Cinematography in McDonald UK’s ‘The Grand Beef’ Advertisement
Visual media is used across varies platforms, including videos and print media. Visual media relies on color and lighting to manipulate the feelings and emotions and, therefore, the decisions of their audience. Visual imagery attracts the attention of the audience more than the verbal content. This, however, does not mean that verbal content plays a lesser role. On the contrary, verbal content still plays an important role. However, the power of the verbal content is helped by visual imagery. People generally process visual imagery faster than verbal descriptions of the items. However, a verbal accompaniment can further the effect of the visual imagery.
McDonald UK’s ‘The Grand Beef’ ad advertises the company’s beef burger. First, the ad is short. It only lasts 34 seconds. This way, the ad avoids boring the audiences. It is easier to keep hold of the audience’s attention in 34 seconds. That is in itself a positive aspect. Getting the attention of the audience is a vital goal for advertisers. However, retaining the attention of the audience is also very important. Besides the length of the ad, the ad also uses a number of cinematographic strategies to get and retain the audience’s attention.
The introduction of the ad is quite pompous. It is marked with exaggerated word plays that often only accompany trailers of blockbuster movies, which seems fit for the title ‘The Grand’. The ad uses just the colors that help sell the product but also the McDonald’s brand: blue, red and golden are some of the commonly used. The colors red, yellow and golden as more associated with the McDonald’s brand. Although there is black, it is not used as a major color, but only to emphasize the other colors. In this regard, the black color (or darkness) is only to help the blue, red and golden to stand out more pronounced. For example, the black or darker peripheries make the ‘reviews’: A Classic …, and Juicy and Succulent, stand out better.
After the ‘credits’ and ‘reviews’, a big metallic font ‘The Grand’ appears, in big capital letters and accompanied by blue, bright lighting and exploding clouds (like in documentaries on space and formation of stars). Only then does the burger appear for the first time.
The burger appears in the 16th second. The advertisement has kept the audience waiting all the while. This is another strategy for retaining the attention of audience. The introduction is ‘grand’ enough to keep the audience waiting. They want to know what this is. The introduction builds the appetite and by the time the burger appears the audience almost has no doubt they want to try it- at least for the duration of the ad.
There is also clever cinematography when the burger is introduced. The first thing the audience see is the top of the burger, the sesame seeds (which McDonald’s customers identify with its burgers). Slowly, the burger slides away from the eyes- this is still part of building expectations- until the audience see the whole thing.
Next, the burger is described: double beef, double cheese, crisp Batavia lettuce, the grand sesame seed bun. These descriptions accompany close-up take of these elements. The beef looks brown, thick and succulent, the cheese stands out bright yellow, and the lettuce stands out bright green.
Finally, the audience see the young man at some- probably- café, admiring the burger. He and the burger stand out sharply against the blurred background, including the people around. Blurred backgrounds are used to foreground the key characters. In this case, it implies the psychological isolation of the young man; perhaps, that the burger makes him forget where he is
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