In the 21st century, the solution to public problems goes hand in hand with the persuasive media campaign. The era of social media and overall digitalization created immense opportunities for information distribution across millions of people. However, the great quantity of data available makes people indifferent to social media campaigns that are visually unattractive and boring. Another complicated aspect is that different age groups also require a specific approach to creating engaging visuals. The public service announcement called Seize the Awkward will be the center of this analysis. The video created for the campaign “Whatever Gets You Talking”, which focuses on the problem of friends’ lack of communication about each other’s mental health, uses several persuasive strategies (Ad Council). The use of TikTok-styled organization of the video, many bright colors, and engagement of media personalities have heavily contributed to the increased attention to this public service campaign.
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The visual’s purpose was to explain to youngsters that the taboo around discussing mental health problems should be eliminated. The problem is that the feeling of loneliness and alienation may cause suicidal thoughts among teenagers in a vulnerable position. At the same time, mental health issues can seem like a very private matter, so the status quo certainly needs to be changed. The video begins with a teenager trying to type a message to a friend about the mood, but does not understand how to do it right. The next 2 minutes of the video show the many ways this can be done and create an atmosphere of calm and intimacy with the help of music and bright pictures. The main idea of the video is that a simple check on friends’ mental health can make a big difference and save their lives.
The use of bright, fast-changing colors and the absence of dark hues makes the video trendy and youthful, helping to achieve the goals of reaching a teen audience. In many respects, the style of the whole video is created around techniques of TikTok videos, that is, the use of dance elements, dynamic soundtrack, and modern-styled animation. The authors of the video, creators from the Ad Council group, realized that TikTok is very popular among teenagers (Bhandari). Thus, the use of pink, yellow, green, and blue is similar to some animations that are popular on TikTok, so it increases the probability of watching the whole video to the end. Knowing that the everyday use of the Internet does not presuppose watching long videos, the rapid mix of bright colors delayed watchers’ skip of content.
As for the persuasive propaganda technique, the participation of popular media personalities affected the delivery of the campaign’s message. According to Chang’s and Zhang’s qualitative study in Hong Hong settings, “celebrity endorsement was perceived as effective in raising awareness and encouraging behavioral changes” (207). Indeed, seeing their favorite celebrities in public service advertisements, teenagers will surely pay attention to the campaign’s aim. In the proposed video, Addison Rae, the Instagram blogger with over 40M subscribers, was one of the main figures. In fact, without even knowing about the Seize the Awkward project, teenagers may encounter this video in the “recommendations” section on YouTube because they often watch videos with invited celebrities. In addition, the engagement of celebrities may also be a reciprocal relationship with public service organizations because the participation in morally good deeds may increase intimacy between celebrities and their supporters.
Lastly, there is a sense to discuss the emotional appeal of this video in more detail. Firstly, the authors of the video use a lot of cute pets like dogs and cats. Knowing people’s love for animals, the authors tried to select the warmest photos and videos of animals. For example, one location uses a video of two dogs seeing each other through glass and trying to approach each other. Such a strategy of using animals may create emotional bonds with the ideas presented in the video. Secondly, the track used in the video has a very catchy chorus that many will remember and sing along to. It will make teens remember this video, including the main message about paying attention to friends’ mental health. Apple often uses the same strategy of catchy songs in their commercials for new devices.
To sum up, creating effective social announcements is a complex process that requires attention to detail, particularly the right media coverage. In the era of modern technology, advert
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