It’s the closing minutes of a close ballgame. You can feel the tension building through your TV. But what interferes with the moment? A commercial break! Why are moments always spoiled with commercials? Well, the advertisers know that their messages work. Not you, you say to yourself. I am much too smart to fall for advertising. Well, all of us fall for the advertisers’ messages, pretty much all of the time. Advertising is everywhere you look in our everyday lives. Take a look at the purchases and choices you make from your drink choice, your clothing, and the car you drive. Marketers find ways to associate their brands and products with your everyday needs, with the hope that when you think of something you need you will associate with their product. This becomes very evident in primarily car sales in which companies allow the consumer to visualize themselves as the owners of a brand new car as it represents them as a person. Car companies specifically market and target their cars to certain consumer groups, and when they do this they perpetuate the stereotypes of the consumer groups they are targeting. They are not selling cars – they are selling lifestyles.

Mercedes-Benz is the epitome of a luxury car brand. Their company associates themselves with high quality, high cost, and exclusivity. In this recent commercial shown during the 2015 Super Bowl, Mercedes reinvents the old tortoise and the hare fable in which the two animals are involved in a race. As the story goes, the hare gets out in a huge lead but decides to take a break, only to find the tortoise out in front and beats the hare in the race. Mercedes decides to utilize the basis of this story with their own twist built in. Instead of simply using the basic story of the tortoise walking over the hare, the tortoise sees a Mercedes plant in the distance through the foggy forest, and finds one of the newest, fanciest, fastest cars Mercedes has to offer. The complex engine is shown to start the sequence showing the power that is emulated from the new car. The sleek nature of the side and tinted windows provides both sexy spins to the car as well as anonymity to the driver. The hare, when the car drives by, doesn’t realize that he was just beaten by the tortoise driving this car, but just any other person whipping through the forest with such a fancy car. The question arises, is this just simply marketing or does it perpetuate the stereotype that a current driver of Mercedes-Benz has this as part of their lives. This commercial gives the false reality that Mercedes and luxury are so closely in sync. A tortoise in any car would beat a hare in a race! But, in my opinion Mercedes commercials like the “tortoise and hare” perpetuate the view that Mercedes cars are fast, sleek, and most of all, exclusive.

But what about people that cannot afford a Merdedes? How do advertisers reach them? Simple – they play to their strengths, such as toughness. Think of your stereotypical American, blue collar like worker, what kinds of cars do they drive, not a Mercedes, but something domestic like a Chevy or a Chrysler. Think of a commercial, such as for their truck the Silverado. One commercial shows the truck on rugged like terrain pulling a large cargo load of equipment. It continues by showing the various features offered by the truck that someone of that nature would be interested in, and showing the car driving around a shipping or manufacturing plant. Now this commercial simply demonstrates the features that the car has and how well it compares to its competition around the market. Does it ostracize its market by only saying that people who want or need it for this purpose, no it doesn’t but it does only show that certain consumer using its product. It does not talk about exclusivity or sleekness, like Mercedes, but about power and resourcefulness – qualities a truck owner values.

Buick is another American brand that is trapped by consumers’ perceptions and stereotypes. But Buick is trying to reinvent itself, and is using its prior reputation as a jumping off point to attract luxury buyers – Mercedes’s market. The rebranding of Buick comes from a position of power, in which GM (Buick’s parent company) uses ethos to show that they have always had large-scale market power in the American car market. GM wields their power in the form of their established brand. The utilization of pathos as well in the commercial is evident for the viewer who sees various people questioning the branding of the new cars. The introduction of a new product line in recent years has drastically changed the reception of Buicks in the eyes of the American consumer. Even in their new commercial, Buick pokes fun at their past by showing an older woman saying, “That’s not a Buick”, when referring to the new car another person was showing her. This exploits Buick’s true weakness, which was that the company and its cars had always been made to target an older generation, and now its newest fleet of cars is made for a much younger generation. With this marketing, Buick is able to break from its stereotype and make headway in creating a new model for its core consumer base.