As a college student, I think we can all agree that nothing is worse than being in a classroom and being bored. However, we all know the feeling of getting a really fun college professor that can keep us entertained while connecting us to the real world. No matter if you are in a classroom, workplace, or someone simply watching a t.v commercial, grasping one’s attention is always most important. The question is, how do we do this?
There is nothing better than a good commercial that has humor to it. When a company wants to film a commercial, there is a lot that goes into it. You must be able to get the message out while also engaging with your audience. It is remarkable to what degree satire is used in high-profile advertisements. However, not everyone thinks the same things are funny so it may be challenging to do this. Some experts like Sean McBride, EVP of Arnold Worldwide and Executive Creative Director of Progressive’s ads talk about the few things that companies do to attract people to their commercials.
The insurance company, Progressive, needed to find a way to make shopping for insurance fun. No one really enjoys shopping for insurance so this is why the pressure is put on insurance companies to attract people the most. Flo, is the way Progressive attracts people to their company with her upbeat personality while making sure their execution is effective. They use Flo as their humor to attract people to their company and they use real life situations to let people relate to Flo to create that relationship. Being able to get your message across to your viewers is all how you execute your commercial. Being able to grasp people’s attention using humor is key to a commercial, just as it is in a classroom filled with students.
We all know Super bowl commercials come around once a year and we are all so excited to see them. These commercials cost millions to produce because it is so important to get people’s attention during this time due to all the viewers that are watching the super bowl all around the world.
Another way to grab people’s attention through commercials is that humor works best by appealing to emotions. Arnold’s McBride describes how people usually start off wedding toast by using a joke, then gets into the mushy gushy type of speech. This is a great technique to seeking one’s attention because it gets them engaged and their emotions are turned on. This goes the same in a classroom. If a professor wants to engage well with his/her class, they should be willing to connect with them while connecting with the outside world as well. When students are in a classroom, they do not want to feel like they are being bombarded with information. This then takes away from the learning experience. As students, I think we can all agree to this. We want to be able to have a class conversation and relate the information we learn in class and take this out to the world with us to become wise adults.
