1. The creator of this advert/campaign have understood that cyber-bullying and it’s effect, are universal and affects both the male and female sex. This could be the reason for why the sex of ‘the victim’ in the campaign is unidentifiable, reaching the advert/campaign out to both genders of any age. If identifying ‘the victim’ as a male, you could highlight the length of his hair as strangely long and un- groomed. From this image it portrays the victim to be an ‘outsider’ from society as society’s norms and values include women having long hair, and the men to have short hair. Furthermore, this could be the reason that the victim was bullied, due to his outsider behaviour/appearance. The colour black instantly connotes: darkness, evil, and death. Therefore, with the silhouette being black, the creator of the campaign/advertisement wanted the message to be identifiable instantly – that the death of this victim was a loss as well as a sin. From afar, the words that are strangling the victim would be seen as a rope, however as you near towards the image you realise that the rope is made from horrible and destructive words. By doing this, it emphasises on the meaning of the words and how it can and has affected people. In addition, the colour of the words are written in white, which contrasts against the black silhouette, drawing attention to the hurtful words. ‘Bullying can kill.’ The creator of this advert/campaign has kept the ad to a minimum with colours and layout, yet the message is clear and powerful. From the first sentence being in the colour red it connotes: danger, a hazard and blood. Also, with the sentence written in red it relates back to the campaign as cyber-bullying results to a hazard (death) and blood. The background of the ad/campaign is grey which may be a representation of the victim’s dull and lifeless life due to cyber-bullying. Furthermore, the colour of the background affects the mood of the viewer, as the grey is unexciting and monotonous. The words that replace the rope around the victim’s neck are negative and disrespectful words: Fugly, Neek, Faggot, Gayboy etc. By using these words instead of a rope it portrays that suicide is led by the words that are said by others, in person or online. Also, the text ‘cybermentors.org.uk’ is written in red, however the connotations towards the red font is different to the ‘Bullying can kill.’ in my opinion. By having this text in red it makes it stand out from the ad, which connote a message to the bullied victims meaning that this website wants the victims to stand out and help them.

2. The colour of the background is black which connotes: fear, mysteriousness, and death. Therefore, from the background colour it instantly foreshadows that the ad will be based on a serious and powerful subject. Furthermore, with the background being black it allows the rest of the text/images to contrast against the dark background and make it stand out. This ad/campaign relates to both male and female due to the simple silhouette of a hand that does not refer to one specific gender. With the hand in white it contrasts against the dark background and makes the hand stand out. In addition, the colour of the wrist is white, and this colour’s connotations are very different in comparison to the connotations of the colour black. White connotes: purity, fresh, and innocence. By having the wrist in this colour is represents the person/victim to be innocent and young, and this emphasises on the statistics for teenagers that harm themselves/commit suicide. With the text aligned and placed on the wrist refers to the image of somebody self-harming themselves, which is disturbing as well as powerful. From looking closely, the text is made from words that are hurtful and disrespectful to others, and this is to present the power of the words that are said and how it can affect somebody. Also, what the creator has done is made the colour of the text red which connotes anger, danger and blood. Furthermore, with the colour of the text being red it refers a lot to the act of self-harming as the red text is made out to look like blood. With all the negative words being placed together, from afar it looks like a pool of blood, however when you look closer you realise that the pool of blood is made from words. By doing this it highlights the power of the words and their meaning. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can kill.’ The creator of this ad/campaign has taken a quote/saying that everyone is familiar with and edited it to emphasise on the power of words as the quote ends with: ‘but words can kill.’. Also, this quote is in white which connotes innocence and purity, however the quote differs, and this may be done to make the innocence from words said seem innocent, when in reality it isn’t as it can be harmful towards others. From this, the most important sections of the text are written in red, which are the sections that highlight the importance of how Cyber Mentors can help you. Also, with the text in red it is portrayed as important as the colour red connotes a hazard.

3. Both of these campaign ads to prevent cyber-bullying use very lifeless and dull colours in the ads, and this may connote the subject of cyber-bullying as it is not a nice subject to discuss, nor a good thing to do or encourage. By using these powerful graphics to show the importance of cyber-bullying, it highlights the effects it can have on people and makes the viewer more aware of cyber-bullying and it’s effects it can have towards the victim. Also the graphics represent the horrible subject that cyber-bullying is, and the creator of the print ads may have done this for the campaign to be taken more seriously and not on a ‘light note’. I feel that both campaign print ads are just as intense and powerful as each other, as both graphics are shocking and not what is seen everyday in average advertisements/campaigns which makes the message stand out.