Week #4: Super Bowl 2009 "Career Builders" Advertisement

Here are my thoughts in applying our four tools sets to this particular advertisement:

As a viewer I was initially startled by the woman screaming in the car in the office parking lot which you might say caused my heart to skip a beat as it accessed the reptilian part of the triune brain. The narrator's voice seemed somewhat rhythmic in lieu of any music. Additionally, the neocortex was engaged at the end of the ad when the sponsored company's name and tag line where displayed.

In terms of pursuasive techniques the overarching one used was humor. This advertisement is making light of the different experiences that an ordinary person could relate to in the workplace. It was over exaggerated to the point of hyperbole in the context of this commercial. Repitition and rhetorical questions were used as the scenes were replayed while the narrator repeated his statements.

The establishing shot as the car drove into the company parking lot set the scene for the viewer at the beginning of the ad. Through the repitition of shots the producers were able to control the pacing of the scenes. I felt that the producers used value messaging in that we all might have experienced or know someone who has experienced not being completely happy in a job. It offers a personal connection for the viewer and one where each individual can interpret their own meaning to the sitution.

I struggle with the connections that the advertisement has to the Media Matrix. Could it be there's a cultural shift present today that even though people have experienced being dissatisfied in jobs for many years the fact that we are more apt to express our unhappiness and make a career/job change as part of today's society is a cultural shift. The ad is able to convey its message through images which evoke feelings withholding written words until the end suggesting the epistemological shift that we continue to experience as part of the 21st century media culture.