The Name is Band, Watch Band.

This ad is both an ad for Skyfall, the new James Bond film, and Omega, which is apparently the watch of choice for the renowned super-spy James Bond.  

One problem with the ad; however, is the fact that James Bond is, in fact, not a real person.  Apparently, Omega couldn't find a real person who has the same impression that James Bond has on us.  Omega is using fake-Ethos because the fictional Bond can be credited with catching many-a-bad guy.  Anyone who has seen a Bond film knows that there are certain things that he wears that are highlighted in the film.  In Skyfall, it seems to be the watch that is product placement.  When you watch the movie, you will notice the fact that, for a few scenes, the watches are highlighted.  

This ad could have used any James Bond actor, Daniel Craig just happened to be in the latest Bond film in which the Omega watches were highlighted.  Omega is using Pathos to appeal to our feelings behind the words in this ad. Since it could have been any Bond actor, Omega is appealing to our emotional appeal of the fictional character James Bond.  When we see this ad, we think of the fifty-year bond legacy and the emotional appeal of that legacy.  When we think of James Bond, we think of sex, espionage and cheesy one-liners.  Oh, not to mention no shortage of large fireballs.  When we see Daniel Craig standing on top of a building in England, looking off into the middle distance, we don't think of Craig, we think of Bond, James Bond.

Being my nit-picky self, I noticed three little details in the ad that are minor details but interesting to notice.  First of all, there are three Union Jack flags in the background.  Being from England and all, they needed to represent Bond's roots.  I just thought that it was interesting that they have three flags flying in the background.  The second detail I noticed was the fact that Craig isn't even wearing the watch, unless its under his sleeves.  This detail also illustrates that they are not using Craig to market off of, but they are using the Bond legacy to sell their product.  the last thing I noticed in the ad was that Craig is on top of a building.  Like any self-respecting Bond figure, there is always going to be a good roof-chase.  From the top of the building you have a panorama of the cityscape.  As Craig stares off into the distance, it looks like he is ready to jump into action, hopefully not off the edge of the building.

One last thing I noticed in the ad were the words that were bolded on the page.  Obviously, the words bolded are the ones that Omega wants to draw our attention to.  In this ad, the three things that were bolded were, of course, Omega, James Bond, and Skyfall.  The reasons that they bolded these words is obvious, this advertisement is for Skyfall and Omega via James Bond.  When you look closely at the bolded James Bond, you notice that they did not bold what comes immediately after Bond, the 's.  They didn't want to give the apostrophe-s a chance in the spotlight, only James Bond.  The apostrophe-s detail is probably meaningless but I thought that it might be interesting to mention in my blog, ill let you be the judge of that.  

From the fictional character they used to the fact that Craig isn't wearing the watch, this ad for Omega and Skyfall uses Pathos and connects to us through our emotional response behind the words James Bond.

Love, it's what makes a Subaru ad a Subaru ad

Saturday, April 27, 2013
Since Subaru's catchphrase is, "Love, it's what makes a Subaru a Subaru," they need to show that their cars are friendly to every family that rides in them.  From five seconds into the video and then on, all the ad focuses on is family, family, family.  

This ad mainly focuses on two different appeals; the need to nurture and the need to feel safe.  The overarching appeal throughout the entire video is the need to nurture.  During the ad, the narrator says that the backseat is, "The place we trust to hold our most precious cargo."  As he is saying this, there is a baby being set into its car seat.  Seeing a baby appeals to our maternal or paternal instincts.  Since are parental instincts make us care about our children's safety, we want the most safe mode of transportation for our children.  Our parental instincts also feed into our, and our children's, need to feel safe.  Since the 2014 Subaru Forester is an IIHS top-safety pick, if you want your children to be safe, apparently the Subaru Forester is for you.     

In this ad, Subaru uses Pathos by connecting to the audience by appealing to what we hold dear; our children, pets and relatives.  In this ad, Subaru focused on the backseat, showing that they care not only about the driver but about who are the passengers.  Most of the time, the children sit in the back seat and, with this ad, Subaru is connecting to the audience by presenting the idea that both Subaru and parents share a common goal; keeping their children safe.  Throughout the video, there are many scenes of what goes on in the back seat; from sleeping to throwing hats out the window.  We can all connect to the people in this ad because they are all far from perfect.  Just like us, they make mistakes and stick their tongue out at each other.  Since the people are not perfect, we can associate with these people and feel "at home," in this ad.  Whatever the circumstance, the ad demonstrates, your passengers will always be safe on board the Forester.  

Just like in the Dove commercial, in every shot in the back seat, the camera is not completely still.  You can see the picture shaking as if there was a non-perfect human taking the video.  Since this ad is geared towards families, Subaru tries to imitate home videos as it filmed this ad.  The people filmed in this video act just like people we all know.  There are the troublemakers, the grannies and the parents trying to control their kids.  Looking at this video, I realized that I have actually done things in the video like "accidentally" throwing something out the window.  

I noticed, just as in the Dove commercial, the sun had bleached the video for a second or two.  I am assuming that the reason they do it is to give the home-video sense and make us feel that this ad was not staged with actors, special lighting and a director.  The sun bleaching the video, at least for me, gave me the sense that the video was "raw," in a sense, or at least unaltered.  The imperfectness that was illustrated by the shaky video and the sun bleaching the image, made me think that the Subaru people are just ordinary people who care about the same things I care about.

Throughout the video, there is a piano and violin playing in the background as clips of kids, grandmas and babies sit in the back seat.  The peaceful sound of the music is associated with the feeling the you will get when you sit in the back of the Subaru Forester.  It is completely safe, as demonstrated by the music that is playing in the background.  Then, when the announcer announces the all-new Subaru Forester, drums enter the music and the sound increases.  All of a sudden, you here what sounds like trumpets in the background as if saluting the Subaru Forester.  They are always going to come out with new cars, they just have to figure out how to sell them.  The increasing music gets you all pumped up about the "responsibly built, completely restyled, Subaru Forester."  They are hoping that you will feel so great about the car, that you go out and buy one.  

Although the announcer says that the Subaru Forester is "completely remodeled," to my knowledge, they didn't show any restyling of the car, just people having fun in the back seat.  Maybe the people watching the ad won't notice and will just take Subaru at their word.

This ad, as with almost all Subaru ads, was about family and how, in a Subaru, your family is completely safe.  And no Subaru ad would be complete without their signature slogan:

"Love, its what makes a Subaru a Subaru."      

It's More Than Your Average Soap

Tuesday, April 23, 2013
This Dove commercial uses Pathos all the way.  Having "average" people choke up as they see how other people described them appeals to our emotions.  The way that Dove has connected to their audience, mainly women, in this ad, is by bringing in the average Joe and Jane to participate in their little experiment.  Dove mainly brought in women due to the fact that, for the most part, women are more critical of their appearance than men.  Not only do the people in the ad appeal to our emotions but also the atmosphere caused by the music also elicits an emotional response.  The music that was playing throughout the ad was a calm and peaceful piano tune that made you, as the viewer, feel calm.  The peaceful music also appealed to our feelings by calming us down.  At the end of the ad, Dove gives us a little pick-me-up remark;
"You are more beautiful than you think."

I don't know if Dove thinks that they will sell more bars of soap if they give us compliments or what.  In this ad, they didn't once promote a specific product like a shampoo that will triple the volume of you hair, or something.  Maybe they are hoping that when we see any Dove product, we will think that it is going to compliment us, therefore it is better than any other product.  I thought that this ad was like one discussed in the Frontline episode we are watching about persuasion.  In the Frontline episode, there was a part where they mentioned the importance of making sure that the viewers connected the ad to a product or brand.  In this ad, you have to watch until the very end to see what it is advertising.  If I hadn't watched until the end, I would have thought that the video was an experiment that was carried out for the Scientific American or another science magazine. 

Another aspect of this ad that I was wondering about, was why they filmed the video the way they did.  During most of their camera shots, the sunlight was shining across the camera lens, bleaching the photo.  By my count, there were nine different shots that were bleached by the sun.  Also, most of the video was not perfectly still, you can see, in the video, the picture shaking a little bit.  The only reason I could come up with for why they shot the footage this way was to make the ad look "homely."  In home videos, most of the time, the video quality isn't too good.  Maybe Dove is hoping that we will see the add and connect the way the video was shot, to their own home videos, and to their home life.  If the viewers associate Dove with their home, they will want to buy Dove products for their home.

One more question that came to mind while watching this video was why they chose a forensic artist to do the drawings.  He wasn't just any forensic artist, he was an FBI-Trained Forensic artist who worked for the San Jose Police Department from 1995 to 2011.  If I was one of the people he was drawing, I would be a little scared that the person who was sketching me usually sketches pictures for the police to reference when trying to find a criminal.  Maybe this is why the contestants didn't know anything about the person who was sketching them, they would have been freaked out.  Dove could have found a sketch artist who didn't work for the police.  By finding a sketch artist that worked for the police, you know that the drawings will be pretty good.  Using an FBI-trained sketch artist also establishes Ethos, or credibility  on behalf of Dove.  Maybe Dove wanted to use someone who worked for the people of the United States in order to associate themselves with the idea of working for the good of the people.  He could just have been the first person on Dove's call list of sketch artists, but I think that there was some reason behind why they chose who they chose.

All in all, this advertisement was mainly focused on eliciting an emotional response from the viewers by saying that we are more beautiful than we give ourselves credit for.