At the end of class today, we viewed a 75-second ad for Cymbalta, an anti-depressant drug. We are using the ad as a case study to consider Aristotle’s model for persuasion, a model that includes ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion) and logos (logic, or rational, linear argument). We are also using the case study to explore what kinds of intellectual freight images can carry (“Thou shalt make no graven image”) versus those language or words or logos can carry (“In the beginning was logos, and the logos was with God and the logos was God”).
Here’s what I’d like you to do: View the ad again (and maybe a third time). With the principle of Gestalt in mind, break down the ad’s component parts. How do they add up to what you see? But here’s the real exercise here. View it with Barthes’s notions of myth and mythic truth in mind. What is the “truth” of this ad? How is the ad attempting to persuade us of this truth?
This ad is not unlike the people throwing a basketball, with the gorilla we don’t see walking across the screen. What we attend to is interesting for what that attention obscures. What is it that we don’t see (or hear)? This ad is a study in human (in)attention. And it works. Sales spiked after this campaign broke, so even though we know that we’re being sold, even though we know that’s a really long list of horrible side effects, this ad works. It is effective.
Also of use to us here is Berger’s idea of a condensed code. Think of all the elements chucked into the visual funnel at the top that get condensed into a composite meaning of happiness, success and well-being. I want us to see this.
So, post your reaction to this ad answering one or more of these questions, and using one or more of these concepts as we’ve been discussing them in class. I would like many people to comment on the “mythic truth” of the ad, in your opinion. Post your response by 9 a.m. Wednesday, please.
One of the components of the message that fascinated me is the use of lighting. On my third watch, I muted the sound and just looked at what was happening. We open the ad on what we presume is video tapes from pre-depression periods (this is inferred by the REC in the corner, foggy edges, “rougher” quality of film). There’s a lot of sun-flare, sometimes to the point the screen goes white. Fade to black. Now all the colors are more muted. Though we see the light on people’s faces, it’s artificial or coming from a source off screen. The people seem to exist without light–in gray boxes. Then we get the logo (bright colors on a white background). The very first post-depression shot we get is a woman moving a warm-toned red curtain and looking out a window. It’s rainy outside–but the way the light catches in the raindrops is quite beautiful, and almost cheerful (reminds me of Christmas lights). From here, every shot has some source of light in it–the fire with friends, the sunlight from the glass doors, the outdoor lighting during a hike, the light reflected off the pages of a book. Everywhere we see strong connections between the amount of light and the interconnectedness or well being of the people in the ad.
As a photographer with several years spent attuning to light, light is one of those things I can’t help noticing anymore. But a lot of average people wouldn’t notice the subtle changes in light and color in this ad (I didn’t notice until I really started looking). These changes form the argument that the drug is helpful/good (even despite the voice over telling us all the ways the drug is bad!).
Great idea, Alyssa, to turn off the sound, heightening your attention to visual. The music, by the way, is Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, opus 15. Very dramatic.
So great walk-through of the lighting in the ad. I want to hear what you think the ad means, too. What is its “truth”?
I’d say its “truth” is that when you take the drug, your relations with other people (the interconnectedness) and your personal feelings (sitting alone/reading a book) will get “brighter”–the drug will make you happier and more capable of enjoyment.
In my observation, this ad is based largely on the emotions of its viewers – which is appropriate, as it’s an advertisement for a drug which is meant to balance one’s emotions.
The “truth” being portrayed here is that Cymbalta is the cure-all for depression. We see this truth portrayed throughout the ad, in a few different ways.
First, by using a female narrator with an admittedly sympathetic voice, we’re soothed and relaxed. While we’re still hearing what she says, her voice is so generic that it does tend to fade into the background as we’re presented with image after image of the process of overcoming depression – presumably with the help of Cymbalta.
Second, images of average people (so we can relate easily to them) doing average, happy, warm-fuzzy activities (that we’ve all done before) play to our emotions – our pathos – to lure us in and make us forget about that long list of somewhat gruesome potential side effects. (And again, that relaxing narrative voice helps with this as well.)
Third, the music is indeed very dramatic, which helps gloss over the bad things about the drug, and heightens the warm-fuzzy feelings we get as we watch all those people doing all those fun, lovey things.
In short, the ad means that, in order for a depressed person to feel “human”, they should take Cymbalta. All of the parts add up to making a depressed person focus on their desire to be “normal” once more.
Excellent observations, Bonny, yes. I especially like your description of the narration, which soothes us, numbs us (ironically) so that we don’t dial in to the truly scary potential side effects. And that almost all the freight here is being carried by images. Postcards from happyland (then sad-land, then happy-land again).
You said this use or leverage of emotion is ‘appropriate.’ I wondered about that. Why is emotion appropriate for a clinical drug, for a choice that I think we would hope would be almost entirely rational.
This ad is definitely interesting. I think what strikes me the most is how all of the images presented, aside from small snippets of what depressed people supposedly look like or act like, are happy images. It is a very optimistic sort of message, in that “these are the things you should be experiencing.” The opening clips of the commercial are filmed very much like home videos, which have the power to awaken very significant and personal memories of our own family videos or camping trips or first dog. The style of footage also harkens back to an earlier era, a simpler era when life was less complicated and happier (and the implication would also be: a life/era without depression.)
The lighting plays a very significant role in the entire commercial. Furthermore, they choose to utilize primarily natural light as opposed to indoor light. It is all shown as being outdoors or sun coming in through a window (which is obviously symbolic) and sunrises through the clouds. I watched the piece on mute and was again struck by the use of light.
I then decided to watch it a fourth time, instead letting the audio run and closing my eyes. That was the most radical viewing I had. Almost the entire audio is spent on potential side effects and risks, not information on the actual medication! I would never buy this medication if I only heard the audio. That in itself speaks to the immense power of visual messages. Additionally, the piano music is particularly compelling and soothing, as is the narrator’s voice. It would seem that they purposefully picked someone with this very calming tone who seems to completely understand what you are going through.
Lastly, the slogan of “depression hurts” is pretty poignant because it publicly acknowledges the problem. It makes you feel like this “person” can empathize with the pain you are going through when in actuality, that “person” is a nameless, faceless, cold, money-oriented drug company. And yet they make you feel like they completely understand. On a similar note, their logo is interesting. When it moves, it creates a circular motion, perhaps implying the emotional wholeness you would have should you take the drug. The color yellow overlaying the blue seems to communicate optimism, light, and happiness. It is interesting to consider how we get all those emotions from that simple primary color.
Ultimately, the advertising company chucked all these images of love, family, light, nature, camping, reading, and emotional moments into the funnel of condensed code and came out with a message of hope that they can help alleviate your depression. The mythic truth seems to be that something as simple as taking a pill can completely alter your outlook on life, your emotions, your attitude, and the way you feel EVERY day. And why wouldn’t you want that to be true? You do. Desperately. And that is why the ad works.
Great analysis, Emma. Great idea to listen, to only listen. And you’re right on with the condensed code analysis.
I think as a few people already have said is that the mythic truth of this ad is that buying and taking Cymbalta will fix all your problems concerned with depression. The first few shots are of people living life and enjoying life, but then the ad shows average, everyday people that anyone can relate to being depressed. The ad shows a variety of people. It shows an older woman, and a young man and woman. The variety of people shows that this drug is for anyone.
Also, as someone has already said, the woman’s voice that does the voice-over has a very soft and soothing tone of voice while speaking about the depression. During the part about explaining depression, her voice is very sympathetic and sad; however, once Cymbalta is mentioned, there is a very small change in her voice that becomes happier and more confident. Both voice inflections grab the viewer’s attention.
I noticed that the extremely long list of side effects is actually longer than the part about Cymbalta being able to help with depression. I also noticed that the voice-over speeds up while talking about the side effects. The parts about how helpful the drug is are said slowly and easier to hear. On the other hand, the side effects are spoken more quickly so that they are not as easily comprehensible or easy to focus on.
Lastly, the different shots of people are longer and slower than the shots during the side effects. In the first part of the commercial, the company wants the viewer pay attention to the images and the voice-over equally. When the voice-over lists all of the side effects, more video of people are shown being happy and getting out and enjoying life. The video of these various people moves quickly and takes more of your attention so that it is harder to listen to the side effects.
The company wants you to buy the drug and through the ad it is selling the mythic truth that Cymbalta can fix all your problems.
I feel as though this commercial is definitely sympathetic towards the every day person with depression. It is aimed at different demographics of people such as a father of little kids, an older couple living in retirement, and others. By showing these the viewer is given the idea that they can be given help with the help of the drug Cymbalta; finding someone that they can connect with within the commercial.
Another aspect of the commercial that I find interesting is the progression of how the people are struggling with the depression and how it slowly progresses to how the people are much more confident in their daily activities, and how they are alone, and suddenly with other people that they seem to care about. Such as the father with his daughters or the older woman with who appears to be their husband.
The most interesting part of this commercial for me, is when all of these joyous things are happening to the people the woman who is doing the narration for the commercial seems to fade into the background as you focus on the happiness of the people while the narrator is actually speaking of all of the troubles you can develop from the drug. Things as serious as organ failures.
This ad is very interesting due to its dramatic methods of persuasion. The soothing female voice, the dramatic music, and the depictions of extremely happy and functional people all contribute to the effectiveness of the advertisement. The “happiness” of these people is illustrated through things such as an exciting relationship with a spouse, interaction with a family, and a man that is playing joyfully with his daughter. So therefore the mythic truth of this ad is that taking Cymbalta and thwarting depression will solve all of our problems and pave the way for a happy life. It does not matter if this is true or not because if someone suffering from depression believes it is true then they will most likely buy the product, which is the only goal of the advertisement.
As far as things that we don’t see in the ad, we definitely hear the side effects of the drug but the context in which these are expressed definitely alters our reactions to how serious the effects are. To explain, when we hear something on the news about how a daily drug can be harmful to our health, many people become very skeptical of this drug and are inflicted with a sense of caution or fear of ever ingesting it again. A news anchor has a very direct voice with no background music so the context of the information is much more serious and easier to study. The fact that the Cymbalta side effects are explained very fast, nearly drowned out by mellow music, and are surrounded by depictions of happy people engaging in fun activities, we are not as emotionally affected by the severity of the side effects because we are distracted by all the other factors contributing to the “hopefulness” that the ad is trying to express. This may sound funny but the side effects are not an invisible gorilla, but more of a masked gorilla.
The truth of this ad (at least, what the makers of Cymbalta want you to think is truth) is that feeling sad is a illness, that having things on your mind that distract you is something to be cured, and that the magical pill is going to make those problems go away. It does so by putting forth a very broad definition of depression, so much so that any individual could be applicable for the malady, then showing people who are sad. Then, once you are convinced that you have chronic depression, the ad tells you that their pill will make it go away, and shows people who are happy. The trick to making the ad effective is that it appeals to people- it makes as many reference to the iconic human as it can, then tries to convince you that the people it is showing aren’t random people, but in fact you.
The trick is though, the images alone don’t have any message, and the words without the images are more depressing than depression. It takes the combination of the images to distract you from and the message of the words (the “be happy” part, not the “will probably kill you or your future children” part) to truly be effective.
To be honest, I was surprised this ad was so effective in boosting the sales of Cymbalta. The part that called most of my attention was the end, in which the narrator for the commercial spent around 45 seconds listing common side effects and horrible things that could happen to you if you take this pill. I suppose what it’s supposed to be demonstrating is the responsible nature of Cymbalta in that they want the viewer to be aware of possible side effects or variables that would prevent the medication from working, but to me it sounded like one of those parody commercials from YouTube that lists all the ways you can die from taking a medication that is wildly popular and “effective.”
However, looking at this ad as an effective and successful portrayal of Cymbalta, the mythic truth is the standard mythic truth that all ads seek to convey: that this product is the ultimate cure to the problems cited in the ad, in this case depression. A lot of different factors contribute to this attempt: the music is just cheery enough to convey hope, but shot with a poignant sadness that reminds the viewer that they are sad and need this drug. The narrator’s voice is professional, because she needs the viewer to know this drug is safe (except, of course, for the 101 things that could go wrong list), but she has a maternal, compassionate voice that says “We can take care of you.” And of course, the images on screen alternate from sad and lonely people to smiling, placid, hopeful scenes of loving family, friends, and spouses in order to create a contrast – like a before and after picture. “If you don’t take this drug, you will live out your days sulking on a window seat in your kitchen and staring at your salt and pepper shakers. But if you do take this drug, you will live happily ever after with a crowd of smiling people.”
When I attempt to break down this ad, I look at it as if I were the depressed individual it is trying to reach. At first, the happy people would make me sigh. They represent something i don’t feel like I can obtain. But then, it flashes to the depressed people. The depressed viewer can relate to them. Then, the walking gorilla (Cymbalta) waltzes through the screen unseen, entering these individual’s lives bringing smiles and happiness and family time again.
The Cymbalta symbol, the blue and green lines that move in a circle, to me represent the world going round. Blue and green moving in a circular motion is a learned motion alluding us to think of the earth. Perhaps they hope for others to think that this drug could help their world resume turning, their lives go back to normal; happy camping trips or playing with the kids.
Like many, the part of the ad that both shocked me and amused me the most was about the last 75% of it. The slew of terrible side effects that ranged from annoying to frightening were announced not in the quick, rushed voice I had come to expect from medicine commericals, but in the rhythmic, gentle female voice that had spoken in the entire ad. Knowing that they did this and their product sales still soared after the advertisement when on the air was astounding to me initially, but not so much now that I’ve watched it a couple of more times.
The images, naturally, are what sell the add. The dichotomy of the happy images to the sad words (the side effects, mainly) is what allows this company to list all of the ridiculous harms the medicine it can cause will still increasing product sale. The gentle background music and the soft spoken, feminine voice seems almost subliminal in nature while the images dominate the viewer’s attention. The people in the images differ in relative age, race, and gender, an unspoken message to the viewer that depression is not something limited only to certain people but is possible for everyone; especially you. The situations that all the people are fairly generic in that sense as well, allowing the audience to connect to the actors enough so that it can feel as if any one of them could be you at some point in your life if you took the advertised medicine.
They want you to believe a pill can give you happiness and do so by appealing to what every generic human wants: friends, family, and to smile. And while you, the audience, is caught up in this amazing idea of a happy pill that they flash before your eyes, they quite casually sweep the negatives right beneath your nose.
The Cymbalta advertisement employs a lot to keep the audience’s attention glued to the happy and improving lives of the people in the advertisement. The music is soft and slow at first and gradually rises and quickens to a more upbeat pace near the end. The narrator’s voice is gentle and peaceful. Her voice seems to empathize with the people who struggle with depression, as her voice inflections imply the hurt and loneliness one experiences when she tells the audience that “depression hurts” “that you want to go no where and see no one” when depressed. The images at the beginning are arresting as they capture the nostalgic feel of a homemade camera. However, as the commercial begins to explain all the various harmful and potentially fatal side affects, the narrator’s voice becomes monotonous and fades, the camera angles and frames begin switching more rapidly and professionally, zooming in and away from people, and the music crescendos. All of this is to draw the viewers’ attention to all the happy memories the people in the commercial are making and to all the great experiences they are having, without drawing attention to the harmful side affects.
The shots in the commercial feature people from different backgrounds and ages, all who are dealing with a common problem. As the commercial goes on we see their progress. In the depressed shots, none of the people were looking at the camera. All were looking off to the side, down, or had their eyes closed. However, as they took Cymbalta, subtle changes began to take place. A shadow of a smile crept onto a woman’s face as she looked at the beauty of nature, a family laughs as they camp, affection between an older couple is witnessed in a cute way, a man is seen romping around with his children in pure joy. The sentimental close-up shot of a little girl dancing on her father’s feet pulls at the viewers’ heartstrings and memories of similar experiences. A woman directly gazes into the cameras and smiles before the Cymbalta log is splayed onto the screen and the narrator says, “Cymbalta helps.” These images are used to focus the viewer on what they can also achieve if they are dealing with depression and choose Cymbalta to help.
Also, while viewing the Cymbalta advertisement, I was struck by the comparison between the outdoors and the indoors. In the three shots of the depressed people, they were all in places of harsh lighting, stark interiors, and overwhelming shadows in the background, as if depression was a cloud following them around. On the other hand, when they were portrayed as being happier, they were enjoying the outdoors and communing with nature in many shots, and more natural light is used. The connotation here is that it is natural to be happy, and if you are depressed then you need to buy Cymbalta to fix the problem. This also conveys the mythic truth of the ad: Taking Cymbalta will make you feel like our construction of a “normal” person, that is a happier person, someone who has a great family, goes on great adventures all the time, and just has an unspeakable joy with life. That’s what most people want. And according to this commercial, Cymbalta can help you obtain it.
The ad makes us want to be the people in the ad. It makes us want to experience as much fun as they are having and makes us want to have those kinds of relationships with the people around us. Also, its worth noting that the amount of depression diagnoses has increased in the U.S. so it could be that almost everyone has felt like the people in the ad experiencing depression and “depression hurts” is a statement that rings true for many of us.
When watching the ad you’re almost completely distracted from the list of side effects because you become so enthralled with the happiness and picture perfect relationships presented in the ad. The dramatic music also plays a role in the distraction and draws us even deeper into the various relationship scenes presented.
This ad very effectively presents the “truth” that cymbalta will bring you happiness and allow you to develop deep and meaningful relationships that you will get joy out of.
The ad doesn’t rely on the narration primarily, it sells the product in an almost completely visual way and relies on the viewer bringing their own experiences and memories to the ad. It relies almost entirely on pathos.
The first thing I notice upon watching this ad for the second and third times, was that there is intense and obvious symbolism to represent the different stages of depression. The ad opens with happy memories seen through the lens of a video camera, symbolizing that these are events of times passed. Certain words that are associated with the symptoms of depression in the early stages are flashed across the screen. For example, the ad mentions not wanting to go anywhere when footage of an old road trip is scrolling past and not wanting to see anyone while a lady is playing with her family and dog on the beach.Then, the screen fades to black and the word “depression” flashes on the screen. This is symbolic of the mood change to dark and unhappy moments ahead. Now all of the images are of sad and anxious human beings. At this point, the screen flashes to white again, which is when the product (Cymbalta) is first introduced. The white represents the rebirth that comes with tackling depression. This is followed by video footage of a woman opening her curtains to sunlight after a rainstorm (happiness after too many tears, as a cause of depression). Now, the advertisers do something very tricky during this part of the ad. They list all the detrimental side effects during this happy/rebirth period, so that the audience is so focused on these positive and fulfilling moments that they tune out the negative consequences of taking this drug. In other words, the audience falls victim to inattention. Anyone that is watching this ad, especially someone who is affected by depression, is going to be more focused on what it can do to help them that the liver problems and possible birth defects are secondary. It is all in the framing and sequence of the information. If the advertisers had kicked off the ad with a preface that went something to this effect, “When you take Cymbalta, you could have severe abdominal pain or yellowing of the skin or eyes,” then all the attention would be on the negative attributes and not all the happiness fluttering around on the screen.
The “mythic truth” of this advertisement for Cymbalta is that this is a product that can potentially help cure one of depression. However, the real truth of this piece is that while the former statement may be true, they are making that the more important factor over the other effects Cymbalta could render over your body. They are able to persuade this truth with a promise of a life you once had or a life you always wanted. A life filled with happiness and fulfillment.
Finally, when approaching this advertisement as a condensed code, the persuasion of the mythic truth is clear. In the top of the funnel goes the notions of love, friendship, leisure time and more quality time and bonding with your children and out of the bottom comes hope for this type of existence. This ad works because regardless of your current emotional and mental state, this is an existence everyone desperately wishes to achieve. When you pair that innate human desire to be happy with a general unhappiness in your audience, you get stellar results, which is what I believe happened with the rising sales after the release of this advertisement. The people want hope. Cymbalta helped.
This ad for Cymbalta is a good one because it appeals to many of our senses and emotions. In doing so, the creators really made it hit home in many viewers suffering from depression.
Hearing is the first sense affected for me. The calm female voice really soothes the viewer. The mellow piano also adds a soothing affect to the ad. When the ad begins, the voice and the piano are very monotone, almost depressing themselves. However, when the Cymbalta add appears for the first time, the mood slightly changes. The voice and the piano raise slightly in pitch and speed. This drastically lightens the ad. This adds to the affect that there is a cure to depression. It lightens the mood.
The next sense is sight. Light is used to get across the point of the ad. Toward the beginning, many dark colors are used. Rain and blurred rounded edges of the screen are also used to portray sadness and melancholy. In the second half of the add, the mood is drastically lightened by brighter colors and sharp, clear edges. Light coming through windows, rays of light coming through the rain, a warm light in a doorway, and a fire are just a few examples of happy and positive light. This, accompanied by the music change gives the reader a warming, happy feeling, just like the product being sold would to a depressed person.
Finally, the use of visual images appeal to the readers emotion. The ad shows attractive people doing things most people love to do; Relaxing, reading, walking with a significant other, playing with your child/dog, camping etc. It also depicts people all ages, signifying the illness can affect everyone, even if they do not have it. Showing a man playing with his children really strikes at the heart of a parent. A sad man laying his head back at work appeals to a businessperson. A elderly couple kissing appeals to the older generation. These visual images really hit home at all who watch this commercial. It says to them “you will be able to enjoy the things you once used to do if you cure your depression by taking this drug”. To a depressed person, bringing your life back to normal is the number one priority.
When you put all of these elements together, you get a very concrete and affective message. It is made to bring hope to those who are depressed and I think it does that really well. If you take this drug, Cymbalta, you will be cured of this disease and be able to get on with your life.
The “mythic truth” that is constructed through this advertisement at the core deals with what the average person expects out of life. The target audience of the commercial is anyone dealing with depression, or more closely defined, those who have feelings of dissatisfaction, unrest, or sadness. The ad constructs its own model of what happiness is using these short clips in succession of things that can be associated with happiness or satisfaction; this is the condensed code at work. In the beginning we see a couple laughing and a couple walking a dog by the shore, while later in the ad we see a family walking a dog, an affectionate elderly couple, The image of depression that we are given comes from scenes of solitude, forlorn expressions, and dimly-lit rooms.
We dump all of these images down the funnel and come out with two fairly defined concepts of what depression looks like and what happiness looks like. And just as it is done visually in the commercial, Cymbalta’s role in this comparison is revealed halfway through as the remedy to this. It acts as the bridge from one concept to another, from depression to happiness, both visually and audibly. The use of light and dark, the kinds of images used, and the colors chosen as well all influence this message. In considering Aristotle’s model, these would play more to the ethos of the argument. The audible facet, aside from the soothing softness of the narrator’s voice, creates a logos basis for the argument with the simple statement, “Depression hurts, Cymbalta can help.” The whole drug is reduced to a simple and logical cause-and-effect relationship.
Watching the Cymbalta ad makes me feel depressed, or, it at least makes me think that I might be feeling depressed. Looking at the examples of depression (a man staring at the ceiling, a dark-haired woman looking at something and a light-haired woman sitting at table), I am sure that everyone is depressed. I think that is one of the most powerful tools of this commercial- its “relatablity.” The audience does not actually know how any of these actors feel, they all have very common and very blank stares on their faces that (combined with the narrator talking about depression) lead them (the audience) to believe that they (the actors) are depressed.
The commercial taps into the audience’s memory; they can all (I am sure) remember a time when they looked like one of these three people. Thus, the audience concludes that they must be depressed, because if that is what depression looks like, then they need help. Obviously they are not as happy as they could be; they are not camping, holding hands with a presumed spouse of many years or playing with their daughter, no, they are watching TV.
Combine this with the simple way the narrator’s voice change at the 33-second mark and it is no wonder the commercial help the product’s sale so much. At second 33, the narrator goes from a very slow cadence (slow=depressed) and low intonation to a much faster (and obviously more exciting) rate of speech in a higher pitch. It is as if the narrator is on Cymbalta.
So by combining the visuals (the “depressed looking” people) and the auditory (the narrator), I arrive at a truth for the ad, or, more precisely, my truth. It is that you, the audience, are depressed. If you were not depressed, you could go camping and the only way not to be depressed is to take Cymbalta. You go ahead, call your doctor. You deserve not to be depressed- worst-case scenario is that you die from liver failure.
I watched this ad three times to try and take in and interpret as much as I could.
The first time I saw it I viewed it in its entirety and then took notes on it after the commercial was done. The Cymbalta ad starts with a “video” showing happy people outdoors. As the viewer I could tell that this beginning portion was meant to be understood as a “video recording” in the commercial itself because the moving picture was outlined in black as if it were on a screen, and at the bottom of the video was a red dot with the word “rec” along with a date. By understanding that this first part was a “video,” I could make the assumption that the happy scenes initially shown are in the past and are occurring no longer. The commercial then shifted to the “present” by fading away from the black framed video and showing full-screen footage. Several different people of varying races, ages, and genders are shown looking tired, sad, and defeated. As the commercial progresses, sad people are no longer shown and are replaced with happier men and women. These happy individuals are shown interacting with others outside, laughing, smiling, and being content. It was difficult to keep track of what was being said during the latter part of the commercial.
The second time around, I decided to minimize the browser window and just listen to the advertisement. Without seeing the video, I found it easier to hear and focus on what was being said. However, in the latter half of the video I had trouble taking in all of the negative side effects. The list of side effects was long and technical, and despite my best efforts I could not muster up enough focus to take in all of them. I suspect this was deliberate on the part of the advertisers; they followed the rules by listing the negative side effects, but they presented them in such a way that viewers and listeners would not easily focus on and listen to them all. Dialogue aside, the music choice and its change in the commercial was fascinating. The advertisement began with a slow, sad tune created by somber piano keys and a wistful flute. This set the mood of sadness and lethargy that related to the subject of depression. Later on in the commercial, the music picked up speed and became more uplifting and optimistic. This shift in tone helped to subtly enforce the message that Cymbalta can fix your problems and replace your sadness with happiness. Obviously the dialogue and music were not visual aspects of the advertisement, but they worked with the images shown in the commercial to successfully broadcast the message to the viewer that Cymbalta can get rid of depression and bring you happiness again.
The third and final time I watched the video as I did the first time with my eyes watching the screen and the volume turned up so I could hear everything. However, instead of watching it all the way through and jotting down my thoughts, I chose to pause the video every time something interesting caught my attention. One of the first things that I noticed was that the shift in the commercial where the music changed from sad to happy occurred when one of the sad women shown in the beginning of the ad looked out of a window and began to smile. This use of simple body language coupled with the change in music did an excellent job in heralding in the message that Cymbalta can offer those with depression hope. I also became keenly aware that the images of the different people enjoying life were nothing more than distractions to keep the viewer from hearing all of the horrible potential side effects of the drug. I actively tried to listen to all of the side effects this time, but I kept getting distracted by what the people were doing on the screen. The peoples’ mundane activities were given a sense of importance with the dramatic lighting and high quality filming used, and I found myself watching the cute scene of a father dancing with his daughter instead of paying attention to what was being said in the ad.
In summary, this advertisement only used a few words out of the many said during the commercial and relied on video to distract the viewer from everything that the makers of Cymbalta were obligated to say. The images of the pure enjoyment of the families and couples camping and playing easily drowned out the horrible side effects being said, and even when the visual aspects of the ad were hidden, the music and presentation of the side effects prevented the viewer from absorbing all of the negative things being said.
The mythical truth of this ad is simple: take Cymbalta and you can replace your depression and loneliness with happiness and companionship. The advertisers cleverly structured this ad so that this “truth” could not be refuted no matter what the medicine itself would actually do to you.
While watching this ad, the big things that jumped out at me was the music, the voice, and what they images were portraying. Right off when the ad begins, a soothing piano tune joins a very relaxing woman’s voice. The images that pop up throughout the clip are those of a couple who look like they are having fun together. While the happy scenes are playing, the woman is discussing how Cymbalta helps depression so you can live a happy life. When the woman starts talking about how “depression hurts”, the scenes turn to those of people who are alone and look quite forlorn, thus giving off the meaning that when you are depressed you are alone all the time, and Cymbalta will help with that. The mythic truth of the whole ad is that if you are feeling sad and/or depressed, and then take Cymbalta- it will change your life. I also want to add that I found all the side effects that were listed were quite alarming, so I feel like it says a lot about the power of this ad that it was able to boost sales.
the ad uses darker tones, symbolism, facial expression and body language to convey a sense of helplessness– a depression that is crippling in that these people aren’t able to function normally or appreciate the things around them (shown in the commercial as their young children, nature, relaxation, etc.) the recording symbol shown in the bottom corner of the screen is supposed to remind the viewer of a home video he or she might be taking of family time, and to make these moments seem candid and genuine instead of contrived as they are. also in this ad, the pathos entirely overrides logos, having all of the words spoken so quickly, smoothly and softly that they barely disturb your brain waves while you are watching the images of hope flash before you. her voice is almost musical as she describes the dangerous symptoms and side effects, which is appropriate because the images form almost a montage that plays entirely into the viewers emotions. as the actors become happier looking and begin to appreciate life more over the course of the commercial, the viewer begins to feel excitement for the type of life and emotion he/she could experience as well. this is why the mythic truth of cymbalta is that it will give you hope by fixing your depression, no matter how severe. i watch the commercial for cymbalta and i instantly know- regardless of what the woman is saying in the background- that this drug is the answer to filling the emptiness i have been feeling.