Lynx Moving Image Analysis

This is a moving image advert for Lynx Excite, an antiperspirant made by the company. The slogan for this product is 'Even angels will fall' and they wanted this to link straight back to the advert in people's minds. The setting of this advert is Dubrovnik in Croatia. The narrative is that many 'angels' have started falling from the 'heavens' into the town whilst locals watch on in amazement. The angels appear to be walking towards a single man who has sprayed himself with Lynx's new antiperspirant. Starting with a quick panning shot of an angel falling before a child, the only sounds heard are the sounds of people talking and the angel crashing to the ground. These sounds are diegetic as the characters on screen can hear what is going on. There is a brief moment of silence as a crowd gathers around the unknown object which has fallen before them and handheld, low angle shots of bemused faces follow the silence. The unknown figure then stands and it is revealed to be a young, beautiful woman playing the part of an angel. The angel symbolises the goodness in women and how pure and innocent they can be - this is also reflected in the character's beauty. As soon as the angel looks up and her beauty is revealed, a choral version of Air's popular song 'Sexy Boy' begins to play. This is an interesting piece of non-diegetic sound as the song would not normally be associated with angels and heaven, the song has strong themes of sex and lust - the choir make the song sound angelic and innocent and when the chorus of the song is finally heard towards the end of the advert, it almost gives off comedic value and the juxtaposition of good and 'bad' comes into play. Another angel then falls before an elderly taxi driver who then gets out of his car to see what the commotion is, only to be stunned by the beautiful angel before him. A close up eye-level camera shot shows his shocked face staring at the angel. This scene, plus several others, show that all men (and women) appreciate beauty - whatever age - and that these are the most desired of all women as they are more pure and pulchritudinous than any others. There is even a somewhat comedic scene where a blind man is shown to be turning his head whilst an angel passes by, this could imply that there is an aura about the way she moves by and he can sense the perfection in her. To summarise, the angels are the definition of the perfect women. The angels eventually end up in a square with the cameras following their every movement, normally from in front or behind in a dolly shot. There is diegetic sound of birds flying away as the angels finally approach what they were looking for which is a young man. This man is attractive, well dressed and drives a Vespa scooter, he could be someone other men aged from 18-25 aspire to be like and therefore could make them invest in Lynx products. One angel takes her halo and throws it on the floor with diegetic sound of the halo smashing on the stone. The women are all making suggestive eye contact with the young man and looking at him as if he was perfection itself. The other angels look at one another and then do the same as the first, discarding their halos. The halos show what an angel is, possibly more than the huge wings they have on the sides of their body. The final shot of the advert shows the protagonist spraying Lynx Excite on himself, supposedly the next morning. Clearly shown in the back of the shot is an unmade bed with feathers scattered all over, giving the impression that the young man has made love to the (no longer) angels. The overall ideology of this campaign is that, once they have used Lynx Excite, men have the power to attract the most perfect women around. When the angels discard their halos and turn 'bad' this is to represent sexual desire. Being pure is shown by not having sex and an angel is the closest you can get to being pure therefore Lynx suggest that their products make women lust after regular men.