Marketing Communications Portfolio Guilt Appeal PDF

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Portfolio 4 Guilt Appeal Marketing Communications...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ9f378T49E Grim Reaper Aids Advertisement 1987 1. How does the ad evoke guilt? Identify the cues and explain. The advertisement I have selected is the Grim Reaper AIDS advertisement from 1987, and even though the ad is relatively old, being nearly 40 years old. It is still relevant today and was very effective in its mission by using guilt appeal to leave a lasting impression on people’s minds about the (then) health crisis. Many cues within the ad immediately identify its guilt appeal via its disturbing imagery, the Grim Reaper playing bowling with humans being the pins. This sets up the metaphor than we are playing with our lives by having casual sexual relations with people who we do not know are infected with the aid’s virus. This is followed by disturbing visions of women, small children and men being violently thrown from the impact of the ball. This is accompanied by a voice over explaining that in 3 years more Australians will die from AIDS than from World War 2, a memory that was still fresh in many of the minds of the era, creating the question of “you wouldn’t want to kill Australians, would you?”. While many believe that the ad was designed to scare Australians, I believe it was affective use of Guilt advertising. Many things point to this, including using strong imagery and “always use a condom” line within the ad showing that if you do not use protection, you can be unknowly passing the infection from person to person, which will make the viewer feel immensely guilty. This guilt can be related back to the metaphor established; you could be playing with the lives of innocent children if safe sex is not practised. It also is guilt appealing to the people infected with the Virus, showing that if they practise sex at all, they can be playing with the lives of woman and children, they will become the grim reaper in this situation. This is also supported by Australian and New Zealand School of Government (2006), stating that the guilt was applied to those both infected, and people who had little knowledge about the disease. 2. Is the ad effective? (attention, liking, behaviour etc)

The Ad was highly affective, with many news outlets sighting how impactful it was, as seem in Gibbs, S 2020 Power, J 2012 and Barber, L 2019. All these articles, especially in Martin M’s article, states the affect that it had on Australia, within the article stating that the AIDS ad was attributed to lowering AIDS transmissions. These are also supported within the ANZSOG (2006) case write up mentioned earlier. Articles from the era, namely Morlet, A, Diefenthaler, I, Gold, J 1988 show that there was an increase in the national AIDS hotline and AIDS centre attendance, showing that the ad was by all accounts, incredibly successful. 3. How would you improve the advertisement? Personally, I believe that the advertisement can not be made significantly better, as the ad was wildly successful. Perhaps some contention has been noted using the grim reaper and him being associated with homosexual citizens, an affected that had not been planned by the creators (Murray, M). perhaps to improve the advert, the Grim reaper could be done away with, and keep the intense and guilt filled atmosphere and have the bowling balls appear from the smoke, as to avoid any further connotations if it were to be implemented again.

Reference List: Australian and New Zealand School of Government 2016, ‘The AIDS Grim Reaper Campaign (A) Case Program’, Australian and New Zealand School of Government, viewed June 1 2020, Australian Government. Barber, L 2019, ‘Architect of ‘Grim Reaper’ TV campaign compares AIDS crisis to MDMA use’, Star Observer, January 31, viewed 1 June 2020 < https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/nationalnews/architect-of-grim-reaper-tv-campaign-compares-aids-crisis-to-mdma-use/176161 > Gibbs, S 2020, ‘Why we need the Grim Reaper: Creator of controversial 80s commercial showing AIDS bowling over men, women and children says Australians need to be SHOCKED into taking COVID-19 seriously’, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 25, viewed 1 June 2020, < https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8145703/Why-Australia-needs-Grim-Reaper-style-shocktelevision-advertising-campaign-beat-COVID-19.html > Power, J 2012, ‘The Grim Reaper died in the 80s – time for a new approach to HIV prevention’, The Conversation, August 30, viewed 1 June 2020, < https://theconversation.com/the-grim-reaper-diedin-the-80s-time-for-a-new-approach-to-hiv-prevention-9106 > Murray, M 2012, ‘The commercial that scared us - and might have saved us’ The Sydney Morning Herald, April 5, viewed 1 June 2020, < https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-commercialthat-scared-us-and-might-have-saved-us-20120404-1wcyy.html >...