Advertising Research

Lucozade

Lucozade is a soft drink that is manufactured by the Japanese company Suntory, who bought Lucozade and Ribena from GlaxoSmithKline in 2013 for £1.35 billion.

The product was first introduced in 1927 as 'Glucozade' by a Newcastle Pharmacist. In 1938 it was acquired by the British pharmaceutical company Beecham's and was sold to the sick as an energy drink called 'Lucozade'.

Until 1983 the product was sold as a carbonated, slightly orange-flavoured drink in a glass bottle that was sold by pharmacists. In 1978 it was rebranded as a 'pick me up' and then in 1983 it was sold as a sports drink. The company then switched to plastic bottles and sold a range of flavours.

Lucozade is targeted at athletic people that participate in sports such as football. This is shown through different advertisements. For example, this advert targets footballers because a footballer is the focal point of the advert. The majority of the Lucozade adverts have males on them which shows the target is mainly men as well as athletes. The exception to this is the advert for Lucozade's 'Pink Lemonade' flavour which is advertised with a woman on the poster.

In the advert, footballers are represented as drinkers of Lucozade. It presents Lucozade as being a healthy drink that is beneficial to athletes and makes them better at what they do.

These representations have been employed in order to promote the drink positively to a wide range of people. Using a footballer appeals to football supporters and players, which is a vast amount of people.

The adverts appeal to their target audience by using the face of a well-known sport's personality, this brings in customers that are fans of that personality and will therefore boost sales.

I would say that this advert is not particularly successful because the majority of the advert is taken up by the face of Gareth Bale and there isn't a major part to do with the actual product of Lucozade. However, because of the colour scheme of the advert it is noticeably to do with Lucozade.

Old Spice

Old Spice is an American brand of grooming products for men. They sell: deodorants and antiperspirants, body washes, shampoos, and soaps. The products are manufactured by the company Procter & Gamble.

Old Spice was originally launched in 1937 as Early American Old Spice and was targeted to women. The men's products were only released just before Christmas of 1937. The men's products found more success so the company focused entirely on these products.

The target audience for the product is men because they are male scents and products like aftershave. However, the adverts may be aimed at women, so that they will buy the products for their boyfriend or husband. This was the intent originally because the male products used to have the slogan 'The original. If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist.' Old Spice is not a very expensive brand so can be targeted at middle income adults. 

In the advert, men are represented as less than that if they don't smell like Old Spice. In order to truly become men they need to follow the instructions in the advert. It also represents women as wanting a man that smells like a man and not a woman. In the advert men that smell like Old Spice are represented as desirable to women.

These representations have been employed in order to make the male audience feel as though they need the Old Spice smell in order to be complete and so that the female audience want their men to smell like Old Spice and become a man.

The advert appeals to the heterosexual female audience because there is an attractive man in the adverts that may be desirable to a lot of women. The scene that the advert takes place is very serene and this possibly makes the product seem more attractive.

I think this advert is successful because it is fairly strange so stays in the minds of the audience. It also appeals to a number of different people for different reasons and I believe it does this successfully by using all the different elements to attract both men and women to buy the product.

Shelter

Shelter is a charity that give advice and support to people facing housing issues of homelessness. They have steam of solicitors that offer free legal advice and will attend court to help people who have either already lost their house or are facing eviction.

The target audience for the advert is people that may be or already face homelessness. This is seen where the advert gives website addresses and offers advice. However the advert is also targeted at people who are not facing either of these. It is targeted at these people so that they donate to the charity. This is made clear where the advert says 'to donate...' and gives a phone number. 

In the advert there aren't many representations as far as diversity, but it does represent that anyone could be at risk of homelessness because the people in the advert look like 'average' people; this may motivate people to donate because they may realise that it could be them in that position and so they want to help more.

The adverts appeal to the target audience because the large red writing instantly draws anyone in the read the poster further. This is important because the advert has a wide target audience consisting not just of people that need help from the charity but also of people that may donate.

I think the adverts are successful because they are emotive as it makes the people in the poster look vulnerable and the person reading it feel vulnerable. I think it would successfully make people aware that the charity is there to support those in their time of need. I think it would also attract people to donate because of the way the advert makes you feel.