Ad: Child Car Safety – Love Protects

Child Car Safety | Love Protects :30

0:00

The first frame of this ad shows the camera centered on the excited face of an adult and a young child on the side in the foreground, slightly blurred. The adult appears to be a father figure and both he and the child are smiling. They are in a car that you can just see the outline of and the background can be seen as a clear blue sky and bright trees. 

0:01 – 0:02

In the next frames the father figure is seen crawling into the car and reaching to work on the child’s car seat, but still turning and looking at the child and keeping his playful happy features. The next frame shows the child as the main focus. The son is smiling and making eye contact with his father and making some gestures with his hands. The eye contact between the father and son show a loving and trusting relationship and you can tell they both care for each other.

0:02 – 0:03

The next shot shows the camera from across the car to show a wider view and more of the car and the father son duo’s figures. The father is wearing a darker simple short sleeved button down shirt. The son is wearing a bright colored T shirt and jeans and velcro shoes. The car can be seen parked outside of a grocery store. I believe this to be significant because it shows that even doing menial chores or short drives requires attention to safety. The car is a simple gray interior and the carseat matches perfectly with the interior of the car. The shot includes the back of the toddler aged car seat which shows us that it has indeed been set up correctly. The shot includes the safety handles in the very top of the frame which I believe is just a further nod to acknowledging safety in cars. A colorful but clean blanket is shown in the other seat and a stuffed animal in good condition is seen further down on the floor. The floor of the car is perfectly black and no dirt is seen on it. The stuffed animal, the blanket, and the cleanliness of the car all point to a safe environment.

0:04 – 0:05

The next two frames show the father covering his face and popping out in a silly game of peek-a-boo and the child reciprocating with a silly face. The close up on the father shows us a wedding ring on his left hand and that his nails are manicured and polished looking. His hands look smooth, not rough like he works a physical labor intensive job. He is clean shaven which gives a more youthful and innocent look. All of this points to him being a safe figure.

0:05 – 0:06

Here we see the father clipping in the front of the car seat safety feature which ties all the belts together.

0:06 – 0:07

Here we see a new duo introduced. The shadows of two taller figures are seen playing casual (not super aggressive) basketball. The shadows are cast on a sidewalk or driveway type background that is pretty smooth, no cracks or big stains. The next frame shows what appears to be a mother and daughter playing some basketball. The mother is wearing a darker outfit and the daughter is in lighter colors.

I think the color contrast between the younger and older characters (with the younger kids in bright pastels and the parents in darker clothing) signifies the parents being more experienced and having more responsibility to keep the innocent youth safe from the dangers of the outside world.

0:07 – 0:08

This shot shows the daughter shooting a basket and the mom putting up her hands to stop it but not being able to block it and it swooshes in the basket. We see the edge of a house signifying that we are in a driveway and a neat white house is seen in the background.

I think the shooting of the shot and the mom not being able to stop it signifies how even though parents may be confident in their driving skills, they may not be able to stop everything.

0:09 – 0:10

The next frame shows a center on the daughter holding up her hands and smiling in a victory pose supposedly for making the basket. The mother then walks up to her and hands her a water bottle, smiling at her and putting a hand on her shoulder.

0:11 – 0:12

The next shot is in front of an apartment complex, also white and pristine looking. The frame shows a new child, also wearing pastel clothing and wearing a backpack, smiling and looking down, opening the passenger side front door of a car. 

0:13 – 0:14

The next frame shows the supposed mother of the daughter (in simple plain clothing) on the other side of the car with her younger brother (in pastel clothing) adjusting him in his booster seat. The car is also very clean, a cream color. The mother looks up with a somewhat surprised look on her face then with a cock of her head and still with a slight smile points to the backseat.

0:15 – 0:16

The shot then goes back to the daughter and shows her sighing slightly then closing the door of the car and going to the back.

0:17 – 0:18

The next shot shows her buckling into the backseat and giving a mildly annoyed look with pursed lips across the car to her mother.

This signifies that you can’t just let kids do what they want if it compromises their safety and that sometimes the more loving thing is to put them where they don’t want to be.

0:18 – 0:19

The next shot shows a close up new father figure, this one in a brighter colored t-shirt, not pastel but not bland either. The father is seen cooing and smiling down.

0:19 – 0:20

The next shot shows the baby that the father is working on strapping into a newborn carseat. This child is by far the youngest out of all of the ones we’ve seen. The child is smiling up at his father as he straps him in.

0:20 – 0:22

The next frame shows a close up on the fathers hands as he does the final buckle in of the car seat then frames out to show him adjusting the straps. His hands are similarly smooth and well manicured. The car’s interior is also clean and we can see a house in the background of the frame.

0:23 – 0:24

The next shot shows just the hand of the father rubbing the top of the infant’s head affectionately. The child is nestled in the car seat and a good amount of the car seat can be seen on either side of his head.

0:25 – 0:26

The next shot goes back to the mother – daughter – son trio we saw previously and shows the mother affectionately correcting the son’s seatbelt one last time.

0:26 – 0:27

The next shot shows us back at the first father son duo as he is on eye level with his son and pats his knee as he gets up to go drive. 

0:28 – 0:30

The final shot shows the newborn from the last duo in the car looking out the window as they drive as the URL to a government safety announcement is played across the screen.

Final Thoughts:

The description of the ad says that it is a “PSA celebrating car seat safety as an act of love and encourages parents and caregivers to show their love by double-checking that their children are in the right seat for their age and size” I think the ad did an excellent job of portraying this message as it showed lots of love and affection between the parents and caregivers and their children and by showing the different ages of kids and the different car seats they could be in throughout the ad.

Listening with the sound:

Listening with the sound played a man speaking over the background noise of the characters with a clever poem like of words that aligned with the shots of the ad. I thought it added a lot with clever word usage such as “so buckle up.” However I thought the point of the ad was conveyed clearly enough without the sound.