Gillette Advert Analysis

Gillette: A best a man can get
-Language: Technical, visual, Audio codes (Camerawork, Mise en scene, sound, editing), Narrative, Genre....

By starting to advert with the song lyrics, your looking sharp, it immediately catches the attention of the people who are in the room or walking past making them watch the advert. The lyrics continuously are directed towards the intended audience which would be males as they keep saying you. Finally, in the chorus where the song says the best a man can get, also the tag line, it persuades the audience to buy the Gillette product as it says that once they buy it they will be better for it. There is no dialogue and only a small bit of narrative by the characters as the song speaks for it. The narrative at the end adds information about the product. The visual shows the scenes cutting between each other with scenes of positivity and happiness for a family man. The scenes cut to the beat of the song so that they flow together. The mise on scene is quite standard so that it can appeal to everyday men so it is more attractive with simple costume, high key lighting, minimal actors, simple make-up, little props other than the product and the setting is things you would see everyday such as house, park etc. The camera work is simple as it follows the character throughout and his daily life which is better now that he has Gillette.

- Representation: Stereotypes, Encoding/Decoding, Contexts...

The advert consists of a stereotypical family, mum, dad and child. The mum is a stereotypical woman as she does everything for the man, e.g. tie his tie. The dad (The man character) is a stereotypical traditional man, strong, intelligent, role model etc. The child is a stereotypical kid, looking up to his dad, wanting to copy him etc. The context consists of a normal family whose life has changed for the better because of the product.

-Audience: Categories, Mode of address, Response, interaction...

The intended audience for this advert is a middle aged man who has a family, job (The A, B, C1, maybe C2 category) and a social life. This is shown as the main character fits these boxes. The advert targets this audience by showing them what they could have of they have this product which would be appealing to a man back when this advert was made as it showed the dream lifestyle. The advert interacted with the audience by addressing them with the song lyrics when saying 'you,' 'your.' etc... The intended response would want to make the audience go out and buy this product.

- Application of theorists...

The theory that applies to this advert would be Stuart Hall and his Reception theory as they would want the viewer to be the dominant audience, the theory that they should believe that if they use this product then they will be the best and their life will change for the better. Other parts of this theory include the negotiated audiences where they believe that the product will be good to use but it wont affect their life as drastically as shown in the advert or the oppositional audiences where they believe that the product wont help them at all and there's no point in buying it. The producers of this advert would hope that most of their audience would be dominant viewers.