For my
analysis I chose DIRECTV’s “Stop Taking in Stray Animals” commercial. Not only
was this commercial funny, it was also clever, which aided in their argument as
to why a person with cable should switch to DIRECTV. The commercial is geared
towards people with basic cable or anyone who is frustrated with their cable
service. The people at DIRECTV create all of these over exaggerated events that
occur because of one bad choice that was made after getting upset at your cable
television. DIRECTV explains that all of these burdens can be avoided by one
call to switch to DIRECTV.
Even
though these events aren’t realistic to happen because of a cable problem I
think that the situation was well thought out. From the very beginning DIRECTV
is persuading you that they are cheaper than their competitors by saying “When
you pay too much for cable you throw things.” They go on to explain that when
you throw things it causes people to think you have anger issues. Not very many
people want to surround themselves with someone who is angry all the time in
fear that the angry person might hurt them. So, because the man got mad that
his cable was too expensive he lost all of his friends. Since he was lonely he
no longer cared about his appearance and grew a scraggly beard. Because he has
no friends and a scraggly beard he begins to take in stray animals and can’t
stop. I thought this was extremely well thought out because they showed the man
with all of his animals and his scraggly beard and he looked accurate to what
an animal hoarder looks like, and usually animal hoarders live alone and don’t
have much of a social life.
DIRECTV
had a good strategy, but even though the situation was entertaining and well
thought out their argument was only focused on the fact that cable is expensive
and causes customers to get angry. At the end of the commercial DIRECTV says
that you should call and make a switch to DIRECTV so that none of these bad
things happen to you and you won’t become angry. I feel DIRECTV could have
taken it one step further and explained the positive effects of switching to
DIRECTV as well as the negative effects of having cable, so that they can keep
their humor, while better explaining what customers are going to get out of
DIRECTV. We are told that DIRECTV is cheaper
but what else does it have to offer?
- Breanna H.
(423 Words)
Breanna, I definitely agree with your point about DirecTV needing to state the positives of their service in order to possibly increase customers. However, I feel that the omission of these details might actually be intentional, to a certain extent. Since commercials have a limited time-frame to work within, they need to be quick and precise, while still catching the viewers' attention. By them leaving out details other than the basic cost and pricing differences when compared to their competitors, they effectively put the ball in their viewers' courts. They indirectly are asking viewers to go out and actively pursue information about DirecTV and its services. This could lead the person looking for the new data to come face-to-face many times with positive reviews, information, and more pricing that might make them want to purchase DirecTV's service. If that were not the case, the person might wind up asking people about the commercials, in search of the info. This could be potentially even better for DirecTV as word-of-mouth is one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. Or the omission could just be simply because they did not think that mixing some serious parts in with an overtly humourous commercial and tone. Maybe they felt that just using humour to get people talking about their commercials would be enough of a marketing strategy by itself.
ReplyDelete-Matthew S.
Word Count: 230
That actually makes a lot of sense. I never thought about it like that. The first time I saw these commercials was in class and after wards I began asking people if they'd ever seen them and if not I'd show them. Looks like word of mouth works more effecitvely than I thought.
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