"Tropicana Get Into It"


I chose to deconstruct the commercial for Tropicana Orange Juice which you can review for yourself at www.belief.com. This commercial immediately caught my attention through it's clever use of both sight and sound.
Let me start with the visuals. As the commercial opens you are presented a very plain offwhite muted background, that offers no distractions. Your attention is immediately drawn to the Tropicana bottle in the center of the screen, but is then very quickly redirected to a beautiful, fresh, vibrantly colored orange that rolls from the foreground up to and around the bottle. The orange seems to dance about with a personified flair. It is not presented as an inanimate object.
The orange keeps the interest of the viewer with its comical personality. The orange repeatedly attempts to fit into the Tropicana bottle. At one point it backs up to get a running start, clearly demonstrating its determination to fit into the Tropicana juice bottle. While the orange continues on its endevor, it projects sounds that I can only compare to the 'Three Stooges', or possibly childrens cartoon sound effects. The language used by the orange is clearly understood, even though it never uses any words. When the orange finally enters the bottle, it is seen floating off happily with many other oranges. This group of oranges is fading out of view while they are all hooting and hollering with joy.
The final visual of the advertisement, to me doesn't quite fit although it is understandable why it became part of the project. When the orange had successfully entered the bottle, text appeared stating 'oranges squeezed' and the bottle is sealed. Then out of nowhere many oranges go zooming by with engine sounds like race cars. They fly by so fast that the bottle is left spinning. When it finally stops, another orange rolls up to the bottle and a straw pokes itself into the orange. Then the final text ' Sponsor of the Tropicana 400' appears on the screen. In my opinion the commercial quality would have been optimized if left to end at the point where the 'oranges squeezed' text appeared. This kept the whole ad from beginning to end true to the subject and to the desired effect that had been so cleverly put together. The sponsorship portion of the commercial in my opinion could have been made into a separate project.
The sound is a key element in this advertisment. From the very moment the orange enters the scene, the background music plays the theme song to 'I dream of Jeannie', a very popular television show from the 1960's. The music selection here fits for several reasons. The most obvious is the comical scene that is being played out between the orange and the bottle. The orange, complete with it's animated personality, is attempting to enter the narrow mouth of the bottle. This orange wants to be honored by becoming part of the Tropicana product line. The scene reflects the comedy style that is associated with this well known television show. The orange is used to actually mimic the action of the television actress, Barbara Eden, who amazed young viewers for years as she whirled into a puff of smoke and entered and/or exited her apholstered genie bottle. If you listen to the music carefully as the drums begin, the orange begins to spin wildly. This is at the same point in the musical score in the television series introduction where Jeannie spins into a cloud of smoke as she enters the bottle.
Another reason I find the musical selection extremely fitting for this particular commercial is based upon the target audience. Who buys orange juice? Parents grocery shopping for their families most likely make up the largest percentage of buyers for this particular product. Most parents today are old enough to relate to, and most likely have some type of positive recollection of the 'I dream of Jeannie' television series. It is a fun spirited, playful song that will bring them back to memories of their own childhood. Connecting good childhood memories with a healthy drink for their own children is really quite clever.