Doritos and the Pug…
This 30
second commercial is for Doritos, in particular the “Spicy Nacho” flavor. Doritos are a Frito Lay product which is
owned by PepsiCo. Doritos commercials are
known for being funny and often new commercials are aired during the Super Bowl
commercials.
The
commercial takes place in the living room of a house, with a middle-aged white female
sitting on a sofa which is placed in front of a large window, a middle-aged
white man with a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos, and a pug dog that is in the front
yard. The musical background is somewhat
of an opera theme, one that builds up intensity. The man tells what appears to be his
girlfriend to “check this out”, as he closes the glass door in front of him. He stands behind the glass door and pulls a
chip out of the bag and waves it in the air at the dog. He begins to jump around, skip, and act very
excited about teasing the dog on the other side of the door with this
chip. The girlfriend says to him “babe,
don’t hurt my dog”, as she looks out of the front window in pure annoyance,
seeing her dog run full-force towards the door.
The man continues to act childish by fidgeting around, and calling the
dog to come get a chip.
Finally
the dog runs enough he’s made it to the door, he has enough speed, strength,
and desire for that bag of Doritos that he knocks the door down on top of the
man. The man is trapped between the
floor and the door with his face smashed against the glass and his hand up near
his head as if he were trying to stop the door from falling on him. The screen flashes black with the Dorito logo
and then back to the dog sitting on the floor eating the man’s bag of Doritos. The man is shown still under the door mumbling
“hey, my Doritos” as the dog continues to eat.
The rhetorical
appeals in this are clearly defined. First
ethos (credibility), I feel as if the commercial pulls us into that moment we
almost expect to happen of a guy such as this one. His childish actions and the reactions of the
girlfriend convince you that something wrong is going to happen. As we see, it did happen that way. The dog was the winner in the end, leaving
this childish man trapped in his own game.
The
pathos (emotional) appeal is displayed very well. From the musical selection that builds up
intensity, the facial expressions of the man, his overall body language, the
reaction from the girl looking concerned…yet annoyed, to the excitement of the
dog running. I feel it is made very
clear how everyone feels in this commercial.
The viewer’s emotions tend to follow the actors as well, you go from
wanting to jump around like the man, into a don’t hurt the dog sense, then to
end with excitement in knowing the dog got the best of this silly man.
Logos
(logical) appeal…which is also covered effectively. The intended message is very sound, as most
catch on to it immediately. It is also
logical in the fact that this truly could happen, and possibly already
has. The commercial does not give a
false sense, or leave one to say “yea right, that can’t happen”.
I feel
this commercial is very effective. The
ad is for Spicy Doritos, the actions of the man and the dog are spicy or feisty,
and they are both energetic. This is a
commercial that is found to be funny, easy to remember, and not long in
length. A commercial with these
qualities equals someone remembering it. When you remember the commercial, you
remember the product. The play on the
associations to attract the viewers to a product worked for this particular
commercial.
