Extra Gum Commercial Unwraps the Love
New commercial’s advertising strategy hits home to teens with emotional messages
Extra gum, the famous gum brand, recently released an advertisement regarded as touching and beautiful for many students and parents.
Every once in awhile, an ad blows us away. This time, it’s as simple as a love story in a gum commercial.
Another desperately promoted product or a good idea? Shaker students decide.
At first it seems as though it is yet another cheesy, failed attempt to manipulate viewers’ emotions in order to persuade them to buy a product.
The commercial consists of small, ordinary and sweet glimpses into the relationship of two high school sweethearts. Add Haley Reinhart’s gentle cover of “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and most viewers are captivated. The young man collects gum wrappers from all their dates and draws the situation on each, to use them in his proposal to her.
“I feel like it’s very relatable,” freshman Audrey Himes said. “Not falling in love over gum, but the concept of meeting someone over something so simple, and that developing into a loving relationship.”
Although the seemingly perfect love story is unrealistic, it connects to viewers. Many students think that even the love story’s improbability doesn’t take away from the powerful message.
“It’s extravagant, but I think that’s why so many people love it because they want this to happen to them. I think it’s inspiring to people,” freshman Hannah Roth added.
Freshman Eliana Sosin said, “People falling in love in real life could maybe not happen exactly like that, but that the idea of giving could lead to something happy is definitely a real possibility.”
“I think it’s a really cute commercial because it’s like a romantic movie that we all watch and cry about,” freshman Caroline Wollman said. “The whole thing just makes you feel good and sad at the same time.”
The advertising strategy is simple – the intimacy resonates with the viewer, and in the end human nature connects the gum with the story line and the audience automatically thinks, ‘I want Extra gum so I can have that kind of relationship.’ Roth described her initial reaction to the commercial. “It made me want some Extra gum, and it made me tear a little bit. I loved it. I’m going to watch it every day of my life.”
“If I had the choice, I’d buy Extra gum because they obviously put a lot of work into their commercials, so they must put a lot into their product.” Wollman said.
“I also think that,the fact that it wasn’t just a love story, but a love story that encompasses the gum,” Himes said.
I think they need to tell a story to connect with the viewers.
— Audrey Himes
Students aren’t the only ones reacting to this advertisement. Even Ellen DeGeneres tweeted her response, “Amazing. All this time, I’ve been wasting my wrappers on chewed gum.”
“Commercials are there to be aesthetically pleasing and to catch people’s eyes, and it’s all over Twitter so I think they’ve really done a good job in using this way of advertising,” Wollman said.
Extra gum captured all the elements of a great romantic comedy and condensed them into a two minute video. It’s aimed at teenagers -as most of technology, food, and clothing advertisements are – who themselves are falling in love for the first time, and in seeing this gum commercial will believe in the power of love.
“Instead of pointless phrases and slogans that are going on right now in the advertising world,” said Himes, “I think they need to tell a story to connect with the viewers.”
