The Best Super Bowl Advertisement

There are a lot of commercials and advertisements that are played on tv everyday. Most are boring or lame, or you’ve seen them thousands of times, however, this advertisement is known as one of the best during the best time for ads, the Super Bowl. I am talking about none other than the 2011 Volkswagen Darth Vader commercial “The Force”. It was able to capture a child’s pure joy and excitement that we are all able to relate to which was an amazing sales idea. The use of the music and body language throughout the ad was perfect with relaying the message they wanted to get across. The ad was so good I still remembered it 11 years later from watching the Super Bowl that year.

During this advertisement you can see a kid dressed in a Darth Vader costume walking menacingly with the Darth Vader music playing in the background immediately truly setting the tone. The music makes sure you’re paying attention to none other than Darth Vader (the kid) making the focus him. The music playing is one of the most iconic theme songs ever letting everyone know what the theme is. What also helps the focus to stay on the kid is that the majority of all the rooms and items are white making him the only black thing in the room putting all the contrast on him. This helps to make the center of attention always him so your eye does not attract to anything that would cause a distraction. One of the main things though is that the kid also tries to use the force on almost everything he can, the elliptical, his dog who gives him a confused look, a washer machine and even a doll. However, you can see his frustration of it not working with his body language. This is especially evident when he tries to move the sandwich his mom made him which she then slides over to him with a bit of annoyance on her face since he keeps trying to do everything with the force which causes him to face palm due to being fed up (“Volkswagen”0.25-0.29). When dad gets home he rushes outside to give it another shot. When the dad sees his son he expects he’s coming for a hug and opens his arms but the son runs past him leaving a confusing and curious look on the dad’s face. As the son tries to use the force on the car it suddenly turns on for a second scaring the kid and making him believe he has powers including the viewers (“Volkswagen” 0.41-0.48). A great way they show this is once the kid supposedly turned the car on he looked back to the house then to the car in confusion and almost disbelief that it finally worked. However, the camera then pans to the dad watching his son out the window with the keys in his hand. He gave a little eyebrow shrug to his wife showing his enjoyment of making his son’s day and you can see the son acting in disbelief of what occurred. This entire ad pulls on the heart strings of everyone who remembers pretending to dress up as a kid showing that this car can bring joy to you and your family.