The Maiden Entry

Most great advertisements are the result of the use of a good narrative in an appropriate way. We see that using a narrative, people begin to relate to the characters involved and thus associate themselves with the product. This then allows marketers to reach out to their audience by creating cognitive awareness and also encouraging the audience to take behavioural action.

In our weekly blog, our group will attempt to discuss the how marketers in different fields use narratives in their advertising campaign and how they are successful in doing so. We will also highlight some campaigns that have used narrative and may not have been that successful.

Embrace Life- always wear your seat belt



I know I was told to do an advertisement about cars but I thought about it and marketing a campaign is just as difficult as marketing a car. This particular campaign in the UK encourages drivers, and their passengers to put on their seat belts for safety reasons, so you see, a car is involved. Unlike the usual campaign ads that feature gruesome images and loud crashing sounds, this particular ad is pleasant and heart warming. I shall discuss how the different components of this narrative make the ad affective in evoking emotions among its target audience.

It begins with the setting; the scene sets up in a normal living room, something most of us are familiar with. We see a man, who one would assume the role of the protagonist or some might even say the “hero”, miming the actions of starting up a car and then steering. His family watches as he begins and he turns to his right, meeting the eyes of his wife and daughter. The camera angles make this possible and it allows the audience to take on the roles and the point of views of the different characters. It is hard to tell what is happening at this point and this could intrigue the audience so much so that they would want to find out what happens next. Suspense begins to build as we see the close ups of the character's faces changing and the audience still cannot tell what is happening. This once again picks up the interest of its viewers. We then see his daughter and wife holding on to him, like a seat belt as he is seen crashing through this imaginary vehicle as glitter fills the place as he leaves the scene safe and sound.

It is not difficult for the viewers to understand what is happening, they can geel the urgency of the situation and understand the emotions going through the characters in the narrative. Thanks to the angles given by the camera as well as the slow motion sequences, it allows the viewers to not only see every single change in mood of each character and also time to think about what they are looking at. There is no need for the exchange of words or any form of dialogue as it becomes very clear what the message is about. For campaigns such as these, they usually use the concept of fear to spring the viewers into action. Even though this clip is not gruesome and is nothing frightening, it still invokes the fear in the viewers as it touches emotions that are close to their hearts. The use of pleasant music allows the viewers to concentrate on the matter or the message present. This sort of reminds me of Bertolt Bretch's style where you eliminate unimportant elements so that the audience would see the main message and thus spring into action. This type of filming is also very rare, where the whole clip is at the same slow motion speed and yet, there is so many things happening that the viewers are not bored. In fact, what makes it even more effective is that people will want to watch this clip over and over again and therefore, spreading this to their friends and family. This is by far, the most memorable ad I've ever seen and every time I drive, I put on my seat belt and think about the ad.