As residents of a highly commercial world, we are inundated with thousands of advertisements daily. From screaming billboards alongside the freeways on the way to work, to the Lacoste logo on a colleague’s shirt or bag, repetitive radio spots on the drive home, it is no wonder that we feel fatigued and impatient by the time our favorite TV show rolls around in the evening. Televisions ads so often scream instructions to “Buy this! Try that!”– do most of us not already feel bossed around enough in a day? It seems that a new wave of advertisements has emerged; these ads illicit emotion and amuse viewers while acknowledging our ability to think for ourselves, and figure out the message.
Here are two examples I came across this weekend: the first is by Target, and the second by Axe Body Spray.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNYwpedglB4
The beauty of the Target commercial is that it is wordless, and makes full use of the adorable baby and familiar background sounds to convey its message, with a confirmation of the product being sold flashed at the very end. Imagine seeing this amidst a string of other loud and flashy commercials while watching Modern Family on Wednesday. Would this not feel like a welcome, restful break?
The Axe commercial tends towards more clarification at the end, with a compelling “even angels will fall”, even though the average viewer would have hopefully gotten the message before then. Nevertheless, the voiceover serves salient purpose by adding to the sense of grandeur in this situation of epic proportions with the man’s rumbling voice. Angel’s “falling” is also a double-entendre, since the women literally fell out of the sky, and metaphorically fell from grace by shattering their halos. Either way, it is a brilliant ad that appeals briefly to the viewer’s intellect, resulting in a gentle sell that could very well be more effective.