Greek Yoghurt Advert - Regional Identity Task

Greek Yoghurt Advert Evaluation The first thing that I noticed instantly the advert began was the choice of music used in the background of the advert. The music used is very stereotypically Greek-style, with the Bouzouki instrument being ¬prominent. Immediately, this starts to sets the scene for the viewer and starts to culturally prepare them for the remaining video sequence.

After the music is introduced, we get a look at the main character in the sequence. We can see that he is likely to not be very wealthy, due to his tatty clothes and generally poorly maintained appearance, giving us an idea of his cultural background. Shortly after this, we see the boy turn to a cow and lead it into a field – which we assume to be a farm owned by his family for agricultural purposes. This also sets the scene well for us as a viewer, as it enables us to experience the rural background that he lives in.

The next thing that I noticed was the filter that has been placed over the sequence. The overall frame is very unsaturated, grainy, there is little contrast and the colours are slightly duller than what they would be in a typical advert. This once again gives the viewer the impression that it has been filmed either in the past (before modern film technology) or in a less developed society.

Following this, we see lots of establishing shots, giving us a good idea of location. Furthermore, we almost get a confirmation of the area that the boy is from when he shouts ‘Mama!’ and proceeds to speak in Greek (assumably). Once again, this is sets the scene well for the viewer and helps us to establish the regional identity of the characters – and therefore the culture behind the production of the yoghurt. Not only this, but we often get many other cultural references throughout the sequence that would differ from our own western society. For example we see a shot of a man dressed in black ringing a bell, a woman using traditional methods to wash/dry clothes and a man riding a horse through a field. Many of these people seem to be communicating with the boy, this gives us a strong idea that there is a huge sense of community between the people as normally there wouldn’t be much personal informal interaction with neighbours. This is probably due to the culture of the area that they are from and the fact that he’s from a small rural village.

At the end of the advert, the Boy’s mother’s phone rings. I believe that this is almost ironic, as we go through the whole advert believing that it was set in the past when technology was not so readily available, however the woman’s phone ringing tells us that maybe this is not the case, and that it is in fact set in recent times, but just in another part of the world.