The GM Superbowl Commercial

Didn't watch the Superbowl - couldn't bear to see the Colts, not after what they did to the Patriots - but this was a good commercial from GM, featuring one sad robot.



Have to say the concept of an anthropomorphised object reminded me a lot of Spike Jonze's Ikea lamp commercial, which, as one might expect from Jonze, is very self-reflexive about commercials and how they manipulate you:



It's an interesting study in contrasts - the GM commercial is meant to play up permanence, while the Ikea one focuses on ephemerality (or at least the idea that lamps aren't meant to last a lifetime), and yet they both use similar techniques. Up to their final parts they are both heart-tugging - only Jonze chooses to pull back the curtain while the GM one goes for the Dallas ending.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi,

I have used a very objective criteria to rank the Super Bowl XLI advertisements to come up with top 10 most viewed and most discussed ones.

If you think this is something useful for your readers then please link to my post here: http://www.technacular.com/2007/02/05/most-viewed-and-most-discussed-super-bowl-xli-commercials/

Regards,
Vikas Sah
http://www.technacular.com
5 February 2007 at 17:10
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