Advertising case study 3: Represent NHS Blood campaign

Our final close-study product for Advertising and Marketing is the 2016 NHS Blood and Transplant online campaign video 'Represent' featuring Lady Leshurr.

This product provides an excellent opportunity to explore a range of different representations: ethnicity, masculinity, femininity, class, age, disability and ability and place. It's also a different type of advert as it's not promoting a product but instead is a campaign designed to influence the audience's behaviour.

Sample questions for Advertising and Marketing

In your Media exams, you are likely to get questions similar to these:

1) Why do advertisers use stereotypes? [6 marks]

2) Explain how advertisements reflect the historical context in which they were created. [12 marks]

Think about how you might answer those questions based on the CSPs we have studied.

Advertising campaigns

Some adverts are produced in a series as a campaign. An advertising campaign is a series of advertisements that share a singular theme, message or idea. These are used to raise awareness of an issue or of the brand itself. The best campaigns have an emotional impact on audiences.

An advertising campaign will usually appear across multiple media platforms - print, broadcast and online.

Represent: background information

Lady Leshurr is an English rapper, singer and producer. She is famous for her freestyling rap style and has her own clothing line. 

This is the advert CSP:

The two articles we read in the lesson provide details on the campaign and how it was developed. This also gives information on why blood from people with a BAME background is so vital. 

GLOW words to use in connection to this campaign

• Literal – the actual, obvious meaning 
• Semiotics - the message behind what you see (hidden messages)
• Reinforce stereotype – when a representation is what we usually see in the media
• Challenge/subvert stereotype - When a representation goes against what we normally see in the media
• Mass/mainstream - A mass or mainstream audience is made up of a large group of people (men, women, children, elderly).
• Niche - A niche audience is a small subset with a narrow range of interests or characteristics. 

Codes and conventions of rap music videos

• There are many low-angled, close up shots in hip hop videos, to imply the artists’ power over their audience. The low angle gives them the power, because they look down on the audience and the close up gives status because it implies they’re important enough to have a frame to themselves.
• Sections of direct contact with the camera (the artist usually spends a lot of time looking straight into the camera as if to talk or have a conversation with the audience and relate to them)
• Props regarding costume tend to be used, for e.g. gold jewellery (male rap artists are commonly known to wear heavy chains or prominent rings)
• Show a clear display of emotions – if the tone of the song is angry, the artist is likely to present this through their gestures and facial expressions.
• Strong editing cuts between concept / performance and narrative.

Represent NHS Blood & Transplant campaign: blog tasks

Work through the tasks in this blogpost to make sure you're an expert on this CSP.

Re-watch the Represent video and then watch the 'making of' video:



1) What does BAME stand for?

2) Why is there a need for blood in the BAME community? 

3) What does this advert want people to do once they've seen it (the 'call to action')?

4) Why have the producers chosen famous BAME celebrities to feature in the advert? Give an example of three well-known people who appear in the advert and why they are famous - make sure you write their names and spell them accurately.

5) Suggest some connotations for the slow-paced long shot of empty chairs at the end of the advert.

6) How does the advert match the key conventions of a typical urban music video?

You will have lesson time to answer these questions but will need to complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom. 

Extension tasks

1) How does the advert subvert stereotypes - this means present people in a way we don't normally see them in the media? Give three examples (e.g. ethnicity, masculinity, femininity, age, class, disability/ability etc.) 

2) How does the advert reinforce certain stereotypes of the BAME community?

3) Choose one key moment from the advert and write an analysis of the connotations of camera shots and mise-en-scene (using CLAMPS).

4) Read this MOBO press release about the "B Positive" campaign - the follow-up to the Represent advert. How does it aim to build on the success of the Represent campaign?

5) How is celebrity endorsement or star power used to make the campaign stand out?

Finally, research the following stars in more detail: Lady Leshurr, Ade Adepitan, Kanya King. Why are they famous? How do they help the campaign reach different segments of the niche BAME audience?