Charity Ads

Kids Company by AMV.BBDO. Art direction/ design: Paul Cohen. Copy­writer: Mark Fairbanks. Photography: Thom Atkinson

The unscrupulous among the advertising community have often tended to look upon charity accounts less as an opportunity to help those in need and more as a chance to help themselves. Is a more mature approach emerging?

Charity campaigns have often been taken on with the express intention of winning awards and, in order to do so, many have resorted to crude tactics. In the mid-90s when outrage over ‘shock advertising’ was at its peak, some of the worst offenders were for small charities many of which, miracu­lously, were never heard from before or since.

But perhaps there is something of a more mature approach emerging. Take, for example, recent print campaigns by This Is Real Art for Reprieve and AMV.BBDO’s new campaign for Camilla Batman­ghelidjh’s Kids Company plus, from slightly further back, CHI’s Prince’s Trust work and BBH’s Barnardo’s campaign from last year.

Reprieve by This is Real Art. Art director/copywriter:
Paul Belford

BBH for Barnardo’s from 2007. Creatives: Nick Gill and Mark Reddy. Photographer: Kiran Master

The first thing that occurs with these campaigns is the amount of copy used. It’s not so long ago that we were all bemoaning the death of long copy in advert­ising. And yet all four campaigns use lengthy, discursive texts to make their case: in Kidsco, the copy runs to nearly 400 words. The style is convers­ational.

Copy from KidsCo ad above

All four campaigns go for a factual, documentary style of layout, aping editorial or, in the case of Reprieve, the visual language of bureaucracy. The use of typewriter fonts in Kidsco (Letter Gothic Medium) and Reprieve reinforces the documentary feel.

Reprieve ad copy

Headlines have a similarly editorial look, even working with standfirsts in the typical language of a magazine spread, while the photography stu­diously avoids sensationalism, partic­ularly Kiran Master’s shots for Barnardo’s. The Reprieve campaign even obscures its shocking imagery, letting our imaginations do the work.

The art directors for KidsCo (Paul Cohen) and for Reprieve and Prince’s Trust (Paul Belford) are noted for a more considered approach - one that seeks to reject the tired formulae of typical advertising art direction (big picture, punning headline etc).

These campaigns attempt to engage with the mind more than the heartstrings, patiently arguing a reasoned case instead of lurching into a stop-them-in-their tracks visual assault. It’s a welcome change.
 

Prince’s Trust by Clemmow Hornby Inge, 2007. Art director: Paul Belford. Copywriter: Nigel Roberts. Photography: Adam Hinton.

all I want for christmas is...

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Through this module I have developed skills in design for print and production for print, identifying problems and producing solutions to problems. I learned how to prepare digital images and documents for printing, how to pick varies stock and differences between different printing methods within the industry. I believe I applied my new learned knowledge for print effectively for my solutions, however there are still room for improvement and I would like to develop these skills further.


2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have used both primary and secondary research sources to support my investigation, eventually I found that it became more important to find my own approach to my subject matter in order to carry out effective research.
I used questionnaires and interviews as my main source of primary investigation, in order to find out which console people miss the most and why people feel nostalgic about video games, I interviewed people who has collections of retro games and consoles and photographed their collection as well as set out specific questions in my questionnaires.


3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I believe my concept and execution of the final product demonstrates my strength within this module.
I set out to categorise my research and profile my findings in an information graphics format, creating a concept to be executed through a range of different media but all within print which was simple and direct.


4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I have not been consistent with my time management which has let myself down during the end of the module when I found difficult to carry out printing jobs for my products, leaving things till the last minute has caused me to rush some parts of the project where it could’ve done with more attention.
I also need to work on my skills to document my thought process effective when working with digital media.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• Set a focus and restrictions for the visual investigation
• Exhaust as much possibilities as I can within the set investigation with the time given
• Identify areas where effective outcome was produced
• Better time management
• In-depth research
• Generate more ideas
• Develop solutions further

DeadGood project presentation boards

still wish I had more time to work on these... but here are the ones I had to hand in at the end.