"Beauty is Nothing Without Brains" - Shuffle

The commercial begins with a woman flushing a toilet and hold in her hands what the viewer assumes to be a pregnancy test. She looks at the test and has several different expressions on her face. She has a happy expression that turns into a dazed and confused stare. She looks at the test then at the watch, and still has a confused look on her face. It is clear that she doesn’t know what it going on or what is taking so long, so she begins to shake the test. Throughout the majority of the commercial the woman is confused and her actions are funny. She shakes the test, she looks at it form different angles, she blows on it and even smells it but she still has no luck. The test has gotten her stumped and she decides to call over what appears to be her boyfriend. She tells him she cannot tell if it is pregnant or not and he too has a confused look on his face. However, it is not at to the results of the test but to what his girlfriend has done.

That is when he tells her that the test is really an iPod shuffle. After the revelation that the test is an iPod a white screen that says “iPod Shuffle – good for music” appears with the word music underlined. This is the point where the humor of the commercial is revealed, because it is very funny that a person would confuse an iPod Shuffle for a pregnancy test. The boyfriend then tells her “yea…yea pregnant … it’s a boy” and the woman says “oh my gosh” and jumps for joy. She really thinks that she is pregnant even though she is told that the test was indeed an iPod. This is the full extent of the humor because the woman is just stupid and this makes what she has done even more funny. The commercial uses the stereotype that blonde women are stupid to create a very funny commercial that has little to do with the product expect put its name out.

Myths Do Exist

Many commercials try to create illusions or myths to help sell a product. The U.S Army advertisement uses dramatic, inspiring music and various images to encourage people to recruit. The advertisement clearly shows both men and women of different racial backgrounds as they serve in the army. They seem happy and proud that they are serving this country. The Army ad tries to create illusions that there is no racial or sexual barrier in the United States. However, the fact is remains that race and sex in terms of bias is still present. In today’s society, there is still a problem of racism and sexism. For the U.S Army to say any different, or that they are any different, is a lie. They try to create a myth that the Army does not discriminate and that it is near perfection. There have been countless unreported incidents of women soldiers being raped, of gay soldiers being harassed and assaulted that have now begun to surface. The Army only calls them incidents, not what they really are – hate crimes. Myths and illusions try to trick a viewer into buying a commercial and most do because sometimes the myths are what everyone wants to believe.

"Beauty is Nothing Without Brains" - Order

The commercial begins with a blonde woman who tells a dark haired woman “I’d like to order French fries, burger and a milkshake”. The dark haired woman replies in a dumbfounded expression “This is a library”. The blonde woman looks around her and sees that it really is a library. However, to the audience’s shock, she just lowers her voice and whispers, “I’d like to order French fries, burger and a milkshake”. The dark haired woman looks at the blonde woman, who has a smile on her face, with an expression only brought on by the shock of idiocy. It is at this point, where the full extent of the humor is in play. The commercial is meant to make the audience laugh and this is when a white screen with text that says, “Beauty is nothing without Brains” appears and is followed by the image of a car. The commercial is saying that this particular car is unlike others in that it does not only have beauty but that it is smart as well. It aims to people interested in buying a new car hoping they will fall for illusions of advertising.

"Got Milk?" Ad & Summary

Even though it good for you not every person likes to drink milk. Kids especially have an aversion towards milk. However milk is beneficial in that it promotes growth and strengthening of bones. The commercial begins with a mother and her kids in their kitchen. The children are presumably eating lunch and the mother tells her kids to drink their milk. The young boy replies “I don’t want milk, milk is for babies” in which the young girl follows “yeah babies”. The mother’s rebuttal is that she happens to know that milk helps build strong bones and tells then to “drink up”. To refute his mother’s statement the young boy says “Mr. Miller said he never drinks milk, look at him”, and the humor of the commercial is introduced but not yet exemplified.

The scene shifts to an old man, Mr. Miller, who is doing some yard work. He waves to the kids and then proceeds to lift up a wheelbarrow filled with dirt and rocks. However, when Mr. Miller lifts up the wheelbarrow, he is unsuccessful as both his arms detach from his shoulders. When his arms detach it is visible that dust exerts itself from his sockets as a symbol that not drinking milk has turned his bones into dust. This is a message within the humor. It is very funny when his arms detach and a person cannot help but laugh. However, more humor is added when the kids begin to scream out of horror and as the mother, the young boy and the young girl all simultaneously guzzle their milk. After that, up appears a black screen with white text that says “Got Milk?” and is read by a male narrative voice.

The commercial is saying that milk is healthy and good for you, so you must drink milk. Mr. Miller did not drink milk and look what happened to him. His arms separated from his shoulder and unless you want to end up like him you should drink milk. The commercial is very entertaining and very memorable, but also gets its message to drink milk in a hilarious way.

Garnier Fructis

The commercial begins with a young woman who has really dull and damaged hair. The color scheme of the commercial is dull and gray, and this is to help illustrate the mood of have such bad hair. However, when the woman uses the shampoo the mood changes from boring and gray to bright and fun. In addition, the commercial shows that shampoo transforms her horrible hair to amazing and beautiful hair. The commercials focus is to advertise to women who want beautiful hair. The Garnier Fructis advertisement uses under toned messages and illusions to help sell its product. The commercial is saying this particular shampoo will help turn hair from bland to bam.

The commercial is promising a regenerating shampoo that will work wonders. However, the commercial has a deeper message that the shampoo will do for anyone what it has done for this young woman. It turned her from boring, sad about her hair and somewhat unattractive to energetic, happy and very beautiful. This is what it is trying to sell and what it is trying to tell women who look at this commercial. It is selling the illusion that the shampoo will create beautiful hair and will thus make you beautiful. The woman in the commercial is shown with a guy and this creates the illusion that the shampoo will make the guys notice you. The commercial is very deceptive because using a shampoo on your hair will not make you into a model.

Devotion to Pepsi

The commercial begins with a soccer team comprising of professional players practicing in Japan. Several sumo wrestlers enter the field and approach the soccer stars, and while they approach, one of the professional soccer player has a cocky smirk on his face. The sumo wrestlers challenge them to a soccer match in which the successful team wins a cooler full of ice cold Pepsi. The audience watching the commercial assumes that the victors will be the team that is comprised of the professionals, but the jokes on them. The professionals try their skillful and fancy footwork and attempt to make a goal. However, when their player kicks the ball, it hits the sumo goalie, who takes up three quarter of the goal zone. Inspirational music begins to play as the sumo team begins to outplay the professionals.

One of the sumo wrestlers kicks the ball, and in doing so falls to the ground. His massive size and weight causes the ground to shake, the professional team’s goalie loses balance, and the ball scores a goal for the sumo team. The sumo team begins to celebrate, and the viewer of the commercial begins to laugh because they thought the professional team would win, but never judge a book by it cover. It is funny how the sumo team reacts, and even more funny that the professionals lost. The commercial is saying that when Pepsi is on the line anything is possible, and that Pepsi is so good that it is the ultimate trophy. The sumo team won because of their love for Pepsi and the commercial uses humor to sell the thought that only Pepsi can create such an outcome.

Advertising Race

Race is always a susceptible topic but more so when it comes to the media. In the media, particularly advertisements, an ad can use either a character or characters of a certain race to advertise within that race or another race entirely. The way I see it an advertisement can utilize either race or racism. An ad uses race when it tries to appeal to a particular group, whether it be blacks, asians, whites, and so forth, using members of that group. However, an ad uses racism when it appeals to a particular race by using a member of a different race which most often involves a racial stereotype. The first use of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben were racial stereotypes that were meant to appeal to white customers. The fact remains that race can never be equal in the media because what may be acceptable for some may not be acceptable for others.

Pepsi "Devotion"

Devotion

Revelations of Pepsi

The advertisement begins with a young boy, assumed to be of American nationality, who arrives at a Chinese monastery. He knocks on the monastery door, which has a symbol of a circle containing another circle, a square and a crescent. An elder monk lets him in and walks him through the monastery as others look on, all whom have the monastery symbol on their forehead. The music is somber and sets the mood for what the young boy faces. He is taken in by the monks and undergoes training that is tough and rigorous. The boy is having trouble and when frustration takes over he drops his head. However, when he rises it becomes apparent that years have passed by and the young boy is now a young man.

He performs skilled martial arts tasks with ease and has become a martial arts master. His reward is a Pepsi and drinks one with the other monks. When finished, the monks look at him as he looks upon the monastery symbol on the foreheads of the other monks. Then it hits him, the symbol of the monks is the top of the Pepsi can. He smashes his head into the can crushing it and causing the symbol to be branded on his forehead. That is when the whole meaning of the commercial is revealed. It is funny, well to me, that all the monks in the monastery are centered on Pepsi. The monks rise and cheer and laugh when the young man realizes what the symbol is centered on. This caused me to laugh because it is funny that after all of his hard work and training Pepsi was the revelation to the monk and his joy was that in Pepsi as well. The commercial is saying that after hard work that the best reward is a refreshing Pepsi.

Pepsi "Revelation"

Revelation

The Act of Patriotism

Patriotic advertisements try to instill emotions of pride and trust in a candidate. It gives a message that the candidate is devoted to the country and therefore, its people. However, these advertisements only try to win voters on the ideal of “service to the country” and not what they would do to the country. Fear advertisements are a method of advertising that campaigns use to exemplify the negatives of the opponent to hurt them. However, to say one is better that the other is not reasonable.

The effectiveness of either depends on the nature of the time. Fear advertisements work better in bad times and patriotic advertisements work better in good times. Patriotism is devotion to the country, to the people and this has an appeal to the portion of society that takes pride in their country. A person who is severely devoted to the United States and who has served in the armed forces would look at John McCain differently than they look at Barack Obama. Nevertheless, to choose a candidate solely on patriotism does not make sense to me because a worthy candidate just has to be devoted to the people.

"Glen Glen Glen"

Who knew coffee could be so entertaining? Well no one in particular and that is why this commercial advertisement by Starbucks is, in my opinion funny. The commercial starts off with how many people would start off their day which is with some type of coffee. In this case it is a Starbucks coffee beverage in a can and when the guy whom the commercial is focused on drinks it he is energized and ready to go about his day. This energy that is delivered from the drink is represented by the band Survivor who sings a parody of their song “Eye of The Tiger”. The song is motivational, inspiring and above all else humorous.

The song focuses on the main character of the commercial, Glen, and it is used to show that Glen has the power to survive the morning, a part of the day many dread. The funny thing about the commercial is the fact that the band follows Glen throughout his morning from when he shaves to when he get the bus. The lyrics also deliver a humorous effect because the song says things like “Glen the man going to work, got his tie got ambition” and all throughout Glen is drinking his Starbucks beverage. Finally when the band does leave Glen they see another man, Roy, and begin to sing a song about him because he to is drinking a Starbucks beverage.