Water Aid advert comparison

Compare how audiences are positioned by the representations in this WaterAid advertisement and the WaterAid advertisement you have studied.(30 marks)

The two WaterAid adverts, "Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day" and "No choice Jean" show two different aspects of charity advertising and ways in which to get the target audience to donate to the charity. The advertisement "No choice Jean"  produced in 2013, shows a young boy with dirty water. The advert shows the audience how water could potentially change their lives. In the "Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day", produced in 2016, shows the aftermath of WaterAid helping them, and what a big difference they have made to Claudia and her communities life.

The beginning of the advertisement shows a western country, most likely Britain due to the miserable weather. Within the shot the camera first focuses on a radio using diegetic sound, of a women giving a weather forecast, however there is change in focus and the camera focuses on the background which is a window. The radio is put into a blur, and the audience can only focus on the rain droplets dropping on to the window. Before the scene changes onto Africa, there is a non- diegetic sound, which sounds like crickets in a field, which create a smooth transition to the setting in which Claudia is in, a field.  within the advert there is a large range of close up shots and mid shots. there is a close up shot of Claudia's shoes, which also allows the audience to see the dirt path, which can tell the audience that they are not in the Uk, there are in a "third world country". There is anticipation before seeing Claudia's actual face. this can be shown through the various shots before actually the meeting the character. When we finally see Claudia, it is a extreme close up of her, this can convey her ethnicity, as well as the setting bit more. The first long shot used could also potentially be used as an establishing shot, as it shows Claudia in the setting as well. The setting is a field which has a dirt path through it. From the mise-en-scene, we can tell that she is in Africa. As well as this we can also tell that she is going to collect water as she is carrying an empty bucket. This theory that allows us to understand something within its context is reception theory by Stuart hall. This can show how whenever we see a black child, within this setting and is holding a bucket we can only assume they are going to get water.


Within the advertisement "Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day" there is a clear role between the two genders, as there is a group of ladies who walk past Claudia with buckets on their head, and a group of men working in the filed to bring in the crops. This can show the stereotypical roles of women and men within the African villages. The mise-en-scene of the dry, dead looking land can show the weather conditions and can represent how much rain water the people get within Claudia's community. The use of the close/mid shots of the men and women can show what Claudia is looking at and can represent how much the people within this community have to work, in comparison to the easy life that we have in the western reiterating binary opposites. In the "No choice Jean" water aid advert the same shots are used to portray the two genders. The advertisement shows  women carrying clay pots on their head, presumably filled with water, and then men constructing water pumps.
The mentioning of the lyric "sunshine on a rainy day" shows how happy people are when they have clean water. There is a instant  juxtaposition of when the mentioning of water. They also match the lyric when she sings, "drip, drip, drip." This conveys the happiness in which a simple and everyday thing such as water can benefit and make their lives a whole lot easier. Within the "No Choice Jean" there is a turning point in the music, this can show the impact of having water, much like the "Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day".