Shelter (Charity Advert Analysis)

Charity adverts and context

• The social / cultural / political contexts we will focus on are:
• Shelter as a charity
• The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and its regulatory framework
• The government’s comprehensive spending review of 2010, in which spending on social housing was cut by 60%, with a catastrophic impact on homelessness.
• Social housing - provided by council or housing associations.
• Affordable, secure, rents are set/fixed

About the campaign and the charity

• Shelter is a charity which helps people who are struggling with bad housing or homelessness.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

• The ASA are the regulatory body for advertising in the UK.
• Set strict rules on advertising
• They have the power to "pull" any adverts that have been complained about a member of a public or a company.
• They will investigate complaints and agree/disagree.
• Advertisers have to adhere to ASA guidelines

ASA on charity adverts. They must:

• handle with care and discretion matters likely to arouse strong emotions in the audience;
• not suggest that anyone will lack proper feeling or fail in any responsibility through not supporting a charity;
• respect the dignity of those on whose behalf an appeal is being made;
• not address any fundraising message specifically to children;
• not contain comparisons with other charities;
• avoid presenting an exaggerated impression of the scale or nature of the social problem to which the work of the charity is addressed, eg. by illustrating the message with non-typical extreme examples;
• not misrepresent or mislead in any way about the charity, its field of activity or the use to which donations will be put.

Government Comprehensive Spending Review: Contextual Information

• Communities and local government
• Annual budget: £33.6bn
• Funding for social housing can be cut by more than 60%, with the new tenants having to pay higher rents.
• But the government hopes these changes will free up funds to build 150,000 new affordable homes over the next for years.

What did Shelter say about these cuts?

• ‘Shelter is greatly concerned that housing, one of the most basic needs for every single person in this country, is facing some of the biggest cuts. A succession of governments has failed to address our housing crisis and this CSR indicates that the coalition is also prepared to deny responsibility for ensuring that people can access decent, secure, affordable housing.
• The combined worry of cuts to housing benefit and the slashing of the affordable house building subsidy will be devastating for the housing aspirations of thousands of young people consigned to increasing costs and bringing up their future families in an insecure private rented sector.

The Campaign

• The Campaign was a direct response to the CSR. This is Shelter: A recent study found that 50% of people do not seek external advice when they encounter housing difficulties.
• The main focus of the activity is a series of poster ads.
• Each one depicts an ordinary person in distress because they are facing a serious crisis, such as sudden job loss or mounting debt. They carry a single headline which shares with the viewer the desperation the person is feeling.
• The aim is for the combined impact of the headline and image to resonate with people experiencing these problems and tap into their concerns, driving them to seek advice on Shelter’s website.

Shelter context

• 2010 - government cut its funding for social housing at 60% = catastrophic effect on people who'd previously depended on affordable/ social housing.
• CSR - Cameron's coalition government
• Shelter - focus is on those at risk of homelessness. Advice/prevention
• ASA - regulates advertising framework for all ads; might be apt for charity ads

The Question

How is media language used in the shelter advert? Refer to the social, political and cultural contexts in your response.

(500 words)

Shelter is a charity which helps people who are struggling with bad housing or homelessness. The 3 models (2 women and a man) are fearful of losing their homes. All the models have a close up shot of their faces, which are all in misery and despair. They are all giving direct addresses to the audience which portrays how desperately they need the community's help to maintain their homes.  The words that are written on the advert explains the different scenarios individuals can go into for them to lose their accommodations. For example, a person lost their job but that doesn't mean they can lose their homes with the help of Shelter. Additionally, debt and being a tenant are other examples of people using the charity. All 3 of the adverts carry out a single headline which shares the viewer the desperation the person is feeling. By individuals reaching out to them, the charity solves their problem in any scenario and have left thousands of individuals or families with smiles on their faces knowing that they won't be homeless. The charity is a direct response to Cameron's coalition government (CSR) cutting its funding for social housing by 60% which has a catastrophic effect on people who have previously depended on affordable and secure social housing which is provided by the council and housing associations and has a fixed rent. Shelter said that the CSR is "prepared to deny responsibility for ensuring that people can access decent, secure, affordable housing. A recent study has found out that 50% of people do not seek external advice when they encounter housing difficulties, therefore, Shelter tries to prevent that from happening and for the charity to resonate with people experiencing these problems and tap into their concerns, which is them seeking advice on the Shelter website. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the regulatory body for adverts in the UK. It is in their absolute power for them to pull any adverts that have been complained by a member of the public or a company. All adverts have set strict rules they must follow such as not containing comparisons to other charities, not addressing any fundraising message specifically at children, respecting the dignity of those no whose behalf an appeal is being made and the list goes on. The Shelter adverts achieve this by the models being respected of them volunteering to share their disappointing stories to the public however they also illustrate how Shelter is there to help those that are in threat of becoming homeless.