What the Hail?

Volkswagen Game Day 2013 Commercial “Get In. Get Happy” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H0xPWAtaa8) is a creative and humorous commercial. This Volkswagen commercial starts in an office setting and due to the plain beige colour that is everywhere, it gives off the image of dull and boring. However, Dave is a cheerful employee from Minnesota who speaks in a Jamaican accent and is the only happy and optimistic one in the office. During a meeting Dave breaks the negative and boring atmosphere by saying, “You know what this room needs? A smile! Who want to come with I?” His boss and colleague leap into Dave’s bright red Volkswagen Beetle and they’re all cheerful now.

 

As a Volkswagen driver, the title of the commercial “Get In. Get Happy,” makes me believe that I’m the one being addressed and hailed. The location and atmosphere of this commercial is in an office but I still felt I could be related because I was picturing myself in the school environment. I felt that the boring and dull environment was something that any gender, race, nationality, or occupation could relate to. Therefore, this commercial was able to hail and interpellate a wide range of people, not just Volkswagen drivers.

 

 

“This ‘hailing’ has the effect of putting us in our place or positioning the addressee in relation to the addresser.” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2012, p. 185). In the Volkswagen commercial, hailing was embedded in the nature of Dave’s character and by the very first line of the commercial. “I hate Mondays!” is a line we all relate to and therefore grabs the viewer’s attention immediately. Therefore, the impact of hailing positioned me as ‘addressee’ and Dave as the ‘addresser’.

 

 The optimism and cheerfulness in Dave that lightens up the day at work and his cheerfulness rubs off on the others in the commercial. This intrigues and hails me to watch the full commercial. There are numerous reasons why I was attracted to this ad after watching over nine commercials of different brands. It captured me through humour but also because I did not have to decode any messages.  It sparks my inquisitiveness till the very last second because I wanted to see what happened next in each scenario. Usually an ad has couple seconds to gain the viewer’s attention, but the catchy scenes and humorous techniques in the commercial got me to stay engaged for the full commercial. Once the Volkswagen commercial was over, I found myself smiling and reflecting on it. A Minnesotan white guy, Dave, who bursts with a Jamaican dialect not only innervate the spirit of his office colleagues but also kept me engaged and got me to research the new Volkswagen Beetle.

 

Interpellation is a process that affects us from the day we are born and involves us into certain roles in our society. Louis Althusser (1918-1990) explains that interpellation is a method as giving a name to a person. Moreover, ideology addresses us and proposes a specific identity according to our beliefs and thinking as stated “So, in our identity we internalise particular ways of thinking, feeling, and believing” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2012, p. 184).  This commercial hints to the viewer that although life may be boring and unhappy at times, if you drove a Volkswagen Beetle, you would be happy. Your cheerfulness and optimistic attitude will rub off on the people around.  I believe that this ad was successful because at the end, I wanted to see more about the car and as a Volkswagen owner I automatically felt happy.

 

References

 

 

 

O’Shaughnessy, M., & Stadler, J. (2012). Media and Society, (5th ed.). Australia & New Zealand: Oxford University Press.