Pubic Service Announcement for the Danish market

Transcription

1 Pubic Service Announcement for the Danish market An investigation of 4 foreign PSA's and their applicability on the danish audience Joris Jonas Wild Parrish Turner Sabrina Solander Sørensen Thomas Køster Madsen Supervisor: Henrik Juel Communication Bachelor Module, Spring 2013, Roskilde University 1

2 Abstract Projektet tager udgangspunkt I fire public service announcement (PSA) videoer fra USA og Storbritannien, som vil blive analyseret ved brug af Roman Jakobsons seks funktioner og de tre appel-former, Ethos, Logos og Pathos. Dernæst vil der blive konstrueret en spørgeundersøgelse som omhandler de fire videoer og hvad folk synes om dem. Dette skal, sammen med Jan Krag Jacobsens 24 questions for planned communication hjælpe os med at sammensætte en kommunikations plan for hvordan en lignende PSA til det danske marked kunne se ud i forhold til den feedback vi har modtaget fra spørgeundersøgelsen. Ydermere vil der også gives et bud på hvilket omfang de udenlandske PSAer vil kunne benyttes på det danske marked, igen baseret på feedbacken. 2

3 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction Problem Definition Delimitation The Toolbox Three Modes of Persuasion Jakobson s Six Basic Functions Questions for Planned Communication Ad Analysis It s Like They re Smoking Stop Smoking Ad The Magical Amount Truth Empirical Data Considerations for Empirical Data Creating the Survey Feedback Analysis Communication Plan Sender Target Group Medium Legal Problems Ethical Problems Discussion Conclusion 27 3

4 1.0 Introduction Public Service Announcements, or PSAs, are advertisements aimed at spreading public awareness of an issue or cause. These kinds of campaigns are often made to push for public health issues or other societal issues. They are often posters in cities or video commercials on TV. PSA campaigns are very common in the United States, but seem to be less so in Denmark, based on our research on the subject. Video PSAs seem to be especially rare. When creating a PSA, one must look at the audience first. The audience will greatly influence the way in which a message must be sent out. Cultural context can be especially important to look at. Culture would take a part in whether a message could be received in a positive or negative way (SmallBizConnect). We will be looking at four English language PSAs and analysing them for their content by using Roman Jakobson's six basic functions and the three modes of persuasion as analytical tools. We will then survey a number of Danish young adults to see how they receive the PSAs. This will enable us to get a rough handle on some of the cultural differences, by way of deduction, which must be kept in mind when making a communication plan for our own Danish PSA. The discussion of this project will be a reflection on the empirical data, both in terms of method and usefulness. The conclusion will sum up the major points of the report and answer the problem definition. When looking at what issue our PSA should focus on, we examined a number of different issues, ranging from domestic abuse to teaching tolerance. We finally chose to look at some British and American anti-smoking PSAs. They are an extremely prevalent kind of PSA in the English-speaking market. We were unable to find hardly any Danish anti-smoking PSAs. Smoking is a very prevalent phenomenon in Denmark and can be considered a public health issue. According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization in 2003, 28% of the population of Denmark was daily smokers compared to 17% in the United States (Nationmaster). The numbers have changed some since then, but a large gap still remains, largely due to the health campaigns in the USA (Krisberg, 2005). We discussed looking at other issues which might also have campaigns, but most of the other issues did not have the same prolific options to look at. Other issues also were not as relevant to the Danish market as smoking. 4

5 There are a number of cultural differences between the United States and Denmark which may make certain strategies more or less effective. Our aim would be to find out how Danish people react to the videos we present to them, and have them give us feedback through an online survey. Based on the results, we would aim to create a communication plan for a potential Danish antismoking PSA campaign. 1.1 Problem definition Based on audience testing, to what extent are American or English quit smoking video PSAs applicable to the Danish market, if at all? And what could a potential communication plan for a similar video PSA look like if it had to be tailor made to the Danish audience and based on aforementioned testing? 1.2 Delimitation When looking at campaigns and PSAs, we started out looking at various issues regarding abuse and health but ended with focusing on smoking as this topic has a big target group. When dealing with the question how to do the interviews, we decided not to do personal interviews as we were afraid that these would result in less structured conversations opposed to written surveys containing clear questions. Also, we would have had to deal with the transcription of the recorded interviews which would have been very time consuming. Doing this project we focus on developing a hypothetical communication plan and therefore we do not aim to create a product which is meant to be realized but rather we intend to do a study which could be used as a tool to guide when doing a Danish PSA. 2.0 The Toolbox The toolbox is the section that concerns itself with presenting the theories and tools that we will be using for our analyses, both the content analysis of the 'text' within the four ad videos that we 5

6 have chosen for this project, but also for the feedback analysis. Therefore, the viewer must see these theoretical terms from an analytical standpoint, as that is how they will be applied in this project, where we indicate and interpret the different tools and functions in every specific video ad through deduction. The tools that we will be presenting are the three modes of persuasion, Roman Jakobson's six basic functions of communication, and lastly Jan Krag Jacobsen's '24 questions for planned communications'. The latter will be used for the creation of the communication plan, as it poses questions that are good to keep in mind when we will be making our own plan for a hypothetical PSA. The tools presented by Krag Jacobsen are elements which we find important to consider when working with planned communication and they will serve as a framework to structure the results of the survey evaluation and to then transform them in to the communication plan. Doing this we take departure in the following formula: Someone says something in a certain way to somebody with a certain effect Based on this formula combined with the results of the survey evaluation, we can now ask questions regarding what it says, how it is said, to whom it is sent, and with what intended effect. (Krag Jacobsen, 2003; 15) 2.1 Three modes of persuasion The three modes of persuasion, or, as some people refer to them, the three appeal forms, consist of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. These three modes stem from Ancient Greek rhetoric and were first introduced by Aristotle. Back then, they were meant to be tools in order for one to become a more persuasive speaker, but today they can be applied to practically any form of communication (Dlugan, 2010), which is why the three modes are very applicable to video ads like the ones we have chosen, as they try to persuade the viewer to take a stance on an issue, which, in this particular case, is smoking. According to Aristotle's original theory, Ethos, Logos, and Pathos need to be taking into consideration when developing a speech in order to give out a clear message to the audience. But, in our case, we are not looking at it from a speaker s point of view but from a sender s in regards to advertisement for preventing smoking or trying to persuade smokers to quit smoking. 6

7 But before we can put the three modes of persuasion to use, we must of course first understand the terms, but in the sense of communication in general, rather than exclusively from a rhetorical standpoint. Ethos is when the sender is trying to create credibility or trustworthiness towards itself from the receivers of a communicative message or product. Here the sender tries to build enough credibility to persuade the audience to buy into his or her message (Dlugan, 2010). Pathos is the mode that tries to create relation through use of emotions. If a sender wishes to send out a message which causes affect, it has to provoke some emotions within the audience. This most certainly happens when the audience can relate to the message. The message needs to have an effect on the audience, in our case a smoking advertisement. Smokers can easily relate to it and non-smokers would probably prevent themselves or people around them not to smoke. It is something that is relevant for them and a problem which they are surrounded by in their everyday life. Logos is the argument with which you, a sender, presents a message, ensuring that the message is logical and understandable. Logos 'wants' the sender to pose logical arguments that make sense for the audience, thus trying to persuade through the use of reason. 2.2 Jakobson s six basic functions The idea of using Jakobsons theory of the six basic functions in this project is to apply it in a reinterpreted form in order to analyze complex communicative functions in the chosen videos. This way of using the theory allows us to analyze the characteristic dynamic features of media products on various levels. In this chapter we will quickly explain the six functions that Jakobson's presents in his theory. These functions are: The Referential function: The referential function deals with the very subject of a media product, which means what the product is about, and how this information is given. This can be the weather-forecast in a news program, for example. 7

8 The Emotive function: The emotive function deals with the attitude or nature of the sender. It is what the text reveals about the author, or sender, and his attitude to what is being said or shown. This can be indicated not only by what is being said but also by the mood, style, and staging (Juel, 2013) The Conative function: This function points out the elements of a message or statement that try to make the receiver of said message do something or act in a certain way. The receiver in this situation is not the actual receiver but the implicit one. The Phatic function: This function aims to describe features of a media product that show that the sender tries to establish a relation or social contact with the receiver or that simply show the contact between these two. A simple sentence like how are you, which is of phatic value as it in most cases, is used to establish a connection between two people instead of actually exchanging information about one s health condition. The meta-lingual, or, as proposed by Henrik Juel, the meta-communicative function: Here the media product explains something about itself in a way as it explains something about its communication as such. An example could be when the news anchor on TV says That was the news for tonight or he is warning the viewer about the violent pictures in a following clip (Juel, 2013). The poetic function: This function is to be noted when the message within a media product draws attention to itself, its style, form, and/or aesthetic features. Media products, which draw attention to their design trough editing, montage, and other aesthetic means, have poetic features. Relevant when analyzing a product on its poetic features are those who appear crafted, designed, shaped, stylized, and aestheticized, regardless if they positive or negative, good or bad. 2.3 '24 questions for planned communication' As the title of the book indicates, it contains a total of 24 questions which all can be used in order to help develop a communication plan or product. They are meant to be used freely, which means that not all of the questions from the book have to be used, while others can be added (Krag 8

9 Jacobsen, 2003; 17). In our case, questions like what is the budget of the production? are not relevant as we do not intend to realize a campaign but rather aim to do an investigation of a target group in order to optimize the efficiency of campaigns. Other questions are more self-evident such as what medium should be used? as we already have chosen to focus on video ads. We will use the questions in order to have a tool to work with the collected data to create a communication plan. The aim is to find out what product the target group of the Danish market responds to positively and in what ways a Danish campaign should be constructed in order to be effective. Questions from the book which we find relevant and which we will ask when developing our communication plan are: Who is the target group? What is the message? Who is the sender? What is the intended effect on the target group? What is the purpose of the intended effect on the target group? How is the target group affected by similar messages? How much should be included? Where, when, and how is the target group going to meet the product? How is the product going to be distributed? How should the media genre be used? What kinds of legal problems could occur? What kinds of ethical problems could occur? 9

10 3.0 Ad analysis This part of the report will contain the analyses of the four PSA videos that have been chosen for this specific project. In order to analyse these videos, the report will be putting the previously mentioned modes of persuasion into use together with Roman Jakobson's theory on the six basic functions within communication production. These analytical models have been chosen to gain an overview of some of the tools available to communication planners and how they can be put to use in the production of a communication process or product. It is relevant, however, to point out that the videos will not be analysed from the perspective of editorial or film-making processes. Rather, it will be the content of the video and how the message of the PSA is delivered that will be the focus within these analyses, or to give it a more academic term, a textual analysis. Once we have analysed the videos in order to find out what tools are being used in the different products, and we have the feedback from respondents of our survey, we will then be able to use this analysis as a sort of result-sheet and, thus, use them in combination with each other, to best come up with a communication plan for a hypothetical 'non-smoking' campaign tailored to the Danish market. This will be done using what we have learned through the theory described earlier in this report (reference to section), and through the tools obtained through the analysis, coupled with the feedback gathered from our empirical data (section 4). It is therefore very important to understand that this analysis is strictly preliminary, and should not be read as a final, standalone product. This analysis will be used to gain a grasp of how Jakobson's different functions are being reflected within the video PSAs, which will help our later analysis on the feedback that we have then received through our empirical data. Analysing these different functions in the ads will make it more apparent which functions work well and which don t, once we gather the feedback and start analysing it. The reason we find this aspect important is that once we have analysed the feedback gathered from out empirical data, we can then deduce what factors had the strongest effect on the participants of the online survey. 10

11 3.1 Analysis - It's Like They're Smoking In this PSA, children and second hand smoking is the approach of choice, in order to persuade the target group to not smoke. For this PSA, the target group is still smokers, however even more specifically it is smokers with children or smokers who are around children regularly in their everyday life. The video itself consists of several cuts between different children who tells the camera when and where they are smoking or how much they smoke every day. So the children here remind parents about how second-hand smoking has an influence on children, and how 'It's like they're (the children) smoking', which is also the name of the PSA. This is supported by a message at the end of the video, stating how second-hand smoking is unhealthy for children and can hurt their lung growth and permanently damage lung functions. Moving to the content analysis and the factors that the PSA tries to play on, we will start by looking at the video through the modes of persuasion. In this short-video, the children are the main source of interaction, which could indicate that pathos and ethos are the two main modes in use within this video PSA. In the case of this product, the children are the messengers in the sense that they present the problem that the PSA: that second-hand smoking is bad for them. This is the reason that we argue for analysing ethos with the children as the sender. As kids are often considered very innocent, using them to send the message of this PSA gives the video a really strong ethos aspect, meaning that it comes across as very sweet, credible and trustworthy. The children are presented as if they were smokers, which in any person s mind should be seen as wrong for kids at such a young age. This leads us to the pathos element of the PSA. As smoking is very unhealthy for children and we all find it wrong for young kids to smoke, the video potentially makes the viewer of this video feel bad for passively forcing second-hand smoking on children, thus arguably bringing the emotion factor of pathos in to the mix. However, logos can also appear to be in effect in this PSA as the end of the video presents an adult female voice stating facts about how second-hand smoking is bad for children. These facts help solidify the argument stating that smoking is unhealthy for children to be around and should be prevented. 11

12 In regards to Jakobson's model of the six basic functions, the PSA mostly make use of three functions: the referential function, the emotive function and the conative function. These three are arguably very similar to the logos, ethos, and pathos, respectively, and, as such, this analysis will refrain from repeating itself, as the same arguments from the modes of persuasion can be used to argue why the three aforementioned functions are in play. However, we believe that the three other functions are also present within this video. In this case the meta-communicative part of the video is arguably the same as the referential part, as without it you cannot understand the context in which these children state their 'smoking-problems.' As for the phatic function, we believe that the majority of the target group, smokers with or around children, can feel a connection to this video, as they themselves spend a lot of time being with kids. Lastly, the way the PSA is constructed: to make it sound like the children are smoking. It is our interpretation that this use of the children fulfils the poetic function in Jakobson's model, as it can be seen as making the text 'playful.' So arguably, all of Jakobson's six functions are present in this PSA and so are all three modes of persuasion. Conclusively, this should make this video very persuasive to its audience; however this hypothesis will become more evident in the section of the report that is concerned with the feedback obtained from our empirical data (section 4.3). 3.2 Analysis - Stop smoking ad The ad stems from the United Kingdom. In the beginning, a middle aged man sits in an office. We join him as he is about to finish a conversation on the phone. When he finishes his phone call, he sits and ponders for 5 seconds, possibly thinking about whether he should go for a smoke or not. Suddenly, out of nowhere, we see a paper fly off the table, almost as if a trap was sprung, and a fish hook grabs the man by the mouth and starts dragging down the halls, and outside in the back of a building where he lights a cigarette. The back of the building is all in greyish tones, and the weather is bad. He is standing outside smoking all by his lonesome, while you can see he is feeling cold. Smoking the cigarette does not seem to cause any change in his somewhat depressing stance. In the end, a male voice is saying that the average smoker 'needs' approximately

13 cigarettes a year. Get unhooked is the message. Then a phone number is shown, which they ask you to dial in order to help you accomplish this. Of the three modes of persuasion, logos is the form of appeal that seems mainly present in this video, even though it is very brief. As mentioned in the end of the last paragraph, a male announcer voice, very briefly informs how many cigarettes a smoker smokes every year on average. One can argue that pathos is in play, as the fish hook grabbing the man by the mouth could be seen as invoking a feeling of pain in the audience, however a fish hook to the mouth is not something people can often empathize with, and, as such, the fish hook should arguably be seen as a metaphor for his addiction and need to go outside for a smoke, rather than to invoke a sense of emotion in the viewer. As we do not get any indication of who the sender of this message is, other than a phone number and a website address, we argue that ethos is not in use within this ad. As for Jakobson's six functions, the emotive function is not present at all which is obvious for the same reasons that ethos is present. The referential function and the meta-communicative function are almost the same in this video PSA, as the viewer does not become aware of the message until the announcement at the very end. This announcement grants clarity as to what the message is, and it gives information on how to accomplish getting 'unhooked,' thus performing the roles of the referential and the meta-communicative function. For the conative function, it seems very clear what the ad wants its audience to do. It tries to persuade the viewers to call the phone number or visit the website given in the video so that they can get help to quit smoking. It does not use any persuasion in the sense of diseases or other side effects which comes from smoking. Instead it leaves a lot to personal interpretation when it comes to the visual content of a video. Examples could be that the hook is indicative of the addiction that smoking causes, or that the office man standing outside all alone, could be seen as him being outside the group at work because he is the only smoker. The ad is also trying to establishing some kind of social contact, as it shows a fairly average man sitting in an office at his desk, or that is what we interpret from this. Most people can probably relate to this job in one way or another. 13

14 Lastly for the poetic function, the PSA video itself appears grey and employs very dull tones throughout. This, arguably, goes somewhat hand in hand with the sense of smoking. There is no use of colour, everything is just plain and simple. In the end the man is standing outside in the back of a building, alone feeling cold, only adding to the negative attitude the PSA is trying to establish towards smoking. The fish hook coupled with the slogan 'get unhooked' could also be an indication of Jakobson's poetic function within this ad. 3.3 Analysis - The Magical Amount The Magical Amount is an American PSA sponsored by Truth.com. It is an ad aimed at decreasing smoking. It begins with a fact about the nicotine levels in cigarettes. Two boys stand in a park, taking part in some sort of public demonstration. The boys discuss the fact when suddenly a cartoon unicorn appears and joins the boys conversation. The unicorn breaks into song. The boys start to sing along. They are joined by a number of other cartoon creatures, such as fairies and a faun. The song discusses how tobacco companies adjust nicotine levels to make cigarettes more addictive without making the users sick, or as it is referred to in the ad: The Magical Amount. The ad seemingly appears to play mostly on the appeal of Pathos. It re-contextualizes information which viewers may or may not have. Most smokers are aware of nicotine in their cigarettes, they may not be aware that companies have manipulated those levels. The video shows the shocked and confused faces of the crowd which can emulate the similar emotions which may be going through the viewer at that moment. The ad aims to make the viewer upset at the tobacco companies for manipulating their customers. It is our interpretation that the ad plays on this anger to get smokers to leave cigarettes behind. Its key is that the viewers will not want to feel like they are being forced into being smokers because the nicotine levels were tampered with. As the sender of this message itself is hard to pinpoint the mode of ethos is non-existent in this video. Logos plays a very small role in this ad, and is distributed by the boys at the beginning of the PSA when they are yelling that tobacco is unhealthy through their megaphone. Contrary to the two PSAs that we have already analysed the target audience for this video is all Americans. Instead of focusing on just smokers, they are working more at taking down the tobacco 14

15 industry in general. The focus is not on the effect of tobacco on a person, as is with most antismoking PSAs. The message is more focused on the idea of the tobacco industry as a corrupt business. By opening the target audience, they aim to create an anti-smoking society by converting both smokers and non-smokers. The speakers in the ad are not talking down to the audience, as often happens with PSA s. They are, instead, fellow conspirators trying to unite against an enemy, which is, in this case, the tobacco industry. They are using informal language to inform the audience of the situation. It does at times come off as patronizing. They are talking informally, but it can come off as being too informal. Some viewers may be made uncomfortable with the causal tone of the ad. The elements from Jakobson's model that are prevalent in this specific PSA are the referential function, the emotive function, and the poetic function. The referential function because it's talking about the tobacco companies trying to 'scam' people. The emotive function, as with pathos, tries to play on the feelings that the referential function try to spur in people: The audience might become angry with the tobacco industry if they feel cheated or scammed. Of the aforementioned functions it is the poetic one that comes into play with all the cartoon figures, making the ad more playful and possibly memorable, which can potentially prolong its effect. The fantasy aspect of the commercial adds a humorous element to the video. The humour contrasts with the harsh facts which are being presented. This contrast helps create the memorability factor for the campaign. It creates an uncomfortable playful tone. The video is designed to make people uncomfortable, which can be indicative of the video trying to motivate its' viewers to make a change. What is noteworthy is the lack of the conative function in this PSA. The video does not try to influence people to make a change or to protest against the tobacco companies, rather it only makes its audience aware of this conspiracy-theory that claims that the tobacco industry is scamming their customers through this 'magical amount' of nicotine in cigarettes. 3.4 Analysis - Truth 15

16 The video is basically about a recall of cigarettes on the American market which is planned by the American Tobacco Industry which has recognized the bad influence which cigarettes have on smokers. The speaker of the message within this ad is a typical American business man who speaks to the audience in a friendly yet authoritative way. He is speaking in the name of the American tobacco industry. The sender could be argued, represents the bad side effects of smoking, as the tobacco industry is responsible for the production of the harmful products. Robert Fitzgerald, who is the only person/actor present in the ad, talks to us, the receivers of his message, with a very serious attitude. The whole atmosphere which is very serious and dry and the clear absence of humour makes Mr. Fitzgerald's words seem ironic, which is finally shown to be correct in the end when the audience is presented with the message of 'April fools', confirming that all that was said during the video was indeed not true. Pathos is not at all present in this PSA, however ethos and especially logos is present in this ad. Ethos, because the tobacco industry is presented as being thoughtful towards its customers, even though we find out that in fact, they do not. Logos is the prevalent mode of persuasion used in this ad, as the audience is presented with a wide array of factual information throughout this video. The PSA is very informative, albeit in an ironic way, which means it fulfils the referential function very well. The irony in the video is based on the conflict between the nature of the sender and the content of his message. On one hand, he expresses that he, through his body language and the sound of his voice, is the type of person who does not fail. On the other hand he in his message admits that smoking is extremely dangerous and tells his customers that they should quit smoking, which we see as the conative function of the text. The sender does this in a very informative way and without the use of any phatic features. The receiver of the message is only addressed directly within the speech by the short greeting Hello and the ending statement:...if there are two things the tobacco industry cares about it is your health and your trust. Thank you. The ad is made in the style of serious press statements, as we know them from television, but at the end of the clip it becomes clear that it actually is of satiric nature. This is indicated when a 16

17 female voice says the words April Fools right after Mr. Fitzgerald has finished his speech. The ad uses serious elements and humour as elements of irony in order to tell the viewer that the American tobacco industry does not care about the health of its customers. It does this by showing us a stereotypical old American business man who is wearing a suit and who is very impersonal in his language. By only using one single shot and without any cuts the add increases the impression of Fitzgerald's speech being a real press statement. At the same time, there is not left any doubt about the fact that the speech is intended to be a sarcastic joke which points at the carelessness of the tobacco industry as we are told at the end of the video that his statement was an April Fools joke, and that the message is in fact the complete opposite of what is said in the video. In Jakobson's model, this would fill the meta-communicative function. Combining seriousness with irony works very well and through this the ad succeeds in telling us about the bad side effect that smoking has and about the fact that the tobacco industry does not care about the health of its customers. 4.0 Empirical data This section of the project will be about the empirical data that we have collected, the process of creating our own online survey, and the considerations behind this process. It will also contain an explanation of the questions and their relevancy for our project and an analysis of the feedback we obtained through our empirical data. 4.1 Considerations for empirical data There is a bunch of considerations and implications when deciding how to gather empirical data. First of all, do we want to conduct interviews, set up a focus group or make a survey that we can distribute online? 17

18 Our first intention was to make a focus group to get feedback on the ads that we decided to use. However, we realized that with our time constraint it could become difficult to get participants for such a focus group on such short notice, as they would all have to be available on the same day and time. Furthermore other challenges presented itself as we would also have to find a location where we could conduct the focus group interviews. Another disclaimer was to find the right mix of personalities in order for the focus group interviews to become fluent. By this, we mean that some people might take charge and their opinion might scare other participants from sharing their opinion. These challenges ultimately resulted in a switch in empirical method. Instead of setting up a focus group, we decided that making an online survey with commentary boxes to the questions was the better way to go for this project. This was because we felt it would be easier for our respondents to take minutes out of their calendar to watch the videos and answer the survey on their own, instead of having to spend several hours in a focus group. However, if we were to gain proper feedback from our online survey, we would have to come up with very specific and openended questions to get useful feedback, but we will discuss this more thoroughly later on in this section. Another reason for choosing to make an online survey is that the anonymity that goes with answering the survey at home could provide better answers, as there are no other people present who can potentially scrutinize our respondent s opinions. We also hoped that an online survey would allow us to have access to a larger number of respondents. Once we had settled for online survey as our empirical method of choice, we had to figure out how to enable our respondents to give qualitative answers rather than having a series of categorized answer, which would make the survey more quantitatively centered. In order to overcome this obstacle we decided that commentary boxes would be the solution, as this allows and encourages the respondents to give feedback that would be more useful for this project. The last, and possible biggest consideration was whether to make the survey in English or in Danish. We decided that we would make the survey in Danish as this would remove the possibility that language would become an issue for the respondents. Furthermore, we wanted to get feedback from Danish people only so that our analysis would better relate to our problem definition, which amplified our decision to make the surveys in Danish. 18

19 4.2 Creating the survey As we previously mentioned, we will now go more in depth with some of the considerations we made before making the online survey. Our first consideration was what platform we would use. Eventually, we decided on surveymonkey.com as we found it easy to set up and navigate, and it presented us with the tools we needed to make our survey easy to browse and very accessible. Secondly, we had to come up with questions. We knew that the questions had to be short, understandable, and very clear-cut ( This was to prevent the audience from becoming confused by long, winding sentences and to ensure that they understood the purpose of the question. The design tips that we acquired from also mention to refrain from asking 'double-barreled' questions, which is an either-or question. This is because these types of questions can sometimes be confusing both to the respondent and the sender, as answers sometimes cannot be interpreted. With that in mind our first two questions ended up being 'Hvad kunne du godt lide ved video'en? Uddyb venligst.' and 'Hvad kunne du ikke lide ved video'en? Uddyb venligst.' As we knew that we wanted the feedback to help us create our own communication plan, we decided that it would be important for us to find out whether or not any of the ads we had chosen would be recognised if encountered on television as an example, thus our next question became: 'Ville du lægge mærke til reklamen (f.eks. på TV)?' We found this relevant because if none of our chosen ads were recognisable, we would have to consider what other means we could apply in our own communication plan, in order to make our theoretical campaign recognised by the Danish market. As we had decided that we wanted to have four questions that would be repeated for each of the ads, we still needed one more question and we wanted it to relate to the message of the ads, as two of the ads talk about quitting smoking on a personal level and the two others talk about 'fighting' the tobacco companies. Therefore we posed the question 'Hvordan fik video'ens budskab dig til at føle? We found that this question also could relate to ethics of the message. Take, for example, the It's like they're smoking ad, where children are used to relay the message to the audience. Some people might find this ethically incorrect to use children for campaign purposes, so getting feedback on this matter would also be helpful for the creation of our own communication plan. Furthermore, we did want some feedback on which of the four ads our respondents felt had the strongest message and which video made the biggest impression so we came up with two comparative questions: 'Hvilken video synes du argumenterer 19

20 bedst for sit budskab?' and 'Hvilken video gjorde størst indtryk på dig? Hvorfor?' The purpose of these questions is to get straight up answers as to what ads the respondents considered the 'best,' thus giving us clear information on what tools we ourselves could potentially take advantage of in our own communication plan. The next thing we had to consider was whether to put the general background information questions before or after the actual important questions of the survey. We decided that it would be better to have the respondents answer all the background information at the end of the survey. This allows them to answer the core questions right of the bat, instead of 'distracting' them with, albeit easy, details that are somewhat irrelevant and not pertinent to the actual questionnaire ( The last thing we had to think about was the order in which the respondents had to view the videos. Ultimately, our decision was based on the fact that we did not want people to see the more poetic (in regards to Jakobson's functions) videos first, as we felt that would mean the respondents would potentially think that the less poetic videos were bad, and thus could lead them to be less responsive with some of the videos. For this, we did not have any specific theory to guide us, instead we decided this from personal opinion. The distribution of the survey was done with a hyperlink that we would send to people in our network, asking them to fill in the answers and submitting the form after completion. This allows us to access the responses we got on surveymonkey.com for easy review, which helps us in the process of analysing the results. 4.3 Feedback analysis. This part of the chapter will concern itself with analysing the feedback that we got from our online survey. First off, we would like to stress that we did not receive the amount of feedback that we anticipated, however, we believe that the feedback will still be helpful in our own production of a communication plan for a non-smoking campaign in Denmark, but it means that we cannot conclude anything general from our feedback. As we previously mention in this report, we will 20

21 instead use it the feedback received as a sort of checklist to find out what functions we should be using in our own communication plan. As with any gathering of own material, we had some pre-constructed ideas or hypotheses, if you will, about how we thought people were going to answer. However, after having received the feedback we found that our original hypotheses proved to be wrong. This is in no way a bad thing, as it just proves the importance of collecting empirical data and testing a product. In regards to the first ad that we showed people, the Stop Smoking ad, the respondents found that it was "[...] en sjov måde at vise afhængigheden af cigaretter" (#1) and "Det sjove twist af at rygeren er ligeså hjælpeløs som en fisk" (#5). Furthermore, other respondents liked the surprise or shock element that the fish hook provides in the ad and how it makes the video more dramatic. According to our earlier text analysis of this video ad, we can therefore interpret that it is the poetic function of the ad, presented by the hook, which the respondents give the most positive feedback to. Other functions that get positive feedback is the emotive function or pathos, shown is responses such as: "Den er meget 'in your face', kold og deprimerende" (#3) and "Jeg syntes også ret godt om det dystopiske hverdagsbillede." (#4) This feedback shows that the respondents also notice the somewhat emotional aspect of this ad. The feedback received when asking what the respondents disliked about this particular ad was mainly to do with the filmic aspects of the video, rather than the actual content, which is what our main focus is. This could of course be due to a lack of focus in pointing out this specific detail to the respondents. As for the next ad, Truth, it was the use of sarcasm or irony within the video ad that all but one respondent listed as being the most likeable function that is used in this particular presentation. This is very significant, as most respondents find that the Truth ad is the one that made the biggest impression on them. Some of the reasons for this is that this video does not directly attack smokers, saying that they need to stop: "Fordi ironien var forståelig og ikke nødvendigvis sagde: "Stop med at ryge!", men lige så meget var et angreb på tobaksindustrien. At personen, der ryger, ikke bliver direkte angrebet, men får et smil på vejen hvor de kan tænke: "Ja, vil jeg støtte den industri?" er rart." (#8) and "Videoen påvirkede mig mest med den skjulte seriøsitet. Selv troede jeg ikke på, hvad manden sagde, men den viser en modsætning/virkelighed der burde være sand og som man ikke burde have så svært ved at tro på." (#3) These outtakes from the survey are 21

22 prime examples of how the respondents would like this type of ad to be: Fun, yet informative. This is further amplified by feedback on other questions, where one of the people who disliked the It's like they're Smoking, stated that he hated the ad because of the instructive tone of the video: "Den belærende stemme sidst i videoen. Det er ofte et problem med rygekampagner - de fanger ens opmærksomhed, og så stiller de sig frem som en autoritet. Folk gider ikke belæres, hvis de ser TV - de vil slappe af." (#8) This is something we definitely need to consider when making our own communication plan, as it seems from the feedback we received, that people do not want to be told directly to change, rather they want to be enlightened or made aware of a problem, and then be able to make the decision for themselves, whether or not they want to change their behaviour. Continuing with It's Like They're Smoking others found that it was effective using children as an emotional factor and they add that the intention of not smoking around children is very good, however we got enough respondents who thought it was unethical, or at least that using kids in the ad was wrong as it gives the wrong impression (for example to other children): "synes ikke børnene skulle sige at de røg, men at der bliver røget. andre børn ser reklamen." (#9) Another respondent did not like using children as an emotional factor, and listed that under her dislikes for the video: "den spiller på følelser om børn." (#7) One respondent felt that using second-hand smoking completely invalidated the ad and that it tried to guilt-trip people in to not smoking through the use of children. Something we need to be aware of when making our communication plan is that if we are going to play on emotions, we have to ensure that it is the right emotions we decide to emphasize, meaning mainly positive emotions such as making people happy about something, rather than possibly making them feel guilty about smoking. For the last of our ads, The Magical Amount, though that the cartoon animations were fun, however, as was the case with It's Like They're Smoking the negative responses seems to outweigh the positive ones. Respondents found it confusing and even ridiculous. Some respondents even found that they could not understand the actual message of the video, which might have been caused by the language barrier. One respondent felt "Irriteret over, at jeg blev talt til som et barn." (#8) which is a valid point, and something we have to keep in mind for our work on the communication plan. Using cartoons when trying to relay a very serious message will obviously 22

23 offend some people, and might not be appropriate to use for the target group of an anti-smoking campaign or ad. As for the answers to whether or not the respondents felt they would notice these ads on television for example, all four ads came back with the majority answering that they would notice the videos. In fact, the video with the lowest number of yes answers still came back with 67% of respondents saying that they would notice the ad. For us this potentially mean that the platform we decide should be television as responses came back very positive towards our chosen ads. However, a disclaimer could be that people will change channels during commercial breaks and not see our would-be ad, but we will discuss this further in the section of the report that concerns itself with the communication plan. The last feedback we received was on the question of which video made the biggest impression on our respondents. To our surprise, Truth was the one that received the most votes in. The reasons given for this was because it had an element of irony or sarcasm to it, but also because it infers the tobacco companies role into the discussion, and then lets the user decide whether they want to continue smoking or not. All in all, it seems that the respondents appreciated the ad that did not directly try to change their behavior, but instead made them aware of a problem: That the tobacco companies do not care about their customers, they only care about profit. Furthermore, the respondents would like to have the ad leave them with a choice, rather than trying to enforce a certain agenda onto its audience. Furthermore, the overall response regarding the various poetic functions of the different ads were all positive with the small note that whatever is filling this role has to be appropriate with the target group, and it also has to be understandable for the audience. Another of Jakobson's functions that got positive feedback was the referential function, as they would like to be given information about an issue, and from our analysis we interpret that this information should preferably have some sort of humorous element to it, so people do not feel a direct push from the conative function, which otherwise got negative responses in the feedback of our survey as people do not like being told what to do or not to do. 23

24 The feedback on these functions and other parameters will be now be put to use in creating our very own hypothetical communication plan for a would-be PSA tailor-made for the Danish market, produced in regards to the feedback we have received. 5.0 Communication Plan This part of the report will be elaborating on the various elements and considerations that go into creating a communication plan for a product. In our case this product is a hypothetical PSA that is against smoking. This means that the product will not be effectively produced, rather it is only the preliminary work and decisions of the communication plan that will be presented here and as such there will be no final result in the shape of an actual product. 5.1 Sender The anti-smoking campaign would most likely be sponsored by the government. Denmark has public healthcare, so it is fully within the realm of the government to be concerned with overall public health. If the number of smokers were to decrease in Denmark, it is completely conceivable that so to would the cost of healthcare. There is a chance that a private group may choose to fight the issue, but we will be working along the premise that the government is the one who has chosen to lead the campaign. The aim of the campaign would be to cause an eventual cultural paradigm shift. The idea would be to create a culture where smoking is seen as uncool and possibly taboo. This would potentially help lead to a decrease in the number of smokers, both by encouraging current smokers to quit and by preventing non-smokers from ever starting. The premise of the campaign would be to present information to the public. This information may or may not be something they are already aware of, but they will be reminded of it just the same. This information would indicate how smoking is not a good thing. Based on our survey, the most 24

25 effective kind of information has to do with illustrating tobacco companies as the enemy. This was an extremely effective tactic according to respondents, as it allowed for smokers to not feel guilty about their habit. It was also a different way of approaching the issue. However, it may not be legal or appropriate for the Danish government to launch such a campaign against a business. The focus of a campaign would need to be aimed more from the angle of health. The campaign would present information but focus more on informing viewers, not trying to convert them. The cognitive function must be as indirect as possible. Respondents to the survey did not respond well when they felt they were being told to do something. The PSA would consist mostly of the presentation of the information, the referential function. One of the strategies most appreciated in our survey was humor. People often liked the more dry and sarcastic humor, with a touch of irony. This helped decrease any discomfort a viewer might have with the subject. It also helps to keep the message memorable, if they think back at something particularly funny in the ad. 5.2 Target group When creating and developing a product, it is essential to decide whom the product should be targeted at, as different target groups are going to be persuaded by different arguments and different functions. As previously mentioned, this product would try to create a culture shift, making smoking less attractive and hopefully frowned upon. A way to do this is to try and catch the attention of the younger generations and, through them, try to establish the cultural shift, making smoking uncool, so that they could help educate the younger generations when they themselves have grown up. To be more specific, we think that it is the people from age fourteen to age twenty-two that would qualify as the young generation that we want. This is because they have yet to fully create their own identity and as such are usually easier to persuade to a specific opinion This PSA would wish to catch people, preferably before they have even tried to smoke. Hopefully, before they have even gotten the notion about smoking being a possibility and before 25