Critical Analysis of Virgin Atlantic video commercial

Anastasiia Chorna

English 11000

April 20, 2015

 

Sex Sells

        Sells what? Lingerie and condoms? How about milk? Or airlines? That fits, doesn't it? However, this is just a small part of a whole range of various products being promoted using one of the most primary instincts of every human being – need to reproduce. Consumerism has become one the most commonly used words in describing our society starting from 1900s. After companies realized low prices are not the only way to increase sales, their main focus shifted to appealing to consumers emotions, persuading them to buy their products. And what is the better way to attract the customers if not through beautiful women. Not only it is unfailing eye-catcher, it is also a memorable image and when you make a commercial for your product you want the potential customer to pay attention and to remember.

However useful it might be, it seems to be used to many times by too many companies, you would think it’s supposed to lose its effectiveness. Nevertheless, numbers prove different. So how is that we have seen the same thing over and over again and it still keep working? In this paper we will take a look on one of the most effective advertisements of its time: commercial for Virgin Atlantic Airlines from 2011.

        Virgin Atlantic is private airlines company, that got in a lot of financial problems after the financial crisis of 2008. This commercial created by RKCR/Y&R had a purpose to bring the company back to market by reminding people what it means to fly on private airlines. This a very thought through, extremely attractive and highly memorable commercial. Every scene and every detail there supports the massage they want to send.

        The commercial for Virgin Atlantic is made with red, black and grey as dominating colors, those are also known to be colors of seduction(red) and dominance(black). Music background for the commercial is the song “Feeling good” by Muse. If listened alone, this song has very sexual tone, feels like the song is luring you to hear more, to see what follows. Lyrics of this song fit the video and topic as well.

The song starts with lyrics “birds flying high you know how I feel” while camera focused in center shows beautiful flight attendants walking in with carriages and little men sitting on top of them. This already sends a message about a level of treatment of their customers. Making women bigger than men, purposely made to create a feeling of their almighty ability to take care of them. Being that big sends a message that their flight attendants can see everything and there is nothing that will miss their eye, so they will be able to attend to all needs of their customers.

Keeping focus in the center, picture changes to a face of an extremely beautiful woman, which is rapidly changed by an image of body check and mysteriously gorgeous woman's eyes on a background. Here we have another symmetrical image: body checking booth in the center and woman’s eyes on its sides. Symmetry is embedded in every scene of this advertisement: focusing camera on the center, placing objects and people in straight lines, or reflecting each other. “Symmetry conveys a sense of attractiveness within the advertisement, and some of the standards for beauty in society actually consciously, or unconsciously, consider the symmetry of a person's face or body”(Bass, 1). This is a very simple and effective tool for attracting customers and in this commercial it is used all over the place, emphasizing the importance of looks and supporting the claim of striving for perfection.

Next thing we see in video is men wearing good cloth going through mentioned body check. It  reveals that one of the men doesn't have underwear, but he’s completely comfortable with this. The message of this scene is that even going through something as mundane as custom control can be pretty relaxing and comfortable experience if you use Virgin Atlantic. This scene also shows targeted audience of this commercial: middle age men with medium or high income. This fact explains all the choices made in the commercial: using gorgeous women, emphasizing on quality and perfection, relating himself to a high class standards. Mostly men after they reach thirty finally get good paid job, hence money to waste on traveling. At this stage of their life they can afford more expensive airlines and they care a lot about their social status, desiring to be associated with a higher level products and surrounded by gorgeous women.

Following the body chek scene, comes the scene with the captain and his assistants heading towards the plane. Again the camera concentrating in the center on three handsome men going on the straight line which cuts the picture in two halves supporting the symmetry of image. On both sides of their path we can see good looking women waving and greeting them, reminding us of fans waving to their idols. The message this scene is a professionalism of their crew, saying that people who work there are stars of their field. Furthermore, since the pilots are shown to the best in their field, it also develops a feeling of trust, reducing the fear of being crushed from incompetence of a piloting crew.

In the next scene plane raises into sky and at the same moment we can see other planes and women flying besides them. This comparison of plane to women has a complex symbolism. As it have been shown before, women portrayed as carrying and attentive towards customers, making not only a plane, but a quite a number of them seen as women, tells us that it’s not only a stewardess but a whole plane and a whole corporation is carrying for your comfort and well-being. However, a woman is also an object of desire for men. By associating its planes to women it refers to unconscious desire of the  majority of male audience to have a beautiful women.

More beautiful women can be seen in the next scene, where seven beautiful stewardesses lined in “v” shape perfectly in the center of the screen perform usual safety instruction, but in a very gracious way. Wind blowing their hair, eyes luring the audience, scene ends with them opening their shirts. This image has very straight sexual undertone, However, the message here is that even something so unexciting as safety instructions is performed in an exceptionally different, better way.

Next scene starts with stewardess carrying food tray and transitions into huge red lips rights in the center of the screen, symbolizing, again using sexual innuendos, a great satisfaction and pleasure. Three big shrimps on forks, that follow right after connect this pleasure to food. The choice of shrimp is not random. Seafood is known to be a powerful aphrodisiac, so even when sending message about food they use sexuality to boost the effect.

As food is followed by drinks, scene with shrimps is followed by a cocktail, again in the center, and with a group of attractive people sitting around it and having a good time. The association, that was made here, is with good time you have when you’re having your drink and chatting in some expensive lounge. The big hand of stewardess mixing a cocktail reminds us about constant attention and carrying of the staff. It also serves as a very smooth transition into another scene, where a big gorgeous stewardess covers a men with a cloud and kisses him goodnight. The last action is a direct reference to our loved ones, usually our mom kissed us before we went to sleep, therefore by comparing service on a plane with the way only your family would treat you is taking it to a much higher level.

After the kiss goodnight, the big woman’s eye that appeared on the center of the picture closes and we see women flying around a tall building and then the Statue of Liberty. When girls fly around the building, it gets a shine to it and when they fly to the Statue of liberty its fire starts burning. Having women flying in this scenes holds men’s attention and having those landmarks change their appearance to show that with Virgin Atlantic all of your travels will be a better experience.

The last scene of the commercial displays a crew of pilots and stewardesses on a wing of a Virgin Atlantic plane, music stops and we can see their motto “Your airline’s either got it or hasn't”. The crew stay for summarizing of all of the pleasurable experiences you would get if you use their airlines, leaving you with a phrase that raises the bar to all other airlines. This is a pretty bold statement, but that’s what is needed to keep the status up.

Through the entire commercial we can see only beautiful images, smoothly transitioning from one another, with all the action drawn to the center of the screen. Centering is used to draw audiences attention, symmetry - to attract it, and smooth transitions - to hold it. Nevertheless, all of the listed is just a prelude, beautiful women are the main attraction. Every scene delivers the valid message, but uses women to influence the unconscious desires of men. Having women to be so sexualized, helps scenes to be remembered, and in the end when all of the crew is together it gather up all emotions felt throughout the commercial just to amplify overall impression. Next time you have to use airlines, don’t be surprised if the first thought coming to your mind will be a gorgeous stewardess in red covering you with a soft and fluffy cloud. So, yes, sex does serve its purpose, it does sell. But is that what we want to buy?

Works Cited

Bass, Brian. "Examples of Symmetry in Advertisements." Small Business. Chron, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

Official Virgin Atlantic Advert - HD 'Your Airline's Either Got It or It Hasn't' Dir. Mark Roalfe. RKCR/Y&R, 2011. You Tube Video.