Ms Peart Year 9 English: February 2016

Cancer Research Mirrors

Excellent Example One

1. Description of content

This charity advert is called ‘Mirrors’. It has this name, because in the advert we can see some people in front of a mirror, in which they don’t only see themselves, but also the people they have lost because of the cancer. We can see a little boy that has lost his mother, a bride that has lost her father, a man that has lost his wife, and finally it ends with a little girl that has fortunately survived Leukemia cancer. This advert is for donating money for the charity, so you can help more people to survive.

2. Purpose:

The intention it’s not only to make people donate money to help the charity to help them to avoid deaths because of cancer, but also to make people aware of how many victims die because of the cancer. I think that the advert ended with a happy story, so it makes you think that if you donate money to the charity, there can be more happy endings. The advert targets are mainly adults, because they’re the people that can donate to the charity, and also young adults, to bring them awareness of what cancer can do; but because it speaks of cancer that affects children, women and men, it’s for everyone, but who can really donate money are adults.

3. Techniques

I think that, even the images aren’t very shocking, are very emotive, because it shows the viewer, how someone in your life can disappear because of the cancer. The topic is very emotive and conveyed through the use of the images and the music, because the music is very sad and slow and it’s followed by really intense and influential images, so all that makes the advert powerful. Mainly, the advert tries to shock the viewer by showing some people that have lost relatives because of the cancer, and it makes you feel that if you donate to help them with the research, you could help the victims to survive and avoid the pain the illness will cause that person. Also, adding a happy end at the end of the advert make the viewer see how, if you help the charity, there can be more happy endings and less deaths. In the advert they use lot of pronouns, which, makes you feel like if you had to help them. Another persuasive device used in the advert is facts and statistics, when the man says ‘85 women die because of ovarian cancer every week’. When he talks about leukemia cancer he also uses this persuasive device ‘Leukemia cancer is the most common cancer in childhood and only seven kids out of ten survive’. In this last quote, we can see that more than the half of the children that suffer it, but even though, 3 out of ten kids die, what I think that’s a subliminal message.

4. Personal Opinion:

I think that the most effective part of the advert is the end, when they show a little girl that had survived cancer, because after all we’re humans and we prefer happy endings, so it makes the viewer feel like if they donate, they can contribute to save someone’s life. But when you’re helping to survive someone you’re not only avoiding his/her death, also all of the pain that death would cause to all of the people around him/her. That’s why the show the scene of the little girl with the mother, because children are more persuasive and because they show how emotive and happy is the mother because her kid is alive. After watching this advert for two times, I think it’s really well done, and I think it reaches its objective, make people donate them money.

Excellent Example Two

This advert shows different people who imagine that they see in a mirror the reflection of someone close to them who has died for cancer. It uses relatives such us a wife, mother and father. COULD BE MORE DETAILED HERE

This advert was produced by an organization in order to not only raise funds, but also to make people aware that cancer is a serious problem that can happen to anyone. This is shown by the fact that there are normal people looking that mirror just like us. At the end of the video, a telephone number is shown to us so we call it and donate 2 $ per month .

It use lot of many different techniques, but what we first notice is the music, which it is melancholic and it gets across that feeling. However, what I think is the most effective feature are the shocking images and the language. Although they’re normal ( a child with his mother, a father talking with his daughter) that is what is shocking, because they are that normal, that when you miss them you realise that your whole world collapses, and you just remain the memory of past years, just as is shown in the video. The first thing we see is a boy . This is an eye catching scene because you are not expecting seeing a child as a first view in a cancer advert, but then you realise that is the mother who has died and that makes you feel a bit ashamed about yourself for not caring about the mother, and that is a powerful technique in an advert, making the viewer feel responsible for something. Also, the kid is shown with a tie, to represent he had had to grow up and mature because the lack of his mother, and it makes you think : “ That is not fear ”. The next scenes are similar, giving impressive facts about each cancer, about the number of people who have died from cancer. Finally , there is a woman staring at a mirror, with the image of her daughter behind her, and you think that she might be dead like in the other situations, but later on , the women turns , she face back the mirror and look at her son, who is alive and you feel full of hope, and you see that, if you donate 2 $ per month, YOU CAN SAVE children ( personal pronouns ) , YOU HAVE THE CHANCE .

Personally, I think this is a perfect example of a dynamic and influential advert, because it has caught my attention until the end, and I discovered myself empathising with the characters, and it uses lot of powerful technique and makes you think and seriously consider donating money to the charity.

Excellent Example Three

1. Description of content: This advert shows a lot of stories about families affected because of cancer. This is an advert which tries to persuade people to donate 2 pounds a month, in order to research cancer cures. There is a voice over which explains the purpose of this advert. We can see some stories. Firstly we can see a little boy, who imagines that his mother, who died from breast cancer, is with him again, looking at him in the mirror. Then we can see a really sad scene, where a woman is going to get married, and she imagines that her father, who died from prostate cancer, is back with her. It shows one more scene like this where a man misses his wife, who died of ovarian cancer, and finally a little girl with her mum, who is cured from leukaemia.

2. Purpose: The purpose of this advert is to persuade people to donate 2 pounds a month to help to find a cure for cancer. There is a calm voice, which tells you what they want, and where the money will go. In the advert, on the bottom, there is a number of telephone, where you can call to donate money. It also wants to show viewers how important money is to find cancer cures, and it tries to communicate that if you donate, they can find cures, so people will stop dying.

3. Techniques: In this advert, there a lot of persuasive devices. I think that the most persuasive devices are the sad scenes, because in the advert, there are a lot of ‘stories’ of people that died because of cancer, and there are so different that it makes me think that the advert wants us to identify with the people that have had cancer, so it makes us think that it could happen to us. Another persuasive device are the facts and statistics that appear in the advert, like for example, when the woman who is going to get married and misses her father, at the bottom of the video there is a number which shows how many people die from prostate cancer every year, which is 9000. I think this appears to make us think about the huge number of people that die, and that we can help to solve this. Other persuasive devices are the sad scenes and the calm voice, which informs the watcher about what the purpose of this advert. At the end, a girl who beats leukaemia cancer appears, and gives us hope, that with our donations, more children can be saved. It tries also to make you feel guilty if you don’t pay, by asking constantly.

4. Personal opinion: I personally didn’t like the advert, because it was very emotive and it made me want to cry. It is really persuasive, mostly because it makes you think that you could be the one who has cancer. I personally think that after watching this, a lot of people will donate 2 pounds, or more for cancer research. The most persuasive devices are the flashbacks and the voice of the man, which is very calm and sad. It is very convincing, but that is the reason why I didn’t like it, because I don’t like the way that it makes me feel after watching it, which is sad and upset. I think this advert is targeted at everyone because it makes you identify with the people who appear in the advert, because there are people from all different genders and ages, and the advert makes you identify with them.

Excellent Example Four

This advert is called ‘Mirrors’ and it´s from cancer research in the UK. The purpose of the advert is to raise awareness of how many people die each year because of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer and leukemia. This advert shows different stories with facts and statistics of normal people that have died from these various cancer. They are not talking directly to you, the advert has voice over.

The advert like I have said before is trying to raise awareness of the different types of cancer that are affecting our population even more each year. The purpose of this charity advert is to persuade you to donate money for research cancer and they do this by making you feel empathy with the flashbacks of the different stories. For example it shows a little kid that has lost her mum because of breast cancer, also it shows an old man that has also lost her wife because of ovarian cancer. In order to make you feel empathy; in each flashback there are facts and statistics of how many people have died each year due to cancer. Finally the different stories are set in normal environments showing us it can happen to any of us and make you donate money because otherwise it will make you feel guilty.

The first topic is very emotive, it´s about a young boy that has lost her mum because of breast cancer, in fact they have done this to catch your attention so we can keep watching the advert. Afterwards the advert intends to shock the viewer by showing shocking facts about how many people have died from these common cancers. Then; powerful imagery such as showing a bride that has lost her dad because of prostate cancer is used to make you feel empathy with the bride and persuade you to donate money for the charity. Perhaps the people that are making the advert, such as the director use the idea of having melancholic music in the advert to make you feel sadness. Also, not only the use of emotive language but also the man who is speaking is trying to convince you that with your donation, you will save lots of lives.

Personally, I think that the most effective part of the advert is when at the end they show facts about how many children fight against leukemia, but it´s not meant to be a flashback is meant to show that after showing the sad face of cancer, people can beat it. Perhaps, the producer wants to produce the effect of sadness or maybe guiltiness during the advert and at the end it shows that thank to all those people that have donated money there is a happy end. I think that the advert succeeds in getting the message across because it clearly shows where you have to call and how much you have to donate to invest in cancer research but I wasn´t quite convinced by the advert as a whole because even though they are trying to make you feel empathy I think it was quite sad, and if the advert is going to be shown at TV it should be suitable for everyone.

Ms Peart Year 9 English

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