Travis Crane

GWRTC 103

Professor Almjeld

Doritos Advertisement Analysis

A commercial opens with a friend watching his buddy’s fish and plants while he is gone. The friend leaving says, “I’ll see you next Thursday.” Thursday comes around and the friend is still sitting on the couch eating Doritos. What about the fish and plant? Dead. The friend's solution: crumple up Doritos and throw them on top of the fish and plant. Astonishingly both magically come back to life. The friend finishes cleaning and right before the other friend gets home he knocks his grandfather’s ashes to the ground and spills them. What does he do? Doritos! The friend walks in the door to find his friend sitting on the couch eating Doritos with the other friend’s grandfather. This commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hvl3LS95g4) uses humor, extreme hyperbole, and relates with the consumer in order to sell its product, which works.

So where does this humor come from to sell this product? The friend is trusted by the other to simply watch one fish and one plant, yet is so distracted by the Doritos he is eating that he forgets about them completely. Although it does not say what day the friend leaves, but when he is supposed to be back the plant and fish are dead, implying that it has been quite some time.

The humor is held in the friend’s reaction to the news saying, “Welcome back on this beautiful Thursday morning,” as he notices the dead fish and plant and begins to panic. The viewer would never expect him to break up Doritos and sprinkle them on the dead fish and plant, which is funny.

According to Mark Levitt, managing partner of Partners & Levit Advertising and professor of marketing at NYU, “Audiences like to be entertained, but not pitched. People will pay more attention to a humorous commercial than a factual or serious one,” which makes perfect sense (Levitt). Nobody wants to sit through a horrible ASPCA commercial and cry him or herself to sleep afterward from all of the brutal facts and statistics proposed throughout the ad. Doritos does a great job of selling their product without making the audience feel like they are obligated to buy the product.

So the question is, why did Doritos pick humor? Well, in retrospect, the commercial is not too different from other ads. It has been estimated that between 30% and 42% of ads employ humor (Markiewicz, 1974). Just in 2007, advertisers spent about $45 billion on humorous ads. Obviously, humor is a great way to gain an audience’s attention. Humor can also affect persuasion by increasing the motivation of perceivers to process an ad (Zhang & Zinkhan, 2006). On the other hand, humor can also distract the viewer from the main point, especially if unrelated. Many experiments have demonstrated that humor generate positive attitudes toward ads (Chung & Zhao, 2003). However, many studies did not find positive effects of humor on behavior-like measures such as self-reported intentions to buy the advertised brand (Chattopadhyay & Basu, 1990).

Along with the sense of humor of the commercial, hyperbole is soaring through the roof in this ad.

The commercial subtly shows the viewer how good the Doritos are by having the friend be distracted by eating them the whole time his friend is gone. What really does not make sense is the use of hyperbole so drastically. The friend uses Doritos to bring everything, including the grandfather, back to life. Obviously this is impossible, but what is mostly questioned is what this has to do with Doritos. Well, in order to make the product seem better, Doritos uses the hyperbole of magic.

The audience is not expecting the crumpled Doritos to do anything to the fish or plant, and is amazed when it brings everything back to life, especially the grandfather. The audience is well aware that death is permanent, yet after being mesmerized by the Doritos healing abilities, the audience is left thinking about Doritos when the commercial ends. The hyperbole is also a hidden metaphor, showing that Doritos can make a bad situation better. On top of the healing abilities, the day the friend returns the viewer can see several empty Doritos bags scattered around the dirty apartment. The hyperbole is how much Doritos the friend has eaten in that period.

It is very unlikely that one person would sit on the couch in the same spot eating the same food for days, without feeling sick or tired of said food. Yet the roommate does it and devours every last bite, just showing how incredibly delicious and addicting Doritos are. This in no way compares to the hyperbole of magic however, as someone could possibly be addicted to Doritos, but nobody can physically bring a once living object back to life, merely by sprinkling broken chips over them. The magic grabs the viewer’s attention and gets them hooked into the commercial as they stare in amazement of how great Doritos are. The last tactic used by Frito Lay Co. to sell their product is relating to the audience.

The target audience for this commercial is teens to young adults, who have had to watch over the things of a friend while they are gone. Everybody usually forgets to water the plants, just like the roommate in the commercial. For some, the hook to keep watching is right as the friend leaving says, “Feed the fish, water the plant.” The audience has most likely been told that a few times in their own experiences. In this way they can relate to the roommate and empathize with him.

The ad also relates to the audience in a more subtle way when the roommate revives the dead fish, plant, and grandfather. The subliminal message from the act of panicking and sprinkling the Doritos shows the drastic actions that may be taken in order to try and make the situation right and not get in trouble. Luckily, the Doritos magic abilities make the roommate and the viewers whom can relate, feel much better. In the end, Doritos saved the day because they are magic and wonderful, and the viewer wants some.

Overall, the Doritos commercial does a terrific job at nonchalantly selling their product to the unknowing viewer. The humor grabs the audience’s attention, making them entertained and hooked to the ad. The excessive use of hyperbole helps the viewer see how great Doritos really are, and how they can make any situation better. Finally, the ad relates to the viewer. The roommate who has let several of his friends plants die, or flush a couple fish down the toilet and buy a new one before the friend gets back. This commercial helps the viewer feel all right and similar to the roommate in the situation. Overall, Doritos sells a fine product, and the Grandfather resurrection ad helps to prove how great and wonderful the overpriced cheesy snack truly is.

Works Cited

Strick, M., van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., & van Knippenberg, A. (2009). Humor in advertisements enhances product liking by mere association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(1), 35-45. doi:10.1037/a0014812

Levitt, Mark. "Humor in Advertising." Experience.com. Experience Inc, n.d. Web. 7 Oct 2013. <https://www.experience.com/alumnus/article?channel_id=advertising_marketing_pr&source_page=editors_picks&article_id=article_1128619972620>.