Shelter advertisement video

 

For my supercurricular, I chose to look at and analyse the Shelter 2023 winter and Christmas advert, posted on their YouTube channel. Within this advert, it represents what life can be like for those who are living homeless, particularly what other children wish for at times like Christmas aren’t necessarily what everyone can access, because being homeless means that they are wishing for a stable home and a roof over their hand, when most children would wish for toys, dolls or books. This is a poignant message which is constantly referred to throughout the whole advert, as it pictures a young girl of primary school age wishing for a new home when she overhears that ‘if you are as good as gold you can get anything you wish for’, and so starts to carry out various kind behaviours, in the hope that she can be living in a stable home in time for Christmas. However the naivity represented by the fact that we know being good won’t necessarily get the young girl a house, makes us more willing to donate because the audience want to make her wish come true, and help those in need.

This emphasises that young and innocent children are having to face the difficulties of homelessness, and makes the audience more willing to donate, because of wanting to help the youth when they are struggling, particularly because society has constructed the idea that children are a lot more vulnerable than adults, and so deserve to be helped. By using a young girl also makes it more relatable for the audience, as everyone watching will have experienced being the same age as the girl in the advert, and so can picture what it would have been like themselves at that age, to be experiencing homelessness, and this therefore makes the message even stronger, and encourages them to donate. 

Like most of their other adverts, they use simple and bold statements at the end of the advertisement, to show the facts of what is happening in reality. For example they have said in this advert that ‘over 131,000 do’ experience homelessness. By using this as a bold statement at the end of the advert shows how it is fact that this is really happening, and that people like the family in the advert do really need the help and support given by donations. After this fact, they have pictured their logo at the very end, with ‘donate today’ below it. They use an imperative of ‘donate’ which is telling the audience to do it, making them feel obliged. However, the audience are more likely by this point in the advert to want to donate, as they will have seen previously in the advert how it can negatively impact the lives of many young children and their families. 

This advert reflects altruism as it highlights a concern for the well being of others, due to the impacts of homelessness. They reflect altruism by making the situation as relatable as possible for the audience, by picturing them in locations like a post office, school, field, and shop, which are various different areas the audience will have been in, the only difference being that they experience homelessness or poor housing conditions, and the members of the audience don’t. Therefore, by making the relatability of the advert as high as possible, makes it evident that in reality, there isn’t any difference between the audience and the people in the advert. Therefore, the audience would feel more highly encouraged to donate because they want to help people who are similar to them, and have a family to run around Christmas time.