Textual Analysis: The British Heart Foundation – Vinnie Jones, Hard & Fast

The British Heart Foundation – Vinnie Jones, Hard & Fast

This advert contains features such as:

• Real Time
• Repetition
• Speech – This advert features Vinnie Jones speaking directly to the audience, and there is a small voiceover by him at the end informing them about the British Heart Foundation’s courses.
• Demonstrative Action – The entire advert is to educate people on what to do if someone is having a cardiac arrest, and so three steps are given. The audience are instructed to dial 999, then push hard and fast on the chest twice per second.
• Music – The song “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees is playing during the demonstration of hands-only CPR, the song selection works with the action as the CPR can help someone stay alive, but it is also used to help people perform CPR as they are instructed to push to the beat of the song.

This advert is a demonstration/famous faces advert. It features Vinnie Jones, former footballer turned Hollywood tough guy, on-screen as a British thug, who educates the audience. He was chosen as it would allow them to make a bigger thing of the need to push “hard” when performing CPR, and also because he would be able to relate to the target audience of British people. Vinnie Jones instructs viewers on what to do if someone is having a cardiac arrest, and although it is a serious subject, they are able to lighten he mood which makes it appeal to audiences more.

This advert targets the British public, and the inclusion of celebrity Vinnie Jones and the use of accent and dialect makes it appeal to their target audience. There is no specific gender, ethnicity or social class this advert targets, however it is more for adults, which is why the British Heart Foundation released a second advert which is for children.

This advert was created to support the tagline “Hands-only CPR, it’s not as hard as it looks.” So the duty of the advert was to indicate exactly that. It is showing the audience that it isn’t that hard to perform CPR, and only takes a few steps.

The advert features three middle-aged, lower class, white men, who are supposed to be thugs. Despite the negative stereotypes, the characters are likeable and funny, especially the henchmen, and this increases the adverts appeal.

This informative advert takes an informal and funny tone, but the main character and brings the seriousness into it, and that is what makes this advert successful.