Cystic Fibrosis Mall Ad
At the Oakville Place mall there is an ad for cystic fibrosis played on the TVs in the food court. I managed to find the ad on Youtube where it has sound. If you play the video without the sound on, you get the same effect as if you were in the food court seeing this video because in the mall the TVs do not play sound.
When viewing this commercial for the first time, I had no idea what was going on. I had previously seen posters in the mall about cystic fibrosis so I had an estimated guess about what the ad was. For the viewers who have not seen a cystic fibrosis ad before, whether it be in the mall or in general, this commercial is very confusing until the end where it says "help fight cystic fibrosis." Viewing a young child in water, floating, then appears to be the child drowning, then coming back up for air is a very confusing image to grasp.
This media chosen for this ad is not appropriate for the brand or the message. For people who do not know what cystic fibrosis is or how it effects people would have no understanding of the disease from viewing this in the mall. This makes the message ineffective and inappropriate. It also doesn't help the brand (cystic fibrosis foundation) doesn't tell people about the disease and how to help without the voice over. When choosing the appropriate media for this ad, they should have chosen TV ads for in home rather than out of home. The foundation should have viewed this message without the sound to see how it would effect people seeing it in the mall. Though it was a good choice in media because there is a high traffic volume in the Oakville Place food court it was not appropriate to have it without the sound.
Because of the lack of sound in the video, the video also becomes unmemorable. Viewers will look at the images and not think about it because it is lacking the emotion that is portrayed by the child with the voice. It is much more dramatic and understandable when the sound is played. People may watch the video and not care about what is happening which is the point in the ad, to make people care about helping people with cystic fibrosis.
As far as an unintended audience is concerned, with no sound there really isn't an unintended audience. It is not going to be disturbing to young children because they may not pay attention to the TVs without audio and older people also may not pay too much attention to it because on one screen is the commercial and on the other screen right beside it is the news. An older audience would most likely be paying attention to the news compared to the ad which they won't understand.
Overall the commercial with the media chosen is not effective at all. Had this commercial been seen on TVs in the home with the audio it would be much more effective. The audience would be able to hear the child talking about the disease and how to help compared to the images of a child possibly drowning but the audience is not sure what is happening.
"YouTube - Drowning on the Inside." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Apr.-May 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQajfUGWcIo&feature=related>.
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