Learner Response

How does the institution take an original and positive approach to road safety advertising?

This film is very unique, subverting the conventions of the typical road safety advertisement. From the film, we can understand that the institution that have produced this film, hold strong ideological beliefs towards road safety and more specifically 'embracing life.'

The institution has subverted the stereotypical seatbelt advertisement by revealing a subtle picture of the situation, whilst the norm is for the advertisement to be explicit and brutal, portraying the harsh reality of the situation. Furthermore, the outcome of these videos leads to the characters in the car dying or becoming seriously injured. However in this film, not only is there no deaths but also there is a positive ending as the driver is wearing his metaphorical seatbelt. The influence of having a positive road safety film is that it conveys the message in a powerful way without revealing any sort of brutality.

To further reinforce this idea, the use of the 'charade-like' game presented in this clip almost adds the subtle contrasting message about life and how it is not a game and by highlighting this aspect throughout the clip it could symbolise just how in reality we cannot force reality to slow down, in order for us to put on our seatbelts and therefore shows us the importance of embracing life.

The advertisement follows Todorov's narrative structure perfectly as the clip begins with an equilibrium, promoting family values and revealing this very natural setting, which creates happiness and normality; this is then followed by a disequilibrium, revealed by the facial expressions and we realise that something terrible is about to happen; this problem is then resolved and a new equilibrium is formed as the situation has been resolved by the family coming together to 'save' the driver. In addition to this, the use of the classical music is also very interesting as it is constant throughout the clip, making it both parallel and contrapuntal sound. The effect of having this music constantly playing throughout the 30 seconds adds a captivating and original element to the clip and causes the audience to be even more intrigued, especially due to the sound being simple non-diegetic and there being no dialogue.