Which way to go now?
I think to myself, if I go left down
this road,
there’s the risk of death and
destruction.
A life edged with fear and high
adventure.
Of course the possibility of total ruin.
But would I be able to spend all time,
eternity,
in the safety of a place without the
promise of a thrill?
And this is how it all began.”
- “Crossroads” (Johnnie Walker
Commercial)
The Dark Side of Subliminal Advertising is
a blog site that exposes the advertising technique of placing hidden
(subliminal) ideas, imagery, and words in advertisements.
This month’s blog entry will feature a commercial
for Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky. This advertisement
epitomizes the essence of the Dark Side of Subliminal Advertising.
The Johnnie Walker commercial can be seen at this link:
“CROSSROADS”
JOHNNIE WALKER AD
“You’ve reached a crossroads
in your journey.”
The beginning of the commercial features
a man standing at a crossroads in the desert.
Notice the warning signs behind the man that suddenly appear out
of nowhere:
.png)
“Which way to go now?”
A light blue
car is driven up to the man and the driver slows down to offer the man a
ride. Notice the look of concern in the driver’s eyes and facial
expression:
Also, notice the warning signs behind the light
blue vehicle:
.png)
The man
immediately turns down the offer for a ride, by the driver of the light blue
car, by waving his hand for the driver to continue on.
The driver
leaves the man behind. As the car leaves, the man at the crossroads
shakes his head to the left and right as if meaning “no way.”
Take a close
look at the bumper stickers on the light blue vehicle:
.png)
The light
blue car symbolizes "playing it safe".
Light blue
is associated with peace, tranquility, quiet, pure, understanding, health,
healing. 1
The bumper
stickers portray the driver as a person who “plays it safe.” He is very careful
to be cautious and to avoid taking any risks.
The sign
that reads “Child on Board” is underneath the sign that reads “School Careful –
Slow Down.” This shows that the driver is a family man with at least one
child.
One bumper
sticker has the name “Jesus” on it, showing that the driver is a conservative
Christian.
This driver
of the blue car represents a person who does not drink hard liquor.
The man at
the crossroads wants nothing to do with this driver’s lifestyle, so he
immediately rejects the offer to “play it safe and not drink hard
liquor.”
Also, the
warning signs on the roadside corners are sending the message, to the viewers
of this commercial, to avoid going down the road of “playing it safe by not
drinking hard liquor."
“I think to myself,”
The man at
the crossroads is standing next to a large heart that says “Love You":
Suddenly, a white car driven by a
woman pulls up alongside the man:
“if I go left”
After the
word “left” is mentioned by the narrator of this ad, the woman is seen looking
directly at the man. With a nod towards the passenger side, she invites
the man to take a ride with her in the white car:
There is
tremendous symbolism involved with the decision to “go left”. In this
commercial, to make a decision to go left means choosing to go towards the
“left hand path” on the crossroads.
The left
hand path represents the “path of evil, maliciousness and danger.” 2
“The left
has become nearly universally shunned. The right has been associated with all
things good and pure whilst the left has been shunned as unholy, evil and
relegated to inferiority.” 3
“down this
road,”
The man approaches the passenger side of
the car (the left side of the woman). As he starts to get into the car, this
shot of the woman’s profile is seen:
The woman has transformed into
someone or something else:
The woman’s
skin turns very pale compared to the initial appearance of the woman.
Notice the line along the woman’s neck looks like a seam. Also, the
woman's hairline on her forehead has holes in it like a plastic doll’s head
would have for artificial hair.
“there’s the risk of death”
This picture
of the woman appears when the narrator says, "there's the risk of “death”:
In some
cultures, the right path / left path symbolism means, “right is good, is life,
is divine; but the left is female, bad, evil and morbid.” 4
“Pythagoras
set out in his Table of Opposites that the right hand side, male; lightness,
was the opposite of the left hand side that was female, and darkness.” 5
The right
side was considered “to be godly, representing life; the left side is dedicated
to demons and the devil, representing death.” 6
When the
woman looks directly at the man, he backs away from the car, alarmed at what he
sees.
In this
commercial, this woman is a spirit of death.
Hard liquor
is considered a “spirit” (distilled liquor).
Before the
woman shows up in the car, the man is standing next to a large heart shaped
object with the words “Love You” on it. This represents the love that the
man has for hard liquor (spirits).
By consuming
too much hard liquor, there is a risk of death, especially if an individual
becomes a heavy drinker or an alcoholic.
Overconsumption
of hard liquor can transform distilled liquor into a “spirit” of death.
“and destruction.”
When the
narrator says the words “and destruction” the woman drives away in the white
car leaving the man behind.
The color of
white, on this car, connotes cold, isolation 7 and also
death. 8
After the
woman drives away, the man at the crossroads becomes surrounded with flying
debris:
.png)
The frame of a car is beginning to
form from the debris:
“A life edged with fear and high
adventure.”
A man is seen driving the car as the
car begins to take form from the debris:
The orange car, formed from the
debris, pulls up to the man at the crossroads:
The color of
orange, on this car, is used to draw attention – such as the caution signal on
a traffic light. 9
Caution
serves as “a warning against danger or evil.” 10
The driver
of the orange car offers the man at the crossroads a ride:
At first, the man at the crossroads
likes this offer:
.png)
“Of course the possibility of total
ruin.”
Soon
however, the man at the crossroads notices that there are police cars chasing
the driver of the orange car:
As the
police cars drive by, the man at the crossroads looks into the windows of one
of the police cars and here is what he sees:
The mouths of the policemen are
megaphones:
The police
cars pass the man at the crossroads in pursuit of the driver in the orange
vehicle:
The driver of the orange car has cheated
death. This is represented by the
reverse order where the orange car is totally destroyed and then transforms
back to its original condition.
Since the driver has cheated death, the
police are chasing the man in order to claim back his soul which should have
been lost in the accident. The policemen
are, in effect, Death’s enforcement agents.
This is a similar theme to the Final
Destination movies. In these movies,
Death chases the people, who have cheated death, in order to claim back their
lives which should have been lost in the first place.
The mouths of the policeman are shaped
like megaphones because they are calling out to the driver of the orange car
that there is no escaping death. Megaphones can call out in a range as far as
1500 feet.
These policemen are spirits of death.
As mentioned previously, hard liquor is
considered a “spirit” (distilled liquor).
It is shocking that a car accident
occurs in a hard liquor commercial.
By drinking and driving, there is the
risk of death.
When drinking is involved with driving,
distilled liquor can become a “spirit” of death.
According to CDC (Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention), “Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die
in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts
to one death every 48 minutes. The
annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion.” 11
“US adults drank too much and got behind
the wheel about 112 million times in 2010. Alcohol-impaired drivers are
involved in about 1 in 3 crash deaths.” 12
In 2010, there were 10,228
alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities (out of 32,885 total fatalities in motor
vehicle crashes). 13
A survey of 178 countries finds 30 to 40
percent of road deaths are caused by alcohol. 14
“But would I be able to spend all
time, eternity,”
The beginning of sunset:
The man at the crossroads is
contemplating a decision as it gets darker outside.
“in the safety of a place without
the promise of a thrill?”
In the
darkness of night, the man at the crossroads makes a choice to go down the road
of hard liquor consumption, with all the risks that drinking hard liquor
entails.
He makes
this choice instead of choosing to play it safe “in the safety of a place
without the promise of a thrill.”
“And this is how it all began.”
The viewer
of this commerical has the power to choose what kind of drinker they want to
be:
1. Non-Drinker
2. Moderate Drinker
3. Binge Drinker
4. Heavy Drinker.
Jean Kilbourne, who is the Chair of the
Council on Alcohol states the following two comments:
1.
“It frightens me still to realize how deeply alcohol advertisers understand the
precise nature of addiction and how deliberately and destructively they use
their knowledge” 15
2. “Recognizing
this important marketing fact, alcohol companies deliberately devise ads
designed to appeal to heavy drinkers. Advertising is usually directed toward
promoting loyalty and increasing usage, and heavy users of any product are the
best customers. The heavy user of alcohol is usually an addict.” 16
Drug policy reform expert Pete Guither
writes, “So do alcohol companies do any marketing to heavy users? Sure. It
isn’t changing the use of alcohol, only what brand is getting the larger share
of the market.” 17
The top 5% of drinkers of alcohol
account for 42% of the nation’s total alcohol consumption.18
About 17.6 million Americans abuse or
are dependent on alcohol. 19
Globally, the “harmful use of alcohol
results in the death of 2.5 million people annually, causes illness and injury
to millions more, and increasingly affects younger generations and drinkers in
developing countries. 20
Very well done! Posted in my facebook...
ReplyDeleteVery good detection on your part of these surreal elements. However, I disagree with your interpretation. The divide between the conscious and unconscious is the common feature of all abused people. As there have always been those who are rulers and those who are ruled, most of us fall into the category of the ruled. Naturally, we struggle against this confinement. What is happening here is this man's struggle subconsciously against reality. The first path, that of square, repele him amd is dismissed outright. As i said, he rebels subconsciously against his assigned station in life. What does the subslconscious desire? Validation. Thus in the next scene we see the heart "love you", and the promise of l9ve with tbis strange and beautiful woman. What is the end result? We are told: death, she will kill you. Women are plastic and untrustworthy. Frustrated, the subconsciojs rebels further, want to do away with every rule and convention. Thus nextly we meet the criminal, formed from the shattered manifestations of the subconscious into the conscious. Frustrated beyond capacity, the subconscious rebels, and what are the consequences? Imprisonment, torture, death. The police with the megafonds was a good find. They represent to the subconscious the fact that he must submit to what authority tells him to do and think. Finally, being built to a crescendo, all this angst and frustration, needing an outoet, is given a safety valve, an out. When? In the nighttime. The time when people drink. Does the protagonist ever make a decision on which car to travel in? No, he is terrified of all means of conveyance. He decides to walk. But, accepting that he can't make be safe, voz., make the decision he truly feels within, he drinks johnny walker and submits to all the forces that supply his decisions and control his life.
ReplyDeleteThe warning signs reinforce that no decision is the right one, yet they dissapear when he starts drinking.
ReplyDeleteFinally, there's the "walking into the light" motif, so common with freemasonry and religion, and given to us as what happens when we accept death. Death is the ultimate submission.
ReplyDeleteNice blog. Thanks for sharing that looks awesome.
ReplyDeletevehicle advertising in Malaysia
Nice Blog, thanks for sharing that’s awesome
ReplyDeleteVehicle Advertising