By Ashley Haycock

Adventure Time: A cartoon series which airs daily on Cartoon Network about a boy named Finn and his brother dog called Jake The series is set in the world called Ooo, a post apocalyptic world inhabited by many different forms of creatures including vampires, giants, flame people and candy people, as well as many other forms of mad creatures The show follows the two main protagonists, Finn and Jake, on their many different adventures, which usually includes saving princesses from the antagonists The main characters include Finn the Human, Jake the Dog, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline and The Ice King

Adventure Time has an audience of mainly young children, from the ages of 7 – 14 focusing mainly on the male gender, however, females also watch the show This target audience is maintained by the cartoon features (which is said to have drawn inspiration from “The Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack”), immature humour and action scenes Despite the show being aimed at young children the show also draws in a more mature audience This mature audience usually ranges between the ages of 16 – 21, again mainly males but again, females also watch the show This elder audience is drawn in by adult humour that a younger audience may not notice

From the introduction to the show it is quite obvious that the show is aimed at a younger audience from the basic cartoon features and childish music However, in scenes such as this, you can see the adult humour which draws in an elder audience Now whilst a child may not see anything wrong with this scene, Jake the Dog and his girlfriend, Lady Rainicorn, went to tier 15 and…

THEY HAD PUPPIES

Adventure Time aims to keep it’s target audience, whilst also attempting to widen it slightly by many forms of media There are many books and comic books out about the world of Adventure Time As normal, it has it’s own webpage There is a wide variety of Adventure Time clothing Adventure Time releases its series on DVD There are also many small online games about Adventure Time, as well as a 2 full games available on many different consoles There is also a complete section of Reddit dedicated to Adventure Time Reddit is one of the largest online forums in the world which is occupied by a audience of mainly 16+ males due to the content of the site The Adventure Time section is filled with fans discussing the plot of the show and attempting to notice any hidden meanings behind certain scenes

Adventure Time was created for and aired on the channel, Cartoon Network which is owned by Turner Broadcasting System, which is a subsidiary of Time Warner Cartoon Network’s statistics say on average each episode of Adventure Time receives between 2 and 3 million viewers The pilot episode of Adventure Time received 2.5 millions views on first broadcast The premier of the most recent series of Adventure Time (series 5) received million viewers According to Nielsen Ratings (a audience measurement system created by Nielsen Company) Adventure Time constantly rates first in its time slot for its target audience (males between the ages of 2 – 14) Adventure Time has also won 5 awards

The Simpsons: Another cartoon series which airs daily on Channel 4 and Sky following the life of the Simpson family The series usually takes place in the small town of Springfield, but usually widens travelling to many well known countries all around the world The show focuses on the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and their pets, Santa’s Little Helper and Snowball II The Simpson family aims to represent a stereotypical dysfunctional family which has been a world-wide sensation since its creation back in 1987 when The Simpsons appeared as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show

The Simpsons is one of those shows that has quite a large target audience due to the shows nature and running time The Simpsons attracts both a male and female audience of people between the ages of 12 and 40 Despite this audience The Simpsons may attract an older audience as it has been running since 1989, keeping its audience for almost 25 years However, The Simpsons does limit its audience due to the offensive nature featured in some episodes e.g.: Rio de Janeiro's tourist board threatened Fox with legal action as they believe one episode portrayed their country in an ill manor The Simpsons has even been banned in Russia, Germany, Japan and China

There are yearly specials created by The Simpsons, and each one draws in a massive audience Every year there is a special for the Halloween season and the openers for the episode will usually feature characters from popular horror films in a humorous way This will help widen it’s audience bringing in fans of horror films The Simpsons has also had many celebrity guests over the years This guests range from Lady Gaga to Ricky Gervais and even Green Day! By having celebrity guests on the show, this greatly increases the target audience as certain people would watch the show just to see the celebrities

Obviously, with such a large name, The Simpsons is not just limited to a TV series In both Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood, there is The Simpsons Ride which is a simulator The Simpsons first created a full length game in 1991 called The Simpsons produced by Konami In 2007, a full length Simpsons movie was released produced by 20 th Century Fox The movie gained over $500 million in profit Here is maybe, one of the most rememberable scenes from The Simpsons Movie There have been 9 comic book series released about The Simpsons since 1993 published by Bongo Comics

The Simpsons is owned by the Fox Network family, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful men in the world, starred in an episode The Simpsons has over 25 seasons and approximately 535 episodes Due to the large amount of episodes this makes The Simpsons the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program The show even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Over it’s 24 years of broadcasting, the show has won 27 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award Homer’s catchphrase "D'oh!" has even been introduced into the English language

BARB stands for Broadcasters' Audience Research Board BARB is the organisation that measures audiences and TV ratings in the UK It is owned by BBC, the ITV companies, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB, and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (professional institute for agencies in the UK's advertising and much more) BARB monitors viewing statistics by placing a small box on top of participating viewers TV sets which monitors what is being watched Between the dates of Nov – Nov 10 13, according to BARB statistics The Simpsons placed 25 th in most viewed shows in the “Other” section

RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research Limited It was established in 1992 and is jointly owned by the BBC and the RadioCentre which is the commercial radio's trade body RAJAR measures audiences for the radio industry in the UK NRS stands for National Readership Survey The NRS is a joint company owned by the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), NPA (Newspaper Publishers Association) and PPA (Periodical Publishers Association) This is used to measure the audience of over 250 British newspapers and magazines for advertisers

“Meh, I suppose it would be 16 and above because in the Simpsons there's allot of sexual references, its the same in adventure time, there are quite a bit of mature things in it but you have to have a open mind to see them, for example, when do you see a rain acorn get pregnant in any other show xD” “I believe that, with the show 'Adventure Time' you can either watch from a child's perspective, and enjoy the obvious, or, an older watcher can take away a deeper, metaphorical experience” “i would say kids and adults who still like to embrace their inner child” “Simpsons - Anyone its a show I have watched throughout my life, small children initially watch it and so do their parents as a result of this and the child is hooked for life. Adventure time - Young teenager/older child, I however think it is suitable for all audiences.” “I think the target audience for The Simpson is anyone as I think everyone can enjoy this show regardless of their age and as for Adventure Time I think the audience is aimed more at year olds, as this is the age group I see watching the show” “I personally think the age range for adventure time is 0-16 and the Simpsons would be any age”