardos- lots of information and examples on: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_we_do/campaigns/resources_students_advertising.htm .
PART 4) It would be really good if you could take the learning you gain from the above and apply it to one of the old exam questions (see earlier link). Spend 45 minutes per question only.
Finally, in the spirit of independence, it would certainly be a good idea before the exam to investigate a campaign of your own choosing- a product or brand that you are interested in, such as sport, a particular band or musician or whatever you like. This would be a real move towards critical autonomy and finding your own interest in the subject. Remember that your ability and willingness to work and think independently is crucial to your success.
Lots to do then!
See you next week,
Mr Boulter
ps: just to confirm, myself and Mrs Harte are intending to run lessons as normal next week, so please just turn up at normal times (or pop in at other times if there's anything you want to ask).
