A level Media Studies Set Product Fact Sheet

Water Aid audio-

visual advert
(2016)

Water Aid; http://www.wateraid.org/uk

 A level Media Studies Set Product Fact Sheet

Water Aid audio-

visual advert
(2016)
AS Component 1: Consider genre and the significance
Investigating the Media of subverting genre conventions:
A Level Component 1: Media The Water Aid advert reinforces charity
Products, Industries and Audiences advertisement conventions by including key
information about the concern, a personalised
Focus areas: narrative to which this information is relevant,
Media language and a direct appeal to the audience for money.
Representation However, the fact it lacks a non-diegetic
Audiences voiceover, melancholic audio codes and black
Media contexts and white visual codes could all be seen as
unconventional of this advertising sub-genre.
PRODUCT CONTEXT Consider codes and conventions, and how
The charity Water Aid was established in 1981 media language influences meaning:
as a response to a United Nations campaign The opening medium shot with a pull
for clean water, sanitation and water hygiene focus between the digital radio and the rain
education. It now works with organisations against the window establishes the advert
in 37 African, Asian and Central American in a modern, British setting (the audio
countries plus the Pacific region. Since codes are of an announcer with an English
1991 its patron has been Prince Charles. accent). Its connoted that the scenes that
Created by Atomic London in October 2016, follow (in an unnamed but likely African
this advert (titled Rain For Good) stars country) are happening at the same time.
16 year-old Zambian student Claudia and The visual and audio codes work together
aims to show how communities benefit to construct the narrative of sunshine (in
from clean water by depicting everyday Africa) on a rainy day (in Britain) with
chores such as farming and laundry. the associated problems of drought and
lack of access to clean drinking water
that the charity is aiming to relieve.
PART 1: STARTING POINTS Media language
Consider theoretical perspectives
Cultural context:
Semiotics Roland Barthes
Following 1984s Do They Know Its Christmas?
Suspense is created through the enigmatic
single for Band Aid, 1985s Live Aid was the first
use of the slow-motion, medium close-up,
global charity event aiming to raise funds for relief
low-angle tracking shot of Claudias feet and
of the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. The Comic
the swinging bucket (Barthes Hermeneutic
Relief telethon was launched by Richard Curtis
Code) and emphasised by the crescendo of
and Lenny Henry in 1985 with the same initial
the song in the scene at the water pump over
famine relief aim, and went on to raise over 1bn
which the informative on-screen graphic
for charitable causes across Africa and in the
appears (Barthes Proairetic Code).
UK. The contemporary audience for this advert
could be assumed to be familiar with the codes Barthes Semantic Code could be applied to the
and conventions of both audio-visual adverts and lines from the song used from 00.34 diegetically
those for charitable organisations in particular. and then as a sound bridge over the medium
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 A level Media Studies Set Product Fact Sheet

shot of a group of women carrying water audience who might otherwise have become immune
buckets on their heads: make me feel, make to the emotive representations conventionally
me feel like I belong dont leave me, wont deployed by this advertising sub-genre.
leave me here. The connotation here being
Consider how representations are constructed
that the texts audience can help Claudia feel
through processes of selection and combination:
like she belongs and wont leave her there /
in that situation if they donate to Water Aid. The dress codes of the adverts main
female character include a stereotypical
The Symbolic Codes (Barthes) of drought-
knee-length skirt and pink colour
ridden African countries are reinforced
palette in both her top and shoes.
both visually and through the adverts
audio codes up until about 00.47. Her age is similar to the other young women she
walks past at 00.30 and those who join her at the
A level only: water pump at 01.00. This connotes that she has
Structuralism Claude Lvi-Strauss perhaps had to grow up too quickly because
How texts are constructed through the of the tough environment in which she lives.
use of binary oppositions at 00.47, the Her independence is connoted by the wide-
songs title line sunshine on a rainy day angled shot at 00.18 in which she is denoted
is used over shots of children running, on her own on a long and empty dust road.
playing, laughing and the more positive Close-up shots using handheld cameras (00.16),
connotations of this section of the advert are her open, confident gesture codes (00.51) and her
emphasised by the high key lighting used. smiling gesture code (01.09) represent her as
A further visual binary opposition is created the adverts protagonist and a character with
between the arid, washed-out, primarily beige whom the audience can positively associate.
and brown colour palette of the adverts first
Consider theoretical perspectives:
third and the more vibrant colours used at 01.02.
Stuart Halls theory of representation the
The on-screen graphic (650 million people
images of a dry, dusty African environment
still dont have access to clean drinking water)
in which people may be struggling to survive
creates a conceptual binary opposition
form part of the shared conceptual road
between Claudias positive story and that of
map that give meaning to the world of
other, less fortunate people. Its this opposition
the advert. The more positive audio codes
that the audience is encouraged to be part
then work to challenge these stereotypical
of the solution to by giving 3 today.
representations, creating enigmas around why
Claudia appears to be so positive. The solution
PART 2: STARTING POINTS Representation to these enigmas is given to the audience at
01.00 when we first see the water pump.
Social context:
David Gauntletts theory of identity Claudia
An interesting intertext to consider would be
acts as a role model for the type of lifestyle
Water Aids No Choice TV advert from 2013
changes that the audience could be responsible
which is more conventionally constructed and
for creating if they donate to Water Aid.
represents the suffering of its main character
in a more explicit and emotive way (https:// A level only:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=szT7grQnHRU). Liesbet Van Zoonens feminist theory by
Launching the Rain For Good campaign, Water Aid assuming the stereotypically male roles of
said that it had deliberately broken away from the protagonist and provider, Claudia is perhaps
traditional charity ad formula in response to the contributing to social change by representing
publics desensitisation to traditional fundraising women in non-traditional roles. The work
tactics. The stereotypical victim needing our involved in collecting the water is physically
help is an archetype with which the audience challenging (non-traditional for female roles)
would be familiar from many other charity adverts. though the advert does reinforce stereotypes of
This would perhaps make the more positive women being associated with care of children.
representation of Claudia as a healthy, independent Gilroys ethnicity and post-colonial theories
and musically talented woman stand out to an that media texts reinforce colonial power could

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 A level Media Studies Set Product Fact Sheet

be applied, as Water Aid is encouraging its Consider theoretical perspectives:

British audience to help those like Claudia Reception theory Stuart Hall
who live in less developed countries. The use of handheld camera shots and
indirect mode of address made by Claudia
connote that the audience is following her
PART 3: STARTING POINTS Audiences story, but Water Aid rather than she herself
Social/cultural context: have constructed this narrative for us.
In December 2016, this advert had been viewed This, according to Hall, is the dominant or
about 47 000 times on Water Aids YouTube hegemonic encoding created by Water Aid.
channel and this page also actively encourages The fact that shes named creates the
the sharing of the advert through social networks. preferred reading that she is a real person
Further evidence that the likely target audience and that the audience should invest in her
are literate with technology is that donations narrative, sharing Water Aids ideologies.
are encouraged through the imperative Text
Cultivation theory George Gerbner
SUNNY to 70555 and the use on the YouTube
page of a twitter hashtag (#ShareSunshine). This theory might suggest that audiences
have become used to the conventions of
The adverts cover of Zoes 1990 song Sunshine On this sub-genre of advertising and perhaps
A Rainy Day could indicate that the target audience somewhat immune to pleading, earnest non-
are in their 30s40s as theyre likely to remember diegetic voiceovers by well-known voices
the original and get pleasure from the nostalgic and black and white, slow-motion, emotive
value of hearing a song with which theyre familiar. representations of people suffering.
Consider how industries target audiences, and The target audiences likely liberal political
how audiences interpret and use the media: perspectives will have been shaped by exposure
The likely audience demographic is constructed to previous, generically similar adverts,
through the adverts use of a young woman shaping their world view that the suffering
with whom they might personally identify of people less fortunate than themselves can
(Uses and Gratifications Theory). Parents be alleviated by charitable donations.
might make similar readings, identifying
empathetically with the better life that
Water Aids clean water provides for the
children represented in the advert.
Water Aid acts as an Opinion Leader
for the target audience who would
assume the 650 million people
statistic (01.14) is true and reliable.
The unconventionally positive visual
codes, audio codes and representations
would, the producers hope, give the advert
unique selling points compared to other
charity appeals and therefore make the
audience more likely to donate.