In a public relations unit in University of Western Australia 2012, I got to design a campaign for Julia Gillard after events of her being portrayed in the media versus Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd seems to make her worse out than she may intend to be. This also follows the unpopular government's campaign for Clean Energy/ Carbon Tax.
The campaign was 2-pronged. An iphone app (not designed for android then) was created, along with a 25 sec advertisement as below.
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Story Treatment for Advertisement
Length: Approximate 25 seconds
The advertisement opens with a
sepia-coloured rustic rural country-side patch, with the back view of a few
construction workers walking to the center of the screen, to start work on the
building of a road. The scene is set to the 1930s where development first
started in the countryside parts of Australia. The sounds transforms from metal
hitting metal and construction-building to the sounds of a busy highway. The
scenery has transformed itself really quickly into that of fully-vibrant
coloured scenery of that road now fully constructed and bustling with many
vehicles. A song that is inspirational and orchestral (to signal a new
beginning) now begins to play at the ending of that scene.
The next scene also starts off
sepia-coloured, depicting early Australia. The scene shows a reservoir, with a
few construction workers hard at work connecting pipes. The camera pans and
close up to one of the construction worker, who is at the end of one of the
pipe lines, when the pumping of the water finally works and water starts
splashing out and his lights up in joy. The camera focuses onto the water
splash. Now the scene transforms from sepia-coloured to full-coloured. The camera zooms out of the water gushing to
show the water slowly streaming out of a modern tap in a contemporary family
setting. A lady (preferably a well-liked Australian female celebrity or
character such as Rose Bryne or Sandra Sully or Lee Lin Chin or Isabel Lucas or
Jennifer Hawkins) collects the water from the tap and smiles in comfort as she
takes a sip out of the glass of drinking water.
Instead of starting the next scene
sepia-coloured, it now shows a vibrant coloured, almost majestic view of the
wind turbines in a wind farm. The camera zooms into the rotating blades of the
turbine and it is a blend of colours and the form of the blade, and then the
camera view zooms out, to show a modern electric fan blowing and is switched
off by a little girl. The little girl then runs of the open-air veranda into a
beautiful field where there is a mini playground, and her friends are playing
happily in a very clean and green environment. The setting is modern like that
of a predicted Australia in 2020. The song
that started playing in scene one is now ended in its climatic music.
The voiceover begins (the voice of Julia
Gillard): “We are the generation that creates a clean and green environment for
the future of Australia”
The scene transform to a white poster with
the Carbon Tax logo, and “To know more, visit: www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au”
beneath it.
Brief Desription
This advertisement seeks to show how
tremendously difficult it is to begin developments for the country to move forward.
The previous generations of Australians have paid the price and toiled hard for
her people to now live in comfort. Sadly most people tend to take it for
granted. Australia may be a nation that complains about taxes and increasing
bills, but it is only with such measures taken by the government that will see
that the country will be well in future. As Australia relies heavily on its
natural resources with its citizens chalking up increasing rates of carbon
footprint, it is essential then for the government to place measures of
protection for the environment and its future.
Unlike previous carbon tax advertisements,
this advertisement shifts the current focus of the monetary tax in “carbon tax”
to the focus of Australia working to build its future together, paying the
price for the better good.
Also, the usage of the endorsement of the
female celebrity would be essential to make this advertisement endearing to the
wide population of Australia. The advertisement seeks to spread itself through
the word of mouth when the audience is pleasantly surprised to see one of their
favourite Australian celebrities in the split seconds of the advertisement. It
is encouraged to remake this advertisement with different female celebrities in
the same scene to create variation and to generate excitement over the ad.
Lastly, while the face of Julia Gillard is
not shown, the audience is treated to a second surprise to know that this
familiar voice is actually that of their Prime Minister who is roped in to
create this advertisement. While she may not have been popular amongst some
Australians for her carbon tax scheme, they may give a double take to this
advertisement. The advertisement could possibly cast her in a different light
as that of an unexpectedly cool Prime Minister.
With the advertisement hot on the tongues
of Australian citizens, it is hoped that it will also be retained in their
minds to remind themselves that the carbon tax cost goes into the comforts of
future Australian generations.
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I enjoyed the assignment and felt a great sense of achievement to receive the grading. Contact me at miss.janet.yang@gmail.com to find out how I fared ;)
