Did you lie? Let’s discuss the commercial, “Lie Detector”. I was humored by the Cheetos commercial, Lie Detector. It got my attention because it was surprising to say the least.
The commercial is 30 seconds long and consist of a father who has his family sitting at the kitchen table. The father is interrogating the family on his bag of Cheetos that someone ate. Nobody confesses to eating his bag of Cheetos, therefore he brings in what appears to be some type of black light that can show traces of Cheetos. The father turns on the light and is shocked by his wife having traces of Cheetos on her, and then his two children also have traces on them, showing that they all ate the Cheetos. Then it ends surprisingly when the father looks over and sees a cat with Cheetos color on it and asks, when they got a cat. It appears that all the family were caught lying about not eating his Cheetos, and on top of it all, the father had no idea they even had a cat. It was definitely humorous to me, and that’s what caught my attention. I do not see many commercials with humor that I like, but this one stood out.
I tried finding when it was first aired, and I cannot find the exact date. I did find where according to research released by video advertising measurement company Ace Metrix, it was one on the list for” the most emotionally evocative video ads of 2016”. According to the research, it was the funniest video ad of the year in 2016 (acemetrix).
The persuasive strategies used that I noticed were both story-telling, and the plain-folks pitch. I see where they used ordinary people, using the “Plain-folks pitch”. I did not recognize any actors and it just seemed to be an ordinary family. The product was associated with a general unknown family. For this reason, I cannot say they used the “famous-person testimonial”. I also did not see where any snob appeal, hidden-fear appeal, or the band wagon effect was used on this commercial. According to Skyword, “the tactic of surprise and story-telling are what made this ad work. “The key to this working for Cheetos is that they picked a surprise appropriate for their audience and their brand” (skyword par.5)
I associated this commercial with story-telling, as the father has a problem. Then by the end of the ad, the father has solved the answer to his problem. Due to the family hiding their secret and then the father going to the extreme measures of finding out the truth, it was like a short, suspenseful, mini drama.
The ad is new and different to me. I have not seen anything similar to this ad. It was not only humorous, but the light used for the lie detector was definitely different. The ending of the ad was also surprising, as I would not have expected it to end on the fact that he didn’t know they had a cat.
I cannot say for certain who the target audience is, but I would assume it is children ages 7 to possibly 18. I think this due to the fact of the humor and the plot itself, due to that kids would remember this commercial because of the sneakiness and the cat. But I can see where it would target both parents also. This would appeal to men because how the man is the one that outsmarted the children and wife. Therefore I am going to say that the targeted audience is families in general.
I can only say stereotypes that might be included were that the family seemed to be lower income level or middle class. Nothing seemed offensive in the commercial or message itself. The message was pretty clear to me that the dad really liked his Cheetos, enough to find out who took them, using extreme measures.
The biggest strength of the ad was the humor appeal it had. It was not only humorous, but went beyond to keep humor throughout, and ended with a surprise. The product was associated with simplicity, and this also made the ad appealing. I found the fact that it included not just one age group, but an entire family into the commercial as a strength. It makes everyone in the family feel a connection.
I think one of the weaknesses was the lie detector part, making it seem like the mother and children were sneaky and lying because they snuck the dad’s food. Although I found this funny, some people may take it offensively. For example, the women or children might wonder why the father wasn’t the one guilty.
In the end, I would have to say this is one of the best commercials I have seen, and I think it is very memorable. The humor and the story itself I believe seemed to be successful in reaching its targeted audience, and will be remembered. After all, it was voted one of the funniest in 2016, according to research (acemetrix).
I myself would buy the product based on the ad, and would recommend not only the product, but watching the commercial itself. The ad seemed very successful.
I learned from this assignment that ads do use many different techniques and marketing strategies. Unless you focus on the different strategies, you may not really notice what all the ad is using to get the message across. I myself never thought about the targeted audiences and the strategies used to reach many different audiences. When I took a closer look at the ad, it surprised me about how it actually was like a simple short story.
http://www.acemetrix.com/about-us/company-news/media-coverage/drum-hersheys-nike-cheetos-johnsonville-emotionally-impactful-video-ads-2016/
https://youtu.be/XSMZhCCEFuA
https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/storytelling/surprise-an-element-of-surprise-makes-your-brand-more-memorable/