Screen shot from Danish commercial. Reproduced with permission.
I made a promise, earlier this year, that one of the ambitions for 2009 was the be more specific in my analysis of real life communication. In other words, not so much “acadamia”, but more concrete, specific analysis of what I called real life communication.
This was not only my ambition. It seems to me that the barebones of communication, over the last year, had been skinned enough to start redressing them with softer tissue. The are, in other words, enough resource information on the blog to start putting it to critical use.
What will be the object of this first proper analysis? Some of your have noticed that there was a post on a certain commercial from Danish retailer, Fleggaard, who used partly undressed women to advertise for their retail outlets just on the other side of the border to Germany. That post hit pretty well on the blog and has been the top post ever since. Seems there are a lot of people internationally that are interester in Danish/German border shopping :-). So I will use this commercial for the specific analysis. Seem like a good idea, right?
So before we start on this mission, here is what I would like you do to:
a) see the commercial a couple of times. Familiarise yourself not only with what you see, but with the way the commercial is put together, structured. For purpose of analysis, it is a good idea to split the commercial into sections and shots. You’ll find the commercial on Fleggaard’s web site. You need to mouse over the screen on the wall to activate the movie. Or you could go directly to the movie.
b) go to the CET-Checklist , or pick it up below. Follow the links and get an understanding of the checklist. Read thought the different checkpoint and get them under your skin.
You need to spend some time on both, and while you do that I will start finalising this post. The post will be continued … you need to come back to this post.
The CET checklist:
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
What is the impression given in this movie? And how is it given? It is on, it is two, is it even more, maybe even conflicting impressions?
In my opini0n, this movie does rather good. The overall impression is that these people are very dedicated towards their end, which is to spell out the the name of the product and the product price in the sky. On the ground they move firmly, up the stairs they move sternly and in the plane, in the plane they act dedicated, and when they jump from the plain is is with the same decisiveness as when they enter.
There is a tail to it when a single girl falls into the swimming pool, but that is added for the humour of it. Attention from the people on the ground is drawn towards the sky divers, and nice wraps up the urgency of what is going on in the sky.
I rate this +3.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
Dominant mood. Got the be image or product. There is not much product in this move. It is all image. Besides the name Siemens and the price tag, that is.
I rate +3.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
There isn’t much text/speech in this commercial, so there is nothing really to get in the way of the visuals. Could this have been done in another way or even better with a speech over? Hardly.
I rate high even here: +3.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
The structure should be as simple as possible, and the structure in this commercial is indeed very simple. Camera follows the girls from moving rapidly on the ground till they are floating in the air. One could ask if the last scene with the girl in the swimming pool distracts, or is necessary, for bringing the message through. Maybe not, but as long as it is perceives as as add on to the “main story” is does not harm any.
I rate this +3.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
I am not sure that this point fits very well here. If anything, it takes the consumers point of view. Anyway there are not much product display in the commercial, so that is out. I am a bit cautious here.
I rate 0.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
The target consumer are males between 20 and 50. There are about 700.000 of them in the area (this is stated by the advertiser Fleggaard in a mail to me. I would say that the commercial does a good job in targeting male consumer.
I rate high: +3.
7. Thoughts Worth Entertaining.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
It is even my opinion that the casting, the clothing, the lack of clothing, the simple story told, and the whole drive of this commercial do a very good, and entertaining job.
I rate +3.
8. Connotations.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
Connotations are in full bloom here. The connotations are clearly sexual, and appropriate to the male segment in question here. I might add that there are, IMHO, nothing shameful in this.
Rating +3.
Evaluation Scale: -3***-2***-1***0***+1***+2***+3
How well are gestalt factor used? If at all? The commercial is held together by, amongst other things, proximity, similarity, direction, and you might even say the factor of the good curve: Movement.
Rating +3.
Overall results:
.. soon to be stated :-).
BAREBONES COMMUNICATION 