Friends Furever

When watching television, we have a tendency to skip over commercials because we are not interested in watching them. We just want the program to come back on, and with all the television channels now available, we can constantly flip through channels, avoiding as many commercials as possible. This creates a challenge for commercial creators. They now must create commercials that catch our eye and make us want to watch them. More and more, commercials are irrelevant to what product they are actually advertising.

I came across a commercial that opened with lots of different animals. It begins showing an orangutan and a dog. It then switches to other animals like baby chicks and a cat, dogs and cats, an elephant and a sheep, a dog and a dolphin and even a dog with an elephant. My favorite is the deer being chased by a dog. The commercial ends with words across the screen saying, “Be together. Not the same.”

I would have never guessed that this commercial was advertising for Android. The first time I saw it I would have guessed that it was for some type of pet food or a commercial like the SPCA ones. I had no idea it was advertising for Android. This commercial is completely irrelevant to what it is trying to get you to buy.  But I think that is what the advertiser wants to think. It shows the animals to make you want to watch the whole thing, because if a commercial isn’t eye catching, then we don’t want to watch it. It plays the different animal clips to keep you watching, even though it is using the fallacy of irrelevant goals or functions.

Using the adorable animals is also using pathos. The cute animal clips are appealing to our emotions and making us say things like “awww” or “how cute”.  They are making us feel good inside and are happy while watching the cute animal clips.

The end of the commercial is very subtle in its reference to what is advertising. The very end it just say Android across the screen. The point of ending it like this, I think, is to make us want to learn more about Android and look up their products. The end leaves us hanging and wondering, wanting to know more.

This commercial was very effective in getting the consumer to do what it wants. Because of the vague connection to the actual product, it leaves the consumer to know more, and therefore will look up more about Android. Its use of pathos is very helpful in keeping the viewer watching until the very end, which can be a challenge for commercials nowadays. I definitely enjoyed watching this commercial.