F.A.S.T – Stroke awareness
The advert was created by The UK Department of Health to raise awareness of strokes; it’s a public service broadcast that is aimed at the mass population. The purpose of the advert is to inform the audience in the immediate action that should be taken when dealing with a stroke; but more importantly recognising the signs of a stroke. The PSB is very important as it demonstrates the processes of both recognising a stroke and dealing with it. Strokes are the third most common cause of death in the UK; with 150,000 people a year suffers a stroke.
The location of the advert is in a crowd of people and the male is watching an event in a stadium (maybe football), this may be to demonstrate that strokes can strike at any time in any place.
The advert itself visually informative, it begins with a mid-shot of a man around 55-60 years old, this may be because these are the most at risk to strokes, although they can happen at any age. Men are also slightly more at risk than women, although it’s not uncommon for women to be affected by strokes.
In the first few seconds the male is watching the game, everything appears relatively normal; however after 4 seconds there is an animation of fire that starts in the man’s brain. The fire builds slowly as it’s representive of the way the stroke affects the brain it is described as a fire in the brain, which gets progressively worst. As the advert continues the other signs of a stroke are illustrated: one side of the face drops, the power in the arms is lost and the male drops the cups he’s holding, the lack of speech ability. The viewer is then informed how to act, the visual image is of a mobile phone, on the phones screen it reads 999; this is reinforced with large yellow text that restates the need to call 999. This is accompanied by the F.A.S.T acronym in clear, large yellow text, it was designed to help people remember what process they need to access and act on; the use of yellow may be purely for the way it demands attention and cannot be missed. Yellow is also a highlighting colouring.
The advert ends with a resolution, the fire in the man’s brains is slowly reduced, as it does the other symptoms are resolved; it implies that because a person has acted quickly the less damage is done.
The voice over in the ad is Sue Johnson who is a well-known British actress. The voice is presented in a monotone, expression-less way probably to ensure the advert is taken seriously (as it’s a serious subject) and also to ensure the voice over doesn’t distract from the visuals.
I think this PSB is very effective and for fills its purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment