“Embrace Life” (reklama)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM


“Embrace Life”
   “Embrace life” is an example of unconventional advertising. In todays advertising industry unlimited options are available to create an advertisement catching the attention of designated population. On the market there are multiple options available for designing memorable advertisement, including special effects, virtually computerized images, and adrenalized sound effect. The creators of “Embrace life” choose the most unconventional method of sending the message to their designated group of audience. Their presentation is based on sound and visual effects. The only sound is the background music and the visual effect including emotional expressions and body language. This advertisement so unique because there is no spoken communication between the characters. Verbal exchange of information is considered a basic form of human communication. There is no dialog between the characters, no monolog, no verbal introduction to the content of the presentation. It is amazing that the creators of this advertisement would take a challenge of sending such a strong message such as drivers safety using such a limited options as sound and body language. The lack of speech allows the audience to instead focus on the raw sentimentality of the commercial. Even the stereotypical gender roles make appeal to our culture. Combined, these factors create a powerful message.
The creators of the advertisement used symbolism as an artistic form of the expression. Their advertisement is saturated with symbolism, starting with the location of the presentation, a home. For most of us home represents a place of family, love, security and happiness. Its very unusual to associate home with threatening and dangerous situation. The irony of this situation is that the house should be the refuge from the dangerous situations and not a place of tragedy. As a family, if there is something wrong happening with one individual from our home it affects all of us. In this particular situation the impending doom of a car crush is seen on all faces of the family members including the father who is the driver and passengers, the daughter and the spouse. The peaceful, happy moment that this family spending together, presented at the beginning of the presentation, is being suddenly interrupted by unavoidable tragedy caused by lack of wearing seat belts. The symbol of family represents unity, mutual nurturing, relationships, emotional dependency. Any kind of danger that would interfere and cause harm to any member of the family would have devastating results on the family as a unit. As humans, we are designed to instinctively protect people we love and care for. Therefore, at the moment when the driver (father) realized oncoming danger, the wife and the daughter rush from the sofa to the father to help. The most captivating moment of sudden transition from peace and happiness to oncoming terrifying moment is well represented by main characters. The facial expressions of disbelieve, shock, fear, impending sense of loss are impeccably reflected on all faces of family members. From the body movements and facial expression we can clearly assume that the driver is trying desperately to avoid the crush. As his mimic drastically changes from puzzlement to that of fear we can only assume that his efforts to avoid the crush are unsuccessful. It took only 0.07 min to take his eye of the road and glance at his family to put him and others in immediate danger of destruction.
Another example of the symbolism is in the ways individuals are portrayed to represent their roles. The daughter character is made to seem particularly vulnerable. She wears a pink dress and butterfly wings in order to send the message that she is not only a child, but a little girl. Our society in particularly lives by the notion that little girls are especially fragile and innocent, prompting the need for them to be protected. Meanwhile, the father figure is the one who is driving the vehicle. To add to the potential tragedy aspect, the father actually puts the family into the dangerous situation when his focus is taken for a moment by admiring his loving family. One of the his responsibilities is to protect the family. A central reason that this commercial can appeal to the sentimentality of the audience is by suggesting how this situation could have easily ended in tragedy. This is further evidenced by the absence of focus on the mother. She is not perceived to be the weakest one in the supposed vehicle, nor is she perceived to be responsible for the welfare of the other family members, and so, the capacity she has to increase the drama in the advertisement is relatively minimal.
The commercial takes a powerful turn when the situation does. The mother and daughter figures cease to be the powerless victims in the backseat and metaphorically become the lifesaving seatbelt. They embrace the father figure in such a way as to appear that as though they themselves took on the role of the seatbelt, but the fact that they are hugging the father is also indicative of the affection they feel for him. In a sense, it communicates that it is the love of the family protected him from what could have been a fatal crash.
The debris is represented by glitter because by the time that the supposed crash occurs, the viewers understand that he is not literally driving an invisible car. The sense of impending catastrophe has already passed. The glitter further denotes the family atmosphere because it is an object kept in the family’s home and relatively harmless. It also acts as a shift the break from one reality to the next. After the glitter settles, he is no longer the driver, but reverts to the loving father central to the happiness of the family. This is suggested in how he tenderly smiles after the crash. He does this not because he crashed, or even because he is alive, but because he loves his family.
The instinct of surviving and protecting are the strongest instincts that we all posses. Driven by those instincts the wife and the daughter immediately reacted to this dangerous situation. Suddenly they both equally rushed to their loved one. The daughter showed more of a concern and fear. The wife seems to be more in control of her emotions and determined to provide desperately needed safety.
The advertisement “Embrace Life” offers the idea of wearing a seat belt firmly in the family domain and a positive message towards road safety. Combined with unconventional techniques and methods, the commercial becomes capable of sending a powerful message. The lack of dialogue and music allow for the audience to focus on the events unfolding before their eyes. The symbolism creates a recognizable atmosphere to which the target audience can relate. Every aspect of this commercial is coordinated perfectly as to evoke the maximum emotional response from the target audience. The uniqueness of this commercial may be due to the fact that the creators are not trying to sell a product, but rather, an idea. Their approach proved to be highly successful.