Television Adverts Analysis

In television, advertisements between programming are aired to the public, who see thousands every year. These adverts are created to let the audience know about a particular product, brand or organization and often create hype through cleverly scripted and attractive looking advertisements. These advertisements use different ways to attractive their intended audience, whether it is through celebrity endorsement, comedy or by the audience relating to the situation happening in the narrative of the advertisement.

The first advertisement I am going to analyze is for Alton Towers, for the new ride 13. The style of this advert is predominately surrealist, which is evident through the use of effects, such as the twisting of the branches in the woods, wrapping around the character's body and the possession- like experience the character in the advert is going through. It is also surrealist as it isn't something you'd see in real life - which adds to the idea of the ride '13' being spooky and mysterious, and also the number 13 associating with fear, bad luck and mythology. We can also say this advert is of dramatic style, as the advert denotes a lot of fear and emotion through the character's movements and tone of voice (erratic movements; random, voice - whispery/breathlessness of character). This conveys the idea to the audience that this ride is as scary and to be feared of as the advert, but intrigues the audience by not giving away too much information about what the ride does, but rather suggest that its movement of the roller-coaster ride is a lot like the character and also the branches/vines wrapping around her legs. The style of the advert (which is surrealist/dramatic) is similar to the form of advertisement - as the form of advert is anti-realist. This means that anything seen in the advert is different from everyday behavior, such as super-natural occurrences or spooky happenings which are usually seen and associated with scary movies. This is evident through the vines of the woods almost engulfing the character and pulling her inwards to the ride, which wouldn't happen in real life. The creators have done this to suggest that the ride will pull you in because it's so intriguing, whilst showing that what you will experience when you go on this ride will be out of this world/unreal.The mise-en-scene of the Alton Towers advert creates a dark and dingy atmosphere -with the darkened woods in the background, the dirty/damaged child (character of advert), the ride - which is blending in with woods and the characters on the ride toward the end of the advertisement. All these things which are scene throughout the advertisement in the shots denote terror and fear. This is emphasized on through the camera work, as most of the shots centralize the character and focus on her in the video through close ups and mid shots, showing her surroundings and her outfit - which fits in with the dirty woods, as her clothes are stained with dirt. There are quite a few shots used throughout this advertisement, such as close ups to show the expressions of the characters in the advert - especially the close up of the eye of the person on the ride which clearly shows the fear in their eyes as a scream is heard. Long shots are also used heavily in the advert to give the audience more information about the setting and show the character's surroundings, by showing the ride and the woods which are camouflaging it. The long shots are used to show the product that the advert is advertising as it's large and wouldn't be able to be seen in its full glory with a close up or mid-shot. These shots consist of the following; images of a terrified eye, location shots, shots of character and her body (feet - torso etc.) Erratic camera movement is used as the character walks, to show that there is something not right and what we are seeing is something distorted and strange. In the advertisement, iconography (visual images which one associates with something and the audience can interpret to understand something in further detail) has been used in a range of different ways. For instance, the first thing I spotted when looking for iconography in this advertisement was the use of the number 13 (which is also the name of the ride) on the character's necklace. This number is used at the beginning and end of the video, which helps the audience associate with feelings of fear and terror, as the number 13 is usually associated with these feelings. Another way it has been used is through the colouring of the advertisement - as it is dark, the audience will associate this with dark thoughts and anything other than happiness as blacks, blues and greys are dingy, sad colours and colours such as oranges, yellows etc. are associated with happiness. The scared eye close-up which I mentioned earlier clearly shows the emotions of the person on the ride, as the eye moves and flickers around erratically and the audience would see and interpret this as being abnormal and the character being scared. Another use of iconography is the twisting of the vines of the woods. This is to impersonate the twisting motion of the roller-coaster and show the audience that it will take you on a journey, as the main character is wrapped with the vines of the woods. The editing for this advertisement consists of, one of the biggest (most used) being the camera/video being cut sharply to the next shot, to surprise and/or scare the audience watching. The brightness of the shots has also been dimmed so the dingy/spooky feel of the advertisement is highlighted and the mood is put across to the audience, whilst it could also suggest that the advert is set at night time and is the best time for the audience to go on the ride. Although there isn't any particular 'music' within the advert, sound has been manipulated to fit the eerie atmosphere of the shots, for instance, the character who is focused on throughout the video is singing a nursery rhyme which the words have been changed to and has been echoed. This has been done to show that the place where the girl is singing is empty and her voice is bouncing off the woods. The words she sings are 'If you go down to the woods today, you better not go alone' which suggests that if you were to go on this ride you shouldn't go alone because it's terrifying, whilst it is also a good persuasive technique to make people buy into Alton Towers. Other sounds heard in the advertisement are the sounds of the ride and the vines in the woods moving, which are atmospheric sounds and are key to creating the scene for the advert and make the audience believe what they are seeing. This advertisement sends out an overt message as at the end of the advert the audience are told directly what the product is. I feel there are also aspects of hidden messages throughout the advert, such as the number 13, which none of the audience would know what it meant to full extent until they have gone onto the ride, as the narrative does not explain the link between the number and the ride, only the association between the number and fear is evident to the audience. The majority of the advertisement is made up by emotional response and manipulation, as the audience are triggered by distorted music and themes to feel a certain way. This is an effective technique to use as it will make the audience (especially the majority who enjoy the thrill of spooky rides/scary situations) want to go onto the ride and await unexpected things when they actually go on the ride. The biggest characteristic of  the product is that it appeals to a particular lifestyle widely, which is people who enjoy the thrill of theme parks and the scary rides they have to offer. As the advert focuses on triggering a emotional response in the audience, this is what the ride would do and that's why it would appeal to a specific lifestyle and that is the biggest characteristic of this advertisement.

Contrasting to this style of advertisement, the second one I have analyzed is for Zazoo - condoms. The style of this advert is humorous as it begins serious and the tone of the advert changes by showing the connection between the product (condoms) and the screaming child in the supermarket.The humor is shown through a annotation on the end of the advert which says “USE CONDOMS.” This makes it funny as it suggests that if you use their product you won’t end up with a screaming child in a supermarket and your life will be a lot better than it would be with a child.