The mood of the advert is reflected in the music. At the beginning, the music is very sombre and it sounds like an oboe is being used. This might be done to reflect the bride’s (Nicole’s) mood as, even though it is her wedding day, she doesn’t look very happy but whenever the Clio is shown the music is changed to an upbeat, chirpy guitar which might have been used to reflect the car’s fun personality.
There are three codes used in advertising and they are all used in this advert. The three codes are action codes, symbolic codes and enigma codes. The advertisers use action codes to convey feelings, symbolic codes to speed up the plot and enigma codes to keep interest. In this advert the action code is used to show that the driver is impatient and late because we see him looking at his watch whilst he is waiting for the train to go past. Symbolic codes are used to get the plot fully explained and understood in the time that the advertisers have got. They are used to speed the story up. In this advert, symbolic codes are used to show the audience that a wedding is happening, we see Nicole in a wedding dress and later on we see wedding rings. Enigma codes are where things are hinted at but we don’t get to see everything. Enigma codes are used to hide things from the audience and to build up suspense. Enigma codes are used quite a few times in this advert but the most obvious one is where we don’t get to see Vic and Bob until right at the very end.
When an advert reuses other memorable events or scenes or when already famous objects or characters are used - such as when Ford used Steve McQueen in one of their ads - this is called an intertextual reference or “bricolage”. The Ford example of this is where the theme tune to one of Steve McQueen’s movies (“Bullit”) is played and he chooses the Ford car over the famous motorbike used to escape from a prisoner of war camp in the movie “The Great Escape”.
There are three main intertextual references in the advert. The use of ‘Papa and Nicole’ is an intertextual reference as they have already been used in various Clio adverts. The use of Vic and Bob is another example as is the scene where Bob is banging on the window of the church trying to get Nicole not to marry Vic, but to run away with him. This third illustration is a reference to the 1967 film “The Graduate”; this is a very famous scene and is also used in “The Simpsons” and “Wayne’s World”. Intertextual references are used for comedy and also to make the audience feel clever if they recognise the link.
There are other effects used in the advert, these include a split narrative where it is showing Bob driving to the wedding in his Clio on one side and Nicole driving to the wedding in her limousine. This is also a juxta position. Juxta position is where it shows opposites, you have Bob’s bright, new little Clio compared to Nicole’s dark, big old car.
We see Nicole as a French stereotype, she is young and sexy and she could also be seen to represent the car in that way. We can guess from the mise-en-scene that we are in France as we recognise the countryside and the clothes as French.
As with most car adverts, there are plenty of performance shots of the car. The scene where Bob is racing to get to church is the best example of this. We see the car from many different angles including a low angle shot which makes the car bigger and more impressive. These shots are usually used to impress men. When Bob arrives at the church, the car stops perfectly this has been included to emphasise to women how easy it is to park.
At the end of the advert, writing comes up which says “The new Clio”; the writing is cursive and shiny which can be used to reflect the car’s new and exciting look.
The Renault Clio advert is a bright, funny advert that also has a lot of depth and thought about it.
