Shelter essay

Charity adverts are influenced largely by social and cultural contexts. These cultural factors are used in a way to shock the audience but also make them aware of other lifestyles and differences they perhaps might not have been aware of. The use of perhaps typically less fortunate societies in advertising distances but also in a way makes the audience feel as though they have power over these victims to help and improve their way of living.

Figure 3, shows the three charity adverts produced by the company shelter. The three adverts show faces of similar ethnicities, classes and ages, all facing different problems within the same field. The point of this is to show how anyone no matter their class can be affected by these issue, not just people of lower classes. This shocks the audience and created a feeling of vulnerability within the community which leads to donations to the charity for everyone feels although they may or could need this type of help some day. Similarly, statements used on the advertisements use pronouns which refer to the audience. ‘I’ feels very personal, just like each of the victim’s positions, metaphorically placing the audience in each of the positions presented. Social and cultural contexts are used to make such hard topics more relatable to the audience but yet distancing them enough to feel the pressure to help donate.