Dylan Commercial
The Super Bowl provides the advertising industry its largest audience possible as millions flock to their television sets to intake the game and the commercials. As a result, this platform is used by advertising agencies to promote their biggest projects. The purpose of this essay is to critique the Bob Dylan Chrysler commercial which debuted on the 2014 Super Bowl telecast in recent weeks. This essay will discuss this advertisement and its contents by describing how the piece elicits certain emotions and inserts slick propaganda. The essay will also remark on the sad state of affairs of Bob Dylan and his prostitution of his image for this seemingly worthless cause.
As Bob Dylan talks over a piece of horned music, expressing his love for all things America, he is stepping out of his reclusive and boorish self to promote Chrysler autos to the car buying audience of the telecast. The commercial is a conglomeration of various images of American folk heroes such as Marylyn Monroe, James Dean and Julius Erving. A constant flashing of pictures and other images such as the Chrysler cars, American landscaper, and blue collar workers are intermixed with Dylan's forced raspy country southern voice ( he was raised in Minnesota) and the annoying music.
In this commercial images of Dylan throughout his career are also presented to suggest that Dylan is an American icon and conflating that image with that of Chrysler. The biggest critique of this commercial is that it is simply done in bad taste. Those who truly revere Dylan for his outspokenness are seriously challenged when confronted with this trite work of nonsense.
The commercial comes off as too slick. Dylan's appearance is significantly altered and his face does not look human. Dylan's preachy tone throughout the commercial suggests a demonstration of false patriotism in the ugliest of manners. In a self-congratulatory sense, Dylan is seen as preserver as human rights and because of that you should by a black Chrysler 300. The commercial is long as well, lasting nearly two whole minutes. Throughout the mawkish dribble Dylan utters throughout piece, the viewer is rewarded with laugh when he watches and understands the true silliness of Bob Dylan putting on a pair of driving gloves preparing to speed off into his new Chrysler.
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