commercial critique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NvSgrxp8Yg

Name: Darth Vader Kid: The Force
Advertisement: VW

1. What visual effects are used to define location?
       I know that the advertisement takes place at their house because it shows different clips of the boy going from room to room try to use his "powers" to move things around. It shows his sisters room, the laundry room, the kitchen, and then outside in the driveway when his father gets home.

2. Qheat sound effects are used to define action?
       The only sound effects that were played throughout the entire commercial was the music from Star Wars which was used in order to show the point of the little boy thinking that he was darth vader.

3. What type of format is used?
     The format that is used for this commercial is Documentary/demonstration because they took the product, the car, and put it in an unusual situation in order to show a specific characteristic of it. In this case, they used the boy and his desire to have powers that could move things and cause things to come alive and they had him stand in front of the car outside trying to turn it on, and had the dad inside with the remote control for the car that enabled him to turn the car on from inside in order to make his son think that he actually did it himself. Not too many cars have the remote and the ones that do are very popular so that is why they choose to showcase that characteristic of the car.

4. Write a brief synopsis of the ad.
       I basically summed up the entire commercial in the previous question, but basically they used a little boy dressed up in a darth vader costume in order to 1) appeal to our emotions and 2) to advertise the remote that comes with the car. Everybody loves little kids and when they are in commercials, it makes everything so much more pleasant. The kid is walking around his house decked out in his costume trying to move things and do special things to random objects around the house by holding his hands up and hoping that something good will happen. After failing a number of times, he goes outside to where his dad just pulls in the yard with a nice VW car and the boy stands in front of it trying to work his magic. After a few tries, the commercial shows the dad in the kitchen looking out the window at his son, and then uses the remote to turn on the car allowing for the son to get joy in his "powers."

5. What is the target market of the ad?
      I'd have to say that the target market isn't necessarily limited to a specific gender or even an age group per say. Most likely it is a commercial for middle aged men and women who are looking to buy a new car with better conveniences. I say middle age just simply because it is a nicer car, and no young person needs to be buying a nice expensive car until they have been working for a while and can easily afford it.

6. What benefits are offered by the ad?
      There is always the benefit of getting to see joy in a child. It really is a cute commercial and while it is about the car itself, using the boy and his darth vader powers seems to make the car seem a bit more manly... especially the way it sounds when it starts up.

7. Is there a call to action in the ad?
      There actually isn't a call to action. It is just pretty obvious that what they want you to do is buy the car. I think it would be tacky for them to add in there at the end, "hey you! buy our product!" umm no. We get the point, you don't need to dumb it down for us in order to make a sale.