British Heart Foundation

 British Heart Foundation

Charity Advertisement ft. Vinnie Jones

Ideologies:

The ideology promoted in this advert is that saving the life of someone who is having a cardiac arrest is quite simple. This ideology is promoted by the use of a simplified three step process of "Call, Push, Stayin' Alive". This is further supported by the use of the slogan "Hard and Fast, Hands only CPR, its not as hard as it looks." A more negative ideology that could be picked up on could be the use of the bright and upbeat music setting in a situation in which someone could potentially die leading to the ideology that this situation isn't a stressful situation.

Visual/Narrative Techniques:

The use of Vinnie Jones as the main character of the advert straight away sets out the mise-en-scene of a typical London crime film as Vinnie Jones is iconography of the genre. The environment is also generic of a London crime film in that it is set in a dimly-lit warehouse with two 'bouncers' in the background to create the atmosphere to assume the tone of the advert. Furthermore, charity advertisements tend to be darker in tone so the assumption of the tone would be supported. However, this tone is changed when the song "Stayin Alive" by the Bee Gees starts to play. This is because this song is a more upbeat and joyful song. This creates juxtaposition which is the main comedic source in the advert. The use of juxtaposition is also found when the 'bouncers' begin to dance in beat to the music. This is used in order to make the advert more memorable. 

Advertising Techniques:

This advert makes use of an elite person to set the tone of the advert which also combines with the juxtaposition which then in turn creates the humour of the advertisement. The use of an elite person may also make the advertisement more memorable because it isn't a generic setting that people are used to seeing Vinnie Jones in. The use of Vinnie Jones is also used to grab the attention of the audience because it creates the question, "why is he here?". This grabs viewer attention which can be attributed to the rest of the advert. However, there are very few lines of appeal that apply to this with the main being safety. This line of appeal is satisfied as this is a lesson on how to complete CPR, also, this could be applied to love and belonging as a viewer may have a friend or relative that has suffered a cardiac arrest or heart attack.

What works?

The humour of this advertisement works via juxtaposition however there is a specificity to how it breaks conventions. The use of juxtaposition could be used to create horror by the use of someone such as a child or a vulnerable person. Another technique that works is the use of an elite person to grab attention however, this would be difficult to replicate in my own work.