#7 Creative Advertisement Analysis I

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/vw-polo-small-but-tough-cops/

Advertising Agency: DDB London

Creative Directors: Jeremy Craigen and Ewan Paterson

Art Dierectors/ Copywriters: Dylan Harrison and Feargal Ballance

Art Director: Nick Allsop

Copy Writer: Simon Veksner

Account Planner: Hannah Wren

Account Managers: Martyn Farmer and Jason Lusty

Photographer : Paul Murphy

Typographer: Kevin Clarke

Client: Volkswagen
Released Year: 2003

Denotative meaning:
The car advertisement has a linguistic message- text that reads “Small but tough. Polo" as the brand single minded proposition. A visual image of the brand's logo. In the picture setting, there has cars and police officers at the street.

Connotative meaning:
From the advertisement image, we can see that police officers take refuge behind the Volkswagen's polo instead of using other cars/ police's car during a gun battle. Assuming that Volkswagen Polo is so tough to protect the police officers from attacking during a gun battle.

The signifier is Iconic of  Volkswagen Polo. It signified Volkswagen Polo is so small but tough as there's a bunch of police officer refuge behind Volkswagen polo which is small instead of other long cars. The paradigmatic relationship in this advertisement shows Volkswagen Polo is placing with other cars which looks old-fashioned. The indexical sign Volkswagen Polo looks stylish and stands out among the other cars. By using the narrative paradigm theory, it automatically puts those who own Volkswagen Polo to an unique consumer category as they're owning a special type of car.

Myth:
The ‘narrative’ or the ‘myth’ in this image is – if you own a Volkswagen Polo, you will become protected, stylish and unique.

Reference:
Macleod, D (2008). 'VW Polo small but tough' [Online] Available at: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/vw-polo-small-but-tough-cops/ [Accessed: 16th of June 2015]