Advertisement analysis and personal reflection

¶ … television commercial for Walmart. In the commercial, four items come down the conveyor belt: a tub of margarine, Crisco, Pam, and a saw, while a narrator names the items. The next scene shows a child with his head stuck through the railings of a staircase. A father, holding a Walmart bag with the aforementioned items asks, "Did your brother have anything to do with this?" The boy says, "No," then quickly reverses his answer to "yes." It was one of a series of similar commercials featuring seemingly incongruous items being purchased together at Walmart, with the reveal demonstrating that the items were bought for the same purpose. The commercial received significant television play on major networks throughout the spring of 2011. For the purposes of this paper, it was located at Walmartstores.com in the company's official video section.

Clearly, the target audience for this advertisement was parents. More specifically, the target audience included young parents, based on the age of the children in the video. The age group would probably range 25 to 40-year-old young adults. Moreover, while many of Walmart's advertisements focus on their low prices, this ad did not mention price in any manner and the home in the background appeared somewhat upscale. As a result, it seems likely that the target audience consisted of middle to upper-middle class young adults with children. However, there was another element to the advertisement that helped define the audience. The advertisement spoke to people in a hurry, because of the ability to buy all items at Walmart when it would take visits to multiple stores to otherwise purchase the same items. Therefore, it seems safe to suggest that the target audience is also somewhat pressed for time, in addition to its other characteristics.

Based on the advertisement and its target market, the advertisement appears to be a very good one. A promotion should have the AIDA framework, meaning it should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and obtain action (Chapter 13). This commercial succeeds in getting attention, particularly for parents of young children who have been faced with similar predicaments. The obvious course of action is to try to remove the child's head from the stairway without causing damage to the house, with the backup alternative being to cut the child free from the stairway. It holds interest because one's curiosity is piqued with the four seemingly incongruous items, and with the image of the child's head in the stairway. The commercial does not arouse desire in the way that one thinks of with traditional advertising, because it is not marketing a product but a concept. It is highly unlikely that any person watching the advertisement is finding themselves in the scenario depicted in the ad. However, it does remind the consumer that shopping at Walmart allows for one-stop shopping. Finally, it seems likely that the advertisement obtains action. While it probably does not prompt anyone to get up off the couch at that time and go to Walmart, the catchiness of the ad ensures that consumers will remember it when making their shopping lists, and, if they need items that cannot be found in the normal grocery store, help them choose Walmart as their alternative.