Marketing Advertisment: TV Commercial Analysis - Essay Example

23 April TV Commercial Analysis The Old Spice deodorant TV commercial is one ofthe most interesting TV commercials of all time. This TV commercial (“Old Spice”) emphasizes upon the concept that men can improve the quality of their life by using the Old Spice deodorant. This TV commercial links the quality of life of a man with his satisfying relationship with his woman. The more the satisfaction, the better the quality of life gets. It is the very satisfaction in relationship that the commercial links to the use of the Old Spice deodorant. This paper discusses the intended message of the sponsor, the targeted audience of the commercial, and the way that message has been conveyed through the commercial. The audiences of this TV commercial are women who are having a relationship with men, who may be their boyfriends or husbands. The commercial makes it very clear right from the start of the commercial. The commercial commences with the words, “Hello ladies,” thus leaving no doubt about the intended audience. The essential criterion for inclusion in the audience of this TV commercial for a woman is to be conscious about how the man she is in relationship with smells. The commercial tends to achieve its objective of making women purchase the Old Spice deodorant for their significant others in different rhetoric elements. The appeal to authority is made by the use of element of ethos. “One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect” (“A General Summary”). The fundamental way in which this is achieved by the commercial is the use of a man who is physically attractive in the commercial. The commercial starts with this man who demands immediate attention from the audience and encourages the women to compare their men to him. It is not just the physical attractiveness of this male model that grabs the attention of the audiences. An even bigger secret is that since the model says it all too quick, the audience cannot miss a word in order to understand full meaning of what he is saying. Quick utterance of the words has a two-way positive effect on the commercial. Firstly, it serves as a motivation for the audiences to pay full attention to what the model is saying. Secondly, the TV commercial accomplishes more in lesser time, thus saving the cost of telecasting to the Old Spice Company. Commercials nowadays are trying newer techniques to appeal particularly to the women, women being the majority of consumers in the society (Ackner 1). The same strategy has been employed in this commercial. The words used by the model make it even more challenging for the women not to pay attention to what he is saying. The man a woman is in relationship with means a lot to her and when someone comes up asking the woman to compare her man with him, the woman cannot just let go without noticing. Use of this message at the very start of the commercial inculcates interest in the audiences to follow through the commercial, thus building up the commercial’s credibility. The commercial makes accurate use of pathos to make appeal to the sensitive emotions of humor and sex. This is achieved by showing the model shirt-less throughout the commercial, which reveals his masculine features and athletic physique. There is an undiscussed yet obvious element of sex appeal in the commercial directed at persuading women to purchase the Old Spice deodorant so that their men look just as attractive as the model in the commercial does. However, this element has been used very sensibly so as to ensure that it is not found offensive by the audiences. Audiences, particularly in the more conservative societies are very sensitive to the overt expression of sex in ads. India is one such country that has banned overtly sexual ads (Nelson). The element of humor has been incorporated into the commercial by sudden shifts in the set. The commercial starts showing the model in the set of a bathroom which suddenly transforms into a boat, and before the audience has fully understood how the transformation happened, the camera zooms out to show that the model who had been thought to be walking is actually riding a horse. The sudden and unexpected transformations leading to complimenting sets inculcates an element of humor mixed with magic in the commercial, which makes it all the more interesting and attention-grabbing for the audience. This is intentionally done to make it a memorable commercial so that the audiences feel like relating the good emotion of humor with the Old Spice deodorant. Another very sensitive theme of the commercial is race, and it has been used very prudently in the commercial. The commercial has made use of a dark-skinned model. The model is quite attractive physically as well as from the facial features which tends to provide proof against the notion that beauty or attractiveness requires a fair skin to reflect. This earns the commercial sympathy and love of millions of people who have been racially victimized because of the dark color of their skin, thus expanding the circle of consumers for the Old Spice deodorant. “Aristotle points out that emotions such as anger, pity and fear, and their opposites, powerfully influence our rational judgements. Due to this fact, much of our political discourse and much of the advertising we experience is directed toward moving our emotions” (Edlund and Pomona). Racism is one of the most complicated and important issues of the contemporary age, and anything that generates positive stereotypes for the people of color gains acceptability of the masses. While the commercial has been enriched with thoughtfully selected ethos and pathos which undoubtedly make it very interesting in effect, the commercial lacks support of scientific evidence that use of the Old Spice deodorant will actually improve the quality of life of both men and women in relationship, which is a weakness of this commercial. The composer of this commercial has overemphasized upon presentation and has overlooked the significance of scientific support for the claims made in the commercial. Audiences today have become very evaluative in their approach owing to the myriad of options they have to make the selection from. While the importance of presentation cannot be denied, it is equally important to present scientific proof to reflect the validity of the information contained in the commercial. An ideal commercial would balance the presentation with scientific proof so as to make a holistic appeal to the audiences. The dominating element of humor might convince some of the audiences to take the commercial non-seriously, which in turn can have an adverse impact on the market value of the product. Concluding, this TV commercial has made wise use of ethos and pathos to send the message to the audiences and make the commercial memorable for them. Understanding that women are the prime consumers of the society, the commercial has targeted women to encourage them to purchase the Old Spice deodorant for their better half. While the commercial is emotionally appealing and psychologically satiating, it lacks intellectual appeal to the audiences because of lack of scientific proof that use of the Old Spice deodorant adds to the sexual appeal of the men. Overall, the commercial is funny and sexually appealing, which is perhaps what matters more to the women. Works Cited: Ackner, Nitzan. “Advertising In Style: The American Dream and What Women Want.” 29 May 2003. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. . “A General Summary of Aristotles Appeals . . .” n.d. Web. 23 April 2012. . Edlund, John R., and Pomona, Cal P. “Ethos, Logos, Pathos: Three Ways to Persuade.” n.d. Web. 23 April 2012. . Nelson, Dean. “India bans overtly sexual deodorant ads.” The Telegraph. 27 May 2011. Web. 23 April 2012. . “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Youtube. 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. . Read More