2009 BMW 335i TV commercialhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXjtcQhfBdI

Ad Description: “What makes an athlete a champion?” the ad asks right at the beginning, then promptly answers its own question. In alternating shots cutting back and forth between a high-performance swimmer and the BMW 335i the ad shows us the science behind both objects with various measurements and graphs superimposed on them. The swimmer beats his opponent in a short race while the car drives along a curvy, empty road that leads to a distant city at the end.

Target audience: Highly successful people around the age of 30. Since the driver is never shown, it could be male of female. Car retailed for 40-50k, almost twice as much as a Honda Civic.

Basic Appeals:The Need to Dominate: Right at the beginning when the commercial asks “What makes an athlete a champion?” the ad draws an affiliation between the car and a world-class swimmer. This need is very important when marketing a luxury car because of the buyer’s desire for status.The Need to Escape: The image of the car trekking along a windy, lonely road has been so overused in car commercials it has moved beyond cliché and become a standard. The ad depicts the enjoyment of driving for driving’s sake before the car must return to the city at the end. The Need for Aesthetic Sensation: The ad is high in contrast between dark and light and the colors are also very desaturated. The addition of the graphs and measurements in white makes for a very aesthetically pleasing commercial. It is very highly stylized and well-edited.

Mercedes-Benz, Child commercial (20090http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UtIeBKTafM

Ad description: What at first appears to be a jumble of text turns out to be a road scene. But there’s a twist, every object in the scene is made up of the letters that spell it. For example, raindrops are literally the word “raindrop” falling vertically from the sky. The ad is shot from a first-person perspective and begins on a bridge, goes through a tunnel, and emerges in a rainstorm.

Target Audience: The ad promotes Mercedes-Benz’s new BAS (Brake Assist Plus) braking system. It is aimed at potential buyers who consider safety a top factor in selecting a car. Since Mercedes-Benz makes luxury vehicles the ad is marketing to wealthy people.

Basic Appeals:The Need for Safety: The ad focuses on Mercedes-Benz’s new braking system rather than any specific model of car. The point is driven home at the end when the BAS prevents the driver from hitting a text-based child ho had chased a ball into the street during a rainstorm.The Need for Aesthetic Sensation: Making an ad that stands out visually seems to be a priority for car makers. Here the ad presents something the viewer has likely never seen before. It is in black and white making a very clean looking image, they also cleverly use varying font sizes to create shading effects on their objects.The Need to Satisfy Curiosity: What exactly is being advertised isn’t made clear until the very end. This and the unique aesthetic will keep the viewer’s focus and attention until the commercial is finished. The tagline “The first brake that reads the street” completes the ad and gives a reason for the literal interpretation of the word ‘read’.

2007 Toyota Sienna commercialhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpog0xUKTU

Ad Description: A young boy is playing cards with a friend in his parents’ minivan when his father rushes in to announce the treehouse he had been working on over 4 weekends was finally finished. The kid is unimpressed because the treehouse lacks certain features that the Toyota Sienna happens to have.

Target Audience: Middle class families with kids.

Basic Appeals: The Need for Affiliation: Although the son and his friend are unimpressed by the treehouse, the father proves himself to be an involved and providing member of his family. In addition to spending his free time on weekends to build a treehouse he had already purchased a nice minivan. The ad depicts a functional and caring family.The Need to Escape: A treehouse is a childhood symbol that represents a place you could retreat to and get away from homework and the boredom of home. Here the treehouse is replaced by a minivan with a built-in DVD player.The Need for Autonomy: Despite the father’s enthusiasm regarding the newly finished treehouse, the son has already decided for himself which one he prefers.