In this Volkswagen commercial a child is dressed up in a Darth Vader costume and attempts to use his or her "powers" (a.k.a "the force") to control different scenarios. It was said to be one of the most talked about commercials advertised during the 2011 Superbowl. The advertisers appeal to different generations through the use of a very familiar pop culture reference. The different aspects of comedy, technology, and pop culture are used to entice the audience to buy the product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0
Questions:
How does Volkswagen use technology and simplicity to entice the buyer? What different aspects of the commercial create a persuasive tone that applies to all generations? Why do you think this commercial has had such an impact on the audience?
Note: View the sample blog (that you can locate at the top of this page) to get a better understanding of how to approach answering these questions.
Commenting as to whether this post actually does anything is a two part response. In one sense, the video does what it set forth to do, provide an entertaining experience that is relatable to the mass and persuade people to buy a product. This relates to blog group 3’s questions being that the concept of the video is a worldwide pop culture phenomenon and displays a persuasive, enjoyable theme. Aside from gaining personal enjoyment, the video’s comments don’t reveal any changing influences or effects in the area of ideas, knowledge, and values. Most of the comments delve into Star Wars discussions or individual likes and dislikes of the video. In total, it is something fun to watch at the end of the day, however, it does not really effect what someone thinks or believes.
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ReplyDeleteThe producers of this commercial do a good job of connecting to its audience in this commercial. The producers are not trying to directly persuade its audience into purchasing a Volkswagen. The producers are trying to make the audience feel good by implementing a popular blockbuster, "Star Wars," and a cute little kid. People over the age of thirty who grew up with "Star Wars" find it rewarding to pass down this movie to their kids. Similarly to how Volkswagen wants them to purchase one of their vehicles to pass down to the consumers children. The commercial is more manipulating than anything. Big companies today focus on who their audience is and how they want to go about marketing their product. Different products will have different audiences. I find this commercial successful because of how viral this commercial has gone since it aired over the Super Bowl.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is constructed brilliantly by Volkswagen because it does an excellent job of combining different elements to appeal broadly to the public. Who doesn’t like Star Wars? Bringing back a movie series that started in 1977 allows Volkswagen to appeal to many different generations. Kids born in this generation still love to watch star wars and play with the various accessories sold at toy stores. The commercial at the same time combines the elements of the traditional family; the mom at home, the son playing with his toys, and the dad arriving home from work. Volkswagen is appealing to families throughout many generations. The commercial also provides comic relief when then kid eventually turns on the car with the power of the force. The commercial received 12.5 million views before the start of the Superbowl. The video now has 43 million views. The commercial successfully combined these various themes and elements to advertise the 2012 Passat.
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ReplyDeleteI too, applaud Volkswagen for coming up with such a brilliant, comical, and out-of-the-box commercial. Most people sitting at home watching television find this commercial to be an entertaining one that catches their attention. But, as Leanne said, this commercial does not really do anything. Yes, it was comical. Yes, it was appealing to traditional families. But, it does not persuade someone to go and buy the new Passat. Most people's comments on the video are about how cute the small Darth Vader boy is. Volkswagen did not display why their new Passat is better than other cars or older models. This Darth Vader commercial does not make me want to go and buy the Passat. But, it had such an impact on its audience because such a large majority of people have seen Star Wars or know who Darth Vader is. Star Wars is attractive to any generation, no matter what age. That is why this commercial was extremely popular when it aired on television.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial uses technology and simplicity to entice the buyer by relating the car to the buyer as much as possible. By having the commercial in a family setting ( mom making a sandwich, kid playing dress up, having a pet dog), it makes the audience feel comfortable and relaxed. With this calm feeling, the audience can easily relate to the commercial and can easily see themselves in the commercial. Also, the technology of the car suits the family. It doesn't seem to difficult to drive or operate. As a result, the audience wants to buy the car because it seems to "fit" into their lives/family. Although many of the commenters are saying the commercial isn't convincing enough, I personally don't think it has to be in order for people to buy it. Seeing that the car "fits" into the family with ease and inferring from the commercial that the car is a decent price and doesn't need a lot of maintenance/ upkeep is enough for people to want to buy the car.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it appeals to all generations by using Star Wars. Adults can relate to Star Wars just as much as kids because they too had Star Wars during their generation. With Star Wars, the car company can keep the attention of the audience and appeal to the audience's sense of humor, resulting in the audience's interest in the vehicle. Also, the commercial impacts the audience because it relates to the audience so well. With the humor, family setting, and appeal of the car, the audience is easily impacted from the commercial and leaves them wanting to watch it over and over again.
Lastly, I think it's interesting how the commercial isn't trying to persuade the audience to buy a van rather a car. Most families have vans and I think it's very wise of the car company to convince families that a car is just as "powerful" as a van. Also, it's interesting to see how the commercial doesn't really focus completely on the car rather focuses on the family. Maybe the company is trying to attract more families ( a more specific audience) rather than a broader audience?
I think that the best commercials don't necessarily have to provide the best argument for the product, but instead provide a unique advertisement that will stick in the heads of consumers. By incorporating Star Wars, a trend that is not as popular as it used to be, yet still has a huge supportive audience, I think that Volkswagen made a commercial that caught people's attention with something that used to be at the top of pop culture. One of the purposes of an advertisement is for the advertising company to get as many people to see the advertisement as possible. With 43.5 million views on YouTube alone, the advertisement definitely reached out to a large audience. Overall, I think that the advertisers created an advertisement that fulfills the purpose of reaching as many people as possible to show people their product.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jimmy on the aspect that the commercial does not do the best of jobs actually selling its products. Adding the Star Wars factor did add a larger audience, but took away from the main purpose. When watching the commercial, I feel as if it does a better job advertising for Star Wars rather than Volkswagon. Volkswagon needed to focus more on their product rather than the Star Wars kid. Could the commercial still be as attractive but better at advertising its product to the audience if they replaced the Star Wars kid with another character from another movie or just had a kid in no costume?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading people's comments on this advertisement, it is fair to say most people don't see the car advertisers doing much to persuade their audience to buy the car. Instead, we must look at the different techniques the advertisers use to draw the audience into the commercial. Although there is only a small part that focuses on the car, other elements (such as music, simplicity, costume, etc.) give the audience something to remember. When people recall this commercial, they remember it had to do something with Volkswagen and their new product. This subconsciously puts the product in the viewers mind, remembering it later and possibly looking into what the product is later. So what other reasons would Volkswagen not focus more on the car rather on the story throughout the commercial? How does this play a part in increasing/decreasing the number of new car buyers?
ReplyDeleteI can agree with lmartinez here. The entire point of the super bowl commercials is entertainment. Whatever commercial captivates the audience the most is the one which will create the most buzz in the following weeks. This particular commercial used Star Wars to appeal to a wide audience spanning many generations.
ReplyDeleteI think that Volkswagen did not focus on their product, but more on the plot of the commercial in order to generate this buzz about their advertisement in the weeks ensuing the commercials premiere. This seems to be a reliable strategy, seeing as the publicity created by the ad has obviously gotten the company (and its products) plenty of attention.
Volkswagen focuses more on the story in the commercial rather than the facts about the car in an attempt to generate positive feelings towards the Volkswagen brand. If Volkswagen produces a commercial which people enjoy to watch and talk about then the brand will be remembered in a positive manner. These feelings are what Volkswagen is banking on to generate more business. Volkswagen is also trying to make their brand family oriented and trendy in an attempt to produce positive brand affiliation. I also agree with Missy's point about trying to equate a car with a van in an attempt to appeal to families who may normally purchase vans.
ReplyDeleteWhen people think about Super Bowl commercials they think about entertainment and humor, and I'm willing to bet that when you ask people to recall a commercial they will think of one that uses humor or evokes some other sense of emotion, not a simple car commercial that has a car driving around some random country road saying why this car is better than other cars. Emotion is exactly what the Volkswagen commercial was trying to accomplish. It did even better than most commercials did, as it evoked three emotions. First it allowed us to look think of the joy that Star Wars brings us, because everybody loves Star Wars. Second, we are taken back to a time of innocence in which we still played with our imaginations and not with our cell phones. Finally the commercial wins our hearts with a sense of humor. I applaud the firm that was able to evoke all of these emotions as well as get George Lucas to use the Star Wars brand on something other than his own product line.
ReplyDeleteI fit in with the group of people that did not see a persuasive tone coming through in this commercial. Unlike most car commercials this one did not state any of the new features the car had or any new deals that the company had released on pricing. The only enticing thing about the car that we gather from the commercial is that it has an automatic starter, which doesn't exactly set the Passat apart from other cars because so many have that feature. I would agree however that Volkswagen still managed to be successful in advertising their car because instead of being informative they created something that viewers could watch and enjoy. They made their car company appealing by showing a little bit of their humor and by doing so they gave their audience something to talk about. I don't think it is necessarily the Star Wars theme that is so appealing as much as how cute and funny the commercial is. When people talk about how adorable the commercial is it makes more and more people want to go look it up and the more people that watch the commercial, the more people that see the new car's name. I think more company's, not just car, dealers, should try using this technique because it is so eye catching and contagious among the public eye and proves you don't always need to use to persuasion to get people to buy your product.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial draws in younger adults who may be looking for a new car to start a family. If they have kids of their own they may be able to remember their child doing something similar to the little boy in the comercial. Many people will remember this commercial because its funny and draws people in with the star wars theme. I remember this comercial for that very reason. Volkswagon knew this is what people were looking for in a super bowl commercial so they created one. They succeeded in creating a commercial that would stick in the minds of potential buyers, which hopefully resulted in a boost in sells.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the comment above, I think that Volkswagen may have not focused so much on the actual car because they were probably trying to make their commercial stand out. The average car commercial shows the car driving on a closed course, usually with a popular song playing in the background. Most people don't really pay that much attention to the average car commercial because there is nothing to really draw you in. However, the Volkswagen commercial holds your attention throughout because you don't know what the commercial is for until the very end. The cute story line keeps you focused; the viewer wants to find out what is being advertised. The fact that Volkswagen didn't focus on the car that much in the advertisement made the commercial much more effective; people are much more likely to remember the car because it was advertised in a way that was creative and relatable to all.
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ReplyDeleteIn response to what Shane said, I think that the commercial was probably not just targeting younger adults who wanted to start a family. I believe that they were targeting anyone that loves high class luxury vehicles through the use of the automatic starter at the end, while at the same time, targeting the audience of the Star Wars movies, which is pretty much anybody between now and the last 40 years. Using Star Wars as an attention getter was a great idea by Volkswagen since it is one of the few aspects of pop culture that has stayed relevant for so long. So Shane was right, this commercial would definitely stick in the minds of potential buyers and most likely boost sales
ReplyDeleteAs posted in many of my classmates comments, it doesn't seem like the commercial does anything. I can remember when I first saw this commercial thinking to myself, "What is the point of this? It's cute, but why?" It's not until the end you know what the commercial is really about. I'm not entirely sure what the advertisers were thinking. I agree that the kid is cute and they are trying to sell the family aspect into buying the car, but I honestly don't have any real information about the car. It has an automatic starter, but really you can get those for any car. The commercial seems to speak more to people's humor than common sense. Based on the commercial for the Passat, I could see people buying this car because of the pop culture and emotional ties with the movie Star Wars. Although, after finding out more information about the car I could see people just as happy buying an automatic starter; instead of an expensive new car.
ReplyDeleteThe Star Wars theme is definitely what appeals to all generations. The older generation grew up on Star Wars, and the younger one has also been exposed to the movies, toys, etc. It is definitely an attention grabber. Just as Missy said, the image of the family is very strong in this commercial. Yes, there is the obvious of having mom, dad, son, and dog. However, the commercial also plays with the idea of one of the oldest games to exist, dress-up, and the actions/reactions of the different family members. The child in the commercial is running around excitedly, trying to make different objects do something, just by use of "the force." The dog is not paying attention to the child, and mom already seems tired of the game, pushing the sandwich across the counter. When dad comes home, he goes inside and secretly starts the car, making the child believe that he has used "the force." This also plays on the idea that dad is the "fun" one. The image as a whole, including the reactions of the various members of the family, is very powerful because it makes the commercial very relatable. This image is part of the persuasion, and is what causes the most impact. The humor and "realness" of the commercial is what keeps it in people's minds, and makes them talk and think about it. Per the use of technology, Volkswagen highlights the car's self-start capability. This is very enticing for the adults, who may see it as a convenience for multiple reasons, and believe it or not, it affects the children too. Any child that watches this commercial will believe that this car will somehow react to their "powers," as demonstrated by the kid in the commercial. The children will keep this image in their mind, and may even voice a liking for the car at home. This may not affect the parent's decision on which car to buy, but it will permanently imprint the idea of a Volkswagen in the child's mind, the child that will at some point become an adult and potential customer.
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