Barnardos

Todays topic is: Barnardos Charity.

What were the issues being explored?

The issues being explored were that of poverty, they used pictures of homeless children, dirty and dressed in rags to send shock through the Victorian age, to get the wealthy to give money to help save children in that state.


What triggered this use of advertising and photography?



Barnardos was a very well known and well financed charity because it ran on the basis that the money would be used for the children and to keep orphanages open. In 1966 Barnardos began to close some of the orphanages. Over the next 30 years Barnardos became less well known and its target audience began to fade, when being recruted 88% of the young people they targeted felt that the charities function was irrelivant in todays day and age. It was then that Barnardos had to re-think their way of getting young people involved in the charity. They approuched the advertising agency Bartle, Bogle & Hogarty in 1998 to come up with new advertisments to get young people of today up-to-date with what the charity is doing with the money and how it needs our help.


This particular advert is based around truth but also a lie. The truth is shown, that this girl has been born into poverty. This is shown by the use of the rusty old car behind her, and the muddy field. The lie is in the slogan "its just poverty, she will grow out of it" we all know that this is not the case, that this is not true which is why they use it. We all know that this little girl wont grow up to have money and wealth if we dont help her. but


yet some people still dont give money for children like this to have a brighter future which is the reason why they used it in the poster. To show to us how some people may stil think and to get us to give money to help this little girl.





This was a shocking advert realised by Barnardos in 2003. It shows a new born baby with a bottle of methylated spirits in its mouth. This was used to strike fear and dissgust into the public, to show that not all baby's are born into wealthy families, that some babies are born into poverty. To show this in a way we would understnad they have taken the "silver spoon" concept to show wealth and replaced it with a harmful liquid, a cockroach and a syringe to show what these babies will be growing up with and what they will be around if we dont help them and support them.

Is this issue relevant today?

Yes of course it is. More and more children are born into families that need financial support to keep themselves from starving or becoming homeless. These dissturbing adverts shocked the country because deep down we acctually know it is true, there are babies that are born into loving families but will grow up around dirt, dugs and things that can harm them. Which is why Barnardos are still around, to help these children.

How did charities develop their print campaigns?

Charities have developed their print campaigns by using rouphly the same idea as Barnardos. They used pictures we as a country would relate to and recognise and change it to suit their campaigns.

Take this charity for isstance. They use the money we send to help parents become more aware of their anger issues towards their children and help them become better parents. The advert they have used is is like the "silver spoon" advert. They have a picture of a little blond girl, to represent the inocents of children, she is dressed in white again to show how pure and inocent she is. The background is white also, with not alot of detail in the background, this is to imediatley capture your attention towards the child.

The clever thing they have done with the advert is to show her face smashed on the table. This is to show how fragile children are, and to show that if you dont look after them properly they break, they get hurt.









How did they attract audiences?

They attracted the audience by using shocking images to capture our attention. In particular they use children because people will care and pay attention more if they she pictures of children or babies in distress. Thats why children in need, Barnardos etc are so well known. Because in their adverts they show us the truth, they show us that right under oun noses children are born into poverty, are abused or starving.