Close Reading of an Advertisement: Super Bowl

The ad titled Funniest Doritos Super Bowl Promo-Funny Little Kid is a 30-second TV commercial that has been uploaded to YouTube (Doritos, n.p). Doritos, which are simple chips consisting of ground corn, salt, and vegetable oil, are advertised in the advertisement. I saw the advertisement while settling down to watch my favorite film, which was abruptly disrupted by a knock on the door. The knock appeared to come from the television, and despite the fact that I dislike Doritos, I was compelled to watch it. The commercial message makes use of satire, animation, and appeals to the viewer.

Summary of the commercial

The advert begins with a man knocking on a door. A woman opens it smiling and welcomes the gentleman into the house. He hugs her and then hands her a beautiful bouquet of flowers which she happily accepts. She then introduces the man to a young boy standing next to a table in the living room. She then walks away alluringly into the next room, leaving the man staring at her behind as she walks away (Doritos, n.p). Her scanty skirt makes it worse. The young boy stands there mouth agape and in shock as to what had happened. As the gentleman sits down, he stretches his hand into a bowl full of Doritos on the table and picks one. As he puts it in the mouth, the young boy slaps him and demands him to keep his hands away from his mama and his Doritos.

Gender Role

In this particular case, the woman in the advert is scantily dressed making the man in the advert to stare at her as she walks into another room. The advert tends to use gender role with the aim of promoting the Doritos. It is clear that the commercial advert has used media image of a sexualized woman with the intention of maintaining men’s dominance. This is being accomplished by the Doritos advert through the designation of a woman’s body as a property that can be looked at and evaluated at the impulse of the man’s desire (Doritos, n.p). Even though the commercial advert on Doritos tends to portray both a man and a woman, there are specific ways that the advert has paid close attention to the female gender. For instance, the woman is shown as beautiful, slender and sexually skilled. However, this kind of sexually explicit advertising and programming is can be devastating to the viewer’s self-esteem. This in turn creates unrealistic expectations within the society watching the Doritos advert in terms of gender portrayal. This includes expecting women to be beautiful, thin as well as having designer clothes, accessories and make-up.

Use of Imagery

In this particular advert, the images used in the advertisement of Doritos strikes a chord with the market it intends to communicate with. For instance, the use of smiling model for the commercial advert tends to exude a feeling of happiness that is associated with indulgence and gratification (Doritos, n.p). However, the use of such images that shows a man sexually visualizing a woman can be seen as crippling an otherwise good idea. This is because; the images of sexualizing a woman in the Doritos advert does not sufficiently communicate with the specific target audience. Therefore, there seems to be no connection between the images of the woman walking suggestively into the next room and Doritos.

The director of the Doritos commercial seems to have realized the significance of using mental images in a buyer’s mind. This is because the different pictures that have been used by Doritos tend to have a well-recognized superiority over words (Doritos, n.p). This is can be seen as particularly important for strengthening the Doritos brand beliefs and brand awareness in its customers. The different pictures that have been used by Doritos such as a bowl of Doritos on the table tend to induce evaluative responses and demonstrate accuracy in communicating emotions. As a result, the specific emotions that are brought out in the advert are seen to drive the various basic motivations that tend to energize behavior. This is the main reason as to why the Doritos commercial has captured the full gestural range. As a result, this particular advert can be seen as extremely effective in influencing a customer’s purchasing behavior. For instance, in the Doritos advert we see the three individuals engaging in a number of gestures, facial expressions and other forms of body language that the audience can follow and relate to. This includes: smiling, walking, staring and many others.

Use of humor

This particular Doritos commercial advert can be seen as funny. The Doritos commercial advert has used this particular strategy with the aim of attracting clients to by Doritos. This is because; all customers including those that consume Doritos like to be entertained, and not being pitched. Therefore, Doritos customers will end up paying more attention to the commercial because it is humorous as opposed to being serious or factual. The Doritos commercial has ensured that the humor used is appropriate to the customer and to the Doritos product. In this commercial advert of Doritos, the director used humor probably because the product is relatively inexpensive and does not require a lot of details to be disclosed about the product. He used the young boy to slap the gentleman and warn him about not eating his Doritos (Doritos, n.p). This is by commanding the older man to keep his hands to himself. Also, the part where the mother asks the young boy if he is behaving himself despite the fact that he had already assaulted the visitor. John Berger’s point of view

The Doritos commercial advert tends to lack what is known as glamor and enviability as described as John Beger. This is because it tends to look as a modest lifestyle that may not be really desired by many viewers. According to him, the power of being glamorous tends to reside in the supposed happiness (Bigat, 1022). This commercial advert portrays a life style that leaves a lot to be desired especially with the objectification of women. There is nothing to envy or glamorous about the entire advert that would want the viewers to emulate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that the commercial advert on Doritos tends to use imagery, and humor with the aim of urging buyers to purchase their product. However, it tends to sexually objectify women by using a scantily dressed woman who walks in a provocative manner distracting the attention of the man in the room. The woman models in the Doritos commercial advert is also very beautiful and slender to attract a huge number of customers for the company’s product. However, the Doritos advert tends to lack enviability and glamor as stated by John Berger.

Work Cited

Doritos. Funniest Doritos Super Bowl Commercial-Funny Little Kid. Retrieved from https://m.youtube.com
Bigat Ekrem. Guerilla advertisement and marketing. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 51: 1022-1029