LO1 - Analysing an advertising campaign (second draft)

This advertising campaign was created  to advertise the film "Suicide Squad" and various pieces of merchandise associated with it.


 The film will be aiming of a target audience of teenagers aged around 15 - 18, these people might not have a large spending power and so would only be able to afford to attend the cinema rarely and most likely choose to see the big blockbusters, these are the people that fit the lifestyle of C1, C2 and B, this is because of how the film tries to appeal to the widest audience as possible, as opposed to a small niche crowd.


 The advertising for this product is often very colourful and tries to incorporate humour into it, this is partly due to the product being an adaptation of  comic book series and so this style makes sense for the product, however it could also be related to how the previous film in the franchise that was released by the studio was criticized for having an overly serious tone; therefore the studio wanted to make audiences believe that this film wouldn't have that problem. The film also tries to show off the cast it has as much as possible, giving as it is an ensemble film about a team, the film created many posters for individual characters which are all variations on the same art style. The film also released with alongside an album which featured original songs by famous artists, this would be to create a new line of revenue whilst also offer advertising in different ways, as each artist would be advertising the film to their fans, thereby attracting a wider audience.


 The advertising campaign uses mainly posters and billboards. But unlike other campaigns where there would only be a few different types of these, Suicide squad features an extremely large variety of poster designs, this can be credited to the large cast of the film, as well as the cartoony art style of the posters, which would allow graphic designers more freedom to create a larger amount of images that all fit the same style, without getting repetitive.


 One of the main issues with the campaign comes for the title of the film: the use of the word suicide in a film that is being marketed so widely and will have an effect on children could cause anger from parents and people who don't see it as an appropriate title. However, seeing as the film is being adapted from material of the same name, any issues would have been dealt with during the comics run, which started decades before pre production on the film had even started.


 The ASA (advertising standards agency) will have reviewed all of the advertisements before they ill be released so that they follow the rules that make them suitable for the public, however this will only be applicable to great Britain, whilst the film's wide international audience, will mean that some different types of adverts will be released in some countries that weren't allowed here (and vice-versa).