Class Act (Ferrero Rocher - Ambassador's Party)

Member Name: assethound

Product:	Ferrero Rocher - Ambassador's Party
Date:	30/09/00 (1832 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sells the product well

Disadvantages: None

Watching the Ferrero Rocher advert we are bedazzled by the glamour and sophistication of the Ambassador and his guests. Beautiful women and handsome men mingle in a social gathering that we can only participate in by metaphorically pressing our noses up against the window, directing our longing and aspirations into the flickering of the TV screen. The perfect pyramid of luxuriously gold-wrapped chocolates represents to us the social structure we are bound to by our birthright in a European monarchy. We are doomed, like the little Match Girl, to carry the warm glow of high society in our minds to keep us from feeling the cold winds of our class-based society, where only the rich ever have enough - or do they?

As John Berger says in Ways Of Seeing, "The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. Not with the way of life of society, but with his own within it. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better. It offers him an improved alternative to what it is." (Berger et al, 1972, p.142)

The Ferroro Rocher advert succeeds by tapping into our class-consciousness, and showing us that we can buy a little of the glory of the Ambassador's guests reflected in the glossy packaging of a box of chocolates. The supposed quality of Ferrero Rocher chocolates is signified by the advert's setting, an Ambassador's reception, and the glamour of the guests, resplendent in evening dress and beautiful gowns. A butler hands round the chocolates on a silver platter, carefully arranged in a pyramid structure, reminiscent of the excesses of the Victorian's socially aspirant dinner parties; further emphasising the class-driven basis of society, and suggesting a way in which we can emulate and vicariously participate in its upper echelons. The packaging of the chocolates themselves suggests an exclusivity and value that they do not possess in reality. Th
e packaging almost certainly costs more than the product to manufacture, making Ferrero Rocher chocolates function as a mirror to the modern religion of the consumer, where the image is all and the content a mere detail. When we buy Ferrero Rocher we are eating the dream and not the chocolate, with the hard shell collapsing to reveal a soft and insubstantial centre.

The perceived "cheesiness" of this advert allows us to buy the product whilst maintaining that we are not taken in by its imagery. It allows us to feel that we have understood the nature of the lure, and rejected it. In reality, unless you are buying Ferrero Rocher chocolates because you have tasted them before, and are making taste the basis of your decision to purchase, it is the image that sells them. The lure has worked.

The "foreignness" of the Ambassador and his guests, with the suggestion that this advert has been dubbed, nods towards the perceived high-quality of chocolate produced on mainland Europe, as opposed to the high sugar, low cocoa-solid content of British chocolate. This foreign setting also allows us to further distance ourselves from the idea that we are buying into a philosophy of inherently class-based values. This low rent version of the upper classes allows us to feel superior to the advertising agency that devised this campaign, whilst we flock to buy the product from supermarkets, corner shops and garages. The combination of the ironic veneer of exclusivity and the wide availability and relatively low pricing of Ferrero Rocher chocolates is irresistable.

The Ferrero Rocher advert is an extremely clever one that both feeds into our class-based aspirations, and allows us to feel superior to the Ambassador and his guests. Our conviction that we have seen through a transparent ploy by the advertising agency makes us all the more easy to sell to. Can it be an accident that the name Ferrero Rocher has echoes of Ferrari and Ric
h?? The very name suggests opulence, jet set living and a supposed European sophistication that the British both long for and at the same time reject.

All in all this advert is far cleverer than most people give it credit for. It clearly works on many levels, not least of which is selling the product to a mass market.


Bibliography

Berger, John, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb, Richard Hollis, Ways Of Seeing, British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books: London, 1972.

Summary: