Next a incident occurs where a old man is ranting on, preaching about religion in a almost aggressive manner. The man appears to be a tramp, as he is wearing old clothes and is unshaven in a dirty manner. His appearance is of a dirty man, however his style of preaching is aggressive and is more daunting to the girl. As the girl has never witnessed a preacher, she feels scared. The world around her becomes frightening and unpleasant. We recognize that the girl is frightened by the slightly shot of the tramp, and the shocked expressions on the girl’s face. In a close-up shot of the tramp, half of the image is of the tramp and the other is of the city. The line splitting the two is diagonal, which is irregular. The face of the tramp is just in front of buildings, which suggests that the girl thinks the city is becoming weird and unreliable.
In the following incident the police arrests a man, and they arrest him in a violent way. The man is pushed aggressively onto the car, and appears to be in a little pain. The man appears dirty, and he acts a little suspicious. Although it is clear to the girl who is good, the Policemen with the hats, she does not fully understand what is happening. To fully illustrate this, there is a close-up of her face in revolution. Now the girl starts to realize that the city is not all good, and amongst the good is bad.
The girl starts questioning the city, this is portrayed as camera shots looking up, and revealing a big scary place. To add to the unreliability and knowledge that things can go wrong-there is a man cursing at his broken down car. The car is emitting heavy steam, and the bonnet is open fully. The man looks stressed, and comments “I cannot believe this!” Again the girl appears shocked. The car does in fact relate to the product, so the advertisers juxtapose the contrasting images. Also after this there are some shots of the Passat in action. So the audience don’t just think of how bad the city is, there are shots of the girl playing. This reinforces the innocence of the girl, and youth. There is also a aerial picture of the city with the girls face above. This is a device used for the audience to mentally connect the two, and realize what is bad.
But just as the audiences believe all is glum, in arrives the Passat to make things better. The image in the wind mirror is that of a beautiful women, smiling warming. The Passat parks, and for the farther guides her into the car. For the first time the child smiles, then there is a aerial shot of the car and city. The car drives on and is unaffected by all the chaos which exists around the car. The Passat has saved the day. The young, innocent child is saved and is no longer suffering. Next a wide aerial pan shot, then the slogan which defines everything seen-“if only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen”.
The appearance of the girl is the western world stereotype –blonde curly hair and light eyes. The girl is pretty, and the audience are attracted to her. She comes across to the audience as “cute”, and the audiences instinct is to care for her, and wishes her no harm. The girl represents our love in society, and our feelings. It is because of this and our instinct for her that she is introduced with “the bad side of life”. The audience want to see what happens, and the events displayed toy with their emotions and feelings. The audience feel saddened, and they feel almost as if they are what’s bad.
The farther dresses in a business like way, smartly and well dressed. Compared with the tramp, he is above the city. The tramp is a metaphor of all the waste and lies in the city, and the farther a metaphor of the things which guide us-he represents protection and safety. Although he is always there, he cannot resolve all problems that do exist. This is portrayed in the advert as the two metaphors linking hands, and the Dad not being shown in all the child’s shots. The mother represents the beauty and grace of the car. The car glides into the scene noiselessly, then the mother collects the girl and farther and then drives on. This represents that we can win, and carry on despite all the disturbances, which lurks around.
There are black and white images only in the advert because it is linked with the target audience. The target audience is generally the parents of the family, as it is a family car. The age of the parents is around thirty pluses, and this age group would be familiar with black and white television.
Together with the music a vast array of emotions sweep across the audience, from joy to sadness. The end result emerges as the car saving the day, the car being victorious. The audiences recognizes this and maybe pursue in buying the car.
The setting of the advert is New York city, which the audience is familiar with. New York is possibly the symbol of pride and justice, and is seen as being the capitol of freedom. But the city is being portrayed as a dark and grimy place, almost unpleasant place. This is what the audience would think. This toys with the audience’s emotions, as they believe the stereotype to be misconceived.
The sounds in the advert play another important part, both diagetic and non-diagetic. However there is little diagetic sounds, such as the tramp preaching. The non-diagetic sounds of the chaos in the city represent the busyness and urgency of the city. The music adds to the atmosphere, and sets the audience thinking. The message from the song relates to the action in the advertisement, and the characters. The music combined with the black and white images are a powerful method moving the audiences emotions.
The car ties in with all the features in the advert, as being the symbol of our protection, which is what the audience believes. The association of this persuades the audience to buy the car, which is the aim of Volkswagen. The car itself is shiny and is easily seen. Compared to the other cars seen briefly in the advert, the Passat is far superior.
“If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen.” Volkswagen have included this to the advert because it sums up everything viewed in the advert, and relates the product not other things.
Personally I believe the advert is very successful. The advertising company have taken a very different approach, much more appealing to the audience’s emotions. Rather than the approach taken by different car companies. The advert has ingenious way of combining the product with the message, and the audience associate the car with the message.
