LO1: Campaign Analysis - Burt's Bees

 

Due to the nature of the product and the house style colours of the advert it is designed to appeal to a majority female audience. This is because cotton has connotations of soft and smoothness and the connotations of water is calm and tranquillity all of which are conventions of female orientated advertisements especially in the beauty and make-up industries. On top of this the text in the advert create a semantic field as there are words like sensitive and soften. This further connotes the product as a female orientated brand because men typically don't care about the softness and subtly of their skin, and often are not worried about looking old and having wrinkles. This advert is targeting an age demographic of between 30 and 50 because people around that age are usually a lot more interested in looking fashionable and young. This is further accentuated by the fact that the only social media link that is displayed on the advert is one for Facebook and younger people tend to avoid using Facebook and opt towards a more contemporary or recent social media like Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram. This lack of social media advertising links in to the connotations of the brand because Burt's Bees want to be denoted as rustic and indie which is connoted through their choice of house-style colours. Examples include orange, maroon, yellow and green. Orange and yellow have connotations of honey and pollen as well as bees and beehives themselves this is important to bring across because they want to portray to the audience that they are in touch with nature and are working alongside nature opposed to taking advantage of it. Maroon has connotations of wood and trees such as beehives and forests. Finally the different shades of green have denotations of plant stalks, leaves, and grass. Creating connotations of them being close to and surrounded by nature. 

This advert uses a yellowy orange border to create further connotations of the brand as it is the same colour as the banner of the name of the Burt's Bees brand creating a familiarity between the company and the new advertisement. Making the audience feel like they are already familiar with the advert. The advert makes clever use of mental imagery as they use pictures of half a coconut and half a grapefruit and edit them to look like they are parachutes. This is clever because not only does it create connotations of nature and exoticness but also tells the audience the flavour/ingredients of both lip balms. It also uses synergy between colours as the pink of the grapefruit is the same pink as the lid and label of the left lip balm. Whilst the white of the coconut is the same of the lid and label of the right balm. They use contrasting colours here so that they simultaneously compliment each other and make each other stand out. As well as this they use a catchy memorable pun as their sell line for the advert as it is 'uncap flavour.' This is saying that you have to take the lid of the balm to use it but also that the flavour is incredibly strong and 'uncapped. 'The fact that the sell line doesn't say 'uncap the flavour ' implies that the strong flavour is a certainty as well as making it shorter and thus more memorable. 

This advert uses a green colour scheme to portray the products synergy with nature which is not only important because the brand wants to portray itself as natural and rustic but it is particularly prudent here because it is a pesticide/bug repellent and often they are highly toxic to plants, animals and us. By having connotations of nature they nullify the expectations of it being toxic and dangerous. You could also say that because they use multiple shades of green in close proximity to each other they are trying to simulate camouflage and military colours which are typically used in humid environments like rainforests and jungles. This connotes that the product is very potent and works incredibly well as they are portraying it to be used to the extreme and it is highly doubtful that anyone buying the product would actually be used in the heart of the Amazon jungle and rather be used in a Mediterranean villa or summer walk in the English countryside. In the advert they again use a pun as there sell line this time it is 'bee gone.' This is clever because it relates to the fact that their products are bee products, it relates to the companies name being Burt's Bees and also signifies their link with the environment and their natural aesthetic.