Social Action and Community media

Task 3 – Product research

Patrick Gouldsbrough

This particular advert uses emotive actions and imagery to try and make the consumer aware that by using single use bags and then dumping them, you are making the waters an unsafe place for everyone but like the initiative suggests, it’s to protect surfers first and foremost. The appearance of the bag as a shark uses personification to try and make the consumer understand the severity of the situation, while suggesting surfers are more at danger in the water with bags and other dumped rubbish than they are with a shark. The aim of this particular advert was to raise awareness of the issue and help build a relationship between subjects because this subject isn’t widely considered as a big issue, compared to other environmental crises. However, by promoting their initiative, Surfers Against Sewage is trying to get mainstream media coverage to highlight this issue and further raise awareness and change attitudes amongst the general public, make people understand that people who dump rubbish and plastic bags should be singled out, which might the stop the national and global issue.

Through the use of colour, Surfers Against Sewage are also able to convey their message to the consumer. The use of the blue of the sea for the background, with the addition of the red bag that is a key aesthetic feature on this poster which contrasts the background well. Makin g a bold statement is what charity initiatives and promotional materials are all about and through the use of colouring, this company has been able to do this.

Like many companies, SAS have decided to incorporate a restrained layout option for their poster. The lack of text o the page shows that they are trying to grab the attention of the consumer, while allowing their products to try and help entice consumers onto the website where there is more information on their campaign which will raise awareness of the key issues. Any company knows that too much text on a promotional item may lead to the consumer not reading it, due to the fact that you’ve already exhausted the interest of the consumer with all the text they have to read. Losing the consumer because of these kind of features is unnecessary and can easily be avoided when designing a poster.

Like you would expect, this poster wants to try and reach a mainstream demographic and to do this, it has employed a very traditional and conventional textual features. With so many companies, using bold and clear fonts is a great way of doing this and SAS are no exception to the rule. The bold approach on their font makes it one of the most defining and key elements on the layout of this particular poster. As well as the bold font, the colouring of the font also helps establish the more important pieces of information on the visual hierarchy, while making sure it can be seen against the dark background of the media product. Starting out as white font, the tag-line stands out and contrasts the background well, with the use of a blue font to reveal the key hash tag that is been used on social media. Knowing that the hash tag would be used on social media, SAS have made this piece of text more noticeable than the other which suggests that the company are hoping to gain a big social media presence and to try and target their fans this way instead (this is not only for convenience, it also saves a lot of money and resources in the process)

Visually, this poster aims to have a similar impact on the consumer. Through the use of emotive imagery and dark themes, SAS aims to make a sizeable impact on the consumer and make them think about the impact sewage and waste has on surfers. However, unlike the poster on the previous page, this layout uses a more dark theme to promote it’s product. While the shark had negative connotations, that served a purpose and had meaning linked to it, where as the piece of liter that has, for the purpose of tis poster, been made to look like a noose, is negative and is designed to make an impact, without having any ties to surfers whatsoever.

From the colours, it’s already evident that this promotional tool is meant to be negative. The grey that is used denotes negativity and darkness and when used on a promotional tool, you know it’s trying to show something in a negative light, as oppose to a product they are trying to promote for sale. As well as the emotive imager, the colours used add more emotive meaning to the overall poster. Even the colouring of the SAS logo, which is normally either white or white and blue, has been turned into a dull and negative grey colour to suggest that there’s nothing positive about the sewage, while also suggesting that if this pollution continues, even companies like the SAS can’t do anything about this.

Despite the similarities of these two posters, there are also some distinct differences. The font for one is not a big part of this poster and is considerably lower down the visual hierarchy, compared to the imagery featured on this poster. For a start, it can’t be seen clearly and doesn't contrast well with the grey on the background. However, this was always SAS’s intentions, due to the fact that they are focusing on the negative and emotive imagery to promote their campaign and to try and boost support for the campaign through the use of this kind of imagery. Much of their other posters uses similar imager to promote the company and promote the initiative, which will make the consumers think about their action before dumping waste and sewage. While most campaigns choose to go positive with their campaigns and make it as bright as possible, SAS focus on raising awareness instead, which they see as more important, compared to the bright colours of other designs.

While charities can become well known and global compnzpoies, such as Greenpeace and Unicef, SAS haven’t quite reached this bracket yet and remain relatively unknown as a national initiative, let alone a global one. For this reason, Surfers Against Sewage are getting this rebrand and can hopefully break into a big national campaign and convey their message to a national demographic, not just a local one. However, due to the financial status that SAS find themselves in (see Task 2) they can’t afford to spend a lot of money on redeveloping and experimenting with logos so they have to stick with what they initially came up with and this is the main problem and a major factor when a ;local campaign want to try and break into a national initiative. However, this project is all about getting SAS noticed and with a little bit of help, SAS can hopefully get some media coverage, even of it is just local media.

Companies use logos to try and promote their brand, which is why they try and make these logos as bold and bright as possible; to draw attention to themselves. After they have established this logo and advertised the fact that this is their logo (through the positioning of it on various items in their product range or promotional range). After this, the company may decide to change their logo, especially if it’s not got the recognition the company thought it would. However, if a company or brand range find a logo that works, they stick with this for many years and sometimes they become so synonymous that they can sell products through just the logo, without the consumer looking at the products, due to them having returning customers who consistently buy the products.

In terms of technical and aesthetic features, this logo is relatively simple and clean in nature and doesn’t feature many complicated features. The SAS haven’t thought creatively, they have just thought about the impact feature and the boldness of it. For this reason, when rebranding the company, I will look at experimenting with various different techniques and effects before deciding on one design. The design on the left hand side might not be creative in nature but it certainly fulfills the purpose of been noticeable and it has many connotations. While at first, you think about a wave, which are correlated with surfers while after seeing this link, you see another one. At second glance, you see that the wave has an eye in the middle of it which may suggest the Surfers Against Sewage are always watching out for people littering the ocean. As for the textual features; they link with the imagery perfectly. Through the use of simple but bold font, the text stands out and looks effective through the boldness element, like the accompanying piece of imagery on the logo.

Development of the Surfers Against Sewage logoWhile I stated on the previous slide that the current SAS logo isn’t creatively effective and lacks an aesthetic feature to make it more noticeable to consumers, in the start-up days of the campaign, their logo was even less developed at it lacked layout features, regardless of the dependencies of aesthetic and creative ones.

The first logo is a simple design that looks like it was drawn up by one of the creators of the charity and then translated to a digital platform. While the logo is simplistic and the fontal features are basic, the message that the initiative is trying to get across is effective, which is a miss-match for the first ever logo. What the logo needs is a clearer piece of imagery which tells the consumer what is been protested, instead of this image that tells the consumer very little, due to the simplicity of the image.

For the second logo that the company produced, the imagery which I said needed desperately changing on the previous paragraph remains on this layout. Despite this ineffective imagery, the producer of the logo has at least thought about the textual features on the promotional tool and has warped the text around parts of the log which works effectively with the colouration of blue and white.

For the third and fourth logo designs, all that has been changed is the font. However, the progress that has been made from the second and third design is monumental and has cleared up the logo and made it look clear and effective. The wave with the eye suggests that the charity will be looking out fro sewage and the people who are responsible for dumping such things in the oceans, which gives the consumer of the promotional tools of SAS a clear understanding of what they actually do, unlike the depiction and representation of SAS in previous logo designs.

As the years of the charities existence continued and the step up from local to on the edge of national was made, SAS realised that they needed to come up with a logo that could be easily recognised by the consumer, even if you took out the text and just had the logo (brand like McDonalds and Apple can be recognised by just the logo; they don’t have to include any text whatsoever). Adapting the wave and eye idea, SAS came up with the idea of a wave that warped round to make a curl, while adding the eye in the middle of the image to continue this theme of them casting a watchful eye over polluters of the sea.

General environmental charities Marine protection charities

Like all logos, the charities that are focused to causing mss environmental issues aim to make their logo as bold and striking as possible, due to them wanting to entice a mass market for their charitable initiative they believe strongly about. By making the logo contrast well in terms of colour, making the fontal features bold and the imagery eye-catching, charities aim to make these logos so familiar with the consumers that they eventually won’t have to put the brand name on the log, they can just rely on solely the logo. However, something different about the environmental logos that aren’t featured in many others I the colouration that has a correlation between the colours used and the cause of the charity been set up. For example, all of the logos above feature green, which, in short, is what they are aiming to make the planet through their extensive battle with global pollution and cutting the worlds carbon foot print.

Similar to the environmental charity logos, the marine protection logos feature imagery that links to the purpose of the initiative and helps to explain what the company do before the consumer have even read any copy that the company have written about themselves. Additionally, these types of logos also connote what the charities are about. The blue that is traditionally used on these types of logos connotes the ocean that these charities are trying to save from pollution and similar scenarios. Things like contrasting colours, bold fonts and bold imagery are similar features to other charity logos, while the use of two or three colours, compared to the three or sometimes four colours used on other logos is a big difference in environmental and marine conservation logos.

Like all companies at some point, Marine Conservation Society started out as a local initiative, before working it’s way into the national category of categories through mass campaigning and extensive promotional tools at major events, publications and countrywide locations. Due to this change, the charity have noticed a great increase in the amount of donations and publicity they receive and have been able to experiment and alter their logo and other promotional materials on multiple occasions. Through more campaigning and a rebranding, SAS may be able to emulate the MSC’s success and make it into a national initiative that gets mainstream media coverage and the awareness it needs to become a popular charity. However, this rebranding that is happening in this project was always going to be temporary, due to the lack of funds they have to try and rebrand the company. After they have received more recognition through the new and improved promotional tools and logos, while making their way up into a medium sized charity organisation, they will be able to rebrand again and experiment with materials, which may lead to them keeping the logo the same for a while, like the MSC have. Like I mentioned in the previous section, if the logo of a company become synonymous to a brand, it’s best to keep it, due to consumers been familiar with the logo and company. (A rule of marketing is that if it’s working ad can be proven to be working, with a clear correlation between success and promotional tools, those particular materials will be kept and used for many more campaigns).

In terms of the actual logo of the MSC, the first thing that you notice is that they use contrasting primary colours on the logo to make it stand out, while ensuring that it will be seen regardless of what background the company or other companies choose to pair with it. Another thing that is evident is the use of both marine animal and human in the logo. While this isn’t a clear and undeniable link, the use of this imagery suggests that it’s not just the campaigners responsibility to save the marine wildlife, it’s general members of the public/us, as the public. However, sticking with the subject of colouration, the use of the orange and the blue gives the consumer various connotations about the work that this charity does, while allowing them to think about what the company do without reading the copy on the logo. The addition of the blue on the log suggests that the work this charity does is water based and is to do with water based subjects. While this doesn’t go to fully explain what the charity does, it cuts down the choices considerably. On the other hand, when the marine link has been established, the orange in marine and ocean life traditionally connotes lifeboats, which suggests the charity aim to save the lives and give new life to the marine life around the country and in local communities. The textual features on the logo are very much similar to the SAS example and seems to be a popular technique for charitable companies. The bold font help it stand out as a log, while the alteration in size of ‘marine’ and ‘conservation society’ suggests that the charity want people to know it’s marine life as the most important piece of information (the idea of visual hierarchy is evident again).

Greenpeace, in short, break down the idea that charities don’t have much money, due to the fact that Greenpeace are one of the most recognisable companies in the world and the logo is recognised buy most, if not the large majority. For this reason, this global charity can rely on their logo alone to sell the campaign and initiative and don’t have to worry about the information as much as some companies. However, unlike most Greenpeace are still trying to spread awareness and generate information because as shown, the idea of global warming been saved is failing, which suggest that enough is not been done and Greenpeace see it as their job to do this. This is why after all this time, Greenpeace still haven’t altered their layout of posters; a catchy tag-line paired with a bit of information at the bottom. Even though a company like Greenpeace only require the tag-line and a web site address to push an initiative, they want to keep pushing their ideologies on people to try and change this idea of global warming and to try and bring about change (the biggest factor of starting a campaign).

Unlike SAS and MSC, Greenpeace are a global company with a company ideology that will effect the whole world and an initiative that has to be taken on by the whole world or the consequences will be felt by all. While SAS have a very unique idea about preventing sewage in the oceans, which has a niche target audience, compared to the mass market global warming campaign by Greenpeace, any initiative can become big with the right amount of promotional tools, support and financial backing. Instead of trying to tackle all three, what I’m going to try to do with SAS is find an effective promotional campaign that will then add support and financial backing to the charity and therefore pushing them into the top bracket of charitable companies in the UK and in the long run, in the world.

This particular poster for Greenpeace isn’t the most effective and doesn’t use emotive imagery like other posters I have seen for the Greenpeace global warming initiative. The reason I chose this promotional tool for analysis was for the fact that I wanted to showcase Greenpeace’s sheer advertising push for this campaign. With a major financial backing, promotional tools for Greenpeace are evident in all mediums, with the amount of advertising and promotion they do are on the scales that can only be compared to other global companies like Apple. The contrasting colours of the tag-line, main copy and logo make them stand out from the dark colouration of the image that sits behind these textual and aesthetic features. The boldness and easy to read features are used, due to Greenpeace fulfilling another purpose, compared to companies like Apple and McDonalds. While these two company heavyweights want to entice customers to buy their product and therefore it’s all about profit and making the advert look bold and appealing, Greenpeace are all about raising awareness to the issues through their posters. (it shows that two very different companies can produce promotional tools on a grand scale, yet can be so different in their approaches, purposes and outcomes).

The use of facts and statistics is key for every campaign promotional tool and helps to entice the consumer to do something about this issue and join the initiative. Every charity that I have looked at this far uses facts, whether it’s emotive facts like the MSC and SAS use, or whether it’s facts that have been looked at in depth by scientists. Greenpeace use this technique in this particular advert and use expert power to make their claims more believable and therefore make it more appealing to the consumer. While facts are traditionally more used than statistics, the anti fracking campaign posters use statistics to go through how much of the UK will be effected if they decide to frack in the the UK. This, as well as the addition of facts can have a strong hold on the consumer and help the company get more supporters of the initiative.

This is usually a big problem for groups trying to make the step up from local to national. However, the problem for these groups isn’t financial backing, it is the hesitance to from a large countrywide campaign and unite together to join funds and protest together. As a local company and a direct rival to SAS, it can be suggested that SAS are much more advanced, compared to the anti-fracking campaign. This is due to the fact that SAS want to be a national initiative, instead of a local one, where as frack free is looking to keep the fracking out of their area but don’t campaign if it’s done elsewhere, which is another reason why there is hesitance to join all anti-frack team around the country. In terms of aesthetic features the city fracking logos aren’t very creatively thought of and feature simplistic elements in the form of simple fontal features and the addition of one piece of imagery.

As I mentioned earlier in this task, all companies must start at a local level and then potentially make the move on to national or global, dependant on their motives and objectives. As a new concept, fracking and anti-fracking campaigns remain at local level, despite many around the country believing it’s a bad idea and are against it. Due to this initiative been at local level only, the amount of finance that the group have are small donations made form individuals, as well as money the leaders of the groups contribute (which isn’t much). This is evident when looking at the logos and promotional tools generated by these groups across the country. While many have used creative designs on their products, it doesn't quite grab the attention of the consumer and doesn’t make them want to support the cause.

the contrast of colours is the only thing on the logo that can be seen to attempt to entice the consumer. This due to the fonts doing nothing, apart from them been bold and striking, while the image of the fracking well only displaying what is been campaigned against; other than this, it doesn’t add much effectiveness to the overall logo.

Analysis of Surfers Against Sewage merchandise

It’s not just the SAS posters that use emotive imagery and text to appeal to the audience, this feature extends to their merchandise range. With the use of emotive imagery, they are able to get their message out more effectively and communicate a bit clearer with the audience. While some charities rely on text on their t-shirts and other merchandise, SAS feature the image and logo of the company instead. By doing this, non of the powerful message isn’t lost by a bit of copy on the merchandise, while the idea of the traditionally light t-shirts that SAS wok with, paired with a dark contrasting image on it works very well as a creative concept.

While the emotive imagery is a main selling point of this merchandise, there is also the use of contrasting colours and bold logos that help to sell the SAS range of merchandise. In particular, the red and black elements of the top right t-shirt helps to further the effectiveness of the emotive age featured on the t-shirt and with the textual features that involves a message that will provoke thought from the consumer, this t-shirt has fulfilled everything a charity t-shirt should; a bold, clear message, emotive or appealing imagery and a statement that will provoke thought from the consumer (whether that’s through a powerful or rhetoric statement)

Analysis of Greenpeace merchandise They don’t need to feature much text or even imagery, Greenpeace have got to the stage where they are big enough as both a company and a charity to sell merchandise with solely the logo on it (only a handful of companies can do this; Apple, amongst a select few companies, brands and franchises as a few examples). As well as this, Greenpeace won’t want to use excessive ink on their t-shirts and other merchandise, due to the fact they are trying to save the globe from pollution and other environmentally damaging events, not add to the problem by printing and producing unnecessary merchandise.

Even though they keep their products simple, they are certainly effective, due to the contrasting colours, stylised fonts and colourful imagery used on the merchandise. For example, as mentioned before in this task, the green is a connotation for what they are trying to turn the globe into; a greener world. They contrast this well, due to the fact that the green they have chosen contrasts well with whatever colouration it is paired with (it goes with Black, Grey, white and Navy which are the main and simple –shirt colours fro companies to use on promotional merchandise).