Overview –
For this project we were given the option of choosing a non-profit organization and creating an advertisement for them in the Effective Copywriting class at Full Sail. Human Rights Watch is an organization that brings light into the life of refugees by building homes, providing them with basic human rights, food, etc. The campaign headline, body copy, and tagline were all written by the designer in a way that goes hand-in-hand with the imagery to create a balanced advertisement. The idea was to shock the audience with the hard hitting truth of what it's like to be a refugee by placing a "Your face here," sign, putting their lives into perspective. What would you do if you were in their shoes?
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The image chosen was given room to breathe and laid out in a way that it does not overpower the text, but work with it to create a nice balance. Psychology of color would also be essential in maintaining the feeling the campaign is going to have (Ciotti, 2013). The vision for these ads are going to have a major contrast, with a mostly dark image and light subject and strategically defined accent color of yellow-orange, seeing as this is an optimistic color, instilling that there is still hope that can be achieved. An important thing to keep in mind when creating ads for different mediums is consistency, including typefaces used throughout the campaign.
There will always be a specific typeface used for the logo that is separate from the font used in the body copy. Seeing as this font is to be used in print, web, and other digital applications, it would be best to go with a sans serif font for readability purposes, though serifs are traditionally used for body copy, sans serif can be readable as well (Koger, 2013). For the image choices it might be necessary to composite various stock photos to achieve the look that is needed along with advanced Photoshop and Illustrator skills.
For more information behind the decision-making toward this project, here is a link to the research paper.
The for of media for this campaign will be traditional advertising in the form of a print ad, primarily running in magazines such as National Geographic, Esquire, GQ, Red Bulletin, Women’s Health, and many indie magazines. Considering the target audience is between the ages of 25-40, they are a generation who has grown up with getting their news from television and traditional print, therefore this will really speak to that demographic in a familiar way. The traditional forms of advertising that will be used will all be similar, yet appropriate for their given mediums as the campaign continues to expand it's reach. Along with print, there will also be 30-second ads playing on certain TV channels relating, but not limited to The Discovery channel, FX, National Geographic, CWTV, newscasts, etc.
