Critical Analysis of a Diesel Image Christine Visser August 2011
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Diesel advertisements are often clever and thought provoking. Advertising is a form of communication between the market place and the vendor. The ultimate goal of advertising is to reach the target market and sell the products being advertised. Diesel attracts a lot of attention through their innovative advertising campaigns. They are well known for their approach to advertising and how they find a way to comment on issues of society in a somewhat comical way and integrate this with fashion and their products. In this essay, I will discuss and analyse an image from the “Human after all” Diesel campaign. The image will be analysed based on guidelines by Paul Martin Lesters “Six Perspectives for Image Analysis”. I will start off by elaborating about the campaign as a whole and then going into more detail about the specific image I have decided to critically analyse. The “Human after all” campaign consists of six print ads which have been attached. Included in the campaign are also three videos which are argued to be less successful than the print ads. The content of this campaign deals with the technology-obsessed generation we are living in, where technology is constantly advancing and people believing the future will be ruled by technological advances, as well as life being easier with all the new technologies. However this campaign states that how throughout all the technological advances, humans will still remain humans and where there are humans there is room for error. Rich comments “Where there's transport, there are sure to be breakdowns. Kids that break your clone‟s capsule, rather than just the window that usually gets smashed. Do you really think that assembling your teleport cabinet from IKEA in 100 years time is going to be any easier than the KLIMPT desk you struggled with last year?” (Rich. 2007) In this quirky campaign, careful attention has been paid to compositional elements such as use of line, visual cues and post production treatment. As well as the way the images have been constructed and use of colour and lighting help hold the images together as a series.
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Above is the image from the campaign I will be going into more depth about. This is one of the popular print ads from the “Human after all� campaign. This image depicts a child which has broken a clone capsule with his ball. It is perhaps a bit more challenging interpreting the image on its own compared to looking at the images as a set in terms of the concept. It is assumed to be clones because of the setting and capsules they are placed in, the viewer should be able to relate if he or she is familiar with futuristic movies where this has been practiced. When one initially looks at the image, you see a man standing in the foreground just off centre to the right wearing a trendy Diesel outfit. Your eye then follows to where he is looking, and that is back at the younger boy who is looking down at the ball on the floor which appears to have broken the glass capsule. There is a green clonefigure half submerged out the broken capsule. The child, ball, as well as the clone form a triangle in the composition which is the focal point of the image. The ball on the floor is placed amongst broken glass from the capsule as well as the green liquid substance that has spilled from the broken capsule.
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There is copy placed in the left hand bottom corner which reads “Human after all”. This ties the concept together and the image starts making more sense to the viewer. The choice of font indicates the playful nature of the campaign. The repetition of capsules creates depth and use of perspective in the image. There is strong use of diagonal line in the composition creating movement of the viewers‟ eye. A green colour cast dominates most of the image created by the green lit up capsules. The lighting is soft as there aren‟t harsh shadows and creates a peculiar atmosphere. There is light coming in from the windows above as well as the lights from the capsules. The main light source appears to be from above and the lights from the capsules being fill in light, or that is what it is perceived to be in the image. There is also purple light coming in from back. The lighting and colour treatment creates that uncanny feeling to the image. There is a clone reaching forward on the far left foreground of the image which is interesting because all the other clones are in a more stationary position. This one is the only one that seems to be in a different position if one starts to carefully study the clones. The man, child/ball/clone scene along with the text also creates a triangle within the composition which causes the viewers eye to bounce between the three. The Diesel logo is placed top right hand corner and stands out as the red contrasts the overall green of the image. If one looks carefully there also appears to be leads on the floor, and one in the foreground behind the models feet.
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Dantès quotes “the shot of the clones in tubes was about 20 shots laid on top of each other (there was only one glass tube) all that postproduction and you can still see a lead from a profoto head in the bottom right and corner behind the guys leg.. Whoops.” (Dantès.2007) However I find that somewhat mindboggling because for such a immense shoot and campaign I‟m almost certain everything was planned down to every last detail and its difficult to believe they would let something like that slip. That is just my personal opinion. Looking at the formal elements, this image possesses many visual cues and formal elements creating movement of the viewers‟ eye around the image and making it aesthetically pleasing. It is clear that the composition was well pre-visualized as well as thought out carefully in pre-production resulting in a successful advertisement. Below I have listed the main compositional and formal elements evident in this image.
Diagonal lines
Triangles
Soft lighting
Colour treatment
Repetition
Perspective
Gestalt
Notice that there is no eye contact between the models and the viewer. Gestalt is also evident, as to the viewer the clone capsules are perceived to carry on with the way they have been cropped in the foreground. With such interesting subject matter, one tends to wonder where the image was made. The location seems to be in some sort of warehouse environment. People with a background in image making and photography would also presume it has been digitally manipulated and composited as it is not probable that a real location with all those capsules exist. This is backed up by the 5
statement earlier mentioned by Dante where he states that there were twenty shots layered and there was only one glass cube. Personally, I think this is a very successful image. Compositionally, technically and creatively it is put together very well and I enjoy the treatment. The message has been communicated well with the campaign, in saying that, I didn‟t quite get it until I read the copy. In my initial gut reaction to the image, I was intrigued by the subject matter as well as the color treatment and lighting, this captured my attention and made me want to figure what it happening within the image in terms of the concept. The story the image tells relies strongly on the „Human after all’ copy when it stands on its own without the rest of the images from this campaign. Basically saying, no matter how much we advance in technology in the future, accidents will still happen because we are still human. Instead of balls breaking windows however they will now be breaking clone capsules as previously mentioned. Diesel campaigns are often memorable and thought provoking; this campaign was also a clever one among the others and will be remembered alongside their other exciting campaigns. It may not be completely original as many futurism films have been made, but it sure brings across a strong message. Another message I perceived from this campaign is don‟t take yourself so seriously, you‟re only human. In context with history and looking back on the campaign the date that the set of pictures for the “Human after all”, the campaign was released in 2007. One cannot find an exact date that this specific image was made, however it is probable that it was created some time before the release date. They are a complex set of images and this indicates that the pre-production, production as well as post-production was a timely process. The entire campaign style is futuristic with a lot of compositing. There poses to be similarities in the lighting style of all the images of this campaign creating a certain sensation throughout all the images. Decisions on suitable locations and models, compositions, treatment as well as the concept of each image had to be made well in advance before going forward with such a big campaign. One can only imagine the amount of planning and hard work that went into this campaign.
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Careful attention has been paid to every single element of the composition. The overall end result I feel is of impeccable quality and although it was composited and content is surreal, it still looks realistic and as if that place in reality exists. The moral of the story is that we humans will always be humans, no matter how far technology takes us there will always be room for error and people will always make mistakes. Thatâ€&#x;s why the copy reads so well with the series. The campaign is of a playful nature. Diesel have created this fun quirky concept to comment on our technology obsessed generation as mentioned, and of course to advertise their trendy clothing and that in the future people will still be wearing stylish Diesel clothing. This campaign does not offend any specific group of people and I do not think anybodyâ€&#x;s rights have been violated in this series as it is a pre-planned campaign poking fun at this technology driven generation. I feel the needs of the viewer are met in the story is put across well, however people who are possibly unfamiliar with the Diesel brand might not interpret this as a clothing advertisement, nevertheless it is a memorable one. The picture is aesthetically appealing if one looks at how all the formal elements have been used as mentioned earlier in analysis of formal elements. The visual message causes no harm, just an amusing comment on todayâ€&#x;s society. Constantly there are advances and change. We are moving so fast in developments of new technology, Diesel comments on this obsession with technology. I enjoyed this image and campaign from the start, that is why I went forth with choosing it to analyze, and after looking at it in depth and breaking everything down I have a new found appreciation for the campaign and all the effort that went into creating it. This campaign was on a half a million dollar budget. In conclusion, although through my readings there has been many mixed opinions on this particular campaign, I feel it is successful and engaging. I enjoy Diesel campaigns and how they have integrated fashion with a message. Their take on campaigns are unique and comment on issues of society that needs to be addressed. It is evident that a lot of thought and hard work go into their campaigns which should be appreciated by audiences all over the world. 7
Reference List: Paul Martin Lester. Visual Communication: Images with Messages. 2006. Holly.J.Allen Rich.2007. Human After All - Diesel Fall Winter 07 Campaign. (online) Date accessed: 25 July 2011. Available at: http://theverychronicles.blogspot.com/2007/10/human-afterall-diesel-fall-winter-07.html NA. 2010. Diesel Heritage (online) Date accessed: 25 July 2011. Available at: http://www.diesel.com/heritage Dantès. 2007. Diesel Human After All. (online) Date accessed: 25 July 2011. Available at: http://www.notcot.com/archives/2007/07/diesel-human-af.php Chandler,D. Semiotics for beginners. (online) Date accessed: 25 July 2011. Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html NA. ND. Diesel Human After All Campaign. (online) Date accessed: 28 July 2011. Available at: http://www.hautfashion.com/fashion-ads/diesel-human-after-all-campaign Anonymous. 2007. Diesel, Human after all. (online) Date accessed: 28 July 2011. Available at: http://www.designscene.net/2007/08/diesel-human-after-all.html#more3990
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Reading List: Geiste Marija Kincinaiyte. 2011. Semiotic analysis of Diesel commercial – Fuel for Life Unlimited. (online) Date accessed: 28 July 2011. Available at: http://geiste.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/semiotic-analysis-of-diesel-commercial%E2%80%93-fuel-for-life-unlimited/ Merris Griffiths. 1996. A Semiotic Analysis Of Diesel Print Ads. (online) Date accessed: 28 July 2011. Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/lmg9302.html David Kiefaber. 2007. Never Play Soccer around gestating clones. (online) Date accessed: 28 July 2011. Available at: http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/diesel/ Arning, Chris. 2009. Kitsch, irony, and consumerism – a semiotic analysis of Diesel advertising 2000-2008. (online) Date Accessed: 28 July 2011. Available at: http://plosjournal.deepdyve.com/lp/de-gruyter/kitsch-irony-and-consumerism-a-semioticanalysis-of-diesel-advertising-qcVSomM0td
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Image Reference: Rich.2007. Human After All - Diesel Fall Winter 07 Campaign. (online) Date accessed: 25 July 2011. Available at: http://theverychronicles.blogspot.com/2007/10/human-afterall-diesel-fall-winter-07.html
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Advertising Agency: Marcel, Paris, France Creative directors: Anne de Maupeou, Frederic Temin Copywriters: Eric Jannon, Dimitri Guerassimov Art directors: Nicolas Chauvin, Romin Favre Photographer : Johan Renck
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