Week Five - 21st Century Fairy Tale

Television commercials nowadays are not just commercials; they have stories-…they are stories, and some could even rival those of fairy tales. For example, TM’s TV commercial ‘Everyone Connects’:

The commercial is so easily understood. Why is this so? This could be explained by using Gestalt Theory and Schema Theory.

Gestalt theory suggests that ‘the whole is different than the sum of its parts’ (Lester, 1995, page 53) and are influenced by wholeness, interdependence and contexts. And according to this theory, our perceptions are then ruled by the ‘principles of perceptual organisation’: proximity, similarity, common fate, figure or ground and closure.

Now, let’s analyze the commercial using this theory.

Wholeness: All the main male-and-paper character’s friends help him to get to his ‘paper’ girl of interest and the commercial concludes with both of them unites as a couple, which is evident in their photo posted in the social website Facebook.

Interdependence: The commercial is a success with the great coordination of the casts, the settings, the concepts and the production managements. The correct choice of theme song – ‘Through My Window’ by Bunkface – also contributes to the success of the commercial.

Context: It is easy for people to connect themselves with the commercial as most would be familiar with Facebook and it is common to find love interest in a workplace. As for the male character dare to undergo a ‘dangerous journey’ to get to his love interest, it is the same as those in fairy tales and modern romance movies. So, with all these familiarity, the commercial is easily understood.

Principles of perceptual organisations:

§  Proximity – the focus is centred on the main male character with sometimes to other characters with relations to the main character.

§  Similarity – although there is no such thing as paper human, but people could easily familiarize with the main character’s work life and social life and hence, contributes to the comprehension of the commercial.

§  Common fate – the commercial mostly follows the main character’s point of view which flows smoothly.

§  Figure/ground – although there are a lot of side characters, all are of the same purpose, uniting the main character with his love interest.

§  Closure – there is lack of speech in the commercial but with the right expression and the song accompanying the commercial, the events occurring in the commercial is easily comprehensible.

Hence, according to Gestalt theory, the commercial is a success because it fulfils all the requirements. Schema theory, however, requires something else.

Schema theory explains how people comprehend and perceive things based on their knowledge and learning. According to this theory, there are two types of memory structures called frames working whenever one is trying to comprehend something – top level and lower level. The top level is basically consists of what is familiar with the analyzer, while the lower level is what could be changed or filled within the same frame.

Especially in advertising, incongruity and congruity are important as while incongruent schema would bring greater interest than the congruent one, it has a higher risk of being misunderstood as it usually deals with the ‘unfamiliar’, unlike congruent schema which deals with familiarity and hence, easily understood.

Now, let’s analyze the commercial using this theory.

Top level: Most would be familiar with workplace, social network Facebook, love interest and helpful friends. The storyline would also be familiar with most as it does not differ that much from the normal romance like those in Disney’s movies and romance novels where the ale character would pursue his love interest despite of challenge or danger he might be facing.

Lower level: People do not usually encounter of having to glide from one building to another just to pursue one’s love interest, but it is easily understandable that this is just one of the ‘challenges’ that any person might face in creating a successful relationship. The act of the main male character’s friends of fanning him to give him a boost to go to the other building also would not be common, but again, it is easily understandable that this is just a way of friends would help someone in trouble.

Incongruent schema: The storyline might be simple but people are wondering how the story would turn out, given the fact the main characters are both made of paper and no speech are made during the commercial, save for the background song. It piques the audiences’ interest in watching the commercial from the beginning to the end, more ever it does not take long to finish.

As a result, according to Schema theory, the commercial is a success as although most of the components in the commercial are common, but there are some novelty created in the commercial, just enough to interest the viewer and at the same time, easily graspable.

Reference:

§  Lester, P. M. (1995). The Sensual And Perceptual Theories Of Visual Communication. Visual Communication: Images With Messages (page 52-58). California: Wadsworth Publishing.

§  Tracey, D.H. and Morrow, L.M. (2006). Schema Theory. An Introduction To Theories And Models (page 51-54). New York: Guildford Press. Retrieved June 21, 2010, from Universiti Brunei Darussalam Ebrary Books Website.