SMILE Campaign Work

 SMILE Campaign

About Client/Task:

The client for this project is a non-profit organisation called ‘Happy Foundations’; they are a movement of people trying to build a happier society by encouraging positive changes in people’s lives, homes, workplace and community.

Them being a non-profit organisation means that there is no budget for this project.

My objective is to produce a TV and print advert which will make people smile/happy. My target audience is my own community, and I have to help motivate them to smile and help reduce stress and improve mental health. Trying to produce a TV and print advert that makes people smile is going to be difficult as everyone has different things that make them smile; while something might make one person smile, another person might not share that same joy.

Benefits of smiling:

• Researchers at the University of Kansas published findings that smiling helps reduce the body's response to stress and lower the heart rate in tense situations.

• Science has found that smiling, even if you're in a bad mood, can boost your mood because it sends signals to your brain that tell it you're actually happy.

• Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural painkillers, and serotonin. Not only do these natural chemicals elevate your mood, but they also relax your body and reduce physical pain.

• A WebMD study states that laughing and smiling increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, which improves your resistance to illness.

• Smiling can lower your blood pressure.

Target Audience Research:

Since my target audience is my own community, i need to do some primary research into it to find out how to make this print advert appeal to them. In terms of psychographics, my target audience there are called strugglers. They tend to feel alienated and disorganised, they also tend to be lower demographics and have few resources beyond physical skill. They seek escape. My goal is to help them feel less alienated in society by helping to improve their mental health. I also aim to help mainstreamers. They tend to be conventional and conformists of today's society. They seek security. I want to help reassure them that they are allowed to stray from the mainstream and do their own thing, as long as they’re happy doing what they are doing. In terms of social grade, my target audience are probably C2, D or E; people who may struggle and stress about work and things alike. From my research, I've found that women tend to deal with stress way more than men, and that Gen-Z adults stress more than any other age groups. With me being female, I am able to relate and connect with other women and their struggle with stress, however connecting with Gen-Z adults about stress will be more difficult considering I am not an adult and most Gen-Z adults probably experience stress in a different way than I do (like with their jobs, bills and so on).

Similar Organisation Research:

While doing research, I was able to find a similar organisation to Happy Foundations called Action for Happiness, who are all about encouraging the shift to a happier society. Their aim is to bring people together who believe that things can be better and encourage them to do more to increase the well-being of others. Similarly, my task is to produce a creative outcome that will help people smile and feel happy (increase their well-being). Already we can see that these two organisations have very similar goals, if not the same, the only difference is their approach to reach this goal. Action for Happiness have events and groups people can join, and even provide tool kits for schools, while Happy Foundations aim to produce TV and Print adverts.

Existing Print Ad Analysis:

On the right, there are three print adverts from the same organisation, Shelter. From what I can see, their goal is to persuade people facing housing problems to seek advice earlier. As you can see in the small white sans serif font, there is repetition of the phrase “we can help” to emphasize to the viewer that they are not alone and there is no shame in needing help from others. Speaking of repetition, all three people in the ads have similar facial expressions. The red, bold, capitalized sans serif font gains the attention of the viewer and tells the fears of the people in the ad. The personal pronouns (we, he and I) make the advert more personal and appealing, it can relate to the viewer. The dark background suggests the feeling of being alone/isolated, which furthers the feeling of fear and depression the text and facial expressions the people give off. There is a range of gender and age to show that this issue could affect anyone. From analyzing these adverts, i will most likely choose to take a different approach than they did; my goal is to make people smile, so if i went with a similar style to these print adverts, i would not reach my goal as these ads are depressing and sad to see. Instead, I’ll make the subject of the print advert an object or animal, rather than a person, with a clear/fun background. I will however take the idea of having a big, bold, capitalized font in order to catch people’s attention.

Ideas for my Print Advert:

For my print advert, I want to make something that will make people smile. So, I had the idea to make either an object or an animal like a dog the subject of the advert. I had the idea of making an A4 landscape print advert with a dog (or any animal) on the right of the image and on the left is a tagline which encourages people to smile more. I also had the idea of creating a portrait advert with the subject of the image at the bottom and the tagline at the top. For the tagline, I would like to go with a bold, capitalized sans serif font so that it stands out from the background and is easy for the viewer to read and see. Under the tagline, I could put the name of the organization in a smaller serif font, with the same colour so that the viewer can see it too. The text will have to stand out from the background, so if the background were blue, the text would probably be white, if the background were white, the text would be black, and so on. I don’t really have a particular colour scheme in mind other than something bright and fun, but for the tagline, i could look for something motivational or something that could make someone smile, like encouraging them to do the things they enjoy.

Pre-Production Plan:

A pre production plan will help me get a basic idea of what i need to do for my project before i actually do it, saving me some time trying to come up with an idea on the spot.

Outline: My client wants me to create a print advert which makes people smile and feel happy, so i should probably have the tagline and subject of image be something positive rather than negative. Preferably i want the subject of the image to be an animal or object rather than person (this is just personal preference). I need to take the image myself, so I'll use my phone. I could use my own pets or objects around my house as the subject of the image.

Production Diary:

23/11/2020

WWW: Started doing basic research about smiling and other existing print adverts.

EBI: Can’t think of anything better i could have done.

NEXT: Finish writing research and start planning.

25/11/2020

WWW: Did some more research and finished it.

EBI: I would have liked to have done a little more and started planning.

NEXT: Analyse existing products and start planning

07/12/2020

WWW: Started planning my print advert.

EBI: Nothing I can think of.

NEXT: Finish planning and start production.

28/01/2021

WWW: Finished planning and started production of print advert.

EBI: Nothing.

NEXT: Finish the product.

28/01/2021

WWW: Finished the final product and now onto evaluation.

EBI: Nothing.

NEXT: Finish evaluation.

11/02/2021

Finished the evaluation.

END OF DIARY.

Print Advert Process:

Instead of just sticking to one idea, i experimented with a whole bunch of different ones so once i had the images i could decide which one i liked best and so i wasn’t limited to just one idea. On the right you can see a screenshot of my phone gallery of all the photos I took for this project. First, I took the frog photos with the idea of putting a positive tagline above/next to a cute animal or object, with the hopes of making the viewer smile when seeing it. I took the dog ones with the idea of making some sort of narrative about if you feel that your mental health is slipping and you’re holding on by a thread, there’s no shame in getting help- the dog representing the slipping mental health and the branch it’s holding onto being it’s only support. The mushroom with either the Pikachu or Poison Ivy figure share the same concept, i was just trying to see which figure looked better for the image; i was thinking of making another narrative on how you (the viewer) may think the world is against you and therefore may not try to seek help for your problems out of fear of being ridiculed/rejected when in reality there are people out there who are willing to help and listen to you. The last 2 images I decided to take a photo of a Harely Quinn figurine inside of a plastic dome; for this I wanted to say something about how you may feel trapped in your own mind. I took all of these images on my phone, and for lighting I used a light up mirror I had. Most of the images were taken at both a portrait and landscape angle, save for the frog and Harley Quinn figure images, which were taken exclusively at a portrait angle. I tried taking these images at both a portrait and landscape orientation so that I had a little bit more choices when deciding what I liked better and what made editing easier. With portrait images, i can have the main object of the image at the bottom while having text at the top, with landscape images, i can have the main object of the image on the right or left side while the text is on the opposite side of the main object.

Out of all of these images I took, I decided to pick one of the frog images. I picked this specific one because after much consideration, I decided it was the best looking one. The sky in the background is nice and clear, the sun is hitting the frog in a way that makes its wool look soft- even giving it a warm glow. My hand isn’t in the way of the frog’s legs like it was in other images, and there is more than enough space above the frog for there to be clear text. In my final product, I didn't have to manipulate anything in the image at all- no filters or anything- because to me, the image was already perfect.

In regards to the other photos, all of them weren’t up to my standards and therefore couldn’t be used for various reasons. One is that the lighting was too dark or was only hitting certain spots, leaving other spots dark and barely visible. Two is that with the lack of resources at my home, I had to improvise and make do with what I had which resulted in some sets looking like they were made by toddlers and were just overall unsightly.

Even if the other images were up to standards, I probably wouldn’t have used them regardless. The aim of this print ad is to put a smile on people’s faces and make them feel happy, not remind them of the problems they have to face in life- which would be rather unpleasant. Animals- specifically plush animals- can be very comforting, so if you were to pair an image of a plush animal with a positive tagline/quote, wouldn’t that make you feel just a little bit more positive?