3 Commercial Analyses
The car company Lexus has a TV advertisement that breaks the tradition of form of most car commercials. Most car commercials feature a car driving along an urban or rural roadway. Amazing in motion starts with full band music with the letters “Amazing in Motion” appearing above a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. Then the scene jumps to a number of flying futuristic drones. They move with personality and do not seem robotic. The music in the background is uplifting orchestral music that guides the drones music. They fly through city streets and museums and finally they fly into the sky where amid the setting sun they fly into a beautiful formation. Then it cuts to a head on video shot of a black Lexus. The screen fades to black so that only the lights, reminiscent of the lights on the futuristic drones, is illuminated.
The fallacy in this ad is that Lexus encapsulates this amazingness of futuristic drones flying across the city. The strategy is to use a red-herring way of getting the audience towards that conclusion. The cinematography and SGI are impressive and draw the viewer in with the goal of associating the wow-factor of these drones with a Lexus car. The advertisement is going for an “epic” theme. The ad relies on special effects and CGI to convey this. Flying drones of the future have nothing to do with a Lexus automobile, so the advertisement appeals to the viewers pathos by putting the name Lexus in association with these “amazing” flying drones “in motion.”
The deceptiveness of the ad is that they are creating a strong tie association with something that otherwise does not have such an association. During the course of the entire ad, the audience is unsure of what the advertisement is even marketing. This also creates some suspense, since the longer the advertisement goes without endorsing a product, the more eager the audience is to learn what is being sold through the advertisement. We are being sold a Lexus based on flying future drones that do not exist outside of a computer CGI file.
Brilliant Machines – General Electric Advertisement
The General Electric advertising campaign “Brilliant Machines” is a series of three television ads promoting the idea that General Electric is creating a line of products, which are “brilliant machines.” The commercial begins with Agent Smith, a well-recognized character from the trilogy of The Matrix movies. Agent Smith is a character in the movie that is not a person, but is a machine. He is creating from computer programming, not organic matter. In the ad, he walks around the hospital, overseas and ER operation and visits different hospital rooms where medical machines manufactured by General Electric are in operation.
The logical fallacy in this advertisement is the GE is making machines as technologically advanced as Agent Smith in the movie the Matrix. The goal of the advertisement is not to sell equipment to hospitals. Machines such as the ones featured in the advertisement can cost upwards of millions of dollars. Hospital purchasing decisions are not based upon what they see on TV. So what GE is doing with this advertising campaign is branding itself to the general public as a company ahead of its time. Just as Agent Smith in the Matrix is from hundreds of years in the future. GE is making the case that its products are going to create a better confusion. Agent Smith says while walking around the hospital, “I’ve found machines that intrigue me, and it appears that they are an agent of good.”
GE is making the case that they are a company that is building a better future for the world due to its technological innovation. Since General Electric is a historical company, part of the intention of this advertisement seems to be to breakaway from the image that GE makes toasters to make people aware of the cutting edge medical equipment they are creating and manufacturing. Since Agent Smith is a villain in the movie, they also want to disassociate that aspect of his character with their company by having him say clearly that these machines are an “agent of good.”
The soundtrack is a band arrangement similar to the type of music heard during the movie’s climax. Brilliance is a concept that is attached to humans. Rarely would one say, “this is a brilliant couch.” GE makes the case to audiences that their machines are brilliant and that this brilliancy will pay off for people when they need to see a doctor. Agent Smith in the Matrix movies can be more than one place at a time. Agent Smith says that these machines can be more than one place at a time by “connecting patients to software to the right people.”
This ad is straightforward and does not seem to exaggerate the products, but is designed to inform audiences about the high-end products GE makes that are on a different level than the washing machines they make and sell at Sears. Agent Smith, because he is a well-recognized symbol of the technological future, is a good choice to cast as a spokesperson for this message.
Make Cancer The Victim OHSU - Advertisement
The Oregon Heath and Science University has a TV advertisement which has the feature phrase ‘Make Cancer the Victim.” The scene starts with the surprising phrase, “Cancer doesn’t need any more awareness. The death of cancer needs more awareness.” The ad then has CGI, which shows healthy cells within the body. The music becomes easier when cancer cells begin marching in and overtaking the healthy cells. This is a simulation to show the progression of cancer within the body. The narrator says that because of Oregon Health and Science University’s development of a treatment for the kind of leukemia, “this disease is no longer at death sentence.” At this, the cancer cells begin breaking up, and the body returns its internal function with pink, healthy cells.
The fallacy in the advertisement is the personification of cancer. They advertisers combine a scare tactic by graphically rendering cancer in a vivid way. Cancer is usually thought of as an abstract subject, but this advertisement shows vivid digital cancer cells invading the body. The advertisement says that OHSU that they are going to go after other kinds of cancer “with the same aggression that they go against us.” Cancer obviously doesn’t have a level of consciousness, but the audience is also aware of this, so there is nothing deceptive about the fallacy.
The advertisement ends with the narrator asking the audience to help them by going to their website “Onedown.org.” It is unclear as to what will be asked of the viewer who visits the site. The goal of the ad is to get viewers to act by going to their website, where from there they will direct them to their ultimate goal.
