For the Children: D&R

The two recent campaigns I have chosen to dissect and reflect on for the purpose of this blog both relate to social responsibility for the benefit of children and loved ones. The first campaign that I have identified is the "Watch Your Speed" campaign for Transport of London by VCCP. The watch your speed campaign utilizes print and film advertisements to encourage drivers to drive safely for the benefit of their passengers. The second campaign that I have identified is the "Believe in Me" campaign for Barnado's by FCB Inferno. This campaign utilizes film advertisements to demonstrates the need to protect and rehabilitate children who have been taken advantage of (i.e. forced slavery, sexual assault, or abuse).

Both of these campaigns take on heavy topics and aim to get people to really care about the issues presented. The "Watch Your Speed" campaign attempts to get people to care about driving the speed limit by pointing out the other stakeholders in situations of unsafe driving. The campaign consists of several print advertisements all with the phrase "watch your speed, your ____ does" the print ad has several different versions with fill in the blanks such as "son", "best friend", and "mate". Each print ad also has a close up widened eye as the background, representing the stressed gaze of the passenger being referred to.

The watch your speed campaign also consists of a video advertisement displaying a parent speeding as they drive their child and accompanying friend to karate practice. The video contains a voice over of each child's thoughts as they grow increasingly frightened of the speed at which the parent is driving. The advertisement ends with the daughter yelling "dad" as the father slams on the breaks headed towards a pedestrian crossing the street, the screen goes black and text appears saying, "watch your speed, everyone else does".

In comparison, the "Believe In Me" campaign also attempts to create viewer interest in their cause by appealing to the emotions of a child. Barnardo's, the brand in which the campaign is promoting, is a charity which protects and supports vulnerable children in the UK. The "Believe in Me" campaign is one which was started in 2016 and continues all the way into 2020. The campaign mainly involves a series of 1 minute clips which each demonstrate a different hardship that vulnerable children may face.

A video included in the 2020 campaign focused on the issue of sexual assault towards children. The video showed a young teen sitting on her bed as she recounts in her voiced-over "thoughts" a situation in which she was manipulated and sexually assaulted by an adult man. While sitting on her bed she cringes in discomfort as a kimono dragon slithers across her bedroom door towards her; likely representative of the predator she describes.

The advertisement then cuts to the child sitting in a room with someone who appears to be a therapist. She says "but you've you've helped me see what he was doing, since coming to Barnardo's I feel a bit more like me again".

Overall I can see a lot of similarities between the two ads presented. Both the "Watch Your Speed" and "Believe in Me" campaign's highlight the pain felt by victims in the situations presented. It seems that the "Watch Your Speed" campaign has found some insight which would suggest drivers care more about the safety of their passengers than their own. While the "Believe in Me" campaign likely stemmed from some insight that first person accounts are more resonate with audiences.

While both campaigns advocate for relevant issues and raise awareness of change that needs to be made, they clearly have different objectives. The "Watch Your Speed" campaign encourages viewers to drive safely in consideration of others. In contrast, the "Believe in Me" campaign was likely produced primarily to generate donations and funding, rather than advocate for proper treatment and care for children. This differentiation is pretty self-explanatory since the Transport for London is publicly funded, while Barnardo's runs on donations.

It is interesting to investigate how their messaging may have differed from one another as a result of their separate objectives. One aspect of the campaign's that sticks out to me in accordance to their objectives is the implied "call to action". The "Watch Your Speed" campaign presents scenarios in which "others" are involved, but the messaging of the various advertisements is always directed towards the viewer by addressing them as "you". They use phrases such as "watch your speed. your son does." to put the viewer directly into the shoes of the individual portrayed in the car accident ads. By doing so, the Transport for London is asking viewers to drive more safely and thus makes their objective clear.

To contrast, the messaging of Barnardo's campaign is very different. Each video is from the perspective of a child victim and does not directly address the viewer at all. This makes sense since there is no tangible change viewers can make to better the situation, unless they are a predator or abuser themselves, and in that case the advertisement probably wouldn't have been effective regardless. Instead, Barnardo's is attempting to ignite concern for the issues they present and subsequently support the their own organization.

Overall these campaigns had a lot in common, they focused on pressing societal issues and appealed to viewers emotions by providing concrete imagery and persuasive messaging. They also were different from one another on several levels including their objectives, messaging, key insights, and primary medium. Although these advertisements were created for audiences in a different country, their universal messages resonated with me, and for that I applaud them! Societal issues cross country borders and our messages should too!