Doritos Commercial Review

Doritos commercials are some of my favorite commercials. They not only are good for a great laugh, but they visually present the product really well through different camera angles and shots. This ad especially had a few of the concepts that are discussed in The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video.

This commercial starts off with a close-up shot of a man's hand knocking on a door. The shot is wide enough to understand the environment of the situation. Just from the first shot of the advertisement, the audience is made aware that a man with flowers is knocking on a house door. The shot duration is really quick because we become aware of our surroundings right away and the advertisers do not want to waste any unnecessary time.

The next shot is of a lady opening the door and accepting the flowers with a smile and a "thank you". The camera stays on her face as she accepts the flowers without switching over to the man's face. This ad could be improved if there was some kind of cutaway to the man's face as the lady was happily receiving the flowers because it would have been nice to see his expression.

The next scene is cutting on the action because it is a smooth transition of one shot to the next where the action is the same. In one shot the lady says "thank you" and in the next shot she says "have a seat". It is all one continuous action, but it is presented in two shots. The transition of shots goes from a close-up of the lady opening the door, to a medium shot of the man and the woman standing in her house where the background is her yellow room and only half of their bodies are seen. Also, this is the first time that the man steps into the camera's frame.

In the next scene, there is a quick shot of the woman's lower body as she is walking away. This shot is supposed to be from the man's perspective. The duration of the shot is only a few seconds but it gets the message across. The next shot is a medium shot of a little kid with a game boy controller in his hand.   The boy is not positioned in the middle of the screen, but rather follows the Rule of Thirds and is positioned more to the side. The duration of this shot is very fast.

The next shot is a cutaway of the boy's remote controller which then falls to the ground as the boy drops it. The shot is a close-up because all that is viewed in the shot is the remote controller.

Then the advertising of the Doritos comes into play with a close-up shot of a bowl of Doritos. The audience is reminded what this whole video is about as the focus of the video becomes the bowl of Doritos. The shot is a straight-on view of the bowl. Although randomly positioned in the advertisement, it is well placed because it does a good job of reminding the audience of what the focus of the video is supposed to be about. 

As the older man comes and sits next to the young boy, there are several scene changes that occur. If there was one continual shot, the audience would quickly lose interest in the scene because their eyes would be looking at the same thing. When the scene changes occur, the audience becomes more drawn into the action of the scene. This video does a great job of varying the camera angles and shots and keeping the scene interesting while flowing nicely. 

  

This video is short but is able to tell a funny story with great transitions. Although the video is only 34 seconds long, it is a good example of how different scenes can be only a few seconds long and how transitions can be used often to better tell a story. Plus, it is a funny and very cute video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rsEnwKrsvc

Product Placement

Product placement is a type of subliminal or hidden advertising where businesses strategically place their products in TV shows, movies, and video games so they appear as if they are a part of a story's natural environment. Chapter 6 mentions that as more and more people find ways to skip ads on the television, this forces advertisers to get creative with their advertisements. This creativity led to product placement and quite frankly, it is a brilliant idea. Media critic Jeff Smith explains why it is a smart move by stating, "Product placement is one of the ways to reach a captive audience. If you work your product into a TV show or film, it's impossible for the viewer to zap it out." This makes sense because if a captive audience is watching a film where a drink is being subliminally advertised, that audience is going to be much more likely to purchase that drink later on because the drink will be fresh in their minds.

Chapter 6 even mentions the use of digital technology to place products into old television shows. The amount of technology that is available for use today can make any kind of product placement possible. While this is a good thing for advertisers, it does bring about some controversy when answering the question, how much is too much? Product placement is the advertising of the future and is a great way for businesses to advertise their products in ways that really work, but it can get too invasive and become a distraction for the audience. Product placement has become so widespread that even the sitcom 30 Rock makes fun of it in a scene where they talk about Snapple and then show a Snapple advertisement right afterwards. Luckily, as chapter 6 mentions, there are concerned viewers out there who are willing to protest invasive and distracting product placement that they believe goes too far.

Although product placement has its controversies, in the end it is a marketing tool that works. If you really look, they are everywhere. Little did you know that by watching TV, you are being subliminally persuaded to purchase a product.

Product placement is everywhere! If a product name is shown, that means someone paid for it to be there.