The Sound of the First French Television Advertisements

Abstract

This year in France, there has been a commemoration of the May 1968 rebellion. All of the media outlets in France - from the little local radio stations to the biggest magazines and television channels - have given a lot of time and space to this event. Yet no one has spoken about the first television advertisements that were aired a few weeks after Mai 68. In this position statement I will explore the link between the famous transformation movement in French society and the sound of the first French television commercials.The analysis of sound in television advertisements has barely been addressed since the beginning of television and film studies. If we want to understand the way brands try to attract people, we need to listen carefully to advertisements. Therefore I want to foreground the importance of studying sound in television commercials. What are the meanings of these sounds? For the purpose of this essay I will give three brief examples.Though they seem to be a caricature of la vie a la francaise, France's first television commercials were aired on 1st October 1968, for the most part promoting cheese and milk.1 The first such ad was for Boursin, a cheese with garlic and herbs. The ad shows a man who, in the middle of the night, is seen running into his apartment shouting, 'Du Boursin! Du Boursin!' Stopping in front of his refrigerator he eats a considerably largesized wedge of Boursin (on a baguette, of course). Following this we hear a powerful musical chord, presumably played on a church organ; the man seems to be in ecstasy. The sound conveys a cathedral-like atmosphere, indicating that the cheese is a gift from God, as the sounds emanating from the organ have no link with the kitchen where the action takes place. It shows that in French television advertisements the emphasis is on the use of sound that works like an audiovisual counterpoint. Had the 1968 French ad filmmakers been influenced by Eisenstein, Pudovkin and Alexandrov's 1928 manifesto?The second commercial to be shown on French television in 1968 was an advertisement promoting a powdered milk called Regilait. In it we see a brand new HLM (habitation a loyer modere), a council housing block typical of those built throughout France during the 1960s, and the sound we hear is of trucks and construction-site equipment. It is exactly the same sound that can be heard at the beginning of Henri Verneuil's 1963 film, Melodie en sous-sol, when the main character, a gangster played by Jean Gabin, is unable to recognise his neighborhood upon returning there after a long spell in gaol. It is also the noise that accompanies M. Hulot when he makes his way from his old neighbourhood to the rich, modern villas at the beginning of Jacques Tati's film Mon Oncle (1958). This is the sound of the 1960s in France, the development of concrete buildings, the sounds of modernity. The commercials, like feature films, depicted this frenetic urban development, but from totally opposite points of view. The sounds of these television advertisements tell us about the way society sees itself, and they need to be analysed for what they tell us about our social history.In the next shot we find ourselves in a modern kitchen. An executive is having his breakfast, when suddenly we hear the bells of Big Ben! The solemnity of the hour is clear, Regilait powdered milk is depicted as a similar 'monument', standing upright on the breakfast table of every decent French, middle-class family; as the images unfold, the spectator absorbs the sound of the bells. When the executive drinks his milk - dissolved in water - he smiles, blissfully content, as the sounds of construction have been silenced. But suddenly the man hears a powerful 'moo'; gazing quickly out of his window, he is thoroughly disappointed not to find a cow grazing on the brand new public housing parking lot. Indeed, the 'moo' he hears is coming from the milk box. Regilait milk is so close to the real thing that you can actually hear the cows speaking to you every morning. …