Public service adverts often tend to aim to raise awareness of a certain issue, affect public attitudes and potentially help the victims to take action.
The adverts used messages that were practically saying, whatever happens, all cases can be prevented. The 3 adverts have used techniques such as shock and surrealism (Cyber Bullying), solution to problem and shock (Abuse advert) and for the NHS advert, they used surrealism (child smoking a crayon with smoke coming out of it) guilt and shock. All 3 had a lot of conventions between them. Some of which were:
Voice-over
A clear, effective message
Action line (NHS)
Logo (Cyber bullying and NHS)
All 3 adverts were around about 30 seconds long in duration
Clear narrative (NHS and Cyber bullying)
And all of them included music.
A successful medium product can be made out of any of these public service adverts by including conventions such as having a voice-over, a clear and effective message, making it 30 seconds in duration and including a clear narrative.
Some lines of appeal that I will include in my advert would be: Shock, surrealism, solution to problem and fear.
All 3 of these adverts had different target audiences.
Cyber bulling advert: For Cyber bullying, it is aimed towards social networking users aged from 12 to 19 whose hobbies include tweeting and talking to friends on other social networking websites. The message of this advert is that you can talk to anyone at all if you are being physically and/or emotionally bullied. The mise en scene within this advert is a girl's bedroom that endures close-ups of a picture of herself with her mum. This could connote that she could speak to her but decided that she would rather keep it a secret.
NHS Smoking advert: In the NHS Smoking advert, the targeted audience would be adults with children which like to mirror their parents in what they do, such as smoking. The message of this advert is that children would copy anything that their parents do, including pretending to smoke which would probably encourage the children to smoke in the future. The mise en scene in this advert is in various houses where parents smoke which could one day encourage their kids to smoke when they are older. This could also connote that when one of the parents was throwing their cigarette into the toy truck, the child could of picked up and played with the truck aswell as the cigarette.
Abuse advert: For the Abuse advert, the primary targeted audience was 14-18 year old females whose hobbies are going out with friends and their boyfriend. The secondary target audience is 14-17 year old males that also like to go out with their friends but also get harassed by their girlfriends. The message of this advert is to be strong and overcome any problems that you have with the people that you love. The mise en scene is once again in a girl's bedroom which could suggest that her boyfriend has things to play with such as objects to her his girlfriend with. These could be objects such as a photo frame or a desk. The mise en scene could also connote that she 'loves' her boyfriend due to the way that she is looking at him in the picture below.
Credit Card Fraud - 28% Phone & Utilities Fraud - 19% Bank Fraud - 18% Employment Fraud - 13% Government Document & Benefits Fraud - 8% Loan Fraud - 6% Attempted Fraud - 6% Other (Such as Social networking and communication websites) - 22%
In 34% of the cases, someone obtained credit card info, forged a card in their name and used it to make purchases.
11% lost or had their wallet/purse stolen, using the identity to create a new identity for themselves.
The risk of your identity being stolen has become such a reality, that many of the major insurance companies are now including "Identity Theft Insurance" protection in the insurance policies for renters and homeowners.
You are vulnerable not only when your wallet, important papers and credit cards are stolen, but you Must also protect the areas that lead
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United Kingdom and America.
The number of identity theft incidents has reached 9.9 million a year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
It takes the average victim an estimated $500 and 30 hours to resolve each identity theft crime.
Studies have shown that it’s becoming more common for the ones stealing your identity to be those closest to you. One study found 32% of identity theft victims discovered a family member or relative was responsible for stealing their identity. That same study found 18% were victimized by a friend, neighbor or in-home employee.
Only 28% of identity theft cases involve credit or financial fraud. Phone, utility, bank and employment fraud make up another 50% of cases.
Ø Watch for shoulder-surfers. When entering a PIN number or a credit card number in an ATM machine, at a phone booth, or even on a computer at work, be aware of who is nearby and make sure nobody is peering over your shoulder to make a note of the keys you’re pressing.
Ø Require photo ID verification. Rather than signing the backs of your credit cards, you can write “See Photo ID”. In many cases, store clerks don’t even look at the signature block on the credit card, and a thief could just as easily use your credit card to make online or telephone purchases which don’t require signature verification, but for those rare cases where they do actually verify the signature, you may get some added security by directing them to also make sure you match the picture on the photo ID.
Ø Shred everything. One of the ways that would-be identity thieves acquire information is through “dumpster-diving”, aka trash-picking. If you are throwing out bills and credit card statements, old credit card or ATM receipts, medical statements or even junk-mail solicitations for credit cards and mortgages, you may be leaving too much information lying about. Buy a personal shredder and shred all papers with PII on them before disposing of them.
Ø Be diligent about checking statements.This actually has two benefits. First, if you are diligent about checking your bank and credit statements each month, you will be aware if one of them doesn’t arrive and that can alert you that perhaps someone stole it from your mailbox or while it was in transit. Second, you can ensure that the charges, purchases or other entries on the statement are legitimate and match up with your records so that you can quickly identify and address any suspicious activity.
Ø Pay your bills at the post office.Never leave your paid bills in your mailbox to be sent out. A thief who raids your mailbox would be able to acquire a slew of critical information in one envelope- your name, address, credit account number, your bank information including the routing number and account number from the bottom of the check, and a copy of your signature from your check for forgery purposes just for starters. Drop your bills at the post office or at least in an official U.S. Postal Service drop box to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Link to above facts and figures: http://netsecurity.about.com/od/newsandeditorial1/a/aaidenttheft_2.htm
3 Websites that promote awareness about Identity Theft
In my advert, I shall include some facts and statistics to make my advert seem more believable and realistic due to the amount of figure that would be included. I would also include some of the tips from my research in my work because I thought that they were quite good to use as the topic is Identity Theft.