Analysis of a television advert and how it reaches its target audience. Television adverts are perhaps, the most effective method of advertisement, which uses both visual and audio to do so. This is because nearly every person in the country has a television and watches TV in their spare time. An advert can use any theme or medium to communicate its message to the viewers. Humour, emoticon, narratives (story lines), informative etc. companies spend millions of pounds on the design and development of their adverts and for air time, the time the advert is shown and how long it is broadcast.
For example, long adverts in between popular shows such as the Simpsons will cost more because they reach a wider audience. In this effect, companies need adverts that get their point across quickly, so designers have to stand out and be effective at affecting the audience. Each advert has a target audience. This is the particular people the advert is aiming to have most effect on. For example, football boot adverts are aimed at young men, as these are the majority of football fans. Companies spend time and money researching their target audience to find what would be most effective on them.
The advert I am analysing now was an award winning advert for Audi car manufactures. The target audience for this advert were males with families, fathers, carers of the environment (it has a catalytic converter) and generally people with responsibilities. This advert tries to influence it audience in a number of ways. We see this from the start, in which we see a window to a nice house through the leaves of a tree.
This is a very pleasant view, indicating a happy and secure life for who ever lives in this house. The picture then moves through the window, to give us a look in to this cheerful life. We see a man walking away from us through a corridor. The scene is largely in shadow so we can see only the outline of the man and not his face. This provokes intrigue in the viewer with an air of darkness and mystery in the character. He is in smart but casual clothes and the inside of the house is as good as the outside, showing that he is well off.
In the next image, the man picks up the phone and answers it. We could not hear the phone ring, and can’t hear what the man is saying. He soon drops the phone, not bothering to put it back on its hook. Our suspicions of danger and mystery are confirmed and heighten by these happenings. What is so important that he has to leave so quickly? Is he in danger? Is he in danger from the darkness of his past? We don’t know. The scene is still in shadow, so we still don’t she who this man is. What we do see of his face is panicky, matching with the thought of him in danger. These are done to keep the viewer guessing and want to know what is happening.
Next we see a young boy in his bedroom looking into a toy with a light in the middle which spins so it looks like the man in the picture is moving. The boy looks young, sweet and innocent and his face is lit up by toy. This is surprising when in contrast to the man see previously, as they seem almost opposite. This causes emotions of the audience to grow. As the audience is males, fathers, and the immediate reaction is a want to protect the boy from danger, either the man, or the danger which the man is running from. The man himself immediately comes through the door of the bedroom and talks to the boy urgently but with care. We can see this in his face.
We have to, because we still can’t hear him. This means that he, as we can tell, is not a danger to the child, but the opposite, he wants to protect him, presumably from what he has just heard on the phone. He is obviously the boy father because the boy dose what he is told straight away, which must mean he feels the urgency his father is feeling because he was enjoying playing with his toy and to leave it so readily must mean so. The next scene is key. It only shows for perhaps a second, making the audience have to make a quick assumption about what the image shows. It shows the black silhouette of a man in a black hat and black coat.
He looks dangerous, has the characteristics of death in human form. He looks like he is leaving through the open window. Following the father and son? Are the father and son being storked by death? Of course it could just be the father closing the window before he leaves and he looks black and wearing a hat because of the sunlight coming through the window makes him look dark. Either way, the audience feels more wary, having to make a decision on whether they saw danger for the father and son or not.
The family leave the house, rushing out with the father pulling the child by the hand to make him move faster displaying his fear and want to flee and save his son. The sun is setting as they get in to the Audi. This is a symbolism of death because of the saying ‘everything is getting dark’, how every thing fades to black when you die. Once in the car however, the boy seems almost happy in the car, showing the he fells safe, creating a sense of security in the Audi which is a great selling point for the car.
