TOW #22 - "Seeing Double"

When, in the course of watching television, a commercial so powerful, impactful, and/or memorable appears, it is only justifiable to share said commercial with your friends.  In fact, the mark of a truly great commercial is the sharing of it with others.  Companies pay for consumers to watch commercials, so when consumers go out of their way to watch and share a commercial, you know that it is a quality commercial.  This kind of memorable experience is what I had when I first saw Sonic’s commercial titled “Seeing Double.”   In this commercial, two people are eating Sonic’s food with a new deal that gives customers two drinks, two sides, and two meals for $10.  Obviously, because of the theme of things being paired, they are “seeing double.”  Then, the hilarity ensues.   The two guys look to their left and see an almost identical pair of people in an identical car.  The one guy says to the other, “play it cool, see if they want to hang out.”  So the other guy looks out the window and shouts in the least “cool” way possible “hey you guys wanna hang out some time?”  The other pair of guys promptly roll up their window.  This ad is genius for two main reasons: 1) the punch line is completely unexpected; and 2) it is a creative way to sell their promotion.  The entire commercial sets the audience up to believe a regular conversation is about to commence, but instead Sonic throws the kitchen sink at the audience with a completely unexpected joke.  This makes the audience laugh, and is therefore more inclined to consider Sonic’s promotion.  This is where the second part comes in.  Sonic not only gives important information about he promotion itself, but they also relate it to the joke with the theme of “seeing double.”  This ends up linking laughter and Sonic, so the audience will be much more inclined to end up going to Sonic in the future.