Thursday, September 20, 2007
Snickers Kiss!
In this 30 second SuperBowl Commercial, the first shot is from a distance (establishing a long shot) of two mechanics huddled over the engine of vehicle. Autoshop sounds can be heard in the background. This serves the purpose of setting the scene. This is followed quickly by a zoom shot of one of the mechanics reaching into the pocket of his shirt for a delicious snickers bar. The camera closes in on the snickers and then there is a medium shot of the action of the mechanic putting the snickers halfway in his mouth. You hear the ripping of the package. The 4th or so shot is a closeup on the face of the other mechanic looking longingly at his partner. There isn't any sappy background music or other farfetched effects. You can see the profile of the first mechanic in the foreground. Immediately, it's a close up of both them as the second mechanic goes in for the "kiss"... SMACK! Right on the lips. At least he got half a snickers out of it. The moment they realize they're locking lips, the camera backs up as they jump away from each other. This is a low-angle shot where the audience is looking up at the second mechanic (the kisser). He says, "I think we just kissed." The camera flips back to the first mechanic as he replies, "Quick, do something manly." This flipping back and forth occurs a couple more times as the men rip open their shirts and pull out their chest hair while screaming bloody murder. The scene ends, of course, with a picture of the inside of a "Snickers: Most Satisfying."
I laugh outloud every time I see this commercial. As a Super Bowl commercial, it's been designed to engage the audience, make them laugh, and keep their attention as they wait for the big game. The camera angles change rapidly, keeping pace with the expectations of the audience. If the commercial can't keep attention, certainly the football fan will be off the couch and getting a snack, rather than sitting through television ads. In this fast paced world, commercials have 30 seconds to get the job done. If they fail, ultimately, their product loses out over the competition. There are a lot of clever commercials out there vying for attention.
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3 comments:
Angela, excellent analysis of the use of specific shots to position you in different relationships to these two guys and their shared love for Snickers--you therefore identify the purposes for which these shots are being used, something that's essential in having students engage in analysis.
As you note, there's also a lot of humor/parody here revolving around masculinities at work in the gendered world of the car shop--therefore the continued fear of being perceived as not masculine/gay as well as expressing feelings about each other/Snickers.
You're right that "attention transacting" is crucial for ads--this does attract attention in the midst of all other Super Bowl ads given it's unusual visual nature.
Good work here-glad that you're in this course. We'll get into analysis of gender representations later in the course.
And FINALLY, I'm able to comment on your analysis of the Snickers Kiss commercial:
First and foremost, I'm envious of your description, which was much more detailed than mine. Second, nice breakdown of the elements: camera angles/shots, dialogue, sound, screen action. I also liked your assessment of time usage-- you're right, if a commercial doesn't move quickly, the audience won't pay attention, and *poof* it's useless.
One think I'd like to add, and I think that Rick addressed this, I LOVE that a SuperBowl commercial addresses homophobia, albeit in a funny and somewhat perpetuating manner. That is, what an ironic commercial to throw in between breast implanted bathing suited beauties and sweaty beer bottles-- and it forces homophobes to laugh at homophobia. Awesome.
Angela, one other comment. When your blog opens, your video for Sept. 13 starts to play. What's happening is that this video is set for "autoplay"--it just starts playing.
If you want to fix that, you can go back to the HTML edit open, and, if you embedded the YouTube code into your blog, just change the two mentions of "autoplay"="true" to "autoplay"="false." Then, users need to click on the start icon to get it to play.
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