Analysing the 'Dove' deodorant Advert.

        The first scene is in the bathroom in front of the mirror. Next she is in a different room, maybe a bedroom with a sink. She’s just come in because we see her walking towards the mirror. It looks like she’s still in the same room, but the audience can’t be certain as the camera is facing the opposite direction. She’s still in the same room but she’s doing a different action. The scene doesn’t change but is shown from behind her so we can see her reflection in the mirror. Changes back to the view from the mirror so the audience can see her face. Goes back again behind her but has zoomed in a little. Camera keeps swapping these shots repeatedly. The shot changes so the audience can see a side-view of her in front of the mirror. The camera zooms in on the deodorant that’s in front of the mirror. Isn’t shot from the mirror but slightly to the left. The scene changes to the soap being poured into the liquid. Then fades back to the woman.

        At the start the camera shows her in an O-S shot. Then shows her going into a room towards a mirror with the Dove deodorant on the shelf, but still a bit out of focus. Zooms in as she leans forward towards the mirror. Changes to the shot from the mirror to show most of her face and her shoulders. Visibly zooming in again as she inspects her face. Shot changes but the camera carries on zooming in but more subtly this time. When she’s cleansing her face the camera follows her hand wherever she’s cleansing her face. When the shot changes the camera stays at the same distance from her but then zooms in again when the shot changes and she’s splashing her face with water. When the camera is shooting her from the side when she’s reaching for the towel the camera moves across so the audience can see her progress. The camera then moves to the deodorant that has been sitting on the shelf all the way through the advent. She then reaches for it but this time the camera doesn’t follow her it stays in the same position. As she’s ‘moisturising’ under her arms, the camera is turning clockwise, sort of in a half circle, so we can get a full view of what she’s doing. When she puts the Dove down the camera zooms in gradually on her arm then fades into a gentle mist. The soap is centred on the screen. As the soap hits the liquid the misty effect comes back onto the screen and as the ‘ ¼’ gets smaller and smaller on her arm the camera zooms in again, it’s also turning anti-clockwise at the same time. When the ‘ ¼’ disappears the camera keeps zooming in for a short period of time. Then it starts zooming back out again and turning at the same time. While this is occurring she touches her ‘moisturised’ armpit. When the scene changes all of her body is shown while she’s sitting on her chair. The camera has zoomed into a MCU shot, it stays in the same position and the words ‘soft’, ‘smooth’ and ‘supple’ come up. When she moves her head to the right the camera follows her. The deodorant is in the middle of the screen, coming up out of the soap. All the text comes up around it.

        The atmosphere is relaxed and calm, there are all warm colours not dark brooding colours. The light colours give the rooms a spacious air to them. Everything is lit brilliantly with a white light. The walls are a light turquoise colour to give an aqua effect, which gives people the thought of water. No shadows are projected onto the walls that we can see. When she’s outside there are gloomy clouds but she’s lit up by lights so it looks artificial because the weather is dreadful. The lighting makes it look brighter.

        The buzz track has a calmness to it that relaxes you and goes in harmony to the colours used. A tune that only lasts five seconds but it repeated discreetly throughout the advert. When the advert does a double take to emphasize that you can moisturise under your arms, a rewinding sound is used so that people know it’s rewinding. When the rewinding stops the music comes back on again. When the scene changes to out doors the music stays the same to let the advert flow through smoothly.

        There is a voice-over after four seconds into the advert. Words that she says are emphasized by them being written on the screen. The words written are just picked out from what she says, these words are cleanse, tone, moisturise, soft, smooth and supple. They are in two sets of three because people remember sets of three and it’s a strategy used in persuasive writing. When the advert is near finishing the slogan comes up which she says, ‘Makes you soft, Keeps you dry’. This comes up on the screen while she’s saying it.

        The woman in the advert isn’t wearing any make-up because it wouldn’t seem natural. If she were wearing make-up then it wouldn’t seem like a daily routine, which is what the advert is. People don’t put on make-up before they have a wash so this makes it seem more natural again. She is wearing a white top, which goes with the spacious atmosphere and calmness of the advert. We don’t see her trousers because that’s not important. The top half of her is more important. When the scene changes she is still wearing a white top but a different style. The projection of her shows her as a pure, clean woman.

        The shots are only held for a short period of time. The shots at the start of the advert are only one second long at maximum. Then they change to a separate shot and swap back over again. Arranging the shots like this makes the viewer watch the entire advert because they might think that if they look away for even an instant they might miss something. All the shots are roughly the same length-one to two seconds. Only the last shot is five seconds long because it has the make of the product and the last shot is always the longest so it will stay in the viewers’ memory. The advert in full lasts thirty seconds so it is about average length so not to bore the viewers.

        The advert has been thought through systematically to produce an advert that will catch the viewers’ eye. The sounds relax them and the colours calm them.