If you missed Tesco’s Christmas Adverts and you feel the need to watch one of them then follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5bSiAV4chE
Alternatively, you can read about them here.
The series of adverts is based on two sisters. One sister (Amanda Holden) has come into money, possibly through marriage, and is now very well off. She now equates price with quality and is inclined to show off her wealth. The other sister (Fay Ripley) is more of an everyman figure, full of common sense.
Why am I mentioning this here? Not, alas, because I have been paid to promote Tesco. Rather, because this blog celebrates good writing. The advert manages to convey the above situation in about two seconds worth of film, simply by the characters’ dress, their attitude and the fact that Fay Ripley says in rather hesitant voice, “Wow, this is lovely Sis”
Whatever you think about the rest of the advert, this is wonderfully economical writing.
Speaking of which, I’ve just seen the film Armageddon for the first time. During this film, the heroes are caught on a malfunctioning space station. Back at ground control, the supervisor asks for the personnel detectors to be turned on, and we see lights appear on the map of the station showing the crew’s current positions. Now, surely it would have made sense to have the personnel detectors turned on at the start of the mission, but that ‘s not the point. In one sentence the writer has explained what we are looking at and added just a smidgeon of tension to the action. Great stuff.
Posted by Tony Ballantyne 
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