Grouping Texts Task

Text 1 - Transcript for “Age UK” Advert

Text 2 - A Script Extract from an Episode of “Friends”

Text 3 - Transcript of the “Skittles” Advert

The transcript for the charity Age UK’s advert includes represented speech which is used to convey to the viewers their message of informing families, especially families with elderly members, that Age UK is the charity they can trust. The advert talks about how they can solve some people’s “problems” and help them with things that they would like such as being able to keep their “independence” and how to stay “active or healthy”. The charity highlight these things to show families and the elderly that there is more to helping than just simply taking them from their homes and placing them somewhere else. The advert’s primary audience are the elderly and the secondary audiences are their families and is suggested by the phrase “find the right care for you or a relative” which shows that although the information in this advert is mainly for an older audience - (their families can watch it too because it may be played during a TV programme the adults might be watching) - they may have done this because it allows for more elderly people to be aware of the charity and possibly to gain more funds for the charity because the families may donate. Similarly, by having the secondary audiences being the families of those who are older could be to help make people more aware of the charity by ending the advert with ways in which people could contact them - by “[giving] them a call, go online or pick up a leaflet” - stereotypically, the elderly may not go online to find information it may be the families who do this to gain more insight into what they can do to help. The advert’s actual last piece of speech was the declarative sentence mood “Mmmm, sponge cake”, on the one hand this could be considered spontaneous speech because it does not fit the context or the tone of the rest of the advert however, it may be cleverly scripted represented speech which has been added to the advert to lighten the mood of the advert and it is slightly humourous because it doesn’t fit possibly allowing the audiences to feel at ease and comfortable with seeking help from this particular charity.

   An extract from an episode script of “Friends” also uses represented speech which is not that surprising as it is script for a TV show with the purpose to entertain its audience. Although both texts use represented speech, the script uses it to entertain the viewers primarily through humor and by having situations their audience can relate to such as dating. Even though both texts use represented speech, there are not many other similarities other than that the script is primarily to entertain through the humourous language and that the possible humorous ending declarative of the advert transcript which may not have been the true intentions of the advert. The advert’s transcript was constructed of mainly simple sentences with a use of asyndetic listing to show that what the charity can offer is endless. On the other hand, the script was filled with questions that hopefully would evoke laughter in the audience such as “Wait, does he eat chalk?” and “Did I say that out loud?”, the questions are not only asked to create humour but because they show the audience what the characters are like and that although both these questions are funny it gives insight into the characters especially as this extract is from the Pilot episode. Also, the audience could relate to these situations especially if they have ever said anything out loud that was meant to be said in their head.

              Another advert transcript I have is the “Skittles” advert where the creators did a modern day version of the myth of King Midas where instead of turning things to gold, he turned things into skittles. This advert also uses represented speech but it has more similarities to the “Friends” script because although it is the same form as the “Age UK” advert, this text seems to be persuading the audience to buy skittles through entertainment using melodrama. This particular audience of younger children and possibly teenagers may find this advert humorous because although “Tim” may find his gift a curse because he cannot “hold [his] newborn baby boy in [his] arms”, this particular age group would find turning anything into skittles as being “awesome”. Another similarity between this text and the script is the use of questions such as “Did you feed and dress yourself this morning?”, although “Tim” uses them to evoke sympathy from “Joel” and the girl but instead evokes humour in the audience because they are aware it is not true.