Comparison Of Two Adverts
Television is a popular form of entertainment throughout Great Britain, and is also one of the most popular ways to advertise through. The power of attracting costumers through the advert is based upon the persuasiveness of the advert. I will compare and contrast two adverts below to show how they provide their persuasive touch.
The first advert is the Virgin Mobile advert which is giving away free mobile phone call minutes. This is the sequel to ‘The Wycliffe Advert’ in which Wycliffe, who is a famous celebrity, still remains trapped in a middle-aged women’s house, who outwitted Wycliffe by asking for his autograph, but infact, tricks him into signing a contract, which makes him trapped in her house. This advert uses many close-up shots, because the change in expression of Wycliffe as he is continuously being held captive is where the majority of this adverts humour comes from. What happens is, we see the establishing shot of the middle aged Texan women telling Wycliffe of how badly she’s sweating in the heat to locate the time of place of the advert, and we can easily identify her to the Wycliffe series of adverts due to her appearance in the previous advert. Wycliffe, who is sick of living in this house, attempts to escape from this living hell by climbing through the window and running away to safety. The advert saves time, because it does not need to tell us that he is thinking of escaping, but they Wycliffe watching a wasp fly out of the window, and when we see the expression on Wycliffe’s face, we immediately know that his intentions are to escape from the house. Almost immediately, frantic country Texan music is played and a longshot clip of Wycliffe is shown running away from the house, with rapid editing to the camera, which goes very well with the music. This will attract the attention of viewers who are nearby the T.V while this is playing, as the viewers will immediately recognise this advert. Wycliffe seeks for a way of escaping, and goes to a police car for safety. Unfortunately, Wycliffe is a famous person, and the policeman knows that he has broken the contract he signs, and he will be taken to prison. This conversation shows both faces of the characters in the car’s mirror, and it cleverly shows both characters in the car and shows the change in Wycliffe’s expression on his face, which is humorous and keeps viewers watching this advert. Then the advert is cut to the next scene of the advert, in which Wycliffe is in prison. This saves time and keeps the viewers attention to the advert. We see Wycliffe and his fellow inmates in the showers in a midshot. A fellow inmate says, “Wycliffe, I’m your biggest fan” showing Wycliffe his tattoo of Wycliffe on his chest. We again see a close-up shot, depicting Wycliffe’s change of expression again, which adds to the humour. Then, a narrator’s voiceover is added near the end, adding the catch phrase to the advert- “Be careful what you sign, with virgin mobile you can earn free minutes without signing your life away”. This single phrase will stick in the viewers mind, as after they watch Wycliffe’s humorous ordeal, they will remember about not signing contracts to people you can’t trust, so the phrase will be remembered. Also, this whole advert is packed into an advertising slot lasting just less than 30 seconds, so it doesn’t need to take much of the viewer’s time.
