Romeo and Juliet (with Waterstones) Advert

*Please note this is a student’s piece of Hero Content work and is not a factual item.

Written by Tallulah Gosset

Calm, pretty piano music in the background. A hand reaches for a book on an old, wooden shelf. The camera closes in on the separator, the letter ‘R’ printed onto a block of wood. As we glimpse the person walking away, we see the letter ‘R’ shimmy a bit, tapping its little leg, then stilling as another person walks past it.

JUDE LAW (voiceover)

Two households

Pan to another shelf, where the ‘J’ separator also sits. The tail section of the letter swishes like a dress.

JUDE LAW (voiceover)

Both alike in dignity. In fair Verona, where we lay our scene.

The camera pans around the bookshop, the pretty wooden shelves, the wooden staircase leading to the café, a child reading a book in a plush chair, an employee restocking the shelves, smiling.

JUDE LAW (voiceover)

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny

Camera pans back to the shelf, where the letters still are. The ‘R’ slips free of the wooden block, shakes itself, and the head appears (see Figure 1).

JUDE LAW (voiceover)

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

It strolls along its bookshelf, to a featured book that has a bouquet of flowers on the front cover. He takes them, smells them, then continues to walk. He swings his way up the bookcase until he is on the row below the ‘J’.

JUDE LAW (voiceover)

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

The ‘J’ emerges from her block, wiggling free and moving to the edge of the bookshelf. She peers down, and sees the ‘R’ beneath her, recalling the balcony scene from the original play. She presses a hand to her mouth as he brandishes the flowers.

JUDE LAW (voiceover)

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.

She shimmies down the wooden bookshelf to him. He takes her hand, kisses it, and then leads her along the shelf.

On the wall is a moving poster of an illustrated pianist and piano. He looks down at the pair as they ‘walk’ to the ‘dancefloor’ (a white book on a table of books). The piano music seamlessly transforms into an instrumental of ‘Moon River.’

We watch them slow dance, romantically. They sway and twirl, and then leap into the air. They dance through the entire shop, along bookshelves, through the café, over cakes and pastries, past books and other letters who emerge from their own blocks to watch them, past happy customers with armfuls of books and tote bags.

At last, they dance to the front window, where they slowly twirl on the pale white cover as they music comes to an end. They at last fall into the cover, the ornate ‘R’ and ‘J’ joining to create the cover of Romeo and Juliet.

The camera travels through the glass to show the storefront, the Waterstones logo front and centre.

‘The Eternal Love Story’ comes up on the screen.

Then fades to the Waterstones logo.