Charity analysis shelter

In this print advert, the social and cultural contexts are shown through the unknown individuals that are used to advertise the charities message. These individuals are unknown so that people won’t make initial judgements on the individuals and rethink the message shared by Shelter. The colour of the text is in red, which normally represents pain and despair. The text fades into the individual’s eyes to really show the troubles that being homeless is affecting them. This clever use of the print advert helps to make the audience feel sorry for them and really connected to help out these individuals. All the individuals in these pictures show signs of fatigue and despair which really conveys the ideas of how much of a serious problem homelessness is in this day and age. The adverts close up shot really helps to convey the ideas that homelessness is getting worse and needs to be taken seriously. The text also is relating to different reasons that these people are on the verge of being homeless. From losing a job, a rogue landlord and debt. All of this are problems that lead to anybody becoming homeless.

The individuals are mainly foreign and don’t look like they have lived in the UK. However, Shelter want to help people to understand that homelessness will affect anyone and not poor people or foreign people fleeing from war. These representations people have on these individuals show inequalities and conflicting social values of modern day. This is one of the main messages Shelter want to eradicate and share the idea that this issue needs to be addressed before this problem gets more out of hand.

On the advert, Shelter try to spread their message of “We can help”. However, people that may be in these situations who are from a middle class or above may not want to share the idea that they are in financial situation that they risk being homeless. Therefore, on a social context Shelter want to reach out to these people but don’t want to directly contact them/force their help. The main reason Shelter advertised in this way, was to spread a direct message to all different groups of people. They want to make sure that everyone has the right support. They wanted to advertise in a harsh way by indicating that these are real people and homelessness is a ever growing problem.