The Greek Yoghurt Advert

The Greek Yoghurt Advert; Extended Version

  

Textual analysis

The ways in which the advert constructs the representation of regional identity

The very beginning of this advert sets the scene in under three seconds. The scenery that the young boy is infront of are mountains and a land of open space. There are no houses at first, or cars or street lamps as there would be in today's generation, just rocky roads and surroundings filled with nature; plus a cow. From this opening it is evident that this advert is based in a rural location. When we first witness the boy's face, it's covered in shadows making his facial features unclear, which displays how there is a lot of sunlight pouring down on him, as I have shown below. It creates a humid atmosphere when watching the advert. 

The music playing in the background is a greek tune that stops for a second when the cow shows up on camera, his ears perking outwards as if he was listening out for the music. 

The boy then shouts for his mother, referring to her as "mama!". This use of vocabulary portrays how the advert isn't set in England, where here we'd use 'mum' for 'mama'. The music then eases the audience into a more adventurous greek melody as the boy begins to run off in search for his 'mama'. We are then welcomed to his mother's face whose features are also vague due to an immense amount of sunlight; definitely a hot setting. We are unable to understand what it is that the boy is telling his mother because he doesn't speak English, which ties a knot around this advert not being filmed in Britain. 

The advert so far has been lacking in vibrant colour, filled with tones of mainly harvest shades (light mustard, grey, brown and dark green) which provides the impression of the video perhaps being filmed on an anonymous piece of land. 

At 0:18 there is a clip of a man travelling by a horse up a hill. If this video was filmed in an MEDC (more economically developed country) there would be people travelling by cars and motorcycles with street lights everywhere. As this is not the case, it enforces the audience to assume that this advert was instead, filmed in an LEDC (less economically developed country).

The boy travels past another feature of this advert that causes my assumption of it being filmed in an LEDC to increase: a man ringing a bell. It is very rare that you will cross paths with a church that has a bell being rung by a physical human being. Most churches aren't even accompanied by a bell anymore, and if so, they're rung every hour automatically. Furthermore, the clip of this man has been filmed extremely high up. You can see plenty of clear sky and the tranquil ocean in the bottom right hand corner. The views portrayed in this video are outstandingly refreshing. Along with the view, a flag is included in this part of the video and of course it's the one and only, Greek flag, which pairs perfectly with the advert title 'Total Greek Yoghurt'.

At 0:28 the young boy then runs through a street where there is a woman bashing her laundry and hanging them up on a washing line that stretches across the road opposite her balcony; again, something that is more stereotypically done in an LEDC. The rooftops in this clip look tattered and worn down. This could mean that the residents living in that area don't own very much money, placing them in the lower class category.

Clips of the boy running across, past and through different rural locations in the video are then displayed. The streets look abandoned, the rocks look harsh and the scenery is filled with character. This provides the audience with a feel for the area that the advert has been filmed in, handing them over a flavour of the setting.

The characters in the advert aren't dressed in very clean modern outfits. Instead they're clothed in baggy layers which is what most people wear when living in scorching countries to keep them cool. Even though their outfits are suitable for the weather condition, it doesn't hide the fact that they don't look very fortunate in general. 

Overall, I'd say that this advert was filmed in a rural community which withholds extremely strong traditions from how it has been filmed. It's portrayed the atmosphere the characters live in, the types of outfits they wear, the things they do (ring bells, bash their laundry), the different areas within one area, how they communicate and how their lifestyle is always filled with fresh air from the open space in their living environment.