Le Minh Tri

S3678621
Lecturer: Linda Nguyen
Words count: 1089
Video links :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9GFpU2B258
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVIWcDIuxZ0
Links to researches:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1207/s15506878jobem5004_3?scroll=top&needAcc
ess=true
https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/13/4/959/4583540

ASSESSMENT 1
ADVERTISING ANALYSIS
VOLKSWAGEN’S TELEVISION COMMERCIALS CASE STUDY

Television advertisement campaigns are essential for many organizations and companies for
the purpose of promoting their services or products. An effective television commercial can
designate a healthy image for the commercial business; on the opposite, failure in making
appropriate ads can possibly damage the way audiences perceive the targeted brand. This
applies to the case that will be mentioned here which includes two television advertisements
that belong to Volkswagen, one of the most recognizable vehicle manufacturers in the world.
Our subjects are television commercials for Volkswagen Passat in 2015 and Volkswagen Atlas
in 2018.

In the auto-making industry, car is certainly a common and basic product that serves an
important role in everyday lives of people around the world. Therefore, successful advertising
campaigns are fundamental in drawing people attention to the targeted merchandise and greatly
assist the branding process. The 2 main factors are discussed here are the key message of the
advertisement and creativity in storytelling.

According to Taylor, R.E (1999), the key message for a good advertisement includes informing
and persuading. The Volkswagen Passat commercial did exactly that by using image of an old
lady who turn into a young man while driving a Passat vehicle as a metaphor. The metaphor is a
representation of the new feature of the car which Volkswagen aims to introduce, that is the
auto assist-parking system. The idea was clear: to notify and provide a product that satisfy
audience’s need in a humorous and creative way. As technology evolves overtime, consumer’s
demand for up-to-date product’s feature increases expectedly and Passat commercial was well
made to adapt to this phenomenon. The message of this commercial is to point out that the auto
assist-parking system is a new invention that possibly solve car-parking problems and it is
convenient for everyone.

On the other hand, the Volkswagen Atlas 2018 commercial was not successful in conveying
such message. The 1 minute advertising clip leaves poor remarks in informing and convincing
target audiences into buying their product. New Atlas car model was introduced in a short
amount of time in the end of the video, however none of new or remarkable features were
shown or mentioned. The persuading factor was completely ignored : from target audience
perspective, the need to purchase this particular car is certainly low regardless of its casual
designed look. We see nothing but an ordinary car that serves little purpose providing
consumers something that is necessary in order to improve their daily lives.

Creativity in storytelling is essential to television commercials, which are designed to make

audiences take interest in a particular product. Creative ads are commonly used by multiple
companies and organizations in a large scale. Choosing the right story for an ad or marketing
campaign can be very impactful as it manipulates the reality to keep audiences entertained and
form a need to purchase the product. And one of the most effective methods to entertain
audiences is to make them laugh with suitable sense of humour. According to common humour
theories which mainly includes 3 main factors, that are incongruity, superiority and
psychoanalytic .It is also mentioned that “humor is characterized by the unexpected, the
illogical, or even the inappropriate”. Incongruity theory indicates that violating common
expectation can make people laugh. Therefore it is hard to miss that laughter is well connected
with a level of aggression as it connects to the second theory, superiority. Superiority theory
suggests that “ laughter is the result of feeling superior to or triumphant over others, and
derisive jokes, puns, and other comedic means are used to evoke such a feeling”. And finally
the most direct relationship to aggression is shown in the final factor, which is psychoanalytic
theory. The psychoanalytic theory posits that the feeling of being uncomfortable can make
people laugh due to the creation of nervous energy that overcomes forbidden feeling.

In the Volkswagen Passat commercial, the remark of humour theories is noticeably clear. The
37-seconds video clip entertain audiences with an unexpected sequence which is the sudden
transformation of the old lady, as this applies correctly to the definition of incongruity theory. The
following scene shows the confused reaction from the old man in the passenger’s seat, which
clearly represents the audience’s feeling of superior over the man’s vulnerable situation. This is
a very obvious remark that evidently relates to superiority theory. Finally, the young man in the
blonde wig is an uncomfortable image that successfully generates an unforgettable impression
to viewers; as the result laughing becomes their general natural response. Overall, the Passat
commercial did a great job in telling an interesting, humorous story that is able to intrigue
audiences.

On the opposite, it seems that creative factors in the Volkswagen Atlas 2018 commercial were
completely ignored. The plot is about a couple that keeps getting back at purchasing new
Volkswagen car model each time they need more expanded space after having kids. We can
easily predict the outcome of the story by watching the first 3 scenes in the beginning of the
video, which includes the act of going to Volkswagen car dealership and couple having sex in
the car. It is cliche and clearly lacks of creativity, moreover leads audiences into questioning the
motive of this particular commercial which is confusing and does not support the idea of
promoting Atlas’s unique features. The ad also is not well-connected to the definition of humour
theories that were mentioned in previous paragraphs. Common expectation is represented in
this case, as well as poorly fabricated comedic means. There are scenes in this video which can
be considered to have a correlation to the psychoanalytic theory, including the sex scenes and
the reactions of animals ; nevertheless they are certainly not compelling enough to effectively
contribute to the overall unsatisfactory storytelling.
The main purpose of television advertising is to attract and captive viewer’s curiosity in order to
promote targeted product; as the result, effective commercials should be able to provide and
satisfy people’s need. Without an understanding of how key message and creativity in
storytelling functions, it is impossible for companies and organizations to carry out their own
successful advertising campaigns. The two discussed visual advertisements are clear examples
of what organizations should and should not accomplish in order to successfully develop their
branding process from business standpoint.

REFERENCE LIST:
Taylor, R.E 1999, A Six-Segment Message Strategy Wheel, Journal of Advertising Research,
p.39,7–17.
Erica Scharrer,Andrea Bergstrom,Angela Paradise & Qianqing Ren 2010 “Laughing to Keep
From Crying: Humor and Aggression in Television Commercial Content”