German ad - Berlitz

The scene shows two German coastguards in the beginning of the advertisment. The young one seems to be at his first day of work. The older one seems to be his superior and seems to teach him the basic outlines of his job. They are talking in German. There is no narrator or subtitles so we are not able to really understand what they are saying. As the supervisor leaves, the new employee receives a mayday call from an English sailor, who is sinking. Unfortunately, the coastguard doesn’t understand what the sailor is saying and fails to help him (“We are sinking!” “What are you thinking about?”). After the confusion, the company logo appears with the “Improve your English” slogan. It’s obvioulsy targeting people who want to improve their English language.

We can see with the little story and the slogan that the tone is humorous. Of course, in a same situation, that would be tragic. At the end of the advertisement, there is opera music to put more emphasis on the humorous part and to draw attention to the message from the company. The atmosphere in the coastguard office is dark and at the end we see a white screen with the message on it. The white screen helps to change our mood suddenly from calm to energetic.

The advertisement inspires probably only people who can’t have a job because they are not able to speak proper English.

Click here for a link to the ad on YouTube.