1) The documentary producer created print and radio advertisements to promote their documentary in an effective and consistent manner. 2) Both advertisements aimed to attract an audience and promote the documentary without revealing too much of the content. They used similar fonts, audio, and catchphrases to maintain a linked style. 3) Feedback confirmed the advertisements successfully promoted interest in the documentary as intended, making the combination of the main product and ancillary texts effective.

1. A-Level Media Studies Evaluation
HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE
COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN
PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

2. Introduction
The production of my ancillary texts; my print
and radio advertisements; played a key role in
the production of my documentary as I felt
that making the combination of the three
products effective was important. During the
production of my ancillary texts I tried to
sustain as many similarities with the actual
documentary as possible to create a sense of
professionalism and consistency.

3. Aims of ancillary texts
Both of my ancillary texts were produced in the form of
advertisements as a promotion of my documentary.
They are both of different types: one is intended to
be played on radio whilst the other is intended for
print in magazines that our target audience would be
interested in such as OK Magazine and NME
Magazine. We didn’t want either advert to be too
overwhelming, so we decided to go with the style of
professional adverts that we had studied by keeping
minimal text on the print advert and keeping the
radio advert at around thirty seconds in length: by
doing this we would only be including the things that
we thought would get people to watch our
documentary.

4. Consistency
Print Advert Documentary
In both the print advert and the documentary, we used the same font to create a sense of consistency
and to show that they are related. In addition to this, the radio advert and the documentary used the
same narrator and song as well as some audio clips being taken directly from the documentary for
inclusion in the radio advert to act as a preview of the documentary to listeners. The catchphrase
‘Seducing your appetite’ was used in both the print advert and the radio advert to show that they
were intended as a pair and both serve the same purpose; to promote our documentary. We also
chose a short, catchy title which was made clear in both advertisements as well as the documentary
and helped to support the intentions of the advertisements.

5. Content
With the print and radio advertisements we wanted to attract
people into watching our documentary without giving too much
away – we used the catchphrase ‘Seducing your appetite’ and
the title of ‘Tasty Takeaways’ in both adverts as well as providing
the scheduling of 8pm on Channel 4 which acted as an effective
promotion of the documentary as it is simple and straight to the
point. The audio clips and music used in the radio advert were
taken directly from the documentary and preview some of the
documentary’s content to a listener, hopefully making them want
to hear more by tuning into the documentary. Both
advertisements get their intended message across effectively as I
feel that they both provide the necessary information with just a
few seconds (for the radio advert) and a single image with limited
text (for the print advert).

6. Comparison to professional products
Professionalism was something that I and my group kept in
mind throughout the entire production process. Our
documentary was intended to be shown on Channel 4, so
we also produced the ancillary texts in the style of
Channel 4 to make our three productions look
professional and consistent. Using the Channel 4 website
we were able to look at existing print adverts and we
adapted their style for our own print advert – this is
shown on the next slide. We also listened to existing
radio adverts for similar documentaries and used many
of their common codes and conventions in our own radio
advert such as the length and the content to make it as
relevant to the documentary as possible.

7. Comparison to professional products
Here is our print advert next to an actual Channel 4 print advert for the show Shameless. In both
adverts there is a single image against a plain background which brings attention to the image and
helps to convey the theme of the programme without giving too much away, making a potential
viewer more inclined to watch the show. We were also sure to include the Channel 4 logo on the
right hand side of the image, as this is the case in every Channel 4 print advert and we wanted ours
to be as professional and realistic as possible. Finally, we put our text in a coloured box with a colour
that matched the image, with the title in large font and a short phrase and the scheduling just
underneath. We felt that it was important to make our print advert as realistic as possible as it is a
tried-and-tested formula used by Channel 4 with all of their programmes that helps to promote and
compliment the show in an eye-catching and simple manner.

8. Feedback to our ancillary texts
We asked for feedback on our ancillary texts as this would help us to
decide how effective the combination of the texts was. I got my
brother to view the documentary as well as the two ancillary
texts and asked for his feedback (these interviews can be seen in
Question 3 of my evaluation). In the interview he comments on
how despite being simple the print advert makes him want to
watch the documentary as it provides relevant information such
as the topic and scheduling, which was what we intended with
the simple design of our print advert. He said that the way in
which the same voices and music were used in both the radio
advert and the documentary made it clear that they were related
and also commented on how the use of a few questions and
answers in the radio advert made him want to watch the
documentary more as he wanted to see the rest of the
interviews.

9. Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel that the combination of my main product
with my ancillary texts was effective as all of the products
were made in a professional manner with enough similarities
between the three products to make it clear that they were
intended to be partners. The audience feedback that I had
received on the ancillary texts shows that they did the
intended job of making the person want to watch the
documentary without giving too much away due to their
simplistic style which makes me consider the ancillary texts a
success. I also feel that the ancillary texts were representative
of actual radio and print adverts which makes them effective
as we wanted all three of the products to follow the same
style; professional and consistent.