Virgin trains advert analysis. Chantelle Rogers

The advert I am analysing is Virgin trains “success express”. The television advertisement I am analysing was recently broadcasted and is quite long because it’s a stand-alone series. The virgin trains are a service which people use in their daily life to travel to places; they have services like “1st class” also great food and customer service. What happens in the advert is that Ed is busy and stressed on his journey to work because he’s going to be late for his presentation that he yet has to prepare for but then the environment changes on the virgin trains and he becomes more relaxed so he is able to prepare his presentation, eat and become relaxed and be on time and this is all because he is on virgin trains. Virgin trains have used this idea because it advertises their company in a positive representation to the viewers, it guarantees that their business is good at providing a service in which they’re known for providing.

The genre/style of this advert would be realist because virgin trains’ message throughout the advert is that you don’t want to be like Ed so you would come to virgin trains. This advert is also a stand-alone series because it has a start and end within this one advert. This advert has the style of ‘journey’ because the advert is about Ed’s journey to work which is about what happens and how it changes for the best when Virgin trains is introduced.

The setting/mise-en-scene within the advert is used to emphasise how good the virgin trains and how they could change your life, your busy schedule would be easier with virgin trains. So, they’re using the setting/mise-en-scene to work to show their message properly. For example, he’s holding his bag as if it’s going to explode at the beginning of the advert when he’s stressed and busy, this is before virgin trains is introduced. The background of this image has a lot of people and this shows the setting and its atmosphere throughout it.

They include this because they need a start and finish to their story and what his gestures show is a start to how he’s busy and in a rush to then being relaxed on their train. Also, for the same reason, his tie is over his shoulder, this shows how he looks when he is stressed and busy. As soon as he gets on the train, the diegetic noise disappears; this is a sign that the environment on the train (virgin trains) is relaxed. The setting is used as a professional type of environment to emphasise a real situation where a professional businessman is busy.

The colour in the advert is dull which means the emotion in the advert is not there at all apart from stress and how busy and chaotic the environent. The sound/music is important in the advert as it emphasises the adverts message. The sound in the background is the busy environment. You can hear the people around him; the environment is busy and loud. The music is effective because it adds to the seriousness of the advert, like when the man is busy and its message. The song “Final countdown” is used in the advert because he’s in a rush and he’s got no time and so he’s trying to do his presentation and get to his presentation too. The dramatic music gains attention from the audience because as it gets more and more dramatic, they want to carry on watching until the end. The tone of voice of the lady when she repeats “presentation” is very dramatic because it portrays a part of the purpose in the advert. The music in this advert is non diegetic until you see a man playing an instrument.

The editing techniques and shots that have been used at the beginning is a long shot.

This is because they need to show all of his body so the audience can know that he’s stressed because that’s how he’s presented himself to look like. There is also a medium head shot on Ed at the end of the advert,this is to cause effect on the audience and make them realise one of the messages of their advert. This is that their advert is a real story which happens to people so it makes them realise that their service is good enough to satisfy their customers. This part is a long shot and it shows that he is busy and stressed because of how he needs to get his presentation done soon.

Close up on the train’s ticket for product placement of the virgin trains“1st class”. There is a lot of close ups on what he is doing because this is an important part of the adverts message. The close ups are all at a fast pace because it emphasises how busy he is and how much he has to do. The close up on the business magazine is to show product placement, this is also a sign too show that if you get there trains you’ll be like them; intelligent, wealthy, rich, business people.

Richard Branson is an icon, they use him to sell product. They use Richard Branson in the advert because he’s a very professional business-like celebrity and people look up to him. So this is relevant in the advert because the audience look up to Richard. This is just like Richard is Ed’s boss, who Ed has too look up, whether he likes it or not. When Ed does get to his presentation on time because of the train, this makes people want to go to virgin trains because they don’t want that to happen to them. Near the end of the advert when Ed arrives home, there are people who are celebrating for him.

The train ticket changes from Preston to presentation this is a sign that shows he is busy. Then this advert shows that if you get the virgin trains you will never be late, you’ll be like Ed; successful, on time and relaxed.

The advert demonstrates unique selling points by using the journey of Ed to recognise and emphasise them. They use the food in the advert to show they have good service (the food is organised and looks nice to) also when they show the food, they don’t include tomato ketchup on the serving because they want Ed to ask the staff so that they can demonstrate their Usp’s of the staff being friendly and polite.