Recently I happened to watch a short cancer advertisement on you tube.The link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44fX5yavIZo. It was really touching and the message was strong. Why is it so? Although the video did not involve verbal communication, it made use of strong non-verbal communication such as the expressions of the characters, background music and colours. It had the ability to arouse our emotions, or pathos.
The advertisement started by showing a girl lying lazily on her bed, playing with her long hair. After that, she ran to the window and looked out, smiling at the same time. This scenario showed a typical girl leading a carefree life, probably waiting for her parents to come home. It had a tinge of sweetness in the scenario.
In the following scenario, the little girl ran to get a bag filled with hair care equipments and prepared to cut her hair. Throughout these actions, it increased our curiosity as to ‘what would a little girl, who was pouring out hair care equipments from a bag, do to her long, beautiful hair?’ She had a sad looking expression before cutting her hair and it conveyed the message that the girl would miss her long hair after she cut it. The music at the background played a part in creating a sad atmosphere. The colour blue was mainly used in the video and I feel that it was used to create a rather depressing mood.
The next scenario showed the girl running to greet her parents with her short hair. Her parents were shocked and this was seen in their facial expressions. Initially, they were smiling and their expression changed once they saw her. We could guess that they were not happy with her short hair. However, the boy wearing a cap did not appear to be shock because he kept his smile on his face even when he saw the girl. Even though no conversation was involved in the video, their facial expressions clearly showed their emotions.
I felt touched at the scenario where the girl looked down innocently at her skirt, which was filled with the hair she had cut, and she gave some hair to the boy. After that, the boy removed his red cap and put it on the girl’s head, showing his bald head. The video ended showing the girl smiling shyly and it really tugged at my heartstrings because the girl was willing to cut away her long, beautiful hair for the boy who most probably had cancer. We can depict that he had cancer because of his bald head. Most children have healthy, neatly kept hair; whereas, he had a bald head. The message of this video is most probably to appeal to the public to help cancer patients because this video was created by a cancer association. I think it is an interactive form of communication because we can respond to the video by posting our responses on youtube or call the hotline shown at the end of the video.
That’s all for today! Feel free to comment on the video too!
That’s a very nice commercial! It’s very thought provoking and appeals to our emotions.
I think it’s quite similar to Singapore’s Anti Smoking campaign where they print pictures of people, with various types of cancer caused by smoking, on the cigarette box.
Sometimes words just aren’t necessary to put a point across.
A very meaningful message. Spreading the word about not only cancer, but also asking for others to show concern for the patients.
What matters is not what physical object you give, but the meaning and sincerity in it.
I think the message conveyed through the commercial is beautiful. The message of acceptance towards others is conveyed very clearly despite my not understanding of the language through the symbolic giving of her hair to the little boy. Even the little boy removing his hat and putting on the girl’s head is significant. The removal of his hat represents him not being ashamed of his condition, while the putting of his hat on the girl’s head could possibly be interpreted as him accepting the girl as well, despite her messily cropped hair.
Also, I like the way the commercial does not portray a cancer sufferer as weak and depressed.
What a great commercial with meaningful message! It really impact me greatly and I think the commercial is very successful in conveying their message to the viewers! :]