Comedy: the best Form of Promotion

By: Pranavsai Gandikota

Multimedia Content Analysis #3

The Commercial

The 2012 Chevrolet "Happy Grad" Commercial of Super Bowl XLVI is one such commercial which uses the strategy of comedy to promote their company. The ad begins with a graduate who has just finished graduation being presented with a gift by his parents. While the real gift was actually a refrigerator, the grad misinterprets the Chevy car as his gift and begins to scream with joy, following him jumping around with his friends and marrying a girl as a form of celebration.

The Approach

This ad uses a comedic approach as promotion, where the point they are trying to make is that having a Chevrolet is a dream come true and that it is the sight of a Chevy that brings joy to a person, as seen by the grad celebrating the sight of a Chevy. The possession of such a car is shown as a sign of achievement while the exaggeration of the grads emotions is a way of associating the brand with success and happiness.

Rhetorical Strategies:

The video was a commercial aired on Super Bowl XLVI and uses video and audio as its form of multimodality, where the video shows the excitement of a grad thinking that he has a Chevy. There is also the use of the slogan "Chevy Runs Deep," which is to signify the loyalty people had to the brand through the past few generations.

The Audience

As the car is quite an expensive one, the reaction that the graduate gives may be relatable to many others who have dreamed of owning such a luxurious car. As it was aired on the Super Bowl, it gained a lot of viewers, and being in a humorous approach, it became a popular commercial at the time, gaining almost more than 110 million views.

Credits:

Borst, Zach. “Chevy Happy Grad - Super Bowl XLVI Commercial 2012.” YouTube, NewsFromTheShed, 1 Feb. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqeX4THJAQc.