Analysis of a TV Commercial, Research Paper Example

The Budweiser Light Cheese Commercial was viewed in order to conduct a Television Commercial Analysis (YouTube, 2012). Budweiser is a beer manufacturing commercial and is commonly used during the SuperBowl commercials. This particular commercial was first aired during one of the football Superbowls. The commercial begins with a 30-something year old couple that is being greeted at the door entrance by a party host. The female of the couple is chatting with the host and the male of the couple is holding a huge cheese marble, almost the size of a cake. The man separates from his female partner by stating, “I’m going to put my cheese in the kitchen” and enters the kitchen with other males. One of the males states, “That’s some serious cheese”. The man holding the cheese replies, “Care for a slice”. Picks up the cheese and underneath it is a six pack of Bud Light. Instrumental music begins to play and one of the other male’s replies with “that will go perfect with this baguette”. He breaks the top of the baguette off and drops out another bottle of bud light beer. Another male in the kitchen then states, “we can top it off with this great bottle of …” What was supposed to be a bottle of wine in the box, turns out to be a TV in the box, with a football game on. The men begin drinking their beer and watching the football game. The commercial ends with the man who brought the cheese walking through the living room through all the women putting on his jacket and stating, “Going on a cheese hunt”.

Companies use different strategies in order to convince consumers to purchase their products, such as specific types of actors, graphics, colors, music, etc. (Utah Education Analsyis, 2012) The Budweiser company uses a good strategy in this commercial in order to get their targeted audience attention. For one, they use an upscale type of party and introduce beer and football into it, with all of the men hiding their beer bottles within cocktail party types of drinks and appetizers. This is targeting the average middle class man who would rather be home drinking beer with his friends and watching football, than dressing up and going to a cocktail party with his wife or girlfriend. The actors in the commercial, as mentioned previously, are all around 30 years of age. In addition, the actors all look around middle class or greater. To begin, in the beginning of the commercial the host is thanking the couple for coming to their “wine and cheese” party. The party is also quite with other couples sitting or standing around talking to each other in low monotone conversation. In addition, the guests are all dressed nicely, as if they are financially stable or wealthy. The actors were mostly Caucasian decent. Since the commercial was airing during the Superbowl, it can be implied that most White Amercian men are watching the Superbowl and drinking beer, particularly the middle class. The main character of the commercial is also a White American male. In addition, when he enters the kitchen with the other men, there are also mostly White males.

There are no hidden messages, racial discrimination or strategies that the advertising has conveyed in order to confuse, question, or upset the viewer. The commercial is very stereotypical of how men behave with their friends during football season. It is almost common knowledge that men would rather watch a game and drink beer with friends instead of attend a wine and cheese party during an important football game. The commercial therefore gives a normal view of what men would rather be doing and that is drinking beer and watching football and trying to hide it behind their wife or girlfriend in order to make them happy. Of course this isn’t the case for all men, but during a superbowl commercial, the advertising did its job of grabbing male attention.

This strategy is appealing because they are selling the fun in bringing bud light along to a party. Therefore, the advertisers did not only sell the product, their aim was to sell the idea that men could go to the parties with their wives or girlfriends and still have a good time. In addition, the fact that the actors were all well-dressed and intelligently speaking made the commercial appealing to both men and women. Furthermore, the commercial was extremely funny in the fact that the men were using cheese and wine to cover up beer bottles. This element can most likely be appealing to most individuals, both male and female, ranging from their 20s-40s. Therefore, it can be implied that although the target audience was young to middle aged men, the commercial is able to capture other audiences as well.

References

YouTube. (2012). The 25 Best Superbowl Commercials. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=YouTube+Doritos+Dog+Commercial&view=detail&mid=A5A28318918FE20EB678A5A28318918FE20EB678&first=0

Utah Education Analysis. (2012). Advertising Analysis. Retrieved from: http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=14594