Textual Analysis 'Bring It On'

How does the video for the H&M campaign, 'Bring It On' promote H&M as an ethical fashion retailer?

In the advert, 'Bring It On', H&M promote themselves to be an ethical brand, they use many scenes to emphasise their morals and how they help the environment by recycling clothes so they have a 'new life'.

Many close-up shots are used to focus on the flaws of the clothes in the video, showing the audience that even the clothes which are unwearable could be recycled to something new. The close-ups are also used to focus on the clothes, as that is the main focus of the video, and to show the journey the clothes go through in their different 'lives' to recycling them into new ones. The scene with the fabrics turned into fibers emphasises to the audience how a small scrap of fabric can help make a new item of clothing to be re-sold. This encourages the audience to keep their unused clothes and to give them to H&M to help the environment and reduce waste. Similarly, insert shots are also used in this ad to focus on the clothes and fabrics other than the models wearing them and to interest the audience in the clothes. There are many scenes in the advert, the camera switches from scene to scene quickly as it matches with the theme of the video, which also matches with the dialogue and images in the ad. The last scene is filmed with a hand-held camera shot to follow the women running down the beach, this gives a natural feel to the video and also offer a sense of freedom. The last scene is also used as the audience feels admiration towards the person in the scene, as they wish they would be in their position, on the beach, as happy as the person in the video. Encouraging them to recycle their clothes so they can be just like the people in the video.
During the beach scene, H&M use the caption, 'together we can close the loop' which persuades the audience to recycle their clothes, to be a part of something. 'Together' also implies that everyone should participate for it to work to its full potential, which could make the audience feel as though they have to recycle their close, or they want to.

The mise-en-scene in this video is used carefully, there are many colours used in the video. They are used to draw the audiences' attention to the clothes. For example; the red dress in the, 'the thing with the colour that wasn't your colour' scene immediately draws the attention towards the dress s the colour is bright and next to many items of clothing with dull colours to make the dress look brighter. The colours are also used to attract the target audience, as the models are shown to be expressing themselves in the new, trendy, recycled clothes. This appeal pushes the audience to recycle their clothes to make a difference and overall make the world a happier, friendlier place. This is further emphasised in the facial expressions of the models' face as they are always mainly happy, implying that is how you would feel if you recycled clothes and how it would positively effect our environment.

In this video, there are some scenes which stand out from the rest, one being the nature scenes. In this scene, there is a clear change in the pace and lighting. The pace of the scene is slower than the other scenes,which effectively attracts the audiences' attention. The dialogue and music both slow down with an additional sound of the birds, which are used to emphasise the ethics of the company as birds are natural sounds as well as the setting of this scene, implying to the watchers that the brand is fully ethical and is safe and friendly to buy and reuse. The lighting is natural sunlight which again emphasises the brands peaceable clothes. On the other hand, the lighting may have also been used as it makes the scenery look more attractive, which is appealing to the audience and encourages them further to follow the ethics of the brand.

The sound in the video uses both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The diegetic sound in the video includes the ripping of the jeans/clothes, the traffic and the birds which are all sounds of the environment we live in, that we hear almost everyday. This adds to the initial emphasis of the ethics of the company and how they are interested in what is good for the environment. The non-diegetic sounds like the soundtracks and the voiceovers. The voiceover acts as a narrator in this video to direct the audience and almost make the video personal as the target audience would fit in the different categories the video shows. The narrator also tells the audience what is happening in the images, if there wasn't a narrator then the video would not make sense. The speaker in the video matches the pace of the editing, as she slows down the pace of her voice when the nature scene comes up and speeds it back up to match the other parts of the video and soundtrack.       

H&M uses this video to show the ethics as a fashion retailer. Overall the speech attempts to persuades the audience to give their unwanted clothes and fabrics to H&M so they can recycle and reuse them, reducing the waste of their products. Their video directs their large target audience to do so and promotes themselves to be helping the environment, providing high quality clothes that are ethical and happily made.