Researching Existing Products

Researching similar products will allow me to learn the codes and

conventions of advertising campaigns. I’m going to be analysing and
deconstructing an advertising campaign for Nestlé’s Oats and more
and paying particular attention to how media language has been used
and any messages about the product or brand that Nestle are trying
to communicate.

The Nestle Oats and more campaign consists of 2 prints adverts and
5 television advertisements, each television advertisement is an
average of 30 seconds long. It fits the definition of an advertising
campaign as it consists of a coordinated series of adverts that work
with synergy and are broadcast across more than one media
platform.

The codes and conventions

that seem to be coming
across through the TV adverts
is that the last shot is of the
product; in this case they
show the product range.
Nestle Oats and more come
in three different variations,
honey, almond and raisin. The
mise-en-scene is important as
they locate the product in the place in the house where it’s most likely
to be consumed, in the kitchen. In addition to the product being a
feature in the last shot we also see the slogan “Too delicious to
share” this same slogan also features on the print adverts. An
observation that I made is that the campaign has two slogans the one
I’ve mentioned already and the other one is “You won’t like it”. The
last shot also features the Nestle whole grain cereal logo, to connote
the health benefits of the cereal.

The characters used in the adverts make

up the members of a family; they don’t all
feature in each TV advert but across the
series of adverts. We have the father, who

Example analysis 1
is the key character and features in all of the adverts, the mother, and
6 children. By using these characters and the serialised nature of the
adverts we could say that there is an element of intertextuality and
compare the structure to soap operas. This is common with
advertising campaigns as British Telecom have done the same thing,
and years ago Kenco Coffee. This serialised nature allows the
audience to get attached to characters and can influence them to be
the product being advertised.

The way that codes and conventions

and media language have been
employed is through the use of
camerawork, dialogue between
characters and the voice over. In
each advert there is always time for
the characters to describe what’s in
the product, for example “crunchy clusters, delicious oat flakes, and
crispy almonds”, this is then reiterated by the voiceover at the end
accompanied by a close up of the cereal in a bowl, so that we can
see what they’re talking about, it also makes the product look far
more appealing to the consumer rather than just seeing the box. The
box is important and features most of the time in the centre of a shot
or in close up in someone’s hand, there need to be a shot of the
product in with the packaging to allow for consumer recognition, so
that when they go to the super market they can remember what the
product look like.

The main representations and messages that are communicated

through the TV adverts is that of family, the father is the head of the
family and the mother and the children seem to do as he says.

Example analysis 2
The print adverts in the campaign are constructed in such a way that
the audience would have to of seen the TV adverts to fully
understand them. Case is point would be the main copy on the advert
“I always thought nothing was too good for my kids. Until now.” From
having knowing of the TV advert I would guess that this is the father
‘speaking’ in the advert. The copy is printed so that it bends around
the bowl, this could connote the father’s possessiveness over his
Oats and more, as in the TV adverts he never wants to share his
cereal.

In both adverts the layout is the same this helps to keep a sense of
consistency and unity across the whole campaign. A picture of the
product in it’s packaging is placed in the bottom right corner, and next
to it we have the slogan “Too good to share” and just the TV adverts
we also have a description of the cereal. In both print adverts the
Oats and more is featured in a cereal bowl using a close up shot, this
makes the cereal look more appealing to the consumer. The colour
palette used for the adverts matches the ‘flavour’ of the cereal, the
Honey Oats and more advert has a yellow colour palette and the
Raisin Oats and more a purple colour palette.

Example analysis 3
The target audience for this campaign would be families and the
individuals with the families as represented in the TV adverts. The
family includes parents – father and mother – and children of various
age ranges. The humour in how it appeals to children is through the
use of the father, he tells the children that won’t like the cereal and it’s
not good for them. In real life, generally when a parent says not to do
something a child wants to do it even more, therefore the product is
made appealing to children as being something that’s forbidden.

Overall I believe that this campaign is a good campaign and utilises

the codes and conventions of a campaign including using different
media platforms having a theme, and being directed at a particular
target audience. It also makes use of the persuasive techniques
pathos and ethos. Pathos through the way the voiceover describes
the cereal making it seem desirable almost in much the same way the
Marks and Spencer “This is not just food, its M&S food’ TV advert
campaign worked. Ethos is used slightly with the use of Nestlé’s
whole grain logo, providing creditability for the product.

Example analysis 4