Shelter Campaign analysis.

Mis-en-scene

•  Shelter campaign targets homeless people.
• Vulnerable housing, unstable housing
• Targeted at people who are at risk/facing the struggles of keeping a home, they try to stop them from becoming homeless.
• Message is to seek help for Shelter before they lose their homes, e.g people who are facing debt and cannot repay the amount, rogue landlords and people who are losing their jobs.
• Search bar at bottom (baseline) search advice.
• Close-up shots of these faces to see their facial expressions; sad, weak, vulnerable, worried
• Red sans-serif text could connote danger, desperation, urgency
• Direct address signifies the need of help from the audience.
• Target audience: middle age,  both male and female, white

The social / cultural / political contexts we will focus on are: 

• Shelter as a charity > > > >
• The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and its regulatory framework
• The government’s comprehensive spending review of 2010, in which spending on social housing was cut by 60%, with a catastrophic impact on homelessness. > > > > 

• Amplify = advertising agency who produced campaign for Shelter.
• Amplify works with Shelter so that they can persuade people to seek help early.
• It is realistic and relatable.

The ASA are the regulatory body for advertising in the UK.

• Set strict rules about advertising
• They have the power to “pull” any adverts that have been complained about by a member of the public or a company.
• They will investigate complaints and agree / disagree
• Advertisers have to adhere to ASA guidelines

How is media language used in the Shelter advert? Refer to the social, political and cultural contexts in your response [15 marks]

The overall layout and composition of this campaign is different compared to other adverts. For example, not many adverts have close-ups of peoples' faces and text over it. This advertisement subverts to the many conventional codes that many adverts normally use. The masthead is painted over the three peoples' faces, in red with different text each time. Using Barthes' Semiotics theory, the red sans-serif could connote danger and desperation, which is what these people are seen facing and as the Shelter campaign is all about preventing people from becoming homeless; it's aimed towards people who have vulnerable housing or unstable housing, or they're at the risk of losing their homes. The sans-serif typography could also signify that it's aimed at everyone, not just men, but also women and the fact that it is capitalised, signifies that they're perhaps screaming for help. Moreover, in the mis-en-scene, we can see three people; two women and a man, who all look weak and vulnerable, which signifies, again, that it's aimed at all genders and all ages. The use of direct address could connote how they're asking the audience to help them, or in this case, the campaign to stop them from becoming homeless. The narrative established here is that the people here are asking for help, hence the direct address and the red sans-serif typography, that portray danger and desperation; a need of help. 

In terms of messages and values being communicated, the clear message of Shelter campaign is that again, it's aimed at people who are about to become homeless, they're struggling to keep their homes, and the Shelter campaign is there to prevent those people from becoming homeless and sleeping rough on the streets. Furthermore, reflecting some of the social context, Shelter campaign is ruled by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and its regulatory framework and the ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. If people do not like a specific advertisement, then the ASA would have a look into it and if it breaks one of it's legislations e.g "avoid presenting an exaggerated impression of the scale or nature of the social problem to which the work of the charity is addressed, eg. by illustrating the message with non-typical extreme examples" then the ASA would have the right to take down the specific advertisement.

In conclusion, this advertisement is successful in portraying its cause properly without breaking the ASA regulations, such as the fact that it does not overexaggerate homelessness, it portrays it sensibly. In my opinion, there should be more advertisements like this so that the issue of homelessness could be addressed quicker, and also prevent people from becoming homeless; those who have vulnerable housing, unstable housing or they're at a risk of losing their homes. The mise-en-scene and the typography also signify its cause e.g the red and bold typography, the close up shots of the three people, whose facial expressions are seen as weak and vulnerable, that also show that the advert is powerful in delivering its cause.