1. Watch the tourism advertisements below.
2. What techniques can you identify in each one and how are they intended to make us as consumers feel about the given destination. Write a short analysis of each video and its efficacy.
3. Choose your favourite ad and explain why you think it is the most effective. How does it entice you to want to visit?
Greece – Explore Your Senses
Egyptians Offer You Their Most Precious Gift
Amazing Thailand
Korea Sparkling
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The slogan of Greece tourism is “explore your senses”, combined with the images of the hand touching the sand, the sea and the wall of temple, it’s not only to see Greece, but also to feel. The landscape is marvelous, however the acting is sometimes a bit awkward and unreal. It might be better if there were more scenes of the ancient constructions, for which Greece is famous.
The Egypt one is my favourite. It begins with the phrase “once upon a time”, which is relevant to the mysterious Egypt’s history, and makes the country sounds like a fairyland. The camera angle is really great. The ad reveals many options that Egypt offers, from sight-seeing, to diving and golf. But I think they overuse the image of the sun, like why you have to come to Egypt while you can see the sun from almost everywhere.
This ad purpose might be to amaze the audience and persuade them to have a break from work by visiting Thailand, however, it doesn’t really work. One of the reason may be that the effects are really fake. Though the traditional images and symbols of Thai is brought out, I think the rhetoric question “When were the last time you were amazed?” ruins the whole thing. I was actually amazed by the bright colours and the Thai cuisines, but then that question suddenly came up and stopped me.
In “Greece – Explore Your Senses” advertisement, it creates a closed and friendly environment and warm atmosphere. By using images such as a man is laying on the sand, beautiful beach with the slogan “explore your senses”, they aim to make viewers want to go to Greece and enjoy their life there. However, it doesn’t impress me much because what I’d prefer more is some of the relics of ancient buildings in Greece.
In “Egyptians offer you their most precious gift” advertisement, the advertiser uses a symbol of Egypt- The sun. The brightness of the sun is used in most scenes such as playing golf, camels and party music to emphasize the beauty of Egypt. However, it is somehow boring by just showing again and again the images of the sun. In my opinion, it would be better if they show some of unique things which are in Egypt such as ancient blocks or marble and mysterious pyramids to catch more tourists.
“Amazing Thailand” video has a different way of advertising. They use a scene of a man who is getting tired from work and suddenly he feels energetic when he sees traditional images and symbols of Thailand. Its aim is to invite people to come to Thailand after a hard life of working. I think it’s a bit humorous when a sentence” When was the last time you were amazed” appears. Honestly, It really doesn’t amaze me at all!
“Korea Sparkling” video uses a technique combining ancient and modern things in Korea. I think this ad is the ad I like most all the aspects in Korea from traditional clothes, modern devices to entertainment.
I especially like the Greece ad’s idea – “Explore your senses”- experience Greece not only by naked eyes but also by touching the sea, the ancient wall and the sand – Greek “specialities”. Beautiful sceneries with happy children and tourists are used to make people feel that Greece is a serene, peaceful country to come and relax. However, it could be improved by introducing Greek cuisine since “senses” are not only about seeing and touching yet also contain tasting.
The Egypt ad, in my opinion, has a concrete idea throughout the clip: offering the sun as their most precious gift. The image of the sun is repeated, is an illustration for that idea. The line “once upon a time”, along with the opening door evokes an ancient sense, like coming back to a thousand year. Yet, the golf reminds us that Egypt has modern facilities too.
The Thailand ad, on the other hand, has a different idea – a man bored and tired from work being amazed. This ad makes people think about Thailand as a place to escape from monotone everyday life. Yet I still not feel being “amazed” after seeing it. The colour of the background should be brighter when the flying boat start to appear.
The Korea ad shows that this country has a mixture of traditional and modern value by placing the image of Korean people wearing traditional clothes along with youths dancing or a train moving in high speed. There is an interesting scene about an old man wearing traditional clothes and watching football on mobile phone while sitting in a high-speed train, highlighting that Korea can balance and bring old and new values together. Yet the slogan – “Sparkling Korea” does not relate to what the ad wants to say since it doesn’t mention anything about the value of the country.
Greece: The video uses the slogan “Explore your senses” as their main theme. Every scenes of the short video relates back to the slogan and make it a whole. They have chosen the best images of Greece to present. They try to give the audience the message that in Greece you can find both the beauty of nature and the exotic life. Greece is portrayed as a destination of who wants to escape from daily life and explore something new. The choice of music is also vital. They have chosen the right song to bring out the message. The melody is both peaceful but somehow boisterous.
Egypt: The video opens with “Once upon a time” as an interesting narration. The sun is used as the main image throughout the video. This is appropriate because Egypt is a dry and sunny country. They have managed to make the weather an advantage successfully. The video in interesting because it is innovative in the way the sun is portrayed. By saying “Egypt offers you their most precious treasure”, they have created a friendly, welcoming attitude. The audience will want to come to Egypt because they want to explore its age-old culture. To me, this is the most interesting and effective advertisement because of all the reasons above. The message that the sun carries about a warm and beautiful, mysterious country has enticed me to come to Egypt
Thailand: the video begins with a man in his office, tired of his cramped daily life. Then floating boats pass by, on them are people wearing traditional Thai costumes. It focuses on Thai cuisine, traditional dance and some kind of massage. The slogan is “when was the last time you were amaze”. However, I don’t think this is an effective advertisement as it is plain and not quite “amazing” as the slogan say.
Korea: the video is trying to present Korea as a blend between rich tradition and modern life by having people wearing traditional costume but live modern world. They focus on the city at night because their main concept is “sparkling Korea”. Young and enthusiastic life style is one of the attractions of Korea. However in my opinion, the video is not creative and is boring as you can predict it.
Greece-explore your senses: By developing the idea of exploring one’s senses through travelling, the ad successfully brings out the serenity of Greek sights and culture. The music is specifically chosen to emphasize the ancientness of a legendary Greece. Several shoots of the sparkling blue sea, the imposing mountains and local children having fun invoke a feeling of freshness that is meant to attract those who want to “explore their senses”. The ad particularly focuses on the facial expression of the tourists through the way they joyfully touch the sand, feel the cool breeze on top of the mountain and play with the refreshing water of the sea. The ending of the ad demonstrates the fun that Greece brings to their visitors through the exciting outdoor party with wine and Greek cuisine.
Egyptians give you their most precious gift: The slogan is very embracing however too long for an ad’s slogan. Nevertheless, by constructing the ad as a fairy tale where the narrative begins with the sentence “once upon a time”, the audience is engaged in the mood of ancientness as Egypt is famous for its mystical tales about the legendary goddesses and marvelous pyramids. Another plus point for the ad is the focus on the sun. The ad successfully utilizes the hot and dry weather of the country to emphasize Greek most iconic image- the sun. With clever camera angles, the sun is presented as “Egypt’s precious gift”. However, the ad somehow exploits the idea by repeating the sun’s image too many times. This accidentally dissolves the excitement of the audience while watching the ad.
Amazing Thailand: It is quite confusing whether the ad is supposed to be funny or not because it doesn’t really have a concrete style. First of all, the black and white scene of the man who is exhausted from the workload does not work well with the sudden appearance of the ghostly golden boats with people dressed in traditional Thai costumes. It somehow creates a sense of misplacement instead of fascination, thus making the ad less appealing. Moreover, the ad focuses too much on demonstrating the boredom that the man has to endure in this office while neglecting the significance of expressing Thais culture and sceneries. Nevertheless, the idea of implying Thailand is an outlet for people’s fatigue and impasse is in fact very creative.
Korea Sparkling: This is probably the best ad out of the four since it is a combination of all of the techniques that most advertisements aim to apply. Korea in the ad is presented as a country where tradition and modernity smoothly collides. The imagery of people wearing traditional Korean costumes contrasting with the shoots of the youth energetically dancing to the electro beats creates an interesting concept that the audience may want to explore when they come to Korea. Besides, the impressive photos of Korean cities at night with splendid lights also act as an effective hook to attract the tourists’ attention.
The advertisement of Greece is using the slogan and expresses it through all the beautiful scenes of Greece. For each scenes, they gives the audiences a different senses, just like the slogan. It creates a peaceful mood along with the best images of Greece. The background music is also suits well with the ads. It makes the audiences feel relax.
I especially like the ads of Egypt and Korea. For Egypt, by starting telling the story and the symbol of Egypt: the sun, it allows the audience to flow with the images of Egypt. Through the ads, they include all the special things in Egypt in there, which makes the audiences feel want to go.
For the Korea, the slogan “korea sparkling” is kind of special. It is the combination between the history and the modern society, which means that Korea did change very quick, however, they are still trying to keep their special culture. Korea can suit with anyone, from people who like to know history to teenager, who want to see the modern things, and all the singer. At the end of the ads, they used Rain, the most famous singer in Korea to represent their ads, which can make it becomes more famous. The pictures of Korea at night are really attractive too.
For Thailand, the ads is boring. It is starting with a man who is boring sitting in his office, and then it starts to show all the flying boats, and it has included the culture on that boats. However, it is not really attractive, which doesn’t make the audiences want to go there.