Codes and Conventions of Advertising

Codes and conventions are an extremely important part of advertising. These codes and conventions help to portray meaning which helps the consumer the really engage with the advertisement.


Here is a list of some of the codes and conventions of a TV Advertisement:

• The use of a celebrity (spokesperson) to sell and promote the product or service that is being advertised. This helps the audience to connect with the advert if they know the celebrity. If a well known celebrity is used it tends to mean that most people who are fans of that celebrity will go and buy that product. This expands the companies target audience.
• Popular songs are used throughout many adverts to help to engage with the audience. For example the boots adverts use the song 'Here come the girls'.  By using this song throughout there adverts it means that everyone is going to know what advert it is just from hearing the song. 
• Catchy slogans are remembered most my viewers. These help to stick in your mind so whenever you hear the advert you will instantly remember that slogan which goes along with it. Furthermore if the tune is catchy it means that lots of their target audience are going to know it making it more recognisable.
• The use of guilt. For example in lots of charity adverts we see guilt used to help show emotions and really grabbed the audiences attention. By using guilt they are hoping that it will make viewers donate some money. For example for Save the children guilt is shown through the use of words and also camera shots. From looking at these type of adverts if sets the viewers back and really makes them think about how lucky they are not to be in the situation the people are within the advert.
• Within many adverts there is always something symbolic. By saying theres always something symbolic within an advert there must be something that tends of give of a meaning. This doesn't happen in all adverts, however is one of the most common conventions within for example charity adverts like 'save the children'. Here they use the children and also stories.
• Music within adverts play a huge part of what the advert is going to be about and also what the advert tells us as the audience. For example if it was an upbeat song then you would tend to expect the advert to be related to something exciting. However if it was a slow song, with a low tone then you would expect the advert to be quite sad.  Music can portray meaning within a text as it helps to set the scene.
• Camera shots and angle, and editing techniques play a huge rule in producing an advert. Depending on the camera angle, it can portray and show a different prospective of the scene. For example if it was a happy and fast pace advert there would be lots of cuts and close ups which speeds up the pace of the advert.  Lighting also sets the mode and atmosphere. There are two different types of lighting these are high key and low key.