Research blog: Commercial Conventions

             My group is interested in making a commercial based on Sports drinks as we see a lot of potential in it, but that is always up for change. Advertisements are used today to promote and sell a product/service to the audience. The main conventions I see from commercials such as Gatorade are: specific camera angle and shots to make the item looking very appealing. The iconography of Gatorade is really special and they overuse it in their commercials to ingrain it into your mind. The editing for them is usually pretty simple, but with something flashy at the end such as a football player running into the field as in the Gatorade TV Commercial "Make Your Rival Your Fuel".
           The lightning uses drastic shadows to amplify the sweat and tiredness of the athletes who are drinking Gatorade in the videos. In all ads, there is a common theme in all sounds such as the music, or special effects. If it is an intense ad, then it is connected with intense music and loud, flashy sound effects. Computer graphics, such as text written over the ad, normally appear at the end of an ad to display information. However in Gatorade ads, the text usually includes inspirational quotes to make you feel accomplished and satisfied with the ad.
          Depending on the ad, special effects can be used heavily. Gatorade ads actually use very little special effects, mostly relying on actors emotions as seen on recent ads. While ads based on medicare, usually use green screen and overlays many times throughout the ad. I learned a lot from this research and did not initially realize how much work goes into a short ad.