Our loyal listener, Daniel wrote in with a problem:
I have been trying to understand the Yarra Valley ads featuring the Run Rabbit Run song. Trying really hard. I just don’t get it.
People are running through a vineyard. Some bloke is lip syncing to the song. Couples are snogging. Baggage is being stored.
I know that, somehow, this is supposed to make me want to spend the day in the Yarra Valley but, frankly, the whole thing feels a bit like “The Shining” to me.
Moments later he pointed us to this site but remains unsatisfied in its explanation.
Any takers?
2 Comments
fourthof5 says:
Its certainly surreal. Perhaps (like many ads) the idea is not to promot a product as such, but get you watching the ad. From a semiotic point of view, there are some interesting signifiers there, for example the conetations of the music.
Josh says:
I was speaking about it at dinner last night and we decided that it was really quite a menacing ad.
That shot of the owner mouthing the words to the song makes him look quite deranged. One suggestion from both the song and the last shot of storing the luggage is that the owner killed the guests.
Perhaps it’s an attempt to steal tourists from South Australia which we ordinarily associate with wine and murder.