╠ Vodafone - Take your World with you ╣

Finally I am back into the swing on breaking down an actual ad. I always have this curious thing with the fact that I work harder on non-uni stuff during my exam study period. In fact I'm actually posting this during a business law lecture. Aren't I just the most responsible guy around.



Anyway into the knitty gritty. I do like this ad so I am proud that it got chosen to be broken down. The first thing I would like to point out is the sheer inventiveness of it. The visual element of folding all of these items down to pocket size is an accurate visual representation of phones. However something I would like to make specific note to is the folding and not simply compressing. Folding by nature is usually something you do when you wish to take extra care with something so it gives the sense of there being a higher form of care taken with the compressing of these phone abilities making you feel you can trust their abilities a bit more.

The interesting thing I find is that the first thing the man does is pick up his wallet and keys, it is from there he proceeds to take large things from his home that I think most people would consider attractive to take with you. I also believe there would have been some care taken to the order in which they were taken. The map being the first is interesting because no doubt that it is referring to the GPS feature...however a map was chosen over an actual GPS unit. This in itself is smart as well GPS' are relatively new and can in some cases be considered troublesome technology and itself is also portable. So this was addressed by instead having a map which as opposed of simply showing a street, shows the world enforcing a larger sense of freedom. Maps themselves also display all the information they have to show at once and therefore is much more simpler to use than a GPS. It also doesn't discredit the phone as the portable option for everything by being a larger than easily able to be carried around option. Finally it is also a good introduction to the folding theme since it is actually something foldable.

The follow up fold with the computer is where the ad starts to lose its real world element, however to make sure you aren't confused as to what just happened the TV gets folded down almost right after the laptop making sure you've now understood what is happening here. Whilst this lowers the emphasis on the laptop as part of this take with you thing it also works because if the laptop was actually one of the more prominent inputs it would be questioned more and I personally believe that the laptop has the weakest connection because the laptop itself is already portable and whilst most phones can handle some things laptops do, the laptop is always superior, whilst some of the more prominent folds have more improvements rather than just a reduced size Eg. GPS over map and Library options of music.

The music itself is a big one and the moment where he went to walk towards the door and noticed it is an important one, because while the previous gap in fold was good to be short, this one worked with having that little extension because it gives the viewers a chance to acknowledge the TV aspects of a phone before they are bombarded with more. The sheer size of the music collection is in itself an interesting option. In the past phones haven't been able to hold that much so my interpretation of this is that the reason the music collection is so large is to enforce the ability of phones to now hold more, and to in fact in some circumstances hold entire song collections.

The final fold is where things get a little more interesting. If done poorly this could really hurt brand image because it could be treated as complete mistreatment of the woman. The clever thing that I find is the small little kiss that was added before hand. This instantly establishes that it is a love based relationship and sort of makes it ok for him to fold her up. An odd concept but when I think about it, I believe that without it this fold would be looked at with a much more negative light. The addition of her kiss back at the end is also important, not only is this the point where the point that it all comes down to a phone is introduced, but it also while not directly saying, implies that the girl is not angry at being folded up into just a part of a phone. Again perhaps not the most believable intuition but I believe that is what it boils down to.

Another interesting part of this ad is the music. The song is 1922 Blues by Charlie Parr, the lyrics that appear in the ad are the following:

Well I worked all summer couldn't save a cent
I gave all my money to the government
I don't know quite how it got spent
but the banks are coming for my deed though
Man at the mill can't see though
Let me get my feed for free though
Ain't that the way it is

I cut out down a braver road
I traded my stock for a V84
Danced for town down on the floor boards
And the title owed down to me though
That gasoline ain't free through
Just guzzling out my knee bone?
Ain't that the way it is

Whilst these lyrics aren't exactly the most audible, they do however enforce a sort of blue collar, everyday worker sort of image. While most people aren't so poor off, I believe a line such as 'I gave all my money to the government' is one that speaks to a huge audience of possible consumers and endears the ad to them.

The overall way this ad works is first off a 'Wow look at all the stuff they have in phones now', thus making certain consumers consider even if only marginally, the option of getting a new phone. The ad then up until this point has used a few elements to endear the ad to the customer. Therefore once the vodafone logo comes up the overall message they are trying to get across of 'You need a new phone. A vodafone phone.' the consumer is endeared to the ad and may follow that logical connection of view since they could have already been lead to wanting a new phone.

It's been a while since I've done one of these so I hope that this one was okay and not too lengthy ^^; I hope you enjoyed this and as usual any comments are all too welcome.

On the news sides of things I just realized that the email in my profile had a stray letter which was accidentally capitalized and much to my surprise actually having a capital instead of lowercase makes it not work. So if anyone has used that email sorry but your email wouldn't have worked.

Also I was going to add another poll to decide what to do next but I instead have become so enticed by the sensible campaign that my next one will simply be that.