3. What I have learnt about the codes and conventions of television adverts and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate meaning successfully.

I have found some conventions of TV adverts for personal hygiene products and will work to use some of them in my own advert to make it recognisable to the genre of personal hygiene TV adverts.


Codes and conventions of TV personal hygiene product adverts:

• Voiceover explaining narrative and story over the montage of shots. This is particularly important in shorter adverts to portray meaning successfully, often without any dialogue from the characters in the advert. A good example of this is in the 'Lynx Black Hair Styling: - Daily Life' advert where the protagonist doesn't speak and meaning is portrayed through the comical voiceover and interesting imagery. Due to this dominating voiceover, there is no dialogue in this advert, similar to other adverts, including many of the ones below. I think this is particularly true with 30 second adverts, as there is not much time for meaning to be conveyed clearly through dialogue, so it is portrayed through other conventions, including the ones discussed below.

• The actors are the same age and gender as the target audience and therefore could reflect them. For example, the 'TRESemme Repair & Protect' advert portrays a young female as the protagonist, getting ready in the morning. This could allow the TA watching the advert to almost relate to actor, who is recognisable as a member of the TA but aspirational because of her hair.

• The product often features in the advert, either with the protagonist using it or at the very least, an image of it features in the end card, often also with the brand's slogan and logo. For example in the 'Colgate Total' advert below, while the product is not featured in the public setting of the bus, the character is seen using it in the morning and it is the main focal image of the end card.

• The adverts are often set in settings that the TA would be familiar with or would recognise themselves. For example, the two locations of the bathoom and public transport, as demonstrated in the Colgate advert above . Although I would have already used more than one setting in my adverts due to the brief, this convention demonstrated the need to use both interior and exterior locations across both my adverts, featuring both familiar and aspirational (recognisable) locations.

• There is often text towards the end of adverts, sometimes of the USP or key points in the campaign as well as always featuring the slogan. I have also found that adverts targeted at young people, like my 16-25 demographic, also use hashtags at the end of adverts to raise awareness for their campaign on social media. For example, a Dove advert had the #MyBeautyMySay in both the video and description on YouTube while the TRESemme advert had #WORKIT just in the title of the video. The minimalist hashtag with the Dove brand's adverts below demonstrates the importance of it, with no other features detracting attention from it. These hashtags have inspired me to use one at the end of my adverts to create Wave's youth brand identity and allow my campaign to continue on social media.

• Music is normally featured in adverts. I have found two different ways that music is used in shorter adverts between 15 and 60 seconds long. The first is when their is instrumental or simple music setting the tone and is often used if there is a dominant voiceover describing the narrative, an example of this is in the 'Lynx Black' and 'Colgate Total' adverts above. However, well-known music with lyrics that fit with the narrative could also be used if there is minimal dialogue or no voiceovers. Music is used in this way in the first half of the 'HSBC Digital Banking: The Missing Sticker' advert below where the repeated lyric "I've got my mind set on you" conveys the narrative. Despite this, I prefer the way instrumental music is used and will choose an instrumental (copyright-free) song to create atmosphere in my adverts.

• Although it is not demonstrated in this advert, some other adverts use the editing technique of cutting to the beat of the music. In the Dove advert at the bottom of the page, this is demonstrated and makes the story flow better and creates a faster paced rhythm and is a technique that I will definitely consider doing.

• In the shorter advert there is often one main protagonist, who dominates the narrative. For example in most of the adverts linked above. However, for longer adverts like the 90 second 'Dove #MyBeautyMySay' advert, multiple characters are explored. Although this could be a convention of longer adverts, through my research I have found that very few shorter adverts do this so I may only portray one main protagonist, with a possible secondary character, in each of my TV adverts.