In the advertisement there is no sound except for the banging of the drum. Most of the advert has a man narrating about what happens. If the voice over wasn’t there you would see so clearly what is happening in the commercial. There are no famous people in this commercial, only actors. In this commercial it was only imaged for the sick and nothing was said about giving energy to you. An improvement to this advert would have been the boy lying in bed looking very ill and groaning and when his mother gives him the Lucozade, the boy starts jumping around and making a noise. Without the voice over you would think that Lucozade does nothing to you.
The bridge between ill and healthy happened in a commercial in the 1970s. This was when the new medicines were being sold in shops that didn’t need a prescription. Lucozade was becoming less popular as an aid for the ill and Smith-Kline Beecham were loosing money on it. They had to find another way to sell Lucozade and then Smith-Kline Beecham had an idea. They were going to change it to an energy drink for the healthy. They couldn’t change it straight from one to another so they made a commercial that would compromise both of the uses.
The commercial was a mix between a cartoon and real people. It started with a cartoon of a family working out in the garden and getting too tired to do anymore. It changes to real people when they enter their home. They all have a glass of Lucozade and they are all ready to go to the fair and have a good time. It finishes with a cartoon of them in the fair and a slogan, ‘Lucozade. Helps you through the ups and downs of the day’ to a tune that you would remember and stick in your mind. A voice over guided you throught the commercial, telling us that Lucozade gave you energy.
The image formation was complete by the 1980’s with Olympic gold medallist Daley Thompson in it. It was the first Lucozade commercial that had an idol in it. It started with a red light on screen and Daley Thompson training and looking tired. You then see an amber light come up, which is the colour of Lucozade and then Daley Thompson having some lucozade and being ready on the starting blocks. A green light comes up on the screen and then you see Daley Thompson running at full speed and not looking tired at all. It ends with the slogan, ‘Lucozade. The Refreshing glucose drink’
This commercial has very little voice over except when Des Lynam says the slogan. During the commercial there is no voice over or sound effects just rock music.
One of the important features in all Lucoazde ads is the way the advesisers have understood the social values of the era. From stay-at-home mums to get-up-and-go lads the company has understood very well what the target audience aspire to.
The Daley Thompson commercial was the first commercial for Lucozade that used an idol in it. Smith-Kline Beecham had ‘piggy-backed’ on Daley Thompson to sell their product. This strategy worked extremely well for Smith-Kline Beecham as their sales went up ten-fold when they changed their image from a recovery drink to an energy drink. ‘Piggy-Backing’ can also backfire on a company as they could choose someone to advertise their product and while the commercial is on the TV, they could do something that ruins their career and also the products reputation. Since the Daley Thompson commercial, it has become a soft drink where people drunk it not just as an energy drink but as a normal drink for when your thirsty. The new Lara Croft commercial cost £12 million to make but they have made a huge profit from selling Lucozade and have made that money back. By using computer generated characters they cannot get caught doing anything wrong to damage the companies reputation as they are not real.
Their first image as a recovery drink is still known to the people who saw it as it was powerful enough for people to remember. There are now many types of Lucozade. From the original glass bottle to the original flavour in a plastic bottle, Lucozade sport, Lucozade Lemon and many other types of flavours and packaging. With such a popularity of one drink, Lucozade will never stop being manufactured.
