Relay Audio Commentary

For the final assignment in Advertising and Imagery, we were asked to split into groups to work on an advertising campaign that could possibly be used for next year's relay for life. I am part of the audio group, and I am in charge of a possible superhero theme. The final product of my work is a superhero-related radio spot that raises awareness and advertises Relay.

In the Public Service Advertising reading, it is mentioned that in order for a PSA to be sponsored by the Ad Council, the issue must be about health and safety, education, or community. Technically, Relay for Life meets the criteria of being about health, so our individual advertisements could too. In addition, the Relay advertisements and radio spots also serve a similar value to the campaigns sponsored by the Ad Council. For example, Bill Clinton is quoted to have spoken highly of how the Ad Council helped with speaking to children about gun safety and drug usage. In a similar manner, our own advertisements also speak to viewers in a similar way and help raise awareness about the Relay event, while encouraging people to join in.

I would say that the main strength of the finished superhero radio spot is definitely the message and presentation of the message. Plenty of work went into writing and re-writing the scripts in order to create and improve the message being sent. I mentioned the presentation of the message because I recorded my own voice in a way that sounds sort of like a super-hero announcer and put in background audio that reminded me of superheroes.

At the same time, I feel that the main weakness of the finished product was the fact that I had to record it with my own voice. I believe that a voice actor or even someone more popular than I would attract more attention to the listeners. However, I used superhero-sounding background music to help attract listeners.