Water Aid Background and Charity Advert Analysis
Water Aid - Background
It is a charity that was established in 1981 as a response to a United Nations campaign for clean water, sanitation and water hygiene education. Works with organisations in 37 African, Asian and Central American countries and the Pacific region. Patron: Prince Charles.
Created by Atomic London in 2016 an advert named 'Rain For Good' presents a 16 year old Zambian student with the aim of showing how communities benefit from clean water. It achieves this by portraying them doing everyday chores such as farming and laundry.
Wateraid: Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day (2016)
The advert uses Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions because the cause is very serious as it is raising awareness for the fact that many groups of people do not have access to lean water but she is singing a relatively happy song and the lighting is quite golden which could symbolise happiness and hope. This relates to the theory of binary oppositions because they are making light of a bad situation. The lighting could also be like this because it is saying that our donations are like a beacon of hope for the people who are struggling.
The person that this advert depicts is a teenage girl of colour collecting water. This is important because you wouldn't necessarily expect someone of that age to be doing work that could determine the survival of her family. The advert also uses symbolic codes because we see a lot of young people doing work such as farming and laundry that we would generally assume was adult work. this is symbolic because it shows without actually stating that there is a lot of trouble at home in families such as these where it is hard for the adults to work and take care of the kids so the younger generation has to take things into their own hands.
Due to the fact that most people have a perception of poor families in places like Africa it means that as soon as the audience sees the coloured girl in an environment like what we see in the film the audience instantly makes generalisations of her life because of stereotypes that they have got from the media. This is useful in the advert because it means that the audience builds a relationship with Claudia quickly as they feel they already know about her living experience at least a little bit. It is generalising the entirety of Africa as a continent.
Additionally, towards the end of the advert we are presented with a fact/figure stating "650 million people still don't have access to clean drinking water." This is used to shock the audience because there is another binary opposition between the lifestyle and expectations that we grew up with such as the expectations for clean water, food and sanitary living conditions and what we see as her living conditions. This means that this figure shocks us as the audience because clean water is something that we expect as a minimum. There is a further binary opposition with the typical English kitchen at the beginning of the advert which is recognisable because it is raining outside. This is directly contrasting to the drought of Africa that is presented next. The advert is also trying to make us feel guilty as a tap is pictured showing that we have lots of access to water compared to others. It makes us feel really lucky. This first shot could also be symbolic of us taking things for granted and not being happy for what we own.
The advert is much more uplifting than most other charity adverts as they present the outcome of our donations rather than the conditions that they were already in. There is a personalised narrative during the advert which is typical of other charity adverts. This is effective because it helps to strengthen a relationship between the people depicted and the audience.
The first shot of the people in Africa is of her feet which builds enigma codes as we wonder who's feet it is and they are also symbolic of the amount of work that they have to go through because it shows that they are always on their feet.
The signing goes from her singing in diegetic sound which turn to non-diegetic sound which is a happy song which obviously builds happiness.
There is a different ideology in this advert because it makes you feel good about yourself because it shows you the impact of your donation.
It is a charity that was established in 1981 as a response to a United Nations campaign for clean water, sanitation and water hygiene education. Works with organisations in 37 African, Asian and Central American countries and the Pacific region. Patron: Prince Charles.
Created by Atomic London in 2016 an advert named 'Rain For Good' presents a 16 year old Zambian student with the aim of showing how communities benefit from clean water. It achieves this by portraying them doing everyday chores such as farming and laundry.
Wateraid: Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day (2016)
The advert uses Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions because the cause is very serious as it is raising awareness for the fact that many groups of people do not have access to lean water but she is singing a relatively happy song and the lighting is quite golden which could symbolise happiness and hope. This relates to the theory of binary oppositions because they are making light of a bad situation. The lighting could also be like this because it is saying that our donations are like a beacon of hope for the people who are struggling.
The person that this advert depicts is a teenage girl of colour collecting water. This is important because you wouldn't necessarily expect someone of that age to be doing work that could determine the survival of her family. The advert also uses symbolic codes because we see a lot of young people doing work such as farming and laundry that we would generally assume was adult work. this is symbolic because it shows without actually stating that there is a lot of trouble at home in families such as these where it is hard for the adults to work and take care of the kids so the younger generation has to take things into their own hands.
Due to the fact that most people have a perception of poor families in places like Africa it means that as soon as the audience sees the coloured girl in an environment like what we see in the film the audience instantly makes generalisations of her life because of stereotypes that they have got from the media. This is useful in the advert because it means that the audience builds a relationship with Claudia quickly as they feel they already know about her living experience at least a little bit. It is generalising the entirety of Africa as a continent.
Additionally, towards the end of the advert we are presented with a fact/figure stating "650 million people still don't have access to clean drinking water." This is used to shock the audience because there is another binary opposition between the lifestyle and expectations that we grew up with such as the expectations for clean water, food and sanitary living conditions and what we see as her living conditions. This means that this figure shocks us as the audience because clean water is something that we expect as a minimum. There is a further binary opposition with the typical English kitchen at the beginning of the advert which is recognisable because it is raining outside. This is directly contrasting to the drought of Africa that is presented next. The advert is also trying to make us feel guilty as a tap is pictured showing that we have lots of access to water compared to others. It makes us feel really lucky. This first shot could also be symbolic of us taking things for granted and not being happy for what we own.
The advert is much more uplifting than most other charity adverts as they present the outcome of our donations rather than the conditions that they were already in. There is a personalised narrative during the advert which is typical of other charity adverts. This is effective because it helps to strengthen a relationship between the people depicted and the audience.
The first shot of the people in Africa is of her feet which builds enigma codes as we wonder who's feet it is and they are also symbolic of the amount of work that they have to go through because it shows that they are always on their feet.
The signing goes from her singing in diegetic sound which turn to non-diegetic sound which is a happy song which obviously builds happiness.
There is a different ideology in this advert because it makes you feel good about yourself because it shows you the impact of your donation.
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