“A Therapy” by Prada

This stunning brand film was released by Prada at Cannes this week. If I were to tear it apart, I’d have said that one of their key concepts was Edginess. So many of the attributes of the film are edgy:

• The actress: Helena Bonham Carter is known for roles that are against the grain
• The director: Roman Polanski’s talents have always been known to be on the darker side, as well as his criminal past.
• The mis én scene: The claustrophobic amount of odd figurines combined with the peackocked variety of colours creates an odd sense of unfamiliarity
• The script: The male lead never says a word. This also illustrates that the female lead (the wearer of Prada) is the holder of the power in the room.
• The story: His interest in women’s clothes add an obvious edgy element, but the fact that he is doing it in secret behind her back creates angst and awkwardness for the viewer.

Combined they create a great message. I wish more brands would invest beyond a TVC into brand films. With the growth of online video, they are a huge opportunity to add real character and value to a brand.

P&G, being an official Olympic sponsor, have launched an ad to tie in the sponsorship with their well established “proud sponsor of mums” slogan. The ad, created by the brilliant W+K Portland, aims to pull on the emotions of the audience with a touching message brought to life through production techniques that are usually reserved for high budget hollywood films.

These high quality production techniques seem to becoming more common amongst advertisements of late. An obvious brand using these production techniques is John Lewis, with the vast majority of their commercials over the past 5 years combining an emotional message with artistic cinematography and a strong narrative. It seems that other brands have followed in John Lewis’s footsteps by wanting to add heart to their brand through these techniques. From IKEA to Vodafone to Breast Cancer Research, the desire to get an emotional response from consumers isn’t reserved for any particular sector.

There seem to be commonalities between the vast majority of these brands in their production choices. They choose a slow song, soft focusing, complex camera angles and artistic lighting. Could this be down to a flooding of film school graduates to the advertising industry? Or could it be the dawning of the age of “emotional advertising”?