Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Commercial and American Express

I have been torn really between two really good examples of commercials. So I am going to go ahead and blog about both.

1. The first commercial is for the ZR1 Chevrolet Corvette. For the most part of the commercial, it shows clips of different moments in history, more specifically, relating to NASA, rockets and the moon landing. There would be an obvious sense of pride by citizens of the United States in relation to events such as the Apollo 11 space flight on the 20th July 1969. Events such as these, relating to American space programmes, really show American ingenuity at it's best.

This ingenuity is used as an obvious but clever marketing ploy. It is clever because it connects the ZR1 to events that not only shape America's sense of self but also creates it's global identity. The voice over to this video really sets the tone for the commercial. What's being said employs rhetoric to further sell the product at hand. Certain things that were said such as: "crazy idea" and to "go further than what mankind has gone before" imply to the audience that America has achieved the 'unachievable' and that America, in certain aspects, is superior than the world's other nations. This idea is further reinforced when the voice over says: "The world watched and waited with bated breath". This insinuates that the world looks up to America to create these amazing things and that this industriousness and ingenuity is admired by other Nations.

"Now time has moved on and priorities have changes, it's nice to know that America still builds rockets" emphasises the idea to the audience that the creation of the ZR1 is of the same importance as the Apollo11. If not this, that the same hard work, industriousness and ingenuity has gone into the creation of the new corvette.

These marketing techniques, and even the basis, is not shocking. The Corvette is very much one of America's iconic cars so it would make sense to place a 'stamp' of national pride and identity upon it. This almost makes it more American by emphasing the fact that "America still builds rockets."



The second commercial is that for American Express. On YouTube it is entitled 'Open' and shows a sequence of shots of people opening their buisnesses early in the Morning and having their first wave of customers and/or manual work. This really does instil and show the core values place in the aforementioned add: hard work and industriousness.

This is further reinforced by the music that plays in the background called Reveille. More specifically, a military bugle call which means 'wake up' in French and would be used to wake people up in the army at Sunrise. Using this music almost connotes that the daily routine of the average hard working American is regimental and well structured, but a like the other commercial, this hard work and perseverance will show monetary benefits and that they will be financially better off. Which is an obvious theme and belief held by most citizens of the United States of America.

By the end of the commercial, the music has become more jazzy and the words that come up upon the screen says 'Let's get Booming'. Connecting these two references together could mean that it is referring to the economic boom that occurred in the 1920's and that they want to 'recreate' this boom and have the same economic high that was experienced in that decade. Connecting this with the images of people working hard and working, more importantly together, that this dream and aim is achievable.