My target audience is customers of McDonalds over the age of 18 who go to University, school or works fulltime and is familiar and uses McDonalds products moderately to frequently. I am aiming for patrons that are not underage as they are able to notice more of a change over time, as when they were younger they believed the portion sizes were larger. My aims for geographic location is only in Europe, America, New Zealand and Australia as these are the locations that the message resonates strongly with and which has the most open and easiest way to reach out to raise awareness through advertisement. This is as the Western world uses advertisement frequently whilst other locations, like Russia not as much. 

My target audience's personal interests include and is not limited to music and music making, film, gaming and memes, with a large focus on the advertising being around film and abstract memes, catering to the audience of 18 year olds and older. There will be use of old memes and ‘Boomer jokes’ to reach a wider audience whilst also being understandable for the target audiece.

The target audience frequently uses social media, which will allow for easier sharing and wider spread audience. My aim is to make the overall message be relatable and understandable to all but also to have the limited audience until it is wider spread.

The concept of the promotional video will enrich the target audience’s life by giving them a thought-provoking outlook towards downsizing and its effects along with making them have an easier time remembering it due to memes and jokes. It will have light themes but not gloss over facts and thought-provoking statements.

My content will be similar to awareness raising advertisements and will also show overtime how things have changed and will use nostalgia as a tool to influence the audience.

Cowan P, 2015, The Democracy of colour, Journal of Media Practice, Vol 16, Issue 2, pp. 139-154.

This article discusses how marketing is affected by the font choice, whether that is “italic style… typeface [or] colour grey or black”. Although this source discusses tourism and focuses mainly on that subject with font impacts, it can still be understood globally for different subjects, not just tourism. According to the source, when a tour offers adventure/excitement, a difficult to read font increases preference for it over an easy to read, impact font. This can be taken away and applied to my short film development regarding the font choice at the beginning and end, marking the purpose of the film and the outlining the cause. The source mentions ‘feelings of information’, which certain fonts can influence if they look intelligent, which was useful when deciding what type of font, whether it was Sans Serif or not I wanted for the film.

Huang, Y, Wu, J & Shi, W 2018, ‘The impact of font choice on web pages: Relationship with willingness to pay and tourism motivation’, Tourism Management (1982), vol. 66, pp. 191–199.

This source further strengthened my choice of choosing downsizing and McDonalds as a concept, with many references to how happiness and health are affected, although in a scenario that is differing to my choice (this focuses on downsizing in office jobs), it can still be applied and used as a useful source.

Cooper, CL, Pandey, A & Quick, JC 2012, Downsizing : is less still more? / edited by Cary L. Cooper, Alankrita Pandey, and James Campbell Quick., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Videos and advertisements used as inspiration

As/Is 2014, McDonald’s Ads vs The Real Thing, YouTube, viewed 31 March 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx1IvvLuuEI&ab_channel=As%2FIs>.

This video about awareness of advertisement vs product I have used as inspiration. This covers my goal of showing the issue with downsizing and the negative effects of it. My film will be unique as it has a cohesive narrative but also shows both sides of the product; the advertisement and what is seen by the consumer.

McDonald's Australia 2020, Macca’s® Special Delivery, YouTube, viewed 31 March 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbo9I6FZls4&ab_channel=McDonald%27sAustralia>.

This advertisement by the official McDonalds I have used as inspiration as it has a narrative and the lighting and mis en scene of each shot is what I will be utilising in a similar fashion in my film. My film will follow a narrative but have a twist ending, similar to this advertisement, but instead it is against the company, not promoting it, which is unique.

News, W 2020, Burger King features moldy Whopper in new ad, YouTube, viewed 31 March 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ef7xw2J500&ab_channel=WKMGNews6ClickOrlando>.

This advertisement by McDonalds competitor, Burger King shows how their famous Whopper gets mouldy overtime, unlike McDonalds’ burgers due their preservatives. I used this as a reference on how to shape the image of the burger and the final product in the film. This is used as a guide on how to present the burger in the faux advertisements in the film.

The film begins with a wide shot of the hot Australian sun. The camera will pan to a young tradie working hard on building a fence in the outback where he then checks his watch. The man’s stomach rumbles, and the audience understands from this that it is lunchtime, as he pulls out his keys and gets into his Ute. As he gets in his car an Instagram notification is heard and a closeup of a McDonalds advertisement is seen on his phone. From this he turns to his lunchbox to see it is empty, so he is influenced by the advertisement and starts his car. He drives down a dusty road for what the audience understands is a long period of time – potentially hours. As this occurs memes appear on screen from faux advertisements, parodying social media accounts such as Wendy’s, who often banters about their product. This represents the man’s thinking and how his excitement for finally being able to have lunch is. These memes fade once he finally reaches his destination. The sun is now setting, and the man pulls up to the carpark at a McDonalds and then walks in, covered in dust from working. A low angle camera shot is used to show how he feels out of place, being dirty contrasted to the clean, white, of the McDonalds interior, as he tracks dirt inside. The friendly cashier gives a friendly smile and the young man smiles back then points at the advertisement seen on his phone. 

A paper bag is then handed to the man containing the products as he walks outside to his car. He stops by the side of the car and opens the bag containing his burger. He slowly opens the burger box, smiling with his stomach rumbling audibly still. A hard cut is seen of the burger in the box, it is small, measly and almost looks like you could contract some sort of disease from it. Another hard cut to the mans face with the box still in hand, he looks shattered as his expectations got the better of him. He goes to take a bite when the screen cuts to black, with a small white text appearing on screen, notifying the audience about downsizing and to join the rebellion against it.

Warm lighting is used throughout up until the ending where the colour grading will fade to a dark, realistic lighting from the light source of the interior car light and the light from the McDonalds sign, shining a big yellow ‘M’ on the man.

I will use snappy and unique editing along with memes to make the audience feel joy and feel relaxed, once they are relaxed I will show how downsizing is effecting products, by showing the actual product, not the fake advertisement one. This juxtaposition will cause anger and disgust for the audience.

Interest

As many young people use McDonalds products, I will use this to my advantage by manipulating their emotions with the product looking unappealing and a disappointment compared to what is advertised. A realistic emotion of actors will be portrayed, and the tone will shift to show how the price of a product has remained stagnant whilst the product has become worse in quality. The audience’s values are that of being frugal and wanting to make a positive impact on the world.

Desire

The promotional video will start as a funny and light-hearted advertisement but then shift to a dark and rather depressing hyperrealism where the product is not as advertised, causing the audience to relate to the characters’ emotions, but not entirely on the dystopian view of the downsized product. Memes are used in the first portion of the video to sell the original product before it shifts to the ‘real world’.

Action

The goal is to make them join the rebellion against downsizing and big corporation greed, whilst also making it better for the current man. This is achieved either by dropping prices or the opposite of downsizing, upscaling the product to its former glory. The audience will relate and feel personally attacked by the message of how items are now getting smaller and not satisfying enough anymore as they would have related personally with this when they purchased from locations such as McDonalds.

Week 3: This week the HTML has been changed, with modifications to the text in the webpage title and removed some placeholder text regarding my chosen message. I have written the reflection, considering complications and things I would have changed over the process of the assignment.

I have added 2 images which may be considered for the final film production.

Week 4: This week I focused on camera framing for the short film. To understand how I could frame my film I watched a short information video interview with Martin Scorsese where he discusses his thoughts as well as how he storyboards and frames his films and potential films. This leads onto colour theory and how I could present the film, where I brainstormed different ideas, such as the overall tone and atmosphere of the film. I chose to have a dark and sad tone, shown with blues and muted colours, but only when the product is revealed, and instead when the character drives towards the McDonalds, I considered naturalistic lighting and colours, consisting of browns and oranges. This would also exemplify the heat of the sun, showing the desperate need for food and a break during a hard working day for a young adult.

Week 5: This week I have mainly focused on why McDonalds was chosen as the targeted company and other potential companies I could use in the short film. I have considered Dominos and Apple as they have histories of downsizing or, in Apple’s case, selling the same product each year. I decide to stay with McDonalds as they have downsized the most and are the most universally known due to their campaigns and advertisements as well as their overall size as a company. This week I also wrote about tone, typefaces and the colour palette of the film.

‌Artist unknown

‌This advertisement by the Australia Government raising awareness of respect and stopping violence towards women uses a sans serif font at the end, which something I will take inspiration from in my short film, as it is impactful but also feels important and powerful.

Whitney 2019, Advertising Fonts: How To Choose A Style That Will Have Impact, IGW, viewed 1 April 2023, <https://infographicworld.com/fonts-matter-how-to-use-them/>.

‌This article in The Visual Marketing Agency discusses how advertising matters and shows how fonts can shape audiences’ attention and attitude towards the product or cause. It also shares how to use them effectively and to gauge attention quickly. From this I have chosen to choose a modern Sans Serif font, as it projects my cause the best.

2023, Adobe.com, viewed 1 April 2023, <https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel>.