Its Lightning Fast...

Sunday, May 19, 2013

This ad, just like the Grey Goose® vodka, is meant to catch your eye as you are flipping through a magazine.  I found this ad in a National Geographic magazine, which I thought was a little weird.  I thought that it was out of place but maybe this ad is appealing to the younger readers of Atonal Geographic.  I found this ad on the last page of the magazine, and I could have easily missed it.  Obviously, Toyota wanted to spend the least amount of money possible on this ad because it was placed on the last page.

In this ad, Toyota wants you to do nothing more except hold onto the image of lightning hitting a car and thinking Toyota = cool and cutting edge.  The image in this ad isn't representing anything new about the car, unless the new Avalon has a built-in lightning rod.  The text on the top of the ad; Lightning Unbottled, means absolutely nothing.  Toyota is trying to give you a sense that their new Avalon is amazing.  What they want you to do when you see this ad is the following; see the car being hit by lightning, you think "Awesome," then you look at "Lightning Unbottled," and you think "Cool! a car with lightning powers," then you look at "The Radically New Avalon," and you put the "Awesome" and the lightning together with a brand and all-of-a-sudden, Toyota becomes a really awesome brand.

There are three ad techniques used in this ad; Diversion, Weasel words, and Gestalt.  The diversion used in this ad is caused by the picture.  Since the picture is really cool, people's attention is automatically drawn toward the picture of a car being hit by lighting.  With the lightning in mind, when you look at the text below the car, it makes absolutely no sense.  The text reads; "An absolute breakthrough in high-end driving, and a bold new direction for the road ahead."  Unless they are talking about a breakthrough where your car attracts lightning, the text makes no sense.  What Toyota is banking on, is that you take the feeling you get from the picture and impose that onto the text.  The feeling of awe that you get from the picture is what they want you to feel when you read the text.

This ad uses Weasel words in order to maintain that sense of awe that you get from the picture.  In the text below the picture, Toyota uses the weasel words "absolute breakthrough."  These are weasel words because there is nothing talking about what "absolute breakthrough" they have made in "high-end driving."  Again, Toyota is hoping that you will think of the sense of awe that you got from the picture.  When you read the text with this in mind, you read the text in a way that connects with the picture, continuing the sense of awe in the overall advertisement.

The last technique they use, is the Gestalt technique.  If you don't think that a car being hit by lightning and partially dissolving isn't weird, I don't know what to tell you.  Having a car dissolve when it is hit by lightning is very odd, and this catches your eye.  In this ad, the Gestalt technique of oddness of color is used because there are lots of colors in the picture of the car.

Lastly, there are only two main needs that are satisfied with this advertisement; the need for prominence and the need for aesthetic sensations.  The need for prominence is satisfied because of how advanced this car is.  Since the text reads "The Radically New Avalon," you assume that it is better than the last Avalon.  If it is better than the last Avalon, then if you have this car, you will be more prominent than the people who have the old Avalons.  Since you are going to stand out more with this car, this satisfies your need for prominence.  How cool the car looks in picture satisfies your need for aesthetic sensations because the car is very pretty and aesthetically pleasing.  It is because of this aesthetic sensation that this ad catches your eye pretty well.  

To conclude, Toyota is using this ad to get a sense of awe from the audience and to make them feel that the new Avalon is the coolest car on the block.