Funding for the Arts

Some ads are more successful than others; this is the case of Funding for the Arts (Canada) by Michel Rivard, Stéphane Rousseau, Benoit Brière. The ad tells a story about a French-Canadian artist seeking funding for a music festival which will take place in France. He is being interviewed by a federal comittee composed of English speakers. The dialogue between them is the most important part of the ad; they have difficulty to understanding each other. This will put the artist in a bad position. Everything is presented in a very humourous way. The artist presents his song to the judges; his song is the central element of the story because he is trying to convince them with that song. The camera angle of shot and close-up let viewers see the judges in a more impressive way and a close-up of the artist doing mimics increase the humour in the ad. Printed words are used at the end to tell the main message of the ad ''Every dollar invested in culture brings back 11 times more money directly or indirectly'' The target audience is all Quebeckers, the producer of the ad wants to inform the audience that the Conservative Government is blocking funding for artists. The commercial succeed in delivering the message, the ad has gained a lot of popularity on the web and has started a lot of discussions about the issue.

Samuel

Fabien V.