TOW# 22 - BMW Advertisement

BMW used glare! The wild Jaguar is paralyzed! It may be unable to move!

                                                

            Advertisements play a big role of introducing new products and influencing consumers to buy them. BMW's advertisement successfully manages to do both with a simple photo. The ad does not have any text, but it is obvious that the message of the ad is "BMW is better than Jaguar" by using humor. The clever features of the picture will most likely a person captivated by the car, or make him crack a smile at the very least.

            The first thing that pops out at the audience is the shapes of headlights and bumpers of both cars that resemble human facial expressions. With circular headlights, Jaguar looks like a scared kitten while BMW with its wide headlights looks like a glaring predator, waiting to strike its opponent. After one look it is clear which car is the domineering one.  This car ad takes advantage of pareidolia, a phenomenon in which people see human faces in practically anything, to cleverly establish ethos with its audience. I certainly used to see many different "faces" of cars when I was little, and I am sure that many other people did too.  Once the main idea settles into the audience's minds, other little details that makes the ad effective start to stand out.

            The designer of the ad brilliantly took the photo so that the two cars are so close to one another, making it seem like the two cars are "fighting face to face." The fact that the picture of the BMW takes up two-thirds of the whole ad while the Jaguar is in less than a third, however, seems to emphasize the dominance of BMW by making the Jaguar look like it is backing up cowardly from its "snarling" predator. If one looks at the Jaguar carefully, he can notice that the Jaguar symbol on top of the car hood is showing its back to the BMW, further making  the Jaguar look like a "scaredy cat." The absence of texts and complex background actually adds onto the overall "tension" of the two cars because there are no distractions. This fight is just between BMW and Jaguar, and it is clear which one will triumph.

             All these elements of the picture contribute to the overall humor in order to make the ad hilarious and persuasive. The designer obviously did a phenomenal job personifying both cars and creating a tense yet amusing kind of a mood. This is the kind of a car ad that grabs people's attention and linger in their minds as they flip through a magazine.