Juliette+Monteleone,+Ryan+Dragan+and+Josh+Widene

Intro

Car Commercial 1

Car Commercial 2

Car Commercial #3: Chevy Cruze Eco Misunderstanding  [|2011 Chevy Cruze Eco Super Bowl Ad]  The first of the three Chevrolet car commercials that aired during the 45th Super Bowl was aired during the first quarter of the game. The commercial starts out as a regular car commercial, showing the brand new Chevy Cruze Eco driving in all of its glory, when it then takes a comical turn. The camera then cuts to a senior citizen home where there are a group of elderly people who are watching the Chevy commercial on television, which they then misinterpret everything the narrator says. With the first elderly man misinterpreting “42 miles per gallon” for “42 wild Italians”, the comedic tone is set for the whole advertisement. As the ad continues with more and more crazy misinterpretations, it becomes evident that Chevy used this stereotypical comedy as a source to get their point across to the viewer.  Much like the other two car commercials, this ad used indirect action to let the viewer know as to what the commercial is a bout. Since Chevy has been around since 1911, the ad agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners INC., relied on the viewer’s prior knowledge of the company to understand that this advertisement was about a specific model they are releasing. This can also been seen as consumer advertising due to the fact that many people rely on cars as their means of transportation on a daily basis. Furthermore, this gives the ad agency a little more freedom when it comes to creating an ad, for they don’t have to worry about describing who Chevy is and as to what they are about. This is evident within this commercial due to the lack of advertising of the car itself, they rely on the humor of the misinterpretations to get people to remember key features about the car.

 Aside from the commercial using indirect action and consumer advertising, this ad can also be considered viral. As mentioned earlier, this commercial relies on the viewer already having prior knowledge about Chevy, which allows them to put together commercials that are created purely to get the products name out there. Rather than spending the whole commercial advertising this specific model, they created this viral video to increase the awareness about the Chevy Cruze Eco.   The target audience of this ad is obviously viewers who are interested in purchasing a car that is more “eco” friendly, where they will be able to get more miles per gallon and leave less of a footprint. However, this advertisement picked up viewers who were out of the target audience who started to cause controversy over it. Complaints were filed about this specific advertisement saying that it is too stereotypical and that it has potential to offend elderly people, which it did. Since the whole idea of the commercial is created around getting facts about the car from the misinterpretations of the elderly people, many were offended by the fact that they are stereotyping old people for not being able to hear well. As a result, there is a demand for a public apology from Chevrolet, one that they have yet to give.


 * Conclusion**

As a conclusion, there are several similarities as well as a few differences between the three car commercials. The first and most obvious, is that they all share humor. All three commercials use comedy at some point during the advertisements in order to get the viewer to remember specific features about the car. For example, the BMW commercial shows a truck driver coughing up smoke as well as a man driving a noisy car that looks to be a Volvo (one of BMW’s main competitors) that is releasing a dirty black smoke. The humor in this is used to emphasize that the new BMW uses a diesel engine that is more clean and quiet so it will not harm those who are around you. Furthermore, another similarity between the three is that they are all viral videos, as well as consumer advertising. The three car companies rely on the consumer to know who they are already, and as a result, they created ads that are promoting specific models to increase the awareness. The idea that all three companies shared, as well as all of the other Super Bowl commercials, is the concept of reach. Although they are paying millions of dollars to have a short advertisement played during one of the biggest games of the year, they are reaching out and exposing their product to millions of viewers (111 million to be exact). Paying all that money for one thirty second commercial spot may sound a bit out of the ordinary, but it is the fact that people all over the world are going to see what your company has to offer. One of the differences between the three commercials is that two of them relied on music to help set the tone of the ad, while one relied on verbal communication. In the background of the Volkswagen commercial, the infamous Imperial Death March is being played while the child dressed like Darth Vader tries to use the “force” to manipulate different objects. This sets a dark tone in the beginning that is then complimented with some comic relief at its conclusion. As for the BMW commercial, the David Bowie hit “Changes” is being played, signifying that BMW has made changes to this specific brand to make it less like the other automobiles that are shown. In the Chevy Eco Commercial, they rely on the misinterpretations of the elderly to set the comical tone of the ad. Once the viewer hears what it is that the senior citizens are misinterpret ting, they are then exposed to facts about the car that would spark some viewers interest. A difference that sets the BMW commercial apart from the other two is that it denotes Volvo within the advertisement. Although it doesn’t actually have the Volvo logo present in the commercial, it has a dirty, beat-up car that is meant to portray a Volvo. Being that Volvo is one of BMW’s fierce competitors, they are attaching negative connotations with Volvo’s name which in turn makes BMW look like the better of the two companies. The other two commercials do not include any of their competitors’ products. 