Banned UK TV Advert

Product advert analysis

                      This mar-mite advert is an example of a mockumentary, which means it's a parody of a regular documentary. It's about a rescue team saving neglected mar mite jars, hence the title. It's also shot very much like a documentary, foe example the camera isn't on a tripod so the footage is a bit shaky making it look a bit rough. It also looks very natural, like there's no obvious artificial lighting etc. Because it's in the style of a documentary there aren't any complex shot types or anything. This decision could have been made to save money on production.


It is also a humorous advert because it is parodying something in a funny way, although it isn't harmless and could be seen as offence to some people because of the very serious topic it is parodying, but the fact that is it something that could be offensive it would stick in the audiences minds. Although the controversy of the advert gathered a lot of complaint against marmite the advert done very well and sold a lot of marmite.


At the start of the advert the colours are all washed out and dark, this is to make the scene seem sad and less upbeat. The end of the advert is much brighter and more colourful, this makes it seem much more happy, the contrast between the two opposites makes it more noticeable. This is because they want to make their product appealing, seem like mar-mite will brighten up the customers day. This is a very standard technique for adverts to use

This shot at the end of the advert shows a family enjoying Marmite, in this shot the colours aren't washed out at all and everyone in the shot is happy. This is a great way to end to advert because it shows Marmite being enjoyed by a traditional family.

The lack of special effects throughout the whole advert is to suppose the form and style. There wasn't any use for special effects because the advert was very much grounded in reality.

There isn't much variation in shot types most of them being medium/ close ups, with a few establishing shots in the middle. The establishing shots were used to show a transition in location, this is a very common convention in film making, but it is very useful to show change.






this is an example of an establishing shot.



The use of medium shots is very typical for a documentary because it can show people interacting with each other. Medium shots are often used for interviews. Most of the shots in this advert are medium shots because most of it is filmed indoors in quite small rooms so there isn't enough space for long shots.



This advert also used a lot of close up shots, this is also a very typical convention of documentaries, they are sometimes used in interviews to closely show someones reaction to something. They are also used sometimes to create suspense or to build tension by showing someone looking nervous. There are some close ups in this advert to show tension in some on the characters.

In this advert no real benefits are being offered to the customer, which i think is apart of Marmites brand identity, the fact that they know there are people who absolutely hate Marmite and they're not trying to change that is a very good adverting technique because if they kept trying to market to everyone people would get really frustrated and annoyed.

The ASA (advertising standards authority) regulate adverts and decide if they're appropriate to be televised. They can refer problematic advertisements to Ofcom who can take legal action. The code that advertisers advertising on TV have to follow is called the bcap code, there is a different code for other forms of advertising called the cap code.

 The Marmite advert follows the bcap code although there are some grey areas, for example, the code says advertisements must not offend people, but the Marmite advert offend a lot of people and had a lot of Ofcom complaints about it. This is a grey area because it's difficult to decide what people will be offended by when creating an advert.




The unique selling point of marmite is that is it very unique and there's nothing really like it.

Primary audience

The primary audience for mar-mite would be a typical British family. This isn't difficult to see because near the end of the advert a typical British family come to adopt a jar of mar-mite. It's definitely targeted towards adults because of the type of humour, although the advert would still be accessible
 by children.

The house that they show in the advert is very normal, it isn't overly fancy, which makes it more appealing to the general public because it doesn't seem like an elitist product.
Also the benefit of having a family in the advert is that it is appealing to all ages, because it's showing that all ages can enjoy it. 

The downside to this advert is that it could offend some people because it is parodying a very serious issue, so some people might take offence to this. Although the advert followed all the guidelines it received a large amount of complaints, though it didn't get banned from being aired.
I believe this advert is targeted towards roughly C1-C2 social grade, this is because everything seems very average in the advert, like a middle of the range family. This is a very good advertising technique because it's not excluding anyone.
They are advertising to average suburban families, although it might seem offensive to some families that are similar to the people who were neglecting the mar-mites, although this advert got a fair amount of complaints it didn't get take off air.
The advert is trying to make the viewer emotional as well as find it funny, which is very difficult to do.


Most of the Advert has mellow sad music in the background, this further parodies that documentary genre, it also had a voice over, which is very common with documentaries. the editing style is very basic, there isn't any special effects. It's vert fast pasted, although most adverts are, most of the/ advert consists of very shorts shots that last a couple seconds.

Banned advert

A kfc advert from 2008 was taken off air because it got too many complaints, from parents saying it taught children bad manners. Although the advert passed through ASA, because it doesn't have anything explicitly wrong with it. Adverts rarely get taken down because of complaints, but this advert got an extortionate about of complaints so kfc didn't really have a choice.
 This is why adverting companies need to be very careful not to offend anyone because adverts are so expensive to make and if they get pulled from the air then all the money has gone to waste. Although this advert didn't do anything wrong (it didn't promote any violence or anything illegal). But it still offended a lot of people.

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