~"POP GOES THE WORLD"~Tide PODS

Tide’s “Pop-A-Lot” commercial starts out in an all-white laundry room as a woman empties her dirty clothes into the washing machine. After popping a Tide POD into the washer and closing the door, we are taken to a far-out, whimsical world where different personalities jump out of the washer into unique environments that reveal a variety of product attributes – blue bubbles for “clean”, an angular environment to convey “crisp,” grass mazes and topiary to communicate “fresh,” and more.

Seeing that the people who participated in this ad were fairly young, I say the target group was for 20-30 year-olds, specifically females. The characters were separated from each other with their own color scheme, which made it seem like there were 5 mini-commercials in one. The colors were definitely a big part of this commercial. In Scene 1, the lady is in an all-white room with nothing colorful, except for the Tide PODS, which are very contrasting to the white background. In Scene 2, after the lady leaves, another lady jumps out of the washing  machine with brightly colored clothing. In the back, a sign says, “POP of clean”. This statement is supported with the bubble-like lights that come down, which represents the process of cleaning

dirty clothes.

In Scene 3, another lady pop out of a laundry machine, but this time, the background is more angular with blue zig-zag stripes. The attention is on the product, which is orange which contrasts with the rest of the scene. The lady is wearing an outfit with very angular shoulders, the statement for this is “POP of crisp”. Scene 4, then shows another female hop out, but this time the color scheme is yellow and green. On the left corner, there’s a car, not too sure what it’s supposed to mean, but I assume it added to the “POP of spunky” statement. This scene didn’t quite attract to the product, but the colors were still prominent. There are still 3 more scenes to discuss the color schemes, but it would take too much of this analysis.

First of all, the techniques that were used in this commercial were diversion, repetition, and somewhat gestalt. The diversion was for sure the bright colors that shocked your eyes every time the scene changed. It was like “BAM” new color scheme and they were very bright, which made it more distracting. The props that were used were also distracting. For example, in the “POP of spunky” scene, the car that’s on the side, what’s that even for? It matches the color theme, but is there truly a purpose to it? And then the scene for “POP of chic”, the two horses in the back, what’s that supposed to mean? In the scene after, what’s up with that lady’s hair? The topiarys in the background also diverge the viewer from the whole purpose. Repetition is used in every scene to show the product. On the laundry machine, where the people pop out from, the Tide PODS are there and they stand out from each individual backdrop.Gestalt was used in a way that caught the viewers’ attention with the abnormally bright colors of the scenes. The colors were intensely bright and the camera angles focused on the quirkiness of each character that popped out. It distracted the viewer from the actual product, but the message to buy TIde PODS was still conveyed in this commercial.

There is a need for attention in this commercial. Even at the end, the slogan that was used was “Pop in. Stand out.” Every character stood out with their own unique style of bright clothing. The music was also key to attracting viewers because it was really catchy. “Pop goes the world…” Viewers become hooked to that on line and remember it, which shows the use of gestalt. With this commercial, viewers become energized and anxious to use this product because the connotation that’s shown is fun and hip. By using this product, you will be cool and unique, since your clothes are brighter than everyone else’s.

This commercial was effective in grabbing viewers’ attention with the bright colors, interesting backgrounds, and the music. However, it didn't straight up tell consumers to buy this product, but they will remember the energetic and brightly colored scenes. It made consumers feel excited to use this product because with one pod, it transformed doing laundry into fun.