For example, it is best for me not to think about why I bought a new $18,000 automobile without so much as kicking the tires, yet every time I go to the grocery store and buy eggs I go through painstaking lengths to inspect every egg in the carton before parting with my $.99.

It is also best for me not to think about why my dog, a 2-year old Yellow Labrador, refuses to eat or drink anything unless he is inside of the house.

Lenny may be cute, be he refuses to dine al fresco

The reason I do not need to think about these things is because they defy logic. Trying to make sense of them would be a waste of time.

I have recently found that there is something else that makes no sense to me: television commercials. Recently, my Marketing Management professor at Ball State, Dr. Scott Inks, suggested that the class start watching television commercials with a critical eye in order to pick up on what the advertisers are trying to accomplish.

Since then I have gone from watching commercials like most people do (by flipping through the channels aimlessly until my program comes back on), to trying to perform a rudimentary psychological analysis on every commercial I see.

All I have learned is that most commercials do not lend themselves to in-depth analysis. They are meant to be glossed over. Sometimes dwelling on a commercial complicates matters to the point that the commercial ceases to make any sense. There are two popular, seemingly straightforward, advertisements that definitely fall into that category.

The first is the new Chef Boyardee commercial depicting a father and son sitting at the kitchen table. The son is enjoying a bowl of Chef Boyardee when the father notices the can, which reads “now contains a full serving of vegetables.” The father is amazed that canned ravioli can boast that amount of veggie-goodness. Unfortunately, every time he attempts to share his amazement, his wife cuts him off by running the garbage disposal or banging on pots. It’s a cute, but obvious, message – the mother is concerned that if her son realizes there are vegetables in Chef Boyardee, he will no longer want to eat his ravioli.

A few months ago, I would have seen that commercial and had a chuckle. Now, when I see it, I get confused. The kid in the commercial has to be at least 10 years old. The can of Chef Boyardee is sitting right in front of him. Can he not read? What’s the big secret?

Another commercial I struggle with, perhaps because it is geared toward a target market that is half my age, is Sony’s new “Los Angeles Plays PSP” commercial. The star of the commercial is a set of hands holding Sony’s portable gaming device. The spot shows the hands playing the PSP in the back seat of a car while life zooms by in fast-motion. Friends jump in and out of the car. Day turns to night as the vehicle zips along LA streets. The only constant is the anonymous pair of hands and their unwavering focus on the PSP.

The tag at the end, “everywhere just got better,” suggests that the portable nature of the device can turn any dull moment away from home into a fun-filled gaming utopia. But, is LA really that dull? The scenes depicted around the gaming device certainly looked more interesting to me than what was happening on the PSP’s small screen. It is almost as if the Sony commercial is saying, “Get your hands on a PSP! Take it everywhere and let life pass you by!”

Are there any commercials that fail to register with your logical mind? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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