Sunday, February 21, 2016

TOW #18 - Doritos Ultrasound Commerical

The Superbowl is perhaps the single biggest day of the year in America.  Almost everyone watches the game surrounded by family and friends.  And while the game itself is usually very intriguing, and the halftime show is often entertaining, the main attractions are the famed Superbowl commercials.  This year, the commercials were, as a whole, disappointing.  I would consider it a down year.  However, one commercial stood out to me above the rest: the Doritos Ultrasound commercial.

The storyline of this commercial is that a man and a woman are getting an ultrasound for their child.  The man is disrespectfully eating Doritos during the ultrasound and the wife gets mad.  The man then realizes that the child seems to follow wherever he puts the Doritos.  Then, he pulls the Dorito up very quickly and the baby kicks his mother.  The mother is furious, grabs the Dorito from her husband, and throws in away.  There is a pause, and then suddenly the baby follows and leaps out of his mother.  All three in the room start screaming. 

This commercial is effective for two reasons: 1) it includes the element of surprise and 2) it appeals to a common event most of its audience has had.
The way this commercial is structured, the audience believes they have seen the climax when the baby kicks the mother.  Then, completely unexpectedly, the actual punch line is delivered.  This step beyond makes the commercial surprising and hilarious.  Without the added bit of comedy, this commercial would be good.  But with it, this is a great commercial and extremely humorous.

Secondly, this commercial appeals to a common experience that nearly everyone watching the Superbowl has had.  Even if you haven’t been the man or wife in this situation, like me, you will understand the scenario and probably have been in a hospital like this at some point.  For me, I was there when my sister was born so I still understand the commercial and it still appeals to me.

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