Friday, September 19, 2008
Perceptions-closure
These television commercials shown on television recently caught my attention as they are quite interesting and unique. They play with a concept of what i learned during communication lectures about perception and closure. Which is the tendency to fill in the missing pieces of a puzzle by mentally completing it so as to make sense of it and is influenced mainly by our expectations, perceptual tendencies and past experiences.
The first advertisement of the worst restaurant by a local radio station is very interesting as it cause us to form a conclusion before seeing the entire picture. The scene being set in a kitchen of a restaurant and a guy in chef attire seems to be doing something that we cant see, with the effect of the sounds it seems like he was peeing into a pot. This plays with our mind as we know that in restaurants we do not know how our dishes are being prepared so for all we know the above perceived scene might just be what is really happening in a restaurant and hence we draw the conclusion that the chef in the scene is peeing into a pot possibly for making a dish. However towards the end of the commercial we realize that he was just pouring an ingredient into the pot in an awkward position. Upon completion of the advertisement, i realize that it was sort of telling me not to jump into conclusions by just deduction from what we see but only conclude when we see the whole picture.
The second advertisements is a very intellectual advertisement as it plays with word play by removing words from a sentence in such a way that it comes up with a totally different meaning. The driving instructor was giving bad comments about the learning driver, however in the ears of the learning driver we hear words omitted from the sentence in such a way from a bad comment it becomes a positive comment for her. This commercial in some ways plays with closure, whereby in our mind we help to connect the sentences together even though the omitted words we left we empty space and we join the sentence together in out mind.
From these two above commercials we can see clearly how the concept of closure works. From jumping into conclusion in the first advertisement to helping connect the sentence in the second advertisement. These advertisements are also good in the sense that in the first example we can learn from it that we should not jump into conclusion by looking at one scene and should instead wait to see the whole picture. And from the second advertisements, leaving out simple words in a sentence can cause a totally different meaning altogether. I sure hope to see more of such entertaining and educational commercials on our local television.
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5 comments:
I found the first advertisement both funny and effective. It gets across its point that the radio station 938 Live gives you the whole story instead of jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information, which is what most viewers would do. From the back, the chef appears to be peeing into the pot because his actions (and the sound) are exactly what one would observe from behind somebody peeing into a urinal. The human mind naturally assumes that the chef is indeed peeing into a pot.
However, I feel the second advertisement is less effective. It gives me the impression that Gold 90.5 FM only broadcasts what people want to hear, rather than what is true. Granted that the radio station is mostly a music station rather than a news station, but the commercial and its tagline of "Only hear the good stuff" may leave a negative image of the radio station covering up news that is not pleasant for listeners.
The first advertisement is highly effective in achieving the radio station's aim of providing the full and actual story rather than taking on a biased view. It "tricks" the audience in believing that the chef is actually treating the pot as a urinal and peeing into it. The sound effect of the peeing action coupled with the visual effect of the chef's backview, fooled the human mind into assuming false information.
The second advertisement makes use of wordplays by censoring away part of the negative statements, leaving behind the positive words as the positive statements. It may be a creative advertisement, but it may fail to bring across the message of Gold 90.5 FM bringing nice music to the audience. As we all know, 90.5 FM do broadcast news, so the audience may misintepret the commercial as the broadcaster deliberately omitting negative news and broadcasting the positive ones.
I personally believe that advertisements should always be catchy and witty, so as to capture the attention of their intended audience. Singapore ads have long been criticized for their generic similarities and the lack of creativity, and for the use of Singlish as well. The article in Sunday Times on Allswell's ad drawing flak for their cheesiness and the use of Singlish clearly explains this point.
However, I'm glad to see that there are still adverts that focuses on simple wordplay and innuendo. Simple, yet funny, and catches the attention of the audience.
very clever advertisments, very creative. valid points.
I find this topic very interesting. it's a clever way for advertisers to promulgate their message across to the masses, especially since it's one of the best ways to grasp the attention of viewers, comparatively, given the monotony of the other advertisments and how they're all 'just the same'.
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