I don't know what the "HABS" stand for
Thursday, November 26, 2009
The other day a friend of mine said that following the Cheese Gurl for so long was kind of weird. I say following the HABS is weird. Never mind what does HABS stand for and why make up a weird name for something? Riiiiiiight, that's what I thought - I don't understand your weird little obsession and you don't understand our little obsession.
For the most part people don't pay attention to commercials (or so they think) but what Olivia Palenstein does is no different then what Angelina Jolie does; well except that Olivia has 30 seconds to get you to like her, trust her and believe her character, Angelina has almost 2 hours. Of course Olivia, like Angelina has designers, copy editors, directors, producers, screen writters, blah blah to aid in pulling off her character and if they fail her, Olivia is screwed.
You see, as a consumer you expect a certain type of "visual quality" and will automatically turn off being open to new products & ideas unless they fit that "established mold." And don't kid yourself, IT IS an established mold and not one you decided on yourself. OH no, the media has been feeding you for years, telling you what to like, how to like it & what order you'll like it in. Commercials ARE the height of YOUR consumerism and within a time frame of 30 seconds are able to sway and manipulate. It is really utter and pure genius.
A good example of this is the "Zoom zoom" kid. When those commercials first started out they showed that cute little kid in that suit close up into the screen saying "zoom zoom." Awww super cute right? Big eyes, shiny brown hair, he's wearing a suit! Those commercials went on for years like that, until, the little kid got so-not-cute-anymore (cuz having a NOT so cute little kid selling you a car, it's what YOU as the consumer wants, never mind WATCHING that little kid grow up-imagine him saying zoom zoom in his ever changing 14 year old voice. You don't want THAT now do you!). So, they started just using his little cute kid voice and not showing the kid at all. And because Mazda had "established" their zoom zoom commercials as fun (listen to the music), bright (they ALWAYS use intense colour), cars constantly moving back and forth (to create a sense of visual movement to keep YOUR eye occupied) actually using a simailar looking kid to say zoom zoom was redundant. Oh no, all they had to do NOW was show you some cars moving back and forth in brightly lite filters with some fun music and say nothing at all but at the end of the commercial SHOW YOU the words "zoom zoom" written out in clouds and you could hear that little boys voice in your head, whispering "zoom zoom."
See, I did it just now, you heard his voice.
Are you feeling ever so slightly taken advantage of yet?
So, yeah, we like watching commercials at my house. We look at company logos, fonts, layout, design, we compare past commercials, we listen to copy, check out the actors companys use, demographics, set design, and we talk about where they went wrong or where they scored. It's called Media Unagi and at our house we are AWARE of our surroundings.
Labels: commercials 101, mazda, media unagi, zoom zoom
posted by Queen of Light and Joy @ 11/26/2009 07:03:00 AM,
1 Comments:
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At November 27, 2009,
Star said...
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Well, now that I'm a Montréaller, I can tell you that even though I'm not a hockey fan, I'm exposed to a lot of "GO HABS GO" enthusiasm and I've learned the ancient Québecois secret of the meaning of "the HABS".
Habs is the short form for the French word "Habitants" which pretty much means the inhabitants. It's a beautiful demonstration of the joining of two cultures and two languages. En Français the "H" in "habitants" is silent. But the expression, "GO HABS GO" is not pronounced, "GO ABS GO", it's "GO HABS GO", with a very audible "H" sound and the very English word "go". So, essentially it's a French word, spoken in English, along side English words, with an English pronunciation, and shortened.
I love Québec!
