Disclaimer: I am aware of the unavoidable redundancy of this piece considering the popularity of the topic. I simply do not take enough pride in my creative, original ingenuity to be above utilizing said topic for my own benefit. That being stated, I continue.
Hopefully most self respecting Americans remember last year, the same time and situation; Sunday night Super bowl. Let me take you back there…
Friends and neighbors are crammed into a badly decorated sitting room that smells like pizza and popcorn. We revolve around the 72" TV, the most important component of our night. Chip fragments are scattered across the floor; empty soda cans, tipped and untipped, litter all surfaces. We are messy and loud enough to break ear drums, but the atmosphere of the party isn’t suffocating or overbearing, even though everyone is trying to talk over each other to be heard. Suddenly, we are all fixated to the screen.
Suitor hands flowers to the pretty lady. Pretty lady smiles flirtatiously and allows him to enter the house. Pretty lady motions to the couch and orders little boy Jaylen to “play nice.” Suitor greets Jaylen (Hey, little man!), sits on the couch and reaches for the orange chip from the clear bowl on the coffee table…
*SLAP*
An instant classic! The sassy clip became a YouTube sensation. People chortled over that slap for weeks to come. If you hadn’t seen the video during the game, you had seen it by the next day. It was by far the most popular commercial of the night.
So Last Sunday I watched a fat little pug race towards a sliding glass door towards the man flaunting that little red triangle of a chip with not a small amount of expectation. As the 10 pound dog bulldozed the door and the man into the ground, I chuckled with the rest of the room, but wondered also if this commercial met the expectations of the viewers. I also marveled at the spring board Doritos had erected for itself last year in developing this reputation for hilarious commercials. In fact, every Doritos commercial that hit the screen this year had us clutching our sides, riddled with laughter.
Doritos. You have status. We will always be perched on the edges of our seats awaiting the hilarity that must ensue from your TV ads. God forbid you fail to meet the standards, because if you don’t, the quality of your product will logically decrease over the following months. All your worth lies in this comical medium.
Superbowl commercials have a lot to live up to! It's kind of interesting that the Doritos audience is reached primarily through humor. Great descriptions of watching the game and of the commercials (for someone like me who hasn't seen them yet).
ReplyDeleteI've never seen this commercial. I'll have to look it up. I liked your disclaimer. Nice style in this one!
ReplyDeleteI loved that commercial last year!! This year, I was unfortunately not as amused :/ but I'm glad you were!! :) You really did a nice job with setting the scene and getting the readers to reminiss (spelling??) the parties they attended.
ReplyDeleteWhen a company demonstrates successful advertising (as Doritos has certainly demonstrated for you), we *do* anticipate a lot from them in the future, do we not? Their ethos goes before them, and we expect it to continue.
ReplyDeleteThis said, I wonder where Groupon will go next?