Compare and contrast the two advertisements for "Mastercard" and "Halifax One". State which you prefer and say why.

Authors Avatar
Compare and contrast the two advertisements for "Mastercard" and "Halifax One". State which you prefer and say why.

The advertisements that I looked at were both broadcast on Sunday 13th March 2005, on Sky One at the primetime of 8pm. The first advertisement, which lasted for the duration of 30 seconds, was for Mastercard and took the genre of a romantic comedy and the theme of revenge. The second advertisement, which lasted the same duration, was for Halifax One and took the genre of Bollywood and the theme of a playboy lifestyle. The genres of the two ads were quite different, but they both used similar advertising methods in order for their advert to sell the product, both promoting credit card banking.

Advertisement 1 opened with a salacious shot of an attractive woman trying on a dress in a changing room. The opening scene is prurient; the woman will appeal to men in general. The implication of her getting changed shows a stereotypical heterosexual appeal to men. The scene of the woman in the changing room is carefully shot so we just miss seeing her naked. The background lighting is low key; film noir lighting is used, enabling the viewers to focus only on the woman being shown through two curtains. We get the feeling we are looking into an intimate view of her world. The start of the ad shows sex appeal, a theme that continues throughout the advert. Lettering appears in the top right hand corner saying: New dress £130

There is a voice over the theme music reading what the writing says. The voice pauses in places for impact, is deep and resonant appealing to women's actions and behaviour. Non diagetic sound is being cleverly used here.

To start off the advert successfully, a clever opening scene is needed in order to gain prospective new client's attention. This is evident in the Mastercard opening scene, and also in the Halifax One advert.

The opening shot for the Halifax One advert, shows a palatial bedroom. Your eyes are drawn to the large bed, in the centre of the predominant cream and gold furnished room, with a real tiger at the foot of it. There is a low angle framing, which moves into a high angle, from the tiger up to the man. The image of the bedroom represents wealth and social status. Amongst this impressive room, a man sits up in the bed. He is wearing pyjamas showing a Halifax motif, cleverly put on them to show a synoptic connection between this advert and a previous one. He says: " I want you baby, more than those other banks"
Join now!


The theme tune then starts and the advert begins, the catchy, up beat temp popular culture song " You're my last, my first, my everything" by Barry White. By using a successful song, the advert will be well recognised and easy to identify as the Halifax One advert. The words however have been changed; the first line is relevant to the theme of the advert: " I know, you only want me for my debit card."

This shows humour. The man, Mr. Brown who is actually a Halifax employer, knows that his looks or personality don't earn ...

This is a preview of the whole essay