Toyota #upstream
Jessica Long's story. Upstream Publicized: 04 February 2021
Agency Network: Saatchi & Saatchi
Toyota advertisement 'Upstream' which collaborated with Paralympic gold medalist Jessica Long's story has shown used of verbal communication where the dramatical conversation between Jessica Long's parents and a doctor regarding Jessica's disease which demand her legs to be amputated at the young age, even though the doctor said "It won't be easy for Jessica" but, her mom replied "It might not easy but, it will be amazing" this is actually persuasive quoted that used to support and promote the Olympic and Paralympic around the world especially for those athletes who have disabilities to 'start the impossible'. furthermore, this advertisement also use the nonverbal communication by providing the dramatical back sound to emphasis the message of start the impossible and brief story of Jessica long as a swimmer with disability that visualized in 30 second where she was swimming through the pool of time and see everything that she went through in the past, by this brief story in 30 sec, it has succeed add the feeling of Jessica as a main character of this video and also assist the hidden message on this advertisement so that the audiences who see this advertisement may feel touched.
Attention grabbing
‘Only when the execution of the commercial “grabs” them, whether through pathos, an unexpected laugh, or a sudden “snap”, do people pay attention to or think about advertising (West, Kover & Caruana 2008, p.42)
The agency of this advertisement try to catch public attention thru locating the conversation between Jessica parent and the doctor as a mover or storyline on this video so that the footage on this video may suit with the conversation as a result the audiences who see this video may be able to catch the message on this video. one of the scene that may grab public attention the most, its when the doctor said 'her life it won't be easy' and Jessica's mom replied ' it might not be easy but, it will be amazing', these words seems to not only catch the attention yet it also motivate people especially for those who have disabilities because these words means a lot to them, specifically in supporting them through their weaknesses.
Unexpected but relevant
‘Creative ads make a relevant connection between the brand and its target audience and then presenting a selling idea in an unexpected way’ (Drewniany & Jewler 2014, p.2)
On this criteria, the producer has done an incredible job with bringing out the pool as a timeline all over the video, it was shocking and unexpected at the same time for the audiences because ‘how the hell people can go back to the past by swimming’ yet, at this short advertisement has shown how creative the producer and the creative team in produce this ads, even though it was unexpected but, it is relevant to Jessica's career as a swimmer.
Surprise and regularity
'creativity emerges from the basic elements of surprise and regularity. An appropriate balance between the two elements underlie creative ads’ (Goldenberg & Mazursky 2007, p.284)
This ad may seem surprising for the audiences because it is an advertising video from Toyota ( a company which produces vehicles) which does not make any sense when it comes dramatical videos like this, because it's out of the company's field. However, at the end of the video, it says that Toyota is the partner of team USA in the Olympics, that’s why, even though its out of the regularity yet, it's still relevant in term of cooperation.
New Associations
‘[Advertising creativity] may be best described as the forming of a new association of words, images, meanings or events to produce an original communication intended to modify behaviour in some way... such as to purchase a service or not drop trash on the sidewalk’ (Ewing, Napoli & West 2001, p. 161)
Reference list:
Burtenshaw, K, Barfoot, C & Mahon, N 2011, Fundamentals of Creative Advertising, Introduction pp.6–8 and Chapter 3 pp. 89–93.
Drewniany, B & Jewler, A 2014, Creative Strategy in Advertising, 11thedition, Thomson Wadsworth, Boston. Introduction p.2
Ewing, M, Napoli, J & West, C 2001, ‘Creative Personalities, Processes, and Agency Philosophies: Implications for Global Advertisers', Creativity Research Journal, vol. 13, no.2, pp. 161–170.
Goldenberg, J & Mazursky, D 2007, ‘Advertising Creativity: Balancing Surprise and Regularity’, in Tellis, G & Ambler T (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Advertising, SAGE, London, p 283-284
Moriarty, S, Mitchell, N, Wells, W, Crawford, R, Brennan, L & Spence-Stone, R 2015, Advertising Principles and Practice, 3rd edition, Pearson, Melbourne, Chapter 12, pp. 418–423.
Saatchi & Saatchi (4 February 2021) '2021 Toyota Big Game Commercial: Jessica Long's Story | Upstream', Toyota, YouTube, retrieved 2 July 2021.
West, D, Kover, A & Caruana, A 2008, ‘Practitioner and Customer Views of Advertising Creativity: Same Concept, Different Meaning?’ Journal of Advertising, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 35–46.
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