Peugeot 306 Advertisement Analysis

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Media Coursework

Advertising is a multi billion pound business, many companies, ranging from sole traders to public limited companies rely on advertisements as the main strategy to promote and sell their products, business’s place adverts on a large amount of mediums; usually to catch the attention of their target audience.  Examples include television, radio, national newspapers, local newspapers etc.  However, the most popular is television, this due to the fact that adverts placed on television have the advantage of being broadcast to millions of viewers, and can use camera and lighting techniques as well as sound and picture to appeal to the viewer, unlike newspaper and radio advertisements.

        

I am of the opinion that an efficient television advert must have a script and graphics that keeps the viewers interest and attention.  Moreover, the first few seconds of an advert are the most important, since the first few frames will determine whether the viewer will continue to be absorbed.

        A successful advert does not necessarily have to have a particularly long duration.  A successful campaign could be one of around ten seconds, which leaves a lasting impression.  An instance f a recent advert that has achieved this is for the Peugeot 306 car, shown around January 2002.

        The advertisement consists of four sections, about four seconds long.  The first three sections do not actually reveal anything to the audience about the product being advertised, nonetheless do give them something to think about to get them involved in the advert.

        The first section is set in classroom in the U.S.A.  The audience is able to realise this due to the accent of the characters used in the advert.  A female teacher is at the front of a group of students who are individually seated around the classroom.  The teacher is making a speech, stating to the pupils “I know, I feel what’s inside”.  With the enthusiasm, along with the look on her face and her body language it is immediately clear that this is a speech that does not directly relate to the students syllabus, but for life in general.  The teacher is reassuring the students that if they encounter any problems she will be there for them and will comprehend what they are feeling.  I believe such a speech from teacher to pupil is very exiting and fascinating. So, my attention was instantly obtained.  My opinion would be that this would have also been the case for much of the adverts other viewers.  If so, this would have been an extremely important factor for the development of the advert, as catching the attention of the audience within the first few seconds of an advertisement is very significant.  Personally, I think the producers of this advert would have been aware of this, so would have included such a captivating scene at the outset of the advert.  After the teacher finishes speaking a sentence appears on the screen reading “a job is not just a career.  The sentence is presented in exceptionally bold lettering, covering approximately a third of the television screen.  First and foremost, so the audience can actually read the writing, and secondly to give them an idea of the significance of the sentence to the scene.  I feel, what is implied by the sentence is that not all teachers turn up and do what is contained in their job description, there is more than meets the eye, something extra.  In the teachers case it is having a strong bond and understanding with her pupils.  

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        My opinion of this first scene is that it is effective in the way it makes you think to yourself while you are watching.  Doing this to your audience is a useful technique, since it gets the audience drawn into the advert, therefore grabbing their attention.  The way this scene achieves this is, as the sentence “ a job is not just a career” appears it would give rise to you looking back at the evidence that backs this point and come to a conclusion whether or not you believe it is true.

        As the advert moved on ...

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