Sunday, October 12, 2008

Dirty mouth? Clean it up with Orbit

The commercial starts off with a man and a woman reading a newspaper in a common setting; the office of their work. The man dressed in a suit and tie and the woman in a leopard print dress. The woman is seated close to the man, almost to the extent of sitting on his lap and giving that air of flirtatious manner by giggling, thus giving the impression that she is his mistress. Then, what seems to be some sort of book, is seen flying across the room between the two characters and shattering glass. A woman comes bursting into the office of, what we can assume, her husband, confronting him and his mistress. She gives off the impression of a stereotypical housewife, who is usually restrained. Seeing as this is not the case in this commercial, the reaction it gets is laughter, because we get to see someone (who comes off as a boring housewife) give a very untypical reaction. She then continues the confrontation, and all three of them start using euphemisms (example, "what the french toast?") instead of "dirty language". By using the euphemism we understand what was really meant by the statement, and it ends up being comical. Each character is chewing the orbit gum, but while doing so they dont say any "dirty words". After much verbal confrontation the characters eventually get to the point of physical fighting. As that continues the camera pans out to a woman, dressed in a "clean" all white suit; she is an Orbit gum representative who states "Fabulous! New Orbit Raspberry Mint cleans another dirty mouth!" We hear a trumpet, and the camera pans back to the three characters who are clumped together, smiling showing there pearly white teeth. Then cuts back to the Orbit Representative who states the tag line "For a good clean feeling no matter what", and behind her we see the three characters fighting once again.

The fantasy theme in this commercial is a comedy created by everyday situations, where confrontation is present. Suggesting that by using there product (Orbit gum) you can avoid what would otherwise be awkward situation. The slogan that Orbit gum can make a dirty mouth clean is being let known throughout the commercial. It successfully uses common elements such as color, movement, sound, and the most important, word choice. It shows a comedic situation that draws emotion from the viewers, while also successfully creating an ad that encourages the viewers to buy their product.
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2 comments:

Alanna RH said...

This commercial is indeed very funny, and your analysis was very complete. I liked how you put in examples (like of the euphisisms (sp?): "what the french toast?") and backed up your statements with parts from the video. It was kinda funny how they used such weird language- "dirty," in their terms- but better than swearing, I suppose. Though who honestly says "what the french toast?" XD Very nice job. :D

October 13, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Zach said...

My friends and I used to be obsessed with this commercial. It is a very funny commercial and the choice of words that they used instead of a swear word is very cleaver. I think the commercial does a very good job at representing orbit gum and does a great job of using techniques and objects that make people remember the commercial and their product, as well as talking about it with friends. I really enjoyed this commercial again and reading the analysis afterwards.

October 22, 2008 at 12:35 PM

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