Newspaper Advertisement Development, Analysis & Final Product

The Newspaper Advertisement for the Print Products

Why Channel 4?

The reason that we would show this documentary on channel 4 is that they show many documentaries like Trump: The American Dream' and Coalition. Theses documentaries are very similar to ours and proves that politic and factual documentaries can be shown on the channel. Also, we believe that if it was shown on channel 4 it would get a greater audience view count than if it was shown on Sky One because lots of people have access to channel 4 as Sky One isn't part of the standard Freeview package whereas channel 4 is. But why wouldn’t we show it on the BBC? Although the BBC host big documentaries such as David Attenborough’s view breaker, “Blue Planet 2”; I don’t think that it would be a good host to political/factual documentaries as the audience is slightly to old overall and that doesn’t match our target audience which is formally 16-25 years old. We believe the younger generation need to be kept up to date with current affairs.

Channel 4 Fonts for documentary title and advertisements

I have downloaded these fonts of a website so it can look more like a real-life documentary. Unfortunately, the fonts do not show up unless the font has been downloaded.

Channel 4 Chadwick Medium -   Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Chadwick –Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Chadwick Bold – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Chadwick Extra Light – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Horseferry – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Horseferry Bold – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Horseferry Medium – Hs2: A White Elephant

Inspiration & Analysis

From this poster from channel 4, you can almost tell immediately what the documentary is going to be about as we can see that the title is “Disarming Britain” and the boys hand gesture is resembling a gun. From just those two pointers you know what the documentary is about. This is exactly what I would want from my documentary poster, for it to instantly tell the audience what it’s going to be about. But the only trouble this could have is that no one will know what the HS2 is, so we would have to use different titles or slogans to remind the viewer or tell the viewer what the HS2 is.  

This advertisement shows what the documentary is about in a very intelligent way. The title of the documentary is “Britain’s Forgotten Children” and the advertisement shows a child sinking into the floor as people walk by unnoticed which is representative of the title. This is a key feature in telling the audience what it’s about, but not directly and that’s what’s good about it. So for example I will need to explain what the documentary in the poster but make it subtle so that they don’t figure it all out straight away or they won’t watch the documentary. The brief synopsis under the title gives the picture more meaning as it mentions the care system so the readers know that the documentary is on the forgotten children in the care system. This gives the reader a little bit more information on the documentary but not enough to dissuade them from watching it.

This poster is very unique compared to the others as it only focuses on one picture in particular as the others has a series of scenarios going on in the pictures. So in this one you have to really try hard to know what the poster is trying to tell you. Also it uses a close up shot so you can clearly see the people’s faces in the poster. The poster focuses on two people and also that the documentary may follow their lives in the next week.

From all 4 of these newspaper advertisements we have analysed, we have noticed common denominators as such. In the bottom left-hand corner the name of the documentary, a short phrase briefly giving more information about the documentary and the date it dispatches is always present. These 3 pieces of information are important to the reader. The title always includes the topic of the documentary so that readers knows what it is about. The title normally uses a literacy technique to engage the reader and makes them remember the name of the documentary. Beneath the title, there usually a short phrase which briefly explains what the documentary is about if the title is unclear or ambiguous. Next to this phrase the date of when the documentary dispatches is present which tells the reader exactly when the documentary is on.

Conventionally on a channel 4 newspaper advertisement, the 3 pieces of information are present in the bottom left corner, however as long as they are present on the advertisement it generally doesn't matter where as long as it is appealing and easy to read. The 3 pieces of information is always highlighted by a colour with the colour of the font usually being black or white to stand out from the highlighted colour. The channel 4 logo is always present on the right-hand side of the advertisement so that left side isn't overcrowded with information. The colour of the channel 4 logo normally matches the highlighted colour or the colour of the font so that keeps the advertisement tidy. The channel 4 logo is normally always aligned in the right centre of the page. Finally the main picture in the advertisement is always related to the title of the documentary.

Drawn Drafts of Ads

In this design I have used a train which will explain to the audience through the poster of what the documentary is about. The train will definitely be the big speaking point of the poster so when I actually design it I would like to try and blur the background out to make sure that people focus on the train so they don’t get the wrong idea of what the documentary is about. The downside to this ad, it is a conventional train that we took a picture of and the HS2 trains would not look like this. For the titles I would likely use “Channel 4 Chadwick Bold” (Which is unavailable on School computers) but it makes the font easier to read and helps all of our target audiences to understand the Ad. Also I would have the titles in a white box and the text to be a black colour.

In this Ad, I have planned to use the sign of the local town I live in and also because that the majority of the documentary is filmed in the Tamworth area. Although the only bad thing is that people won’t necessarily associate Tamworth with the HS2 as hardly anyone knows Tamworth exists. So maybe I could use something in Tamworth where people might link back to the HS2.

This ad I feel represents the Hs2 for the most reasons people are against it. As 100,000s of acres of countryside is being demolished. So, this is a good representation of what most people know the HS2 is going to do, even though it doesn’t have the train in it, I feel that the audience will look at this and still know the effects the HS2 will have.

Different Channel 4 logo’s

Advert 1

The first Draft of the Advertisement

Good points:

This represents what the channel 4 documentary adverts look like so it fits the profile of the advert.

Also, it’s also very basic and easy to understand and not too cluttered. Also, there is not much dead space as the train picture takes up most of it.

Advert 2

I like this design because it’s not as boring as the other design, not as formal. It’s because I think the blue definitely helps the poster stand out more to a wider much younger audience, which can make it easy to remember. Also, the graffiti also makes an appearance which can also represents other people’s opinions in the poster. I’ve also used a lighter font so that it could be easier to read and understand. But it is still part of the channel 4 font pack.

Advert 3

This design focuses more on the environmental issues that people and the HS2 have to deal with. When taking this shot when filming for the documentary we knew that a lot of environment was going to be destroyed to make way for the HS2. So, we wanted to capture quite a lot of footage like this to get that information across to the audience. We also started expanding the colour scheme of the channel 4 logo and the title box. We kept the font white as I feel that it stands out more within the red colour scheme. Furthermore, we decided to add a smart headline in this design 'Going, Going, Gone'. This headline refers to the environment that is going to be destroyed and uses alteration to create something catchy so it stays in the reader's mind.

We decided to use third advert as our final product. Although it has no immediate connection to the HS2 project as there is sign of a train station or a train, we believe that environment is going to massively affected by HS2 and many habitats will be destroyed. Therefore we thought this advertisement would best fit our main project and create synergy between the pieces.

Here are the final products.