Oxfam Advert; Uses and Gratification Theory, and Reception Theory

Oxfam Advert

Uses and Gratification

This Oxfam advert features the voice of Stephen Fry. The use of celebrity endorsement invites an audience as it uses the subcategory of identity in the uses and gratification theory. Audiences will see the celebrity as someone they look up to and aspire to be; so audiences will see Stephen Fry featuring in a charity advert and will be encouraged to donate to the charity in order to be more like him. The use of Stephen Fry will elicit more of a response from those people who try and form their own identity from the image of him, or have similar views and values to the celebrity. Furthermore the advert used the dialogue 'from someone like you', this direct address will also stimulate audiences to donate to the cause as helps audiences identity with the advert as the line almost serves as an guilt trip.

The TV advert also serves as a source of information for audiences. Audiences can gather information about life in third world countries, such as the one featured in the advert. Issues experienced in the featured country, such as basic resources being almost non-existent are shown to the audiences. This informs audiences of problems around the world, outside of their own country. Audiences are also informed about the work the charity has done and what the charity is about. This advert used the idea of surveillance in the uses and gratification theory.

It can be argued that the advert uses the subcategory of entertainment in the audience theory as the advert uses emotive imagery to elicit an emotional response from the audience. The emotive images make the audience synthesise with the characters in the video, meaning they're more likely to donate to the charity.

Social interaction a reason for why people would watch this avert as it can be seen as particularly emotional, and therefore create an emotional response from the audience. This could result in people talking to others about the advert and how it made them feel; leading to the other people then watching the ad if not already seen, and then bonding if they had the same emotional response. Social interaction could also be a reason for people to watch the advert as they'd be more informed on the work of Oxfam and would be able to interact with other people on the basis of this.

Reception Theory

The preferred reading of this advert is so spread awareness of issues that can be solved through charity work. The audience would have decoded the encoded message in the way it was meant by the charity.

The oppositional reading of this advert is where people view the advert as a waste of money. Oxfam would have spent a large sum of money on creating this advert to try and motivate people to donate to charity, but people could argue that the charity spent loads of money on creating the advert whereas they could have used that money for their cause- causing them to have an oppositional reading on the message from the advert. Furthermore, the encoded message from the charity would have been to spread awareness of the issues people face in third world countires and show how hard life is for those citizens; however, audiences could decode the message as the charity exploiting the people and issues used in their advert.

For a negotiated reading, audiences would have to agree with some stuff the advert presents, and disagree with other bits. Audiences could decode the message in the desired way, the advert serving to encourage people to donate to the less fortunate, but then also think that the advert exploits the issues they're trying to raise awareness for.