Audi
Commercial
Theme:
Gain the bravery
and confidence you need when you drive the new Audi.
Triune Brain:
At first,
we the viewers are engaging our emotional brain because we feel bad for the
cute teenage guy who couldn’t get a date to the prom, especially as his mom and
his nasty little sister make it infinitely worse. Then, just as we expect for
him to have a terrible night even in his tux, his dad saves the night by tossing
him the Audi keys and saying “have fun tonight”- not be careful, don’t drink,
or if you so much as scratch my expensive car I will have your head. Instantly
we are switched to the limbic brain as we experience this excitement of not
knowing what is about to happen. The reptilian brain is utilized at the
end of the commercial when he is speeding away from the fight that he had with
the prom king. Our rational brains are engaged as soon as he pulls into the
“principal only” parking spot, wondering why that spot would be open and why
there would be no consequences for parking there. Also, the kid with no date
immediately walks directly up to the beautiful prom queen with her large
boyfriend and kisses her- we are instantly wanting to stop him in his tracks
and ask him if he’s crazy.
3 Shifts:
The first shift that I noticed was that
this commercial incorporates very few words, using only image in terms of
environment as well as facial expressions and music to convey a very clear
message. This is also a cultural shift because this commercial was first aired
during the 2013 Super Bowl, which means that each viewer was monitored in order
to gain a complete count of viewers of the game, as well as to count how many
people saw this ad for the benefit of the car company. Lastly this is an
aesthetic shift because the commercial is easily accessible via YouTube, or any
2013 Super Bowl Ad page.
5 Facts:
No matter how horrible your night
started off, it will become a million times better if you so much as drive this
car a few miles. Instantly, your self-confidence and bravery will sky rocket
and, although you are attending a high school prom alone (which is incredibly
embarrassing), you will become a daredevil. You will even be tempted to and might
even break a few rules. Want the prom queen? No problem, she wants you too-
just go up and kiss her right in front of her hulking football-playing
boyfriend and prom king. You will be fine after all of this, in fact you will
even be great because you can speed away in your beautiful Audi and have had
the most amazing night of your life.
3 Principles:
This commercial uses the principle of emotional transfer by truly creating a
situation that almost every individual who attended high school can relate to- the
fear of going to prom alone because you can’t find a date. Most of the audience
is instantly attached to this kid and feeling bad for him, when suddenly the
emotion shifts to excitement and confidence which we are happy about because
the ad already has us routing for the kid’s happiness and success- which only
comes about by driving the Audi. The pacing of the video is very fast with a
lot happening all around especially in the background as the story line reaches
its climax- at the prom itself. It is overwhelming, but it
highlights the true speed of the car, even if that isn’t quite obvious at first
glace. It also brings individual meaning because, to the dad, it is his personal
car and probably very valuable to him but we don’t know much about his
character besides that he knows that this car is fun. To the boy, it is an
amazingly awesome looking sports car and he is instantly excited to drive it
because, for him, this means a raise in status on the high school
popularity/cool scale.
5 Persuasive
Techniques:
1. Plain Folks: As I mentioned, this technique applies because
most everyone can relate to the prom and the huge to-do that it is for a high
schooler.
2. Strength: As soon as the boy gets into the car, his attitude and
demeanor changes, creating a completely different and very bold character who
is tough and willing to try anything.
3. Beautiful People: The boy gets to
kiss the beautiful prom queen because he drove this car, making her equally beautiful
boyfriend very angry.
4. Humor: When the little girl chimes in after her mother
says “People go to the prom alone all the time nowadays” with “No they don’t!” - mean, but funny.
5.
Hyperbole: At the very end, the first text that we see is just the word “Bravery”-
kind of like "Red Bull gives you wings".
SEPRITE Themes:
Despite the older man
being the actual owner of the Audi (which, in turn, helps to round out the
targeted consumers) this commercial is mostly geared towards younger
specifically men, in terms of social structures. This is because it creates the
ideal character/characteristics that young men want to be/ have- looking good, high confidence,
gets the girl and goes fast in a car. What could be better? Besides the couple
of girls who yell out the window of their car, there is not too much for racial
diversity, and doesn’t encompass a lot of its audience in this way. As with a lot
of what the Republic of Drivers discussed, there is a large message of the
individual ideology at play here. The message is literally screaming do your
own thing, go against authority and be a free, new man when you drive this car.
It is really driving the point of individual ownership (and it being “life
changing”) home here. The environment that we see goes from home, to road, to
party, to road again- the main focus, I would say, being the road. This is
purposeful because it is not to be forgotten that this is a car ad, and not
just the success story of a young man whose night turned out much better than
expected. It is interesting, though, that the exterior of the car is rarely
shown- the road more so- and the only really impressive shot of the car is when
it is turned on in complete darkness and we get a glimpse of just its
headlights.
No comments:
Post a Comment