Day 054 - 24 Nov 94 - Page 14
1 A. OK.
2
3 MS. STEEL: Do you just want to give a bit of background about
4 the types of techniques that are employed and also used by
5 McDonald's?
6 A. Yes. I looked at the kinds of techniques that
7 I considered the advertisements were employing. Other
8 researchers who have looked at this have tended to
9 categorise the techniques into themes and then executional
10 techniques. For example, the executional techniques would
11 be things like animation, humour, fantasy, the use of
12 cartoons or characters; whereas some of the themes are
13 perhaps more nebulous such as the mastery of skills, being
14 socially accepted and the desire to have possessions. The
15 McDonald's adverts that I looked at used, I felt, all of
16 these techniques.
17
18 I think this is useful to look at some of these, because it
19 is important when considering advertisements to recognise
20 that a great deal of skill, imagination, a great deal of
21 money goes into their production. They are something that
22 are created with a great deal of attention, care and
23 background research. To be effective and to be effective
24 from an advertisers' point of view is to encourage the
25 viewer to wish to purchase the product.
26
27 Q. So, the advertisers are not just sticking together any old
28 clips of film and hoping that something is going to work;
29 they have a more ---
30 A. Certainly not, no.
31
32 Q. -- detailed approach?
33 A. Indeed, indeed. And whilst advertising is popular --
34 it is known to be popular with children as well as with
35 adults -- it is important to look beyond the instant
36 reaction of many people to advertisements to understand the
37 other, perhaps, more subtle messages that advertising is
38 trying to put across as well.
39
40 Q. Do you want to go into the different themes that you have
41 found being used in McDonald's advertisements?
42 A. Yes. One of the themes which some McDonald's
43 advertisements use is what can be termed mastery of skills
44 which is important to children. Children can often feel as
45 children they are not given enough say in the world, that
46 perhaps it is adults who have all the say in the world.
47 Children like to be appreciated for their skills. This can
48 also come out in advertisements where children get one over
49 on adults, so to speak.
50
51 There are a couple of advertisements where I think
52 McDonald's use this, though neither of them were on the
53 tapes that I looked at; one I have heard reference to,
54 though it is a US advertisement and I have not seen it,
55 though, apparently, it was so successful that a record was
56 made of it.
57
58 Q. Can you just explain what that advertisement did?
59 A. Yes.
60
