Advertisement Deconstruction

I performed an advertisement deconstruction activity using a television commercial from the 2013 Super Bowl game. The commercial was sponsored by Anheuser Busch and the Budweiser brand. For those that watched the event, you will most likely remember this ad as being the story of a young Clydesdale pony growing up with his trainer to be separated and then they reunite at a parade. For those who are not familiar, or maybe forgot, here is the link to the video. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl-commercials/0ap2000000134659/Brotherhood

What did I learn from this activity? The deconstruction framework given to us to perform this activity itself taught me a lot about critical literacy relating to media, regardless of the actual advertisement. Understanding the small details to pay attention to such as images, logos, camera angles, lighting, music, messages, stereotypes, and dozens of other criteria was a great eye opener. Since doing this activity I have noticed myself picking apart television commercials as I watch shows with my family. Obviously without being able to go back and replay them over and over it is hard to catch a lot of details, but commercials are much more interesting to me now, despite what the actual product is.

For the specific advertisement that I chose though, I am not sure that I had any major revelations, and therefore am concerned whether my choice of advertisement was a good choice for the intended purpose of the advertisement. There were not a lot of “negative” or deceitful strategies or schemes to the advertisement. It was a heart touching warm fuzzy feeling story that did not really show much of the product at all. In fact, if you would have asked me before doing this activity if that commercial even showed one can or bottle of beer in it, I would have said “no.”After reviewing it several times for the deconstruction activity, I did in fact notice a Budweiser bottle for about 2 seconds. The Budweiser logo was displayed multiple times and was more obvious, which leads me to a more important question I think…what’s the point?

What is the point of the advertisement? To make people cry? To make people smile? To sell beer? How are they trying to sell beer if they only show beer in 2 seconds out of a 60 second advertisement? To answer this I decided to do a little searching for information on marketing and found a number of resources that help to understand that advertisements like this one are simply following theories of marketing, especially theories related to the concept of “ad-evoked feelings” (Pham, Geuens & De Pelsmacker, 2013, http://www.columbia.edu/~tdp4/Pham-Geuens-DePelsmaker%20(2013)%20Ad-Evoked_Feelings%20--%20forthcoming%20IJRM-%20April%202013.pdf). The story in the ad is nothing more than an attempt to make people have a more positive evaluation of the brand. One could speculate on various direct and indirect results of having a positive evaluation of a brand, but ultimately the end goal is that more people will buy specific products (Bud regular, Bud Light, Bud Light Lime, Black Crown, etc) if they have a more positive evaluation of the Budweiser brand.

In addition to the Budweiser commercial, there were a few other commercial aired during the 2103 Super Bowl that I believe are following the same marketing strategy and do not really display any product in any significant time, they just tell a story that affects people’s emotions and then display their brand logo. Some examples include Coca Cola Security Camera (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowlcommercials/0ap2000000134697/Security-Camera), Chrysler Ram To the Farmer in All of Us (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl-commercials/0ap2000000134685/To-the-farmer-in-all-of-us), and Jeep America Will be Whole Again (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowlcommercials/0ap2000000134679/America-will-be-whole-again).