While researching commercials for this blog, I have watched mostly commercials which target women as consumers. These commercials frequently air during daytime television programs. Unlike the ongoing narratives of the soap operas they interrupt, DTCAs offer one minute vignettes with a happy ending. During the first several seconds of this commercial for the cholesterol medicine Lipitor I was not sure what they were advertising. The commercial begins near a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. The narrator, a fit, good-looking man in his fifties, says, "I can't believe I used to swing over those rocks. I took some foolish risks as a teenager" (Pfizer, 2010). He goes on to compare it to the risks he was taking with high cholesterol. I am not the target audience for this ad, and it attracted my attention precisely because it didn't make me want to watch more. The landscape is pretty, but there is no compelling music and no narrative hook. This ad seems to target men of a high socioeconomic class, someone who could afford to spend time in such a gorgeous place with no one else around, no tourists or neighbors. By setting the commercial in a natural setting, the producers of the commercial aren't saying their product is "natural", but that even if you have a healthy lifestyle you might still be at risk for heart disease or stroke, like the narrator. Viewers see the narrator from a distance as he walks through the woods alone with his dog. They walk onto a pier and then jump in the lake together. Entering the lake from the pier instead of swinging over the rocks reinforces that he has indeed stopped taking "foolish risks" (Pfizer, 2010). The man alone with his dog and the distant shot of him walking in the woods speaks of individualism, a "self-fulfillment, self-reliance, self-expression", that may resonate with other men (Butler, 2007, p. 375). It also says to them, if healthy, attractive people are at risk for heart disease maybe you are too.
Resources:
Butler, Jeremy G. (2007). Television: Critical Methods and Applications. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
“Lipitor - Don't Kid Yourself.” Lipitor/Pfizer. (2010). Commercial. Reviewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogyC9rEjxDM&feature=youtu.be
Video retrieved from: http://youtu.be/ogyC9rEjxDM
No comments:
Post a Comment