Lager Advert
Source: albaoilcommunity (You Tube) Key words: tennents advert
This is the advert for a popular lager made in Scotland.
The song, a popular one in Scotland, is called "Caledonia" (the Latin name for Scotland and now a romantic or poetic name for Scotland).
The man in the advert is a Scot who lives and works in London.
He returns to Scotland.
Can you tell the story of what happens to the man? How does he feel? Why do you think he leaves London? Describe all that you see in the advert.
Then try to complete the lyrics to the song.
Comments
The advert talks about a young man that lives in a grey and cold city and that realizes than there are too many things in his present life that dont like at all and that deny him the opportunity of becoming happy. At first we can see some scenes that show serious people dressing in dark colours walking in the streets or waitting to up in a glass lift in a modern office building that dont look at each other and seem to be machines without feelings. The young man walks and waits like the others with a sad and unexpressive face, dressing a black suit and tie carring a suitcase for job in his hand. All of them are young and fashinable pleople, very elegant but apparently not very pleased. By contrast some scenes show poorer people and homeless, looking for odds and ends or for foods in containers in the street, with tattered, shabby and gruuby clothes but smiling in a more human accitude than the fashionable people. The young man stops to look at them for a moment. Then we can see how his expression changes and he starts to walk determined in a lonely street, leaving at the back the wide aveneu where all these unfriendy people probably continue. He suddenly throws away his bag with the job tools and papers in a rubbish container and continue walking alone. Finally we can see in the last scene the young man surrounding by a group of friends in a pub laughting and enjoing themselves talking and drinking some beer in a warm and kind atmosphere where even the colour has change from the grey cold tone in the city to a warmer one in the pub. The advert want to say that another world is possible if you try to look for it and if you are determined to find it and change your way of life, probably with friends and some beer too.
The advert IS about a young man that lives in a grey and cold city and realizes THAT there are too many things in his present life that HE DOESN'T like at all and that DENIES him the opportunity TO BECOME happy. At first we can see some scenes that show serious people DRESSED in dark colours walking in the streets or WAITING to GO up in a glass lift in a modern office building. THEY dont look at each other and seem to be machines without feelings. The young man walks and waits like the others with a sad and unexpressive face, DRESSED IN a black suit and tie AND CARRYING A BRIEFCASE in his hand. All of them are young and fashiOnable people, very elegant but apparently not very pleased. By contrast some scenes show poorer people and THE homeless, looking for odds and ends or for FOOD in containers in the street, with tattered, shabby and GRUBBY clothes but smiling in a more human ATTITUDE than the fashionable people. The young man stops to look at them for a moment. Then we can see how his expression changes and he starts to walk determinedLY in a QUIET street, leaving BEHIND HIM the wide avenue where all these unfriendLy people probably continue. He suddenly throws away his CASE and papers in a rubbish container and continueS walking alone. Finally, we can see in the last scene the young man SURROUNDED by a group of friends in a pub LAUGHing and ENJOYing themselves. talking and drinking some beer in a warm and kind atmosphere where even the colour has changeD from the grey cold tone in the city to a warmer one in the pub. The advert wantS to say that another world is possible if you try to look for it and if you are determined ENOUGH to find it and change your way of life, probably with friends and some beer too."
You have a pretty good memory!
Be careful with your spelling though! Verbs that end in "y", don't lose the "y" when you add "ing" eg carrying. It only happens with 3rd person and regular past- carries / carried.
TOO MUCH / TOO MANY are used with uncount and count nouns. TOO is used with adjectives eg too much money, too many people, too moisy.
We are surrounded by advertising. What is your favourite commercial or advert? Why?
I ALSO THINK that perhaps NOWADAYS the AVERAGE life of them is GETTING shorter and shorter and I AM SPENDING LESS AND LESS TIME watching TV too. I can only remember a few adverts that SPECIALLY impressed although I couldn´t say if they have been my favourite ones or not.
I remember for example one of Levi´s jeans in which there were a YOUNG COUPLE, a guy and a girl, running very FAST into a house crashing THROUGH the walls and finally GOING OUT INTO the country; or perhaps THEY WENT THROUGH the ceilings of different flats until they went out to the sky and got to fly? My memory fails ME.
I am able to remember better OTHER more recent ONES.
Two years ago AT Chistmas time, Metro de Madrid produced an advert that I REALLY LIKED when I saw IT on tv or some scenes in ADVERTS in the street. The advert was about two different couples that BROKE UP at the same time in different stations in the underground. The guy that had been abandoned by his girlfriend and the girl that had been abandoned by her guy SLOWLY STARTED TO SHRINK because they were sad and felt useless and insignificant until they become like gnomes in the installations of the underground.
Suddenly THESE two sad little people MET, they REALIZED THEY WERE THE same size and they LIKED EACH OTHER and FELL in love.
Then they TRAVELLED HAPPILY through different spaces in the undergound playing with little things that they FOUND enormous: They FLEW on a TRAIN TICKET as if it was a flying carpet like in the STORY OF ALLADIN, they run IN FRONT OF a cleaning maching as if it was a giant monster, they SAT in a hole on the top of a tunnel and GAZED at the train UNDERNEATH them.
I think it was curious because it played with normal things that you use daily and you hardly notice.
Recently I have seen a similar advert for "Gas Natural¨" that ALSO SHOWS a TINY couple in love with the body as if it was made of plastic and their natural face, like little plastic dolls, driving a miniature luxury car and travelling around their house.
In other scene they are having a jaccuzzi in a dish full of water where they have put an effervescent pill to MAKE bubbles and in the end the little couple END UP GAZING at the sunrise through the window sat under a bonsai tree near the radiator.
The advert TRIES TO SAY that if the house is warm enough you can do many things without leaving home, THANKS to the heating with gas natural.
When I was younger, the toys that I prefered were the smallest. THIS MIGHT explain my preferences in adverts now.
- You can use either the Past Tense or the Present Tense to tell the story of an advert or a film but try not to mix the both.
I think that it is a very good advert because it directly addresses to the sensibility of the consumers.
By the way, I always learn an interesting thing from your posts: this time the meaning of "Caledonian": there is a "Caledonian road" in my way home. Now I know its meaning.
But one day he feels TIRED OF that WAY OF LIFE and once he arrives at the office, he DECIDES to quit and go back to Scotland.
... because it directly ADDRESSES THE sensibility of the consumers.
there is a "Caledonian road" ON MY WAY home.