CHARITY AD CONTEXT ESSAY (SHELTER)

2. Advertising is heavily influenced by social and cultural contexts such as inequalities, social values, consumerism and postmodernism. Especially in charity adverts as they are made to create awareness and create the ‘shock’ aspect. However, generic charity advertising conventions can create controversy and conform to stereotyping in order for the audience to feel empathy and guilt toward the cause as they are already familiar with these.

For example, in the Shelter charity advert in figure 3, the use of similar ethnicities shows the community of people in the same position all facing the same sort of housing issues. The social values are clear here as their values are trying to find a new home and being able to provide care and safety for themselves and their family, as opposed to some people that value new technology etc. The use of the middle, working class subjects is very relatable for some people and they empathise with the people because the shock to the public makes them realise that this could happen to anyone, even themselves. Culturally, consumerism is suggested through any homelessness campaigns as some believe they only have themselves to blame and the more the campaign relies on people feeling sorry for the subjects, the more they will doubt the purpose. They may be desensitised toward these now as they all rely on empathy, guilt and sympathy which is becoming too generic and predictable. This then contributes to postmodernism. More social context is shown through the different reasons each subject has become homeless, each situation is personal and emphasises that you can become homeless for many different reasons even with similar ethnicities and emotions.

|I believe that they advertise in this way because, disregarding the desensitised people that have found faults in the stereotypes and conventions used in most advertising, as it makes the audience feel guilty and empathy toward the people affected in the advert. The realism used through the simple layout of figure 3, the main text being in a conversational tone and the use of unknown people just like you and me. This realism contributes to the social context as it is a very real issue in England for many people.