Analyzing Advertisements
Hello, friends! Today I'll be discussing and analyzing the form, content, rhetoric, and meanings of two advertisements. The first ad, a Super Bowl commercial for the well-known Amazon virtual assistant, Alexa, is a widely remembered ad due to its comedic character. The second advertisement I will be looking at is a 2011 print advertisement for Pepsi's ad for their then-new skinny can Pepsi.
In the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl LII, Amazon bought a 90-second commercial promoting their virtual assistant, Alexa. The clip, titled "Alexa Loses Her Voice," portrays a fictional scenario in which Alexa loses her voice, forcing workers at Apple headquarters to hire celebrities to replace her. Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins go through a series of humorous and cataclysmic oral exchanges with the Alexa users, and the commercial ends with Alexa confidently taking back the reigns.
This Amazon ad uses a variety of stylistic elements to amuse the viewer. As the ad plays out, it goes back and forth between shots of the celebrities filling in for Alexa and the (very confused) people who are on the user end of the Alexa. This increases the comedic effect, as the audience gets to see not only the celebrities' jokes but also the reactions of the Alexa users. The music is a jaunty elevator tone that also enhances the level of comedy in the ad. In an exchange between Anthony Hopkins and an Alexa user, ominous peacock sounds in the background amplify the humourous creepiness of the scene. Since the ad is fairly short, the shots go by in relatively quick succession, but there are a substantial amount of lines packed in, and as the same scene and background is almost never repeated, rendering the ad very engaging.
The main speakers in the commercial, Alexa and the celebrities, are juxtaposed. Celebrities Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins have a very comedic tone throughout the ad and are used to show the opposite of Alexa (unreliable, trouble-making, fallible). The second major voice in the commercial (for although she doesn't have many lines, they are at the beginning and end of the ad and carry the largest effect), is that of Alexa herself. Alexa, of course, represents all of the positives of Alexa: reliability, objectivity, helpfulness, and infallibility. However, it should be noted that this voice becomes a little less convincing due to the fact that the idea that Alexa lost her voice at all suggests that she is somewhat fallible. Aside from these main speakers, there are a few others, including the Amazon workers and the people using the Alexa devices; the latter help to solidify the reliability of Alexa and the fallibility of her stand-ins, the celebrities. Most of the emphasis, however, is placed on the celebrities, who star prominently in the ad. For instance, when a man tells his Alexa to "set the mood," the main focus of the scene is on Rebel Wilson (who misunderstands the command and amusingly sets the mood in the erotic sense, disrupting a dinner party) rather than the man himself. Since the celebrities are played up and the focus of the ads is on their horrifically amusing exchanges with Alexa users, the voice of everyday people is minimized in the ad.
The clear message of the ad is that Alexa is an incredibly reliable and helpful assistant capable of taking a vast variety of commands such as how to make grilled cheese sandwiches, to play music, and to answer homework questions. Since the everyday people are portrayed as relatively helpless (Gordon Ramsay berates one man for asking how to make a grilled cheese sandwich), there is an underlying message that people are helpless without technology. There is also the suggestion that celebrities are stereotypically ignorant and dumb.
The commercial's main appeal to credibility is the perceived reliability of Amazon, both in prior knowledge of the viewer and in the shock expressed by Alexa users and Amazon workers in the ad when Alexa loses her voice (which suggests that Amazon is considered infallible). Otherwise, it does relatively little to demonstrate Amazon's credibility or the ethical appeal of Alexa. The commercial attempts to logically convince the viewer that Alexa is reliable by juxtaposing her with the less reliable celebrities, who fail over and over to be good virtual assistants, while Alexa is set up as the ideal assistant. For example, Cardi B refuses to play country music, while Alexa would have obliged. Again, there is a slight weakness to this appeal due to the fact that there are barely any positive examples of Alexa's own interactions with people. Finally, the commercial appeals to the emotions of its audience attempting to stir up a humorous reaction by the viewer to its comedic content and use of celebrities. For example, Cardi B mercilessly ridicules a child who asks how far away Mars is, amusing the viewer.
Through the amusing interactions of the celebrities and the Alexa users, the commercial makes many appeals to wit and comedy. However, it ultimately failed to effectively convince me as its credibility was only somewhat conveyed and its logic was incomplete. I beleive it would have been more effective if it had set up at least a few positive examples of how Alexa performed, instead of just negative examples of celebrities filling in for her. This is a great example of an advertisement that relies a little to heavily on emotional appeal at the expense of appeals to reason and credibility.
The second advertisement I'll be discussing is this Pepsi ad from Pepsi's skinny can launch in 2011. The ad shows a slender woman in a sun hat and summer dress drinking from skinny Pepsi can through a straw. A line of text on the side states: "the new skinny can." This launch, based on stylistic changes, gained mixed feedback upon its release due to conceptions about how it seemed to propagate beauty standards for women rather than empowering them.
The ad uses elements of color and image composition to convince its viewer. The most prominent color is blue, and the Pepsi can is placed on a perfect third on the image so that the eye is drawn back to it naturally when looking at the image. The background is a modernistic and simple and blue, more reminisce of a digital background than a realistic one. The text balances out white space a little bit, and the colors of the letter coordinate to hues in the hat and can. There is a very minimal amount of text: the side of the ad says "the new skinny can," but the word "new" is colored for emphasis. This emphasis serves to romanticize the new can as stylish, new, and in fashion. The clothes worn by the model also give this impression as well, with her stylish summer hat and summer dress. The red lipstick matches the red on the Pepsi can, and the model's skin is tan, but the ad is otherwise a monochrome ad consisting of different shades of blue.
There is no literal speaker, although the text on the side promotes the newness of the product, as though advertisers are trying to get people to follow the new skinny cans like a fashion trend. The model in the photograph wears bold colors, clothes, and lipstick, and her slimness seems to promote the effectiveness of the diet Pepsi. Overall, the ad conveys the idea of idealism: the body of the model conforms to ideal body standards, the model's fashion is tasteful, and the Pepsi with a straw evokes 1950s imagery, which in turn combines the idealism of that era of advertisement to our era of idealism in looks and technology. Because of this, a perspective that goes unrepresented is that of a real person: the model looks perfect, the soda can looks photoshopped, the background looks like a PowerPoint rather than a real scene. Hardly anything in the ad seems realistic. As the only model in the ad is a Caucasian woman, the voices of men and people of different races and ethnicities are also ignored in this ad.
The message of the advertisement was to show Pepsi consumers that Pepsi had created a new, stylish can that was not innovative, on-trend, and ground-breaking. The skinniness of the can itself in tandem with the fact that the Pepsi itself was diet seems to mimic the slender figure of the female model. Therefore, while the ad and product may have been created for more progressive purposes, the advertisement seems to propagate body stereotypes and beauty expectations for women.
The advertisement does not make any notable appeals to ethos, save for the credibility associated with the Pepsi brand. It attempts to associate the skinny can with the idea of innovative trends, fashion-forwardness, and empowerment in order to promote the new launch. However, at the same time, it makes and emotional appeal not only to those who are interested in keeping up with the hip trends but also to women with insecurities about their weight (due to its emphasis on "diet" and "skinny").
While I do recognize some effectiveness in the modern, forward appearance of the ad and the association of Pepsi with slenderness and trendiness, the advertisement failed to convince me on the grounds that it was unrelatable. With the computerized look of the background, the perfection of the model, and the 1950s straw-in-a-can nostalgia of the shot, there was nothing in the advertisement that I could connect with; it was too idealized and could not be reconciled with reality.
From controversial new technology to controversial soda cans, advertisements create an opportunity to analyze not only how companies get consumers to buy products, but also how society is reflected through the medium. The need to think critically about advertisements becomes increasingly prevalent in our consumer society, where ads are becoming more and more integrated into our lives.
In the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl LII, Amazon bought a 90-second commercial promoting their virtual assistant, Alexa. The clip, titled "Alexa Loses Her Voice," portrays a fictional scenario in which Alexa loses her voice, forcing workers at Apple headquarters to hire celebrities to replace her. Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins go through a series of humorous and cataclysmic oral exchanges with the Alexa users, and the commercial ends with Alexa confidently taking back the reigns.
This Amazon ad uses a variety of stylistic elements to amuse the viewer. As the ad plays out, it goes back and forth between shots of the celebrities filling in for Alexa and the (very confused) people who are on the user end of the Alexa. This increases the comedic effect, as the audience gets to see not only the celebrities' jokes but also the reactions of the Alexa users. The music is a jaunty elevator tone that also enhances the level of comedy in the ad. In an exchange between Anthony Hopkins and an Alexa user, ominous peacock sounds in the background amplify the humourous creepiness of the scene. Since the ad is fairly short, the shots go by in relatively quick succession, but there are a substantial amount of lines packed in, and as the same scene and background is almost never repeated, rendering the ad very engaging.
The main speakers in the commercial, Alexa and the celebrities, are juxtaposed. Celebrities Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins have a very comedic tone throughout the ad and are used to show the opposite of Alexa (unreliable, trouble-making, fallible). The second major voice in the commercial (for although she doesn't have many lines, they are at the beginning and end of the ad and carry the largest effect), is that of Alexa herself. Alexa, of course, represents all of the positives of Alexa: reliability, objectivity, helpfulness, and infallibility. However, it should be noted that this voice becomes a little less convincing due to the fact that the idea that Alexa lost her voice at all suggests that she is somewhat fallible. Aside from these main speakers, there are a few others, including the Amazon workers and the people using the Alexa devices; the latter help to solidify the reliability of Alexa and the fallibility of her stand-ins, the celebrities. Most of the emphasis, however, is placed on the celebrities, who star prominently in the ad. For instance, when a man tells his Alexa to "set the mood," the main focus of the scene is on Rebel Wilson (who misunderstands the command and amusingly sets the mood in the erotic sense, disrupting a dinner party) rather than the man himself. Since the celebrities are played up and the focus of the ads is on their horrifically amusing exchanges with Alexa users, the voice of everyday people is minimized in the ad.
The clear message of the ad is that Alexa is an incredibly reliable and helpful assistant capable of taking a vast variety of commands such as how to make grilled cheese sandwiches, to play music, and to answer homework questions. Since the everyday people are portrayed as relatively helpless (Gordon Ramsay berates one man for asking how to make a grilled cheese sandwich), there is an underlying message that people are helpless without technology. There is also the suggestion that celebrities are stereotypically ignorant and dumb.
The commercial's main appeal to credibility is the perceived reliability of Amazon, both in prior knowledge of the viewer and in the shock expressed by Alexa users and Amazon workers in the ad when Alexa loses her voice (which suggests that Amazon is considered infallible). Otherwise, it does relatively little to demonstrate Amazon's credibility or the ethical appeal of Alexa. The commercial attempts to logically convince the viewer that Alexa is reliable by juxtaposing her with the less reliable celebrities, who fail over and over to be good virtual assistants, while Alexa is set up as the ideal assistant. For example, Cardi B refuses to play country music, while Alexa would have obliged. Again, there is a slight weakness to this appeal due to the fact that there are barely any positive examples of Alexa's own interactions with people. Finally, the commercial appeals to the emotions of its audience attempting to stir up a humorous reaction by the viewer to its comedic content and use of celebrities. For example, Cardi B mercilessly ridicules a child who asks how far away Mars is, amusing the viewer.
Through the amusing interactions of the celebrities and the Alexa users, the commercial makes many appeals to wit and comedy. However, it ultimately failed to effectively convince me as its credibility was only somewhat conveyed and its logic was incomplete. I beleive it would have been more effective if it had set up at least a few positive examples of how Alexa performed, instead of just negative examples of celebrities filling in for her. This is a great example of an advertisement that relies a little to heavily on emotional appeal at the expense of appeals to reason and credibility.
The second advertisement I'll be discussing is this Pepsi ad from Pepsi's skinny can launch in 2011. The ad shows a slender woman in a sun hat and summer dress drinking from skinny Pepsi can through a straw. A line of text on the side states: "the new skinny can." This launch, based on stylistic changes, gained mixed feedback upon its release due to conceptions about how it seemed to propagate beauty standards for women rather than empowering them.
The ad uses elements of color and image composition to convince its viewer. The most prominent color is blue, and the Pepsi can is placed on a perfect third on the image so that the eye is drawn back to it naturally when looking at the image. The background is a modernistic and simple and blue, more reminisce of a digital background than a realistic one. The text balances out white space a little bit, and the colors of the letter coordinate to hues in the hat and can. There is a very minimal amount of text: the side of the ad says "the new skinny can," but the word "new" is colored for emphasis. This emphasis serves to romanticize the new can as stylish, new, and in fashion. The clothes worn by the model also give this impression as well, with her stylish summer hat and summer dress. The red lipstick matches the red on the Pepsi can, and the model's skin is tan, but the ad is otherwise a monochrome ad consisting of different shades of blue.
There is no literal speaker, although the text on the side promotes the newness of the product, as though advertisers are trying to get people to follow the new skinny cans like a fashion trend. The model in the photograph wears bold colors, clothes, and lipstick, and her slimness seems to promote the effectiveness of the diet Pepsi. Overall, the ad conveys the idea of idealism: the body of the model conforms to ideal body standards, the model's fashion is tasteful, and the Pepsi with a straw evokes 1950s imagery, which in turn combines the idealism of that era of advertisement to our era of idealism in looks and technology. Because of this, a perspective that goes unrepresented is that of a real person: the model looks perfect, the soda can looks photoshopped, the background looks like a PowerPoint rather than a real scene. Hardly anything in the ad seems realistic. As the only model in the ad is a Caucasian woman, the voices of men and people of different races and ethnicities are also ignored in this ad.
The message of the advertisement was to show Pepsi consumers that Pepsi had created a new, stylish can that was not innovative, on-trend, and ground-breaking. The skinniness of the can itself in tandem with the fact that the Pepsi itself was diet seems to mimic the slender figure of the female model. Therefore, while the ad and product may have been created for more progressive purposes, the advertisement seems to propagate body stereotypes and beauty expectations for women.
The advertisement does not make any notable appeals to ethos, save for the credibility associated with the Pepsi brand. It attempts to associate the skinny can with the idea of innovative trends, fashion-forwardness, and empowerment in order to promote the new launch. However, at the same time, it makes and emotional appeal not only to those who are interested in keeping up with the hip trends but also to women with insecurities about their weight (due to its emphasis on "diet" and "skinny").
While I do recognize some effectiveness in the modern, forward appearance of the ad and the association of Pepsi with slenderness and trendiness, the advertisement failed to convince me on the grounds that it was unrelatable. With the computerized look of the background, the perfection of the model, and the 1950s straw-in-a-can nostalgia of the shot, there was nothing in the advertisement that I could connect with; it was too idealized and could not be reconciled with reality.
From controversial new technology to controversial soda cans, advertisements create an opportunity to analyze not only how companies get consumers to buy products, but also how society is reflected through the medium. The need to think critically about advertisements becomes increasingly prevalent in our consumer society, where ads are becoming more and more integrated into our lives.
Comments
Post a Comment