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When thinking of a great commercial most people’s mind instantly goes to a Super Bowl

Ad. These are some of the greatest advertisements because they are high budget and bring some of the greatest producers together because the stakes are so high. The qualities of a

brilliant commercial are different to everyone. Personally, speaking an ad needs to be able to draw my attention with a good song, an eye-catching beginning, or an unusual message. The commercial I chose has all three. The title of it was “Anti Ad”. It was the Doritos commercial this past Super Bowl. It is probably the most memorable commercial I’ve seen, and they did so without even saying their name.

After further research into this commercial, I found that this is a whole marketing campaign from Doritos. They even made a website dedicated to it call Logogoeshere.com. The producers did a great job highlighting the ques that make our minds snap straight to Doritos without saying the name. This ad was very well done and goes to show that a brand as large as

Doritos doesn’t need the flashy branding to get their point across. When you look up the term “Anti-Ad” it is a form of advertising that many companies are starting to use now. The reason companies are turning to this unorthodox way of marketing is very complex. Allen Adamson, a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern states that “Younger consumers are more skeptical and so sophisticated, and they’ve grown up bombarded by this stuff, so they have a really good sniff test.” Later in the article from Business Insider, Ivan De Luce goes on to list 8 of the best Anti-Ads one of which is the Doritos ad.

The fact that companies are having to come up with different ways to advertise to Generation Z shows that marketing is a forever changing field. The Doritos ad campaign is a prime example of the great lengths corporations are having to go to advertise to the younger audience. Generation Z is between the ages of 8 and 22. Their characteristics include realistic, ethical and truth-seeking. So, it’s no surprise that when a company comes out and says “Hey, you know our product. No need to try to market you anymore.” it appeals to them. Generation Z is also a “Digital Native” meaning they have aged in an era where social media is rampant and technology is ever-changing. To succeed, companies are almost required to have a social media presence. Otherwise, there is a great chance this generation would not even be reached.

When breaking down the ad itself a few keys things pop out to me. It was easy to pick out who the audience was. All of the cast members looked to be a part of Generation Z. However, Frito Lay tried to through in flashes of older cartoons. This could be a way to appeal to millennials also. I also noticed the type of music was intense and the narration was very straight forward. If you take a step back from a commercial and try to break it down, it is interesting to see who the company is trying to target. For a marketer, this can be a great exercise to do to improve targeting skills. Some more things that stood out were the background scenes. On scene had a boring grocery store background and you could tell they were trying to highlight the fact that they had an interesting product that stood out on a shelf. They also highlight the negative sides of their product by showing a man wipe the dust from the Doritos on his white shirt. This scene appeals to the truth-seeking aspect of Generation Z because it shows them that they are willing to embrace the effects of eating their product. Another scene shows miniature people working in a corn cob. In showing this they are embracing the fact that their product is made from corn. A trait some companies do not like to highlight. A lot of the scenes showed different triangles that people would recognize in their daily life. This is a good way to attach an image to a product. One of the things they showed was the pyramid that is on the dollar bill. The goal of showing this would be to attach that pyramid to Doritos so that when you see it you want to buy their product. After watching the ad numerous times, I concluded that it was obvious who they were targeting, and they did a pretty good job doing it. I was curious to see the public’s reaction to it, so I started reading through the comments on the YouTube video. I noticed a few people making light of the scene in the ad that said the product rhymed with “I need those” by saying things like Doritos, Cheetos, and Fritos. Then someone made a good point by stating that all of those brands were owned by Frito Lay so they still win. Another key thing to mention was at the end of the commercial they had the fine print that read “Lawyers love to spoil the fun. Another Level is a trademark of Frito-Lay North America. Pretend you didn’t see. This was a great way to conclude by taking a stab at the normal confusing fine print at the end of commercials.

All in all, this commercial was very well produced and thought out. It met all of the criteria for an award-winning ad in my book. The producers had a very direct approach to their intended audience which was very appropriate. It used eye-catching images to draw the viewer in for more and ended with their logo without a logo. Generation Z is going to be a hard audience to market to, but this proves that companies are adapting to a new battlefield and showing some signs of success. They made waves in the marketing industry without branding.

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