May the Advertisements Adhere You.........get it?

The Super bowl is an event that people all over America recognize as a time for family, fun, food, competition, and best of all COMMERCIALS! Super bowl commercials are, for most people, the central entertainment for the night. A good laugh and some wicked, new stuff on the market is the main reason as to why people can’t help but (for once) keep the channel on FOX when the program is suspended for commercials. Each commercial cost companies a cool three million dollars for a brief, but intriguing, thirty-second spot in the lineup.

One of my personal favorites, and an interesting addition to the 2011 set of Super bowl commercials was the Volkswagen: “The Force” commercial that turned out to be the number one commercial of the year, according to Fanhouse,com. What could they have done to achieve such a brilliant commercial? It’s emotional views and logicality lead to the popularity and success of this one-minute commercial.

According to Rottenburg, a commercial advertisement…”is a short argument that makes an obvious policy claim, which may or may not be explicit: You should buy this product”(p71). Volkswagen had several modes of persuasion that lead to the success of their humorous claim of policy. They used traditional values of family and security to draw in the audience of the average parent. The child moving through the home in a Darth Vader costume made people chuckle at the imagination of a child, and appealed to both children and young adults that know (of) Star Wars, along with the powers of “the force”.

The commercial was a great success due to the fact that no one was excluded from the audience; it contained something for everyone. The values were simple and wholesome. I think this offset the idea that this company was actually selling something, (in a good way) because it took away from the aggressiveness found in some car commercials.  The key to the success of Volkswagen’s claim was its light-heartedness and mild humor. The ad wasn’t vulgar or viciously attacking a certain group of people (cough, cough-Groupon.com), and that is why it became the top commercial of Super bowl XLV.