While surfing YouTube I found out that Mofilm, a company that inspires "filmmakers to create videos for big brands and social causes," partnered with Chevrolet for a short film competition. I was curious about some of the other entries and came across the one I'll focus on in this blog post. Oh, here's the link for the original extremely annoying add.
This is the link to the Chevy Runs Deep add that is the subject of this post. Watch it a couple times let it sink in. . .or just read the results of my in depth super cool analysis.
The commercial begins with a look at the front of a typical suburban home complete with American Flag, bird feeder, wind chimes, a semi neat lawn, and two kids chillin' on the porch. So far - a typical day for a typical middle class American family.
Meet the protagonist George. His brother, Nameless, is teaching him how to salute. I think it's important to note that this process is half of the commercial's length. Finally a gray Chevy Equinox pulls up at the cue of emotionally stirring orchestral music. We see a brief shot of the grandparents stepping outside. The grandpa is wearing a Vietnam War Vet baseball hat. The camera goes back to the Chevy and out steps American Soldier Dad fresh from the tour of duty. George, having practiced his salute for all of 24 seconds, runs to his dad (the camera flashes to the teary eyed mom for a second) and. . .salutes him! Everyone embraces, except for the grandparents and a voice says: "Bringing home heros for generations. Just another reason, Chevy runs deep."
As you know we've been talking a lot about reading signs. This commercial is absolutely filled to the brim with signifiers in many different forms. I will only focus on a few for the sake of brevity.
The first is the American Flag. If you think about it, we really don't think of it as just a flag. It represents patriotism, independence, freedom, etc. Thus, it is these elements that are the signified concepts.
We can't forget the grandparents, especially grandpa in the Vietnam War Vet hat. The message isn't grandma's cookies, it's that this family is steeped in a military tradition. Father, son, father, son. . .so we as the audience are left with the impression that young George will fill his father's shoes one day and head off the military. Obviously this concept of tradition is central to the tag phrase of the commercial ". . .Chevy runs deep."
I really can't forget to mention the Chevy. It seems straight forward at first - it's a gray chevy. . .duh. Obviously it's a vehicle but there is a significant implication there. Vehicles are means of transporting things. We commonly think of those transported goods as tangibles like people, mail, our textbooks or whatever. I would argue that this commercial is literally using the Chevy as a vehicles to transport the family history through time. Remember the tag line - "Bring heros home or generations." Implication and concept: bring everything the heros STAND for home. I bet grandma drove grandpa home after he returned from Vietnam in a Chevy.
I checked out the meaning of gray at Sensational Color. Really briefly, "Gray is perceived as long-lasting, classic. . .[it] is dignified, conservative, carriers authority. . .Gray is a perfect neutral" (taken from Sensational Color). Gray is the perfect color for the typical suburban family whose male members belong to the armed forces don't you think?
Anyways, I realize this post has gotten a bit lengthy but I'd like to close by saying that the clear imposition or hegemonic view is that of the more conservative politic.
Thanks for reading,
Marcus
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