BMW: Changes
clean, quiet, powerful
(commercial)
Summary:
There are multiple shots of smokestacks, ships, industries, lare semis, and trucks releasing a thick black smoke into the atmosphere. People are standing in the smoke, coughing, and the sky is a sickly shade of yellow. There are shots of old gas pumps covered in dark dirt, standing alone it what seems to be a desert like landscape. A bunch of guys sit in a car with the windows rolled down and are all coughing as thick, dark smoke comes out of their exhaust pipe, leaving black residue on the back of the car. All of a sudden, out of the smoke and darkness comes the headlights of a blue BMW, emerging in all its bright and shiny glory, promoting a change with a new type of engine.
Analysis:
The BMW company realized that a great number of their audience knows little about cars, therefore it would not have been particularly effective if they had rattled off facts about their new engine. However, they do make use of communal knowledge. New research, political leaders, and the media have placed more and more emphasis on the environment over the past many decades, and BMW acknowledges this fear. The combination of a demonstration of the audiences fears, and a long lasting good reputation for luxury cars, establishes the ethos throughout the commercial. The serious tone also indicates that the business of making environmentally friendly cars is important, as more and more people are making efforts to avoid gas guzzlers. As this will be a 2011 superbowl commercial, it will most likely contrast the other, more humorous ads with an air of importance. In fact, the entire commercial is based predominately on juxtaposition. It shows clips of a dark, yellow, grimy, and everblackening world, then provides a solution: the new BMW. Also, unlike many of the other environmently friendly (or friendlier) cars on the market, the commercial emphasizes the speed, agility, and appearence of the car by making it rev out of a dark cloud, passing the other black muck emitting cars on its way to a sunnier, happier area (ironically just over the hill).
I think the commercial certainly served its purpose. Being a person who is especially interested in the effect of our developement and growing industries on the environment, the commercial certainly appealed to my pathos. Also having driven a BMW and a smart car, I know from experience that the BMW is by far better looking and more enjoyable to drive. I think that the new direction the manufacturers are trying to take is critical in keeping them as forerunners in the car industry.
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