Advertising of Doctor Who

Advertising Analysis

Here are a few examples of posters advertising Doctor Who:

 

 

In my previous posts I stated that I think the target audience of Doctor Who is 8-14 year old males. I think these official Doctor Who posters back that up because firstly, the posters are suitable for the age range. There are no references to anything inappropriate for the age range like sex, drugs, alcohol or too much violence. This suggests that the target audience is quite young because the posters were made by the BBC who have to stick to the advertising standards and therefore make there posters appropriate to the target audience that they are trying to attract to the show. If there were references like this on the posters, it would suggest that the TV show is aimed at an older target age group and the show would probably be on after watershed time. Secondly I think that the posters are suitable for the age range because they do reference the things that boys of this age range look for in a TV show. For example, danger, you can tell that the characters are scared or worried because of the expressions of their faces. None of them are smiling. Also in the "Name of the Doctor" poster, the broken glass could represent danger as  could the fire in the "day of the Doctor poster". Secondly, a boy of this age range would look for action or adventure. This is represented in the posters by the use of colours. If the TV show was all happy the colours would be bright and light but the fact of all the dark, deep colours suggest that there is drama in this. Also the backgrounds or other things in the poster suggest that this is an action adventure show. The background on the lower right poster isn't a normal location, this get's you wondering where they are and how they got there or what kind of adventure they must be on. The lower left poster suggests action by the broken glass. The broken glass could represent a fight or something going wrong witch would be action. In the top poster it's easy to see that it is action/ adventure because they have the image of one character walking out of an explosion and an explosion suggests action/ adventure. Another theme that the posters portray is excitement. The bottom left poster has a different kind of excitement though. This poster was created for a long anticipated event and I think that it's more of a teaser then an advertisement. Either way you can see the excitement in it because of the way the main character is staring though the glass with a sad expression on his face, it makes you want to know what's happened. Also the slogan on the poster "his secret is revealed" makes you want to know the secret. I think this is very powerful for pulling people in and people in the target age range would respond to this method well. THe main thing that suggests excitement in the lower right poster is the colours and the patterns. The colour's are all dark and gloomy but then there is that streak of purple going though parts of it. I think that this is really good for implying that something exiting is happening as the colour purple and that specific pattern give of the idea of movement. On the topic of movement representing excitement, if you look at the image on the poster, you expect that if it was a moving image, the whole poster would be moving around. This is because of the positions the characters are in and the background. They aren't stood on solid ground so you expect that they are either floating or falling. The top poster represents excitement mainly by the expression of the characters and the position's they are stood in. The whole thing is quite grim and dramatic and then there is the explosion in the middle. This gives of the effect of calmness and then suddenly you see the explosion and you feel like there is more to it and you want to see it.

 

So overall I think these, and most, posters for Doctor Who reach out to and draw in the specific target audience by using ways to make the posters age appropriate and show a sense of action, adventure and excitement.

 

Here is an example of an advert advertising

Doctor Who: