Analysis of adverts from 8-10 years ago

John Smiths – Ball Skills – 30 seconds. 2000

-          Grainy picture

-          Not very eye catching lettering for ‘no nonsense’.

-          Clothes are different- e.g. shoes

Halifax - X Bomb - 60 seconds. 2000

-          clothes are different

-          glasses= unusual

-          office is reasonably dull

Budweiser - Whassup - 60 seconds. 2000

-          old fashioned setting- house

-          old fashioned house phones, would otherwise expect modern gadgets

In general, TV advertising has become a lot more varied and sophisticated in the way products are promoted. Rather than simply focusing on the brand name and product, adverts are now becoming more inventive and unusual in the way they inform viewers. For example, the Cadburys advert ‘Gorilla’ shown in 2007 features a gorilla playing the drums to a well know song, with no promotion of the Cadbury brand until the very end. This detracts away from the fact that the clip has a purpose of promoting the product; however it ensures the advert is remembered by the viewer and therefore so is the product. This is an example of modern day advertising in a very subtle way. In contrast to this, the advert ‘X Bomb’ by Halifax from the year 2000 is done in a very different style, always focusing on, and informing the viewer of the brand that is Halifax. It features a man singing, again to a well known song, but changing the lyrics to contain information about the service they can offer. This means the viewer is constantly being given messages to use the service and therefore it may not be as entertaining as the completely unusual Cadburys Gorilla. Both of these methods are likely to be effective to certain audiences however it is interesting to see how adverts have diversified in 10 years. One common factor that both of these adverts have is the fact that they both contain well known, instantly recognisable and light hearted songs. This suggests there is a feel good element which the viewer would find appealing about this and therefore is likely to increase the effectiveness of the advertising.

The Budweiser advert ‘Whassap’ from the year 2000 relies very much on its comedic edge and its use of typical stereotypes of the men at this time. The two men are seen lounging on sofas at home, on the phone to each other, when they are joined by other (equally laidback) friends. Their conversation consists of the word ‘whassap’ several times and this aims to entertain the reader, perhaps allowing them to relate to the characters in some way. This reflection of young men at this time is likely to be accurate, however in more recent years this reflection of men is relatively unusual in advertising. However, the brand is portraying their typical consumer in a laid back, ‘cool’ group of friends. The difference between this advert and one from more recently is the use of old telephones in the house. The phone that is used on the wall is obviously not a modern gadget, which is more likely to be used in an advert aiming to appeal to young, ‘cool’ men. An advert such as the Honda advert, shown in 2010 shows a new, cool car with many modern gadgets and gismos which are aiming to appeal to their young driving market. This is in contrast to the older Budweiser advert.

A common factor in all of the advertisements I looked at was the difference in clothing used in advertisements from the year 2000, to the 2010. A likely cause of this difference is probably fashions and trends. For example, John Smiths, ‘Ball skills’ advert shows men playing football, wearing old fashioned dirty football boots. This is unusual as usually they would be showing top of the range, classy boots in order to make the brand they are promoting look more ‘top of the range’ and ‘classy’. However, it is important to focus on the whole image of the brand – if this is a beer marketed to ‘real men’ the characters in the advertisement would not want to look too shiny or trendy, especially as men want to remain masculine, which sometimes means not washing or wasting money on fashion!