The radio advert was for the Volkswagen Passat Highline Plus. It had a complex yet simple and factual style, informing listeners about extra features in a factual tone while also using some humor. Both a male and female voice were used, with the female voice being more dominant and sounding automated like a satnav. The purpose was to promote the new Passat model and its features to try and appeal to a mixed gender adult audience. While it provided good information, it could be improved by mentioning the product and company names more and including a slogan or tagline.

1. What style of radio advert is it? (humorous, serious, factual, fiction, pastiche, repetition,
simple, complex, nostalgic, modern, futuristic, aggressive, seductive, persuasive, surreal,
immediacy, long term)
What was the overall message?
What types of voice/s were used in the advert? (Male/female, young/old, foreign accent,
British accent, celebrity?)
What tone of language was used? (Conversational, informative, jokey etc)
Was there a tag line or slogan in the advert?
The style of thisparticularadvertcan be classedasquite complex,simple andfactual too
whenittellsyouaboutextragadgetswithinthisparticularcar.Although,aswell asthisthere
isa spotof humorwhenyouheara bitof stereotypingpartwaythroughthe advertwhenthe
female voice talksaboutall the extraslike heatedseatsandablue toothkit whichisprobably
more excitingforwomanastheywant everythingtolookbetter,the femalevoice then makes
a commenton howbigthe boot is(typicallyforshopping)whereasonthe otherhand, the
male onlytalks aboutthe complimentarySatnav whichcanbe classedasa boy’stoyinthis
perspective andthe costeffectivenessasmenhypotheticallytendtoworrymore aboutthe
money.
The message wasto put across howsuperbthe new Passathighline pluscaris andwhyyou
shouldbuyit.Thisis whyall the add-onsandgadgetswere included,especiallythe
‘complimentary’Satnav,totryand promote itas best as possible andmake itsound
appealingtoeveryone(mainlythe targetaudienceof mixedgenderadults).
In thisparticularadvertI didn’theara single tagline orsloganwhichisodd as younormally
getat leastone ineveryadvertasit helpswithpromotion.A sloganortag line isusually
somethingshort,snappyandcatchyso it getsstuckin the audiencesmindmeaningthey’ll
thinkaboutthe product/companymore makingthemwantto act uponit.Due to thisit’s
betterto have one or if possible more withinanadvertasit increasesyoursaleschancesin
some respect.
Both the male andfemale were wellspoken,clearandextremelyeasytounderstand.They
each hadan informative manoraswe heardlotsof useful informationandgreatfacts butas
well asthisthe female wasslightlyjokeywithcommentsshe made about‘neverseeingsucha
bigboot’,it seemedalittle sarcasticandhelpedtolightenthe advert.
To beginwiththe female voice,whichwasthe more dominantof the two,sounded
automated asif itwas a Satnav (fittinginwiththe cartheme of the advert).She soundedlike
a youngwomanwithinher30s andhad a Britishaccent,althoughthe more noticeablething
was thatshe soundedmore like arobot,veryclearandslow withherspeechtakinglittle
pausesin-betweenwhichcouldbe useful toallow the audience time tosinkeverythingin.We
alsohearda male voice verybrieflyrightatthe endof the advert.The male soundedolderas
he had a deep,mature voice,mostlikelyinhislate 40s,alsohe didhave a strong manly
Britishaccentlinkingtothe maintargetaudience.
Radio advert analysis sheet - Volkswagen

2. How many times was the product or company name mentioned?
Was there any contact details mentioned? (Phone number, web address etc)
What music or sound effects were used?
What is the main purpose of the advert? (Informational, sales or special offers, promoting
a particular product)
Why do you think the advert was good or why do you think it wasn’t verygood?
The product whichwasthe PassatHighline Pluswasonlymentionedonce althoughthereisa
lotof informationgivenaboutthe car,the actual product name shouldbe pronouncedmore
frequentlytoensure peopleknowexactlywhatcarit isand what model toensure they’re
interestedinthe correctone andtheyknow whattheylike/whatthey’re lookingfor.The
companyname ‘Volkswagen’wasalsoonlymentionedonce aswell asthe productbut not
evenina broad manorthat would be obviousandstandout to the audience.The onlytime
youhear itis whenthe male saysto visitthe Volkswagenwebsitetoview the deal onthis
great newcar.
The onlycontact informationrevealedwithinthe advertwasthe website ‘Volkswagen.co.uk’.
While thisisuseful tothe audience becausetheyhave somewhere togoand furtherexplore
thisadvert/specialdeal.Onthe other hand,some peopledon’tlikeusingthe internetorcan’t
use the internetforsome reasonsoit’salwayshandyto leave aphone numberforextra
reassurance thatyou will receive goodcustomfromthe advert.Aswell asthistheycould
mentionvisitingalocal branchto get more informationfromasalespersonincase there are
any listenersoutthere thatare superkeen.
Throughoutthe advertno musicwasplayed,however,there were soundeffectsonthe
female voice tomake hersoundlike aSatnavand alsothe whole time she wasspeakingit
soundedlike she wasinacar as if you couldhearit inthe backgroundtravellingdownthe
road withthe windnoise,whichIthoughtwasbrilliantbecauseitdoesadd tothe whole car
theme andmakesitmore effective andreal ina way.
I thinkthe mainpurpose of the advertis to promote this particularproduct toall of the
public,mainlyadults,andmake the audiencebuythe new PassatHighlinePlus.Theyalso
make it soundas appealingandfresh/new aspossible sopotential customersgetexcitedbyit
and geta goodvibe fromthe advert.It isveryinformationbasedwhichinthisrespectisgreat
because theykeepitexcitingwiththe voice stylesandsoundeffectsbutsometimesthrowing
a lot of facts at the audience canbe boringif youdon’tkeepitinterestingsotheydidwell to
adapt itand make it very easylistening.
The adverton a whole wasgreat.The addedvoice effectsandbackgroundnoise effectswere
my favourite partalthoughIthinkthe waythe female listedall the addedextraswiththe car
wouldcreate a lotof attentionandattract more of the public.Especiallywiththe
complimentarySatnavbecause whodoesn’tloveafreebie! Onthe otherhand, a big
disadvantage of the advertwasthat theyhadno slogansor tag linesandevenworse the
actual productand companywasonlymentionedonce whichisn’tthe best advertisingskills
so that couldbe improvedon.