trident: a little piece of happy.
Contrasted with a clean, simple white background a piece of trident gum sits quietly on your computer screen. A little girl innocently reciting, “he loves me, he loves me not” marks the beginning of a charmingly quaint commercial. A soft, upbeat melody backdrops the young girls eager voice as the small piece of trident gum unravels itself to reveal the young girl in a canary dress plucking exaggerated white petals off of a bright pink flower. Standing in a lush green park, the background stands unfocused while the young girl and the summer breeze appear exceptionally sharp. Tiny fingers pluck off the last petal as the young girl falls on “he loves me not,” seemingly disappointed the bright pink flower tightens and then grows an extra white petal. Giggling, the little girl in the canary dress gasps in excitement and exclaims, “He loves me!” Catching her smile the frame of the ad folds up into another piece of trident gum once again contrasted with a clean, simple white background and reads: “A Little Piece of Happy.”
In this fifteen second long commercial a few striking signs of originality shine through. The commercial blatantly appeals to the eye, being that the advertisement is based on clean and clear visuals, as to complement the purpose of their chewing gum, the simplicity of not only the concept but color scheme, perspective, and blunt advertising makes the ad easy to remember and comprehend. The originality of the piece of trident gum unraveling itself to unfold an experience of happy, innocent childhood memories and then fold back up hits a soft spot in every viewers heart, not that the cute little girl didn’t help. The camera angles that were used in this advertisement were unique as well. While watching the piece of gum unfold itself the camera angles it in a fashion where it is as if the viewer is unwrapping the piece of gum to place into their mouth. When the camera unfolds the experience, possibly implying that the experience of chewing trident gum is similar to the experience viewed, the viewer watches the little girl as if they were walking up to her. The angles the camera hits are soft and subtle yet close in on the girl as if the viewer were walking up to her and then leaning over her to look at the flower, see her excitement, and then quickly fold up the piece of trident gum and place it in front of them again to hear, “Trident a Little Piece of Happy.”
This advertisement works well in a variety of ways; the colors, the music, the focus, the angles, the casting of the little girl, and the setting as a whole are complementary to a simplistic, clean, and heartwarming commercial. To me, the most eye-catching portion of this advertisement was the beginning and the end. I truly appreciated the originality of the opening of the trident gum as well as the re-folding up of it. Despite it being aesthetically pleasing I felt that it was as well a very smart advertising technique, unique yet straight to the point, the viewer knew they were watching an advertisement for trident gum. The only aspect of the commercial that I would alter would be the color and size of the flower. I liked the exaggerated effect of the petals, yet I would have done it slightly differently. I agree with the color choice of a pink flower, yet I do not agree with the size of the flower or the choice for the exaggerated petals to be white. I think that if the young girl were to be wearing a pink dress, going off of the color composition of the flower, and the flower were to have been white, the color of trident gum, and yet extremely exaggerated the aim towards a clean-cut commercial would have better established. The image I see is the young girl in a bright pink dress holding a large daisy, larger than real life but not so large that it would take away from the scene, the commercial would have been more effective than it already is.
Originally I was on my computer and this little girl popped up on my screen and my heart sunk to the innocence of the short clip. Yet after doing this assignment I appreciated this commercial for more than just the darling nature of the ad, but for the visuals. I believe that this commercial is representative of a well thought out, aesthetically pleasing Internet commercial.
genevieve 