Let's analyze the commercial of Alienware PC.
Alienware PC is known to be a leading innovator for the highest gaming performance computers out in the market. The short commercial takes place in a virtual battle field, with a man in his mid-twenty visually shooting down large monsters as explosives go off in the scenery. Within a few seconds of this out of reality experience, the commercial comes back to reality in a local coffee shop which, he is suddenly disturbed by the waitress serving his hot coffee. The young man then looks into the camera with an intense face gesture holding his powerful gaming laptop. The commercial then boldly states “Dominate from Anywhere” then ends with logos of high end gaming component with starting prices.
With all sorts of ads appealing to all walks of life, the works of Jib Fowles a professor of communication can help us understand ads much better. He wrote an article called “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”, a simple theory that outlines some of the 15 basic emotional appeals and is found in ads such as: the need for sex, nurture, aggression, domination, attention, escape and affiliation just to name a few.
Jib Fowles uses his theory to categorize what type(s) of emotional appeals are used in ads to draw in a particular group of people. In this Jib Fowles's theory of advertising will be applied and the emotional need to escape and the need to dominate that are highly used in this commercial will be examined.
One of the overall leading themes in this commercial is the emotional need to escape. Right from the very start of the commercial there is nothing but mayhem; horrifying monsters everywhere, big explosions going off in the scenery, then you see a glorious man with a semi-automatic machine gun having the time of his life only to be cut short of this out of virtual reality experience prematurely by a waitress. The need to escape reality is a common desire that every human seeks, according to Jib Fowles “Freedom is the pitch here, the freedom that every individual yearns for when life becomes too oppressive”. With every new day stress doesn’t sleep or stray very far behind.
The makers of Alienware PC developed a computer that has the power and the performance of a gaming desktop but, in a compact size of a laptop for the average person to carry in their backpack whenever they need to escape outside of their homes from the daily life stresses humans take in. It’s very common for humans to have some type of escape. Everyone has his own way of escape.
Jib Fowles makes a valid point here but what makes freedom even better? Pleasure… According to Jib Fowles “Many advertisers like appealing to the needs for escape because the sensation of pleasure often accompanies escape”. Sometime reality can be too overwhelming for some of us. It's always good to have a form of release from the stress that reality causes. Having a device that cuts some of the stress load off can be very pleasing and beneficial to a potential buyer. Alienware’s ad successfully targets any gamer who seeks this emotional need to escape reality from his daily life.
Other important appeal that is seen in this ad is the emotional need to dominate. In the commercial the young man is dominating monsters left and right in this out of a reality experience. As he steps out of this reality of gaming holds his laptop while looking into the camera with an intense look. The viewers can sense what the Alienware laptop has done through by the way he looks into the camera. Visually his laptop is small but, it pacts a lot of punch for gamers to dominate their opponent.
According to Fowles “The fundamental need is the craving to be powerful—perhaps omnipotent” Fowles's claim on the craving for power can be seen in the commercial, the craving of power is in the form of the device which is the Alienware laptop. The commercial conveys to certain group that seeks the urge to dominate all over the opponent(s), the advertisers imply if you want to experience this you have to buy an Alienware laptop.
Other interesting idea is most gamers are males which is more likely to make any situation a competition that emasculates them. According to Fowles “The need to dominate and control one’s environment is often thought of as being masculine” Fowles yet again makes a valid point here. To dominate an opponent on a game brings out not only the feeling of having power over someone but, showing who is the best of the best. These emotional inner male pride makes this ad an ideal commercial for male buyers who seek dominance.
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