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During this assignment I shall be primarily concerned with television commercials. ... I have decided to analyse and apply semiotic concepts to two Guinness commercials. Both commercials are a product of Oglivy and Mather’s “Black and White” campaign of 1996 and are entitled, ‘Old Man’ and ‘Bycicle’ (directed by Tony Kaye).
Guinness is an Irish stout beer, traditionally associated with older men, however over the years it has also become to signify many things including strength, a drink suited to pregnant women, as it contains a large amount of iron, and pure genius (as examples), resulting in a shift away from it’s original target audience. Over the last seventy years, the challenging task of advertising Guinness so that it’s unique, high-quality and strong personality are retained, has been carried out by five agencies in Britain: S. ...
‘The product has always proudly taken centre stage in Guinness advertising; its innate characteristics providing the basis for a succession of diverse, imaginative campaigns’ (Davies, J: 1998).
Before I begin to outline the content of each commercial and apply semiotic concepts, I feel it necessary to explain what is meant by the term ‘semiotics’. ...
The first of Tony Kaye’s pair of ‘Black and white’ Guinness commercials is ‘old man’, which begins by featuring an old age pensioner at home alone with his budgie and goldfish. ... Half way through the commercial, the Townsend quotation flashes across the screen in white lettering with the flowing, black cloudy image of the Guinness drink as the background. ... Verbal texts are unattached to visual images in both ‘black and white’ commercials, and there are more visual images than there are written captions due to the fact that pictures can often be easier to understand and have more impact than words as well as the ability to communicate excitement, mood, and imagination. ... At the end of the commercial the central theme is revealed in a quotation, once again written in white letters on a black, Guinness drink background; ‘Not everything in black and white makes sense’. The viewer is forced to think again, both about the situations presented and about the product, thereby making the point that life, like Guinness, isn’t just black and white. ...
The central theme of the second of Tony Kaye’s pair of Guinness commercials: ‘Bicycle’ ( appendix 2) is also that ‘Not everything in black and white makes sense’. ... The women are shown laughing together and drinking pints of Guinness. ... At the front of the frame in shot thirteen, two women arm wrestle, whilst in he background more women cheer them on. ...
The bar scene returns next with a close-up of a young girl howling like a dog along with several cheers in the background, still cheering the two women who are still arm-wrestling with each other. A close-up shot of the two hands in play reveals that one woman is wearing cufflinks, which are traditionally classified as a male’s piece of jewellery. ... Another quotation then appears; ‘Not everything in black and white makes sense’, followed by a close-up shot of the Guinness drink in a Guinness glass. ... Each commercial also encourages the viewer to think again about the situations in the adverts and about the product, in order to understand the message that life, like Guinness, isn’t just black and white. ... Every message contains two levels of meaning: what it says explicitly on the surface and what it says implicitly below.
Approximate Word count = 2857
Approximate Pages = 11.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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