The Advertisement Analysis - Essay Example

The Advertisement Analysis While watching advertisements, we rarely think of what feelings and needs the advertisement evokes in us; we understand its messages as either socially crucial or simply what we need to buy when we will be in a supermarket next time. But still often we don’t realize how advertisements influence our lives. I’ve chosen a social advertisement by New Zealand Transport Agency which is supposed to prevent car crashes on the roads by making people realize that they’re not alone on roads and they need to be responsible. I’ve chosen this video because it is a simple message to those people who drive very fast. The analysis of the advertisement shows that the messages in the video are crucially important to be understood by drivers and people who are going to drive and these points are presented effectively in the advertisement. The video describes a situation when two drivers are about to make a crash situation on a road, but suddenly time stops and the drivers go out of their cars. The driver who made the mistake asks the one who drives too fast to slow down, but he can’t because he drives too fast and there is so little time and distance between their cars that there’s nothing anybody can do to prevent the crash. The one who made the mistake shows that there is his little son on the back seat, but the fast driver realizes that the alarm conditions were his fault because if he hadn’t driven too fast they could have avoided the crash and there would be enough time for the father and son to skip on the road before him. So finally the drivers get back to their cars and the piece of the crash is shown for a moment. The advertisement finishes with a black screen and the message of the video appears “Other people make mistakes. Slow down”. The advertisement isn’t designed to sell anything, it is socially important: its ethos aims to evoke people’s responsibility and capability of thinking about others while driving, because we all live in the world where there are other people around us and it is a part of ethics to include other people’s human factor in our decision making. The ethos sends the important moral message that it is crucial to follow your civil duty, that’s why the advertisement was made based on touching and strong drivers’ feelings of grief and regret. As far as the advertisement is sponsored by New Zealand Transport Agency it becomes clear that it aims to decrease the amount of car accidents on roads and the agency is also responsible for this. The target audience for this advertisement are actual drivers or people who are going to become drivers in the future, so they all must understand the importance of being responsible on the roads, and first of all, to rely only on themselves, because it is hard to trust others when it is your life which you are eager to save even when driving. The advertisement emphasizes on that fact that there is a human factor that can accidentally play against you on the road, because other people can make mistake and you will be the one who make their mistake fatal, that’s why you’d better drive slowly and maybe other’s mistake can be fixed. The point is that the creators of the video didn’t try to analyze whose mistake it was in this situation, but what could’ve happened if only the driver moved a little bit slower. The logos of the video are described in the dialogue between the drivers, when the mistaken driver asks to slow down and the fast one regrets that he couldn’t do it. The dialogue expresses the last thoughts of the drivers in the moment before the crash. It is important to notice the way the situation is described and the special filming style used in the video. The director has used such typical filming hooks as the detail shots of the heroes’ faces to emphasize on their emotions, the black screen with the message that obviously would make people start thinking on the issue, the massive sound in the background, and the grey colors of the picture. The pathos of the video is in the emotions and texts that both drivers say to each other. In fact, when we realize that it is their thoughts what they’re saying to each other we understand how typical the regrets of the both drivers are. This situation we watch in the advertisement makes us imagine these regrets, it almost transfers us into such situation that could’ve happened to ourselves, and the feelings it evokes make us become scared that something like this can happen to us or our nearest and dearest people. So we came to the part of which emotional appeals the advertisement addresses to. The first one is people’s need to nurture. A mother who has a daughter who drives car can watch the advertisement and start worrying about her child, so she will try to warn her daughter to drive slowly or call her to make sure she doesn’t drive too fast. In fact the presence of a child on the back sit in the advertisement is supposed to strengthen this feeling. Or if the one who watches the video is a driver himself then the adv will make him think whether it is more important to drive faster to be in time somewhere he needs to be or safety of his passengers and people on the road. Anyways the video awakes people’s concern for other individuals. Another one appeal is the need for guidance, because first of all people want others to care about them. That’s why watching this video somebody can think of responsibility it is supposed to evoke in drivers on the roads. Obviously, we all have some friends or relatives who drive cars and we realize that if they watched the video they would understand the feelings and regrets of those drivers and would be more careful and responsible on roads, so it makes us more assure that people will care about us while driving. This leads us to the third appeal of the advertisement – the need to feel safe. The need is probably the strongest one, because it is a priori instinctive as far as people feel bad and frustrated when they’re unsafe. Also this advertisement itself is about safety. Human life is the highest priority and it is must be respected in all situations. But road is the thing where human life can be accidentally taken away by small mistake or someone’s inattention. The video emphasizes that we cannot trust others in keeping our life safe on a road and in addition we are responsible for others’ lives as well, that’s why it is of the highest importance to do your best to stay in control while you are driving at least drive not too fast and be aware of the possibility someone else can make a mistake as well. The advertisement isn’t really commercial, it doesn’t sell anything, but still it was made for both: to warn people about possible consequences of their irresponsibility and to help New Zealand Transport Agency in fighting with car accidents on roads. The main aims are definitely followed. The sad story describes one of the most common situations on roads, then drivers’ typical regrets are depicted in their dialogues, and the tragic end concludes the very last message of the video that time cannot be stopped preventing you from making fatal mistakes. All the messages are clear and obvious because they claim to the most common human feelings which make the adv universal especially nowadays when we deal with cars every day. The point is that the effectiveness of the video in manipulating people’s minds is kept by perfectly general and understandable compilation of logos, ethos, and pathos referring to the proper emotional appeals of target audience of the advertisement. Even though the video is a quite typical advertisement about how you should act on roads still it claims to the most crucial human feelings touching its target audience. The main aim is kept in the video – it makes you think of how important your driving accuracy is and that you shouldn’t act selfish when it is your life and other people’s lives which are under your responsibility. Works Cited “Speed ad - Mistakes”. Online video clip. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvLaTupw-hk&feature=youtu.be Read More