Analysis of the “Be the Best” Army Advertising Campaign Free Essay Example

“Be the Best” Army Advertising Campaign analysis –  In early October 1997, a report was shown that the level of racism in the British army was extremely high

This put people off signing up and because of this figures began to drop.

A new advertising campaign was set up by the army to encourage more people to join up of both white and ethnic minorities.

Saatchi & Saatchi are an advertising company whom are well known for their flair and talent at inventing new ways of advertising, often containing a pun (a play on words).

They were asked to take this project on board. The challenging title “Be the Best” was put together to hopefully promote new recruits. From then on many posters were designed each with an individual cleverly devised theme but always using the slogan. This was to attract different individuals than unlike appealing to the stereotype bulk of army recruits as before.

Section 1.

Poster 1.

Slogan -” Wanted 17 year olds into body building”

This Pun is mainly aimed at 17 year school leavers, its catchy play on words attracts younger people into firstly looking at the poster.

The title is good and contrasts well with its caption.

Presentation layout

The posters layout is well thought out using all the advertising space, it enhances the slogan/title by using white bold text on a dark background which immediately catches the eye of the public and therefore doing the precise job that it is supposed to.

The picture is of a solider helping people who are suffering from extreme poverty, the people are holding empty bowls begging for your/soldiers help.

The poster puts across its strong message to suggest that joining the army it not always about war and destruction but it can also be about helping less fortunate people in other countries.

Overall effectiveness

This poster will appeal to the majority of the thoughtful young school leavers who may have an interest in the army. It grabs peoples attention well but mainly due to its vivid illustration of the starving children.

Poster 2.

Slogan – “17 year olds needed to work in fast food chain”

The pun again is very catchy and encourages people to study the poster in depth and to work our the full meaning of the caption together with the illustration. It could suggest that 17 year old school leavers are needed to work in a fast food chain such as McDonalds(tm) But after one look at the image and its meaning completely diverts from its first intentions.

Presentation layout

Its layout presents itself to be well thought out and again using all the space adequately. Like all the army advertising posters it follows the same basic layout structure as mentioned in poster 1. This poster in particular is from a strange angle that seems to suggest that the soldier from whose point of view you are looking from is spying on people in the image. The image shows a continuous line of men who are unloading large sacks which presumably contain food, these men helped by soldiers have formed a human chain.

Overall effectiveness

This poster seems to be the weakest out of the four, unless sometime is taken to study it, the full picture/message is difficult to understand. A poster of this kind should be quick and powerful so that the message can be understood at a glance.

Even so, the poster delivers the message but the majority of the time it isn’t fully understood .

Poster 3

Slogan – “17 Year old body pierces required”

This out of the four posters has the strongest slogan, especially towards youths. It initially suggests that 17 years olds are wanted to body pierce which corresponds well with the image.

Presentation/layout

This poster again contains the same basic layout structure; the image shows a soldier vaccinating a young girl from a virus/disease, this sees to be in some distressed part and enhances the posters mean straight away. This poster is from a soldiers POV though his/her view is towards another soldier.

Overall effectiveness

This in my opinion is the best poster of the four, It has a strong message that is put across well. Its bold meaning can be fully understood any time unlike the others, its picture is also clear about what is going on.

Poster 4

Slogan – “17 year olds needed to stop road rage”

This posters slogan is also one of the stronger ones, it also as an initial suggestion which is that 17 year olds are needed to stop road rage, which is vehicles driving into one another usually due to some driving error made by a driver. The posters image changes this.

Presentation/layout

The poster once again is in the same style, the image shows a crowd of violent hooligans in the distance and a man quite close holding a baseball at in an aggressive manor. You as the soldier are approaching the crowd to help stop it. The word needed is used in the slogan, this gives the reader a bit of self assurance that makes them feel as if the army needs them as appose to wanting them. The picture works terrifically with the slogan so that it can be understood at a glance.

Overall Effectiveness

The poster in its entirety is very powerful and will attract a lot of the minority that were targeted. Its slogan fits in perfectly with its image and as the word needed is used it would have encouraged many youths to join.

Section 2

After completing the advertising campaign for the youths, the army also asked Saachi & Saachi to tackle another problem in the army, racism. The poster in section 2 like the others is powerful, and puts the message across well.

This poster is aimed at a specific ethnic group, the afro-Caribbean. Saachi & Saachi created this poster to encourage more coloured people to join the British army as Britain is a multiracial country.

Slogan – ” who are you calling a coconut?”

This slogan or ‘aggressive statement’ comes across as being rude and harsh towards the black population, originally devised by racists it could be seen as an offence to black people although once shown with its image the meaning to the sentence changes. This is a good way of boosting peoples moral to join the army and works excellently with this poster.

Presentation/layout

The poster is presented in a well thought out way, it shows an afro-Caribbean male holding hi forefinger towards you (the viewer). The male looks annoyed, his face is very shaded and his eyes are blacked out to emphasise his strong features, the slogan is printed across his mouth at an angle. Underneath the image is a few sentences to encourage the reader to join, the army’s logo and telephone number are at the bottom.

Overall Effectiveness

This poster is one of the best I have seen, the combined affect between the image of the man and his aggressive words are powerful and put across the message clearly. This poster can be seen from two completely different people in two completely different ways, if you were an afro – Caribbean man willing to join the army and you came across this poster it would encourage you, because the man in the picture is on your side. If a different man saw the poster, say racists towards blacks, this may put him off joining the army. So overall, the poster works in good ways and it will encourage people of different backgrounds to join.

Discuss in detail how the actors (es) who play Macbeth and L.Macbeth should prepaire for this scene. (Act 2 Scene 2)

This scene is one of if not the most important and for me most interesting scene of all. Mainly because it’s the main turning point in the play, I say this because in this scene, Duncan (the king of Scotland) is murdered; this changes the entire play as a loyal Thane (macbeth) betrays his country. This murder is not done as easily as thought to be however, and it takes a lot of persuasion from L.Macbeth to firstly convince Macbeth it’s the right thing to do.

Before any of this happens Macbeth meets three witches, they all tell him that he shall become thane of Cawdor also King! He dosn’t take much note of it, until, later in the play he is premoted to ‘Thane of Cawdor’, which is the equivalent to becoming a Lord. This obviously changes Macbeth’s state of mind, and in act 1 scene 7 the first sign of Jealous i displayed.