One shocking second a day

 The most shocking second a day advert tries to portray a strong message to its consumers, conveying the tragedies of war-torn countries and trying to get people to relate and emphasise by showing it happen to a UK family. It also tries to shock and scare the target audience.

The name of the advert 'most shocking second a day' along with the narrative shows how easily a typically normal country can descend into chaos. The 'most shocking' seconds of the first days of the year being typical things from a young child and very mundane things portraying how calm and normal the girls life is. As it progresses there are snippets of shocking news broadcasts which until eventually the most shocking seconds are things such as gas attacks, having to flee their home and getting bombed. This is done to attempt to make the consumers empathise and relate to the victims of war as they see a visual representation of how their own mundane safe life could be effected the same way as places like the Middle East. 

The TV and news is an essential part of the mis-en-scene, we hear the news discussing the beginnings of a war however the girl doesn't pay any mind, as we are aligned with the girl throughout the advert this is representative of us as a western society. We are exposed to information about the war-torn countries but are too ignorant to it to pay any real attention. The costume of the young girl is also important, she goes from mostly wearing school uniform or nice clothes to essentially rags towards the end and her hair goes from well taken care of to raggedy and dirty. This is representative again of the descent from comfortable normal life into complete chaos and unrest.

The advert changes the typical tropes of charity adverts as instead of presenting the charity victims as in need of help, it presents the target audience as the charity victims making us think about how we would want to be treated.

The framing also helps achieve the adverts goal. The little girl, who we are aligned with is always the main focus of every shot, she is front and centre of the frame meaning we as the audience can't escape the reality she presents.