Techniques in advertising Irn-Bru

Discuss in your groups: What do you know about the product Irn Bru? What type of people normally drink it? What Irn Bru adverts have you seen? What features do they have in common? Who do the adverts target?

Now we’re going to look at an Irn-Bru billboard advert and learn about: *how advertisers draw on your knowledge of their product *how they use humour. This advert is called 'sheep'. What does that tell you about it?

Product knowledge Why have the advertisers chosen the colour scheme for the advert? What do they hope this will do when people see it? The Irn-Bru can is really small. Why have they not made it bigger? Why is the word 'PHENOMENAL' there?

Image and Graphics The main image is of a sheep. But sheep don’t drink Irn-Bru. So why choose a sheep? What do you notice about the outline of the sheep? What does it suggest? What type of font has been used? What does that suggest? What tone do all these techniques suggest?

Verbal humour The advertisers use puns in this advert, and also draw on our knowledge of the vernacular used in Scotland. Look up and write down the definitions of these words.

Verbal humour Try to explain to each other how the advertiser has played on the double meanings of 'cow' and 'pigs'. How does this add to the tone of the advert? Why might this be a risky strategy to use? Why do you think they use it? How does the use of these words make you feel?

Verbal humour Why has the writer put the words in speech marks? What difference would there be if they were not there?

To test whether you now understand how the advertiser uses these techniques, we’re going to look at some other examples. http://www.irn-bru.co.uk/poster/snog.html http://www.irn-bru.co.uk/poster/goth.html

Your teacher will give you one of these two adverts to look at Your teacher will give you one of these two adverts to look at. You’ll have time to prepare, then you’ll be matched up with a partner, and you’ll explain to them how the techniques have been used (colour, graphics and images, and verbal humour). Partners - ask questions to clarify the explanation. Then you’ll feedback on how well they explained.