http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/symptoms.aspx?sc_id=FP-00229&utm_source=PP-Symp&utm_medium=PP-Symp&utm_campaign=PP-Symp%20071210 (Scroll down to bottom of the page)
This advert aims to shock viewers into considering the severity of a heart attack and the symptoms that accompany it. The primary target audience is men of around 40-65. I feel that this advert is hugely effective as it covers just about everything from: symptoms to people trying to convince themselves that it’s something that will pass like indigestion. For me this is a really important aspect to cover because many men would convince themselves it’s nothing to worry about because of the ideology that it is a sign of weakness by admitting there’s something wrong.
It begins with a shot of a man’s viewpoint whilst he’s sat down looking at his feet, his hands are placed on each knee; he’s positioned as if he’s waiting for someone. The camera takes the shot from the man’s viewpoint, meaning we see the advert through his view; this allows the audience to live the advert as this person. Within 5 seconds of the advert starting, a man of around 50 walks into the room and turns on the light, he’s wearing a suit, as he comes through the door the sitting man looks up which allows us to see the environment he’s in. The significance of him turning on the light may be a metaphor of how he will enlighten the audience on the experience of a heart attack.
The suited man constantly talks at the sitting man and in turn the viewer, rather than with him, I feel this is to heighten the tension and create a dramatic situation. The suited man gets angrier and angrier throughout the advert, perhaps mimicking a heart attack as it begins and continues to get worse. This theme follows throughout as the symptoms get worse and as an audience we feel more aware of the changes in the environment of the advert. The suited man begins by highlighting the first most common symptom, chest pain, to illustrate how this feels to the audience he punches the sitting man in the chest; with this the camera looks down to the floor in a dazed motion mimicking the movement of the man sitting, this extends the impact to the audience. This suited man then walks across the camera and disappears from the view of both the man sitting and the viewer. The sitting man is the squeezed from behind representing the more severe chest pain that man be experienced during a heart attack, we actually see the man in this shot and we view it from an outsider perspective. This suited man then goes on to the most common thing for a man to do shrug it off and to say to yourself it’ll pass. I feel this is a very important aspect to have covered in the advert because men are the primary target audience because some men will often feel that they don’t need to go and get it checked out and will convince themselves it’s nothing to worry about. The advert them symbolises the symptoms beginning to worsen because the dizziness kicks in; the shooting is very clever hear as it deliberately loses some focus so the viewer’s ability to see properly is lost, the camera, the suited man and the hanging lights begin to more around which disorientates the viewer, mirroring the experience of a heart attack. The suited man is then shot from below spinning aiding the experience of feeling dizzy. He then highlights another possible symptom, tightness in your neck or jaw; he illustrates this by grabbing hold of the sitting man’s jaw. He then goes on to again saying, “tough it out, it’ll pass’, again which is potentially what many men would do. As he says this, the focus on the camera is altered dramatically and blurs the suited man out completely which again disorientates the viewer adding to the drama by ensuing some elements of panic. He then again demonstrates many men’s ideology and stubborn nature in brushing it off and trying to put reason to it, e.g. indigestion, from last night curry. The penultimate sequence is from the sitting man’s view point and continues to get more sporadic, disorientated and more out of focus, which is conveyed to the audience because the camera shots allow the viewer to almost be him and experience what he is experiencing. Another very well used tool is the way the suited man reassures people that even if it’s nothing no one will be angry because you’ve wasted their time, as he says; “The ambulance service would rather see you, and discover it’s not a heart attack, than arrive too late!”
This advert uses a very powerful tool in metaphors in-between some scenes. These shots are very brief and are taken against a black background. The aim of these shots is to imitate the different experiences of a heart through a metaphoric state; e.g. there is one shot of a boa constrictor tighten itself around an object, which acts as a metaphor for the tightness that you may feel in your arm; using a metaphor such as this the impact is much more.
To conclude I think that this is a very effective PSB and creates a great deal of drama which impacts on the viewer.
No comments:
Post a Comment