Analysis Of A Variety Of Commercials For TV

Many different methods are used by advertisers in order to draw the viewer in to watching the advert and buying the product. For example, a lot of the time, advertisers try to exploit the fears and weaknesses of the viewers, such as sex appeal, personal success, security, identification and many more. These methods tend to work really well in advertisements.

The Guinness evolution commercial is a good example of this. This advert is high budget because not only does it have actors and sets but also uses complex animation. The advertisers are exploiting a human weakness called gluttony. The commercial is a story, going back in time. By going back trough evolution (before Guinness), the advertisers are saying that it’s taken a very long time for evolution to make such a good drink like Guinness, so waiting for the foam to settle, isn’t very long at all, but is worth it. This method is called inversion and Guinness has used this in many of their ads. This advert is advertised at small groups of men, who enjoy going to the pub with their mates. The very fact the three men walking into a pub is a stereotype and is in many known jokes relates to the viewer.

A completely different commercial to the Guinness one is the Colgate Sensitive Pro Relief advert, which is a low budget advertisement using one set only and members of the public, which are generally cheap to use also because they do not give a polished performance, like actors, they are more ordinary therefore the audience trust them. The advert is set in a shopping center, with a presenter asking people to try this toothpaste. The good reactions of the customers make you feel like it really works, so you go an buy the product. This commercial does this in a very cheesy way. This technique is called ‘heath’ showing people a before and after using this product.

The Honda ‘Hate Something’ commercial is an example of a high concept, high budget, high production value CGI animation advertisement. It uses the viewers concerns about pollution levels from diesel car engines and our concern about the environment to persuade us that Honda listens to its customers and responds to their concerns with new efficient engine’s. It appeals to our need for security for the future of our world. it’s also to appealing via maternal or paternal love, because the parents who buy this car may be interested in creating a better world for their children. Interestingly the ad also uses intersexuality to appeal to its consumers and uses the notion of inversion to its advantage.

Our lead character within the animation is a new shiny, noise free, pollution free Honda diesel engine which quickly replaces the old, dirty, smelly, smoke belching diesel engines of the past at the start of the ad. The old perception of noisy diesel engines of the past is reinforced in the mise en scene by the bunny rabbits wearing earmuffs. When the new diesel engine appears not only do the rabbit characters remove their ear muffs but their is a gap in the soundtrack for us to ‘hear’ the silence of the new Honda diesel engine.

On the other hand the Cresta commercial is a very low budgets advertisement Like the Honda advertisement it uses animation, however this kind of animation is a hand drawn sketch and extremely low budget. The advert is one static camera shot of a bear trying the Cresta drink towards the end when the ear falls to the ground after tasting the drink, the camera moves to the bear, it is said that the bear’s character is based on Jack Nicholson the actor a really cool iconic man. This helps advertise the drink as everyone wants to be like Jack Nicholson and that exploits the human weakness Identification and celebrity endorsement. The sound is all diegetic because it was all from inside the scene, the bear talking, the noise of the bear drinking and the sound of the bear falling to the ground. The Honda advert has a lot of sound in it, the diegetic sound of the engines and the music because the birds are singing it and also the non-diegetic sound, the voice over of the man telling the story.

Another advert is the Iceland advertisement. in this advert several celebrities are performing a musical, talking about the wide range food’s from Iceland. This advert uses a sound, editing and mise en scene to create a number of different impressions upon the viewers. For example, the scene is very brightly lighted, with lots of different colours in the scene; this exploits our love of Christmas, and makes people feel closer to Christmas which many people love. There are also objects around the room that are used to attract the viewers attention, for example, there are clear shots of the table full with very big portions of different foods along a very big freezer with lots of drinks, this is exploiting our weakness Gluttony. This advert also relies heavily on the use of sound, the sound in this is diegetic, as the music is supposed to be coming from the characters in the advert, this advert uses intersexuality with a cover by Dean Martin which is often played around Christmas time, this also adds to the feeling of Christmas time. There is also the use of background sounds such as people talking and glasses banging together, this gives the effect of a warm welcoming homelike atmosphere. The editing in this is used a lot to draw the audience in. For example, the camera zooms in to the foods whenever the characters mention them, this causes the viewers to feel hungry, exploiting our fear of Gluttony, the shots of the food are also a lot longer than the other shots, which may be used so that theses shots are stay in our memory. These advert also uses lots of Medium Shots to show the main characters body language, it could also be said that the shots of the characters may be too revealing, causes sex appeal, which may attract many male viewers. The use of celebrities also exploits our fear of Identification.

Also, the Ariel Pure clean advert’ uses sound, editing and Mise en Scene. For example, the lighting in this advert is very soft and calm, this may represent the softness of Ariel. Also, the pale white skin and blonde hair of all of the characters in this advert is being used to reinforce the purity of the product, although, this could be deemed as racist, as there are no people with any other colours apart from white which could suggest that anyone that is not white is not pure, this could cause some people not to bye this product. The diegetic sound used in this is very simple and short, such as the squeezing of the lime, the breaking of the ice and the girl singing, this adds to the simple and relaxed feeling of this advert. The non-diegetic sounds are things like the music and a voice over. The voiceover is a very soft and relaxed voice, this adds to the relaxed and soft feeling of the advert. The music seems to link with the diegetic sound, for example, when the ice is broken, a little high pitch tone is played at the same time, also when the girl sings, the music fades away, then comes back afterwards, this reinforces the emotions and feelings that the sounds are trying to make the viewers feel. The timing of shots in this is really short, 2 - 5 seconds long, then cut straight away to another shot, with no transitions, which keeps the viewer interested. The only transition in this advert is from looking at the white sheets into a picture of the product, this suggests that the product is as clean and as pure as the white sheets.