When GEICO asks people how happy saving hundreds of dollars with GEICO makes them, the first answer that comes to mind is definitely "happier than Dikembe Mutombo blocking a shot." Showing a very tall, very happy basketball player block random office items and a cereal box connects to how happy people will be when they switch to GEICO.
This commercial uses testimonial to send the message to people that they should switch to GEICO by counting on Mutombo being well-known enough for people to react to seeing him on the commercial. If people watch basketball and have seen Mutombo play, then GEICO hopes that it will forge a connection between the viewer and the company.
At first there is no clue as to what the commercial is advertising, all there is is Mutombo blocking everything he can get his hands on. The only known thing is that he is very happy. Then the spokespeople for GEICO, playing guitars, explain that Mutombo, although he loves blocking things and is allowed to block everything, is not as happy as someone who switches to GEICO. That means that they will be some very happy people, because Dikembe seems to be having a blast.
This commercial is very clever, because normally, men aren't supposed to play princess over football, but the father decides to wear a dress, a fluffy scarf, tiara, and make-up instead of playing football with the guys because his daughter has Doritos. He's not ashamed to be wearing make-up either, because it is worth the humiliation from his friends since he gets to eat Doritos. However, he is not ridiculed by his friends, because Doritos are SO awesome that they join in and play princess with them, dancing around and chanting, while stuffing their face Doritos. When the wife comes home, she adds to the comedy of the commercial by asking the fattest of the men with the large beard if he is wearing her wedding dress. When he answers, "It could be"
while crumbs from the chips fall into his beard and on the dress, and the wife walks away, exasperated, it wraps up the whole comedy of the commercial.
The way that this Doritos commercial makes people want to buy Doritos is by saying that everyone would do anything to eat Doritos, even if it means, for a man, that they have to dress up princesses and wear make up, betraying the societal stereotype of a masculine man. This makes it seem like Doritos has to be good. Also, using the comedy with the wedding dress makes the product seem much more appealing.
This music video is strange. There is almost no other way to describe it. I am not saying Radioactive by Imagine Dragons is bad, but it is definitely strange. A fight club where stuffed animals go to die at the hands of a bigger stuffed animal is not the normal scene for a music video. This atmosphere helps make the song look more dramatic and mysterious. Also, being out of the ordinary is pretty popular and Imagine Dragons is pretty good at being out of the ordinary. One of the reasons I enjoy how the music video portrays the song is that the band is actually performing in the dungeon below the fight club, with dusty guitars and drums in a dark room.
The song has an angry mood to it because the lead singer is aggressively beating the large drum as dust flies everywhere, and he sings about revolution and fitting in and being "radioactive." The song also favors the underdog. The girl who seems like she isn't dangerous at all comes into the building full of rowdy gamblers and her stuffed animal is a pink teddy bear. When it seems like she's going to lose and the gangster guy is going to drop the bear into the dungeon, it uses some magical power to punch the beast in the face. Then it vaporizes some thugs and tosses the bad guy in the dungeon. The song reaches out to all the people who feel like they can't and are unable to win. It shows that Imagine Dragons understands how the underdogs feel and vocalize it in their music.
I can not explain why the stuffed animals are used in the video but it is still pretty cool. Again, the music is very catchy and I enjoy it but it is also out of the ordinary, and gives the band more attention, enabling them to stand out more.
This commercial by Mercedes-Benz, advertising their new Mercedes CLA, which aired on the super bowl, has a few interesting things about it. First, it features a few famous people, Kate Upton and Usher. Showing the "protagonist" of the ad hanging out with those two people shows that the ad is using testimonial to show that their product is good. Since Usher and Kate Upton will like this guy because he has the CLA, it must be a cool car. Also, the ad appeals to the need for attention. A devil-like man who is asking the protagonist to sign a contract for the car says that he will get"all that comes with it," meaning the Mercedes. It shows the guy becoming famous and walking the red carpet, crowds of girls chasing him around. This appeals to the part of a person that wants attention.
Another interesting thing that i saw about the ad is that getting the car will "set your soul free." The guy doesn't take Satan's offer because when he sees the price of the car, he realizes he doesn't need the contract. He can buy it all by himself. Since the car is so affordable you can tell the devil to go away because your soul is free. The protagonist is able to get the car and everything that comes with it by himself, showing an appeal to the need for autonomy. He is a special person because he drove away the temptation of the devil and chose to buy the Mercedes. This, in a way, pressures people to buy the car.
Frank Luntz, the renowned so-called "wordsmith," is very good at what he does. When Frontline made a documentary on advertising called, The Persuaders, they talked to Luntz and asked him about what he does. He pretty much asks a candidate, or a senator trying to pass legislation, or an advertiser, what they want to put in their campaign. Then he thinks of words that the public would find attractive for a campaign or advertisement. Finally, he has a focus group discuss the words and the best word becomes the new name of the campaign or ad. Whether doing this makes the idea clearer or more vague is dependent on what words he is using. However, it does a very good job of manipulating the human mind. Calling the estate tax a death tax makes it sound evil in the public eye. Taxing someone for dying? How cruel! If you can't get permission to drill for oil, make it sound nice by calling it energy exploration. Even global warming can be tamed by giving it the name, climate change. His website uses the slogan, "It's not what you say, it's what they hear." It paints Luntz as the "Maestro of Messaging," a "Communication Strategist," and uses a quote from President Barack Obama himself saying that, "When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group, you talk to his focus group." Is Luntz a genius or just a user of weasel words? In my opinion, his "wordsmithing" masks the real meaning of the advertisement or term. If someone intended the name of the estate tax to be called the death tax, they would have named it that to start. Luntz manipulates the public opinion on issues, and that can be dangerous.
As the background and name of my blog is pertinent to the HBO series Game of Thrones, I feel obligated to have a post that has to do with a trailer.
Trailers for shows such as A Game of Thrones have one goal to make the target audience watch the show. They put in dramatic scenes in an order that the show does not display them in but make sense in a very dramatic way. For example, when Eddard Stark chops off the soldier's head for deserting the Night's Watch, the clips shown in the trailer are very dramatically cut together with the conversation in the background, making the show look very interesting and, sorry that I can't think of a better word, but dramatic. The show caters to the action lovers with the sword fighting and epic battles but also appeals to the drama crowd with the twisted storyline and plot twists. A poignant catchphrase, "Winter Is Coming" makes the show seem serious and foreboding.
The message that the trailer is trying to convey to me, the audience, is that no matter who I am, this show is awesome to watch because it has cool, dramatic fighting scenes, mixed with passionate love scenes, and every kind of scene one can imagine, and its all crammed into one great show with a great catchphrase. And the trailer is mostly right, it is an awesome mix of TV show genres, which I watch often. However, it can be stressful to watch and a healthy dosage of one episode per day is recommended.
Advertisements made by the Old Spice company, which sells men's deodorant, are known for being ridiculous. From featuring the freakishly buff Terry Crews, to the suave Isaiah Mustafa, they have made dozens of commercials which seem to have the same purpose: to be as weird as possible. This commercial is trying to sell Old Spice bar soap by hiding it in a watermelon which is disguised as a basketball, in the setting of a locker room. Also, there is a funny jingle which conveniently says nothing about the soap except that you should use it if you're "playing to win."
But how are these commercials so attractive for people. What makes people want to buy Old Spice soap? Heck if I know, but I know that it makes me interested in Old Spice bar soap. One technique being used to sell the product is the need to achieve. Old Spice says that people that are in it to win it are the people that use their bar soap, so therefore, it is needed to achieve victory.
So you can tell to a point what Old Spice wants to convey with this ad, by using the first sentence, but everything else seems to make no sense. It's weirdly creative and it makes you laugh. And this seems to adhere to the rest of the commercials by Old Spice, in that it aims to make people laugh. In a way this then makes Old Spice bar soap seem like a good product. It has nothing to do with basketballs or watermelons but the confidence on the man's face shows that he loves his Old Spice soap.
A value that this appeals to is manliness. The commercial shows how manly this manly man is by depicting him cutting open things and holding a basketball and stuff.
There is so much that this commercial omits and yet it is still awesome and I remember the jingle and everything. One, it has nothing pertaining to the soap itself, what it smells like, or anything about its performance. What it does do is say that it is for competitive people and its the soap you've been smelling for. But that is it. All i can say is "Wait... What?" and then watch it five more times.
