Lo1 - River Island - 'Labels Are For Clothes' campaign analysis.

The target audience for this campaign is of males and females aged 8-60 due to the fact that the models used within the adverts for the campaign vary from this age range (shown in the pictures), this means River Island are trying to target this audience as models in adverts typically reflect the audience that a company are targeting as the models make the adverts more relevant / relateable to people that look like them. The campaign has been launched to tackle outdated stereotypes and social labels, therefore people of different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religions, shapes, sizes and disabilities are denoted within the adverts in an attempt to show society that we are all the same regardless of our beliefs or physical appearance etc..This inclusiveness of a variety of different individuals makes the campaign appeal to an extremely mass audience as it shows that River Island don't just cater to a certain group of people. I think this campaign is targeting people that are classed as A's,B's,C1's &C2's on the NRS scale, since river island can be expensive but not to the point where it's not affordable for those that are middle class.

The key messages within this campaign are that people should be allowed to express themselves and not be defined via conventions, such as their sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability etc..to portray this message the campaign plays on washing instructions found on clothing labels, featuring 12 spokespeople, including a model and a body confidence activist, the adverts with these models on them includes a label graphic reading “do not shrink”, another advert includes a same sex couple with the phrase “do not separate” and a another has a non-binary model with the phrase “100% gender free”.                                                                                                                     

Bold, bright colours colours of the rainbow are used as white space within the adverts, this helps attract a mass audience as these colours are eye-catching and visually appealing due to their intensity, making the adverts attention grabbing to both children and adults. Secondly, these colours reinforce the key message of the campaign as we associate the colours of the rainbow with gay pride, therefore helping represent River Island as a brand that cater to everyone, regardless of their conventions. The denoted text on the adverts is in sans-serif font, this use of font helps the campaign appeal to a mass audience due to being very bold, meaning the text is easy to read from a reduced size or distance, this is important as the adverts were distributed on platforms such as poster and billboards, therefore the sans-serif font allows people to read text despite the fact that they may just be passing by or stood quite a distance away. Other methods used to attract the target audience are ones such as the fact that the campaign plays on washing instructions found on clothing labels to convey it’s key message, this helps the audience easily understand the meaning behind the campaign due to these labels being a visual representation of it’s name ‘Labels are for clothes’ (not people). This visual representation also helps filter the seriousness behind the purpose of the campaign as it adds a fun, therefore the use of these labels help attract the desired target audience as it makes it easier for the younger half of the audience to understand and keeps them entertained due to the play on words and elements within the campaign. Lastly the models used help attract the primary target audience as they make the campaign relevant and relatable to the target audience and their lifestyle, showing that River Island’s clothing is suitable for them.

The campaign was released in early 2018, this is significant due to the fact that in modern society people (especially young girls) feel pressured to meet standards of unrealistic social media influencers such as models and celebrities, due to the fact that todays generations children and teenagers are digital natives it is hard to avoid being bombarded with images of these ideal people due to social media recommendations and promotions, therefore River Island’s campaign attempts to show that you should accept who you are by using body confidence activists as models for the campaign with phrases reading “do not shrink” to show that you don't have to be a certain weight or look a certain way to be beautiful, this is important as many young girls compare themselves to these people despite that fact that these celebrities and infulencers have most likely had cosmetic surgeries. Secondly, although modern society has become a lot more accepting of gay and transgender people, there is still a lot of hate from ignorant people who are biased towards it being unacceptable due to reasons such as the way they were raised or their religion, therefore the campaign tries to normalize these elements by using a same sex couple as models within one of their adverts with the phrase “do not separate”, implying that is wrong to tell these people not to be together. Immature people, especially those who are younger tend to laugh at people with disabilities, it isn’t typical to see individuals with disabilities as models within adverts especially since campaigns typically use models who are seen as ideal selves to market their product, however,again this sets unrealistic standards for people, therefore the campaign has used models that have disabilities such as down syndrome to convey the message that everyone is the same no matter their physical appearance and someone shouldn’t be belittled or laughed at due to a disability. 

The producers of the campaign decided to distribute the advert over traditional media channels such as on billboards, posters, leaflets, newspapers and magazines. This use of traditional distribution is significant to helping attract the right target audience as everyone is able to see these advertisements due to them being in public areas, therefore helping reach everyone included within the target audience, the adverts were also distributed over modern media channels such as social media’s like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter, on websites and digital posters, this use of distribution over social medias will help the adverts reach a digital native audience. This is important to helping attract the right target audience as 8-19 year olds will have been brought up using technology, therefore helping reach this part of the primary target audience due to people of this age typically being on social medias a lot and having them with them all all times due to elements such as Iphones being portable. It was important that both traditional and new media channels were used to distribute the advertisements for the campaign as the audience targeted consists of a fairly large age gap, therefore various platforms needed to be used to help the advert reach those of different ages as they have grown up with different technologies, therefore the adverts needed to be suitable and reachable for everyone included. 

Legal issues such as intellectual property rights would have to be on assets such as the River Island logo to ensure that no other company steal / use them without the companies permission. Ethical issues that would have to be considered during the release of the campaign would be making sure River Island represent all of these people in a way that is suitable and acceptable, as non heterosexual people, people of different ethnicities, races, sizes and genders can be controversial and and sensitive topics as they are often represented in a negative way, therefore the campaign has to be sure that they have not portrayed anyone in a negative way that some people may question.