Nutty Rhetoric

I am a huge Xbox and Nintendo fan, so when Sony introduced the PlayStation Portable (PSP), I wasn’t too excited. They introduced it a few years ago, and along with it came ridiculous ads… and not in the good way.

The commercial I have posted is an example of this. If you couldn’t watch the commercial for some reason, it is a black-and-white ad starring two animated squirrels who look like they’re on an acid trip. One squirrel (we will call him Squirrel 1) invites the other (Squirrel 2) to go outside and play. Squirrel 2 rejects the invitation, stating that he’s busy playing “nut.” Squirrel 1 counters that by introducing “portable nut,” the “nut you can play with outside.” After the skit, a monotone voice echoes Squirrel 1 while a 2D PSP appears on the screen.

By now, if you’re like me, you should be confused and a little intellectually insulted by this ad. How could the writers think that this was a good idea? In my humble opinion, this commercial is one of the byproducts of this randomness-is-cool/minimalist era of advertising. What do cartoon squirrels and nuts have to do with PlayStation? Nothing, but it's random, so it must be funny to young people! We’ve all seen more of this in one way or another. Maybe you can recall the incredibly awkward and idiotic Hotpocket commercials where a person is doing some mundane task, such as going on a date or playing the flute, and a stereotypical, old Asian man pops up out of nowhere and yells something along the lines of “You no hungry for _____! You hungry for Hotpockets!” If you haven’t seen those, then you’re lucky. I feel like I became dumber by watching those commercials. Those ads were offensive, awkward, and didn’t even talk about the product. However, I need to give credit where it’s due; they really hit the nail on the head with the randomness factor.

But let’s take this back to the PSP commercial.

Maybe this is obvious, but these writers are clearly targeting a young audience. Although it may be hard to locate, there is some rhetoric in these ads.

Clearly, these advertisements are supposed to be comical while, at the same time, depicting a real-life situation faced by many video game-loving young people: a friend invites another to come outside and play, but the other friend wants to stay inside to play his immobile video game system. This feeling of contradicting wants is relatable to the viewer and forces the viewer to say, “How are they going to fix this?” The emotion of helplessness is then lessened by the introduction of the portable version of the same thing that was keeping the friend indoors. By implying that someone can play the game outside while spending time with his friend, wants are met and everyone is happy :)! However, if they did a plain commercial where they only provided the logical advantages of the PSP, it would bore their audience.

“So,” the writers thought, “why not add squirrels?!” By adding the squirrels, the writers appealed to the youthful, cartoon-loving side of the audience.

You may ask yourself, “Then what’s the point of the nuts representing video game systems?” Well, think about it. Do squirrels have the ability to enjoy video games? No. What can they enjoy? NUTS! So by setting nuts as equivalent to video game systems, the writers display how the situation is the same as the one many young people face.

 Plus, if the squirrels didn’t get the point across to some people, the monotone voice of a twenty-something year old male at the end of the ad outlines the point of the skit: “PSP: It’s like a nut you can play with outside” (mimicking Squirrel 1).

What I’m saying is that this commercial, no matter how stupid it may be, has some power to persuade consumers to purchase PSPs. The commercial has a clear goal of telling consumers what the benefits (or benefit) of the PSP are while appealing to the youth of the audience. It serves its purpose.

However, I do always wonder why the writers chose “It’s like a nut you can play with outside” as a tagline. I hope no one takes it literally.