Can improbable and unexpected events take place in an otherwise ordinary city? Some TV commercials make their point by proposing precisely that. Following the previous post’s discussion of unlikely urban interventions, this post will instead focus on TV commercials which present unusual events that are set in regular urban environments. Such highly improbable events are presented either as the desired result of using the advertised product, or conversely, as a demonstration of the kind of problems that the product can help its customers deal with.
The first example presents a series of strange occurrences in a traditional Italian town. To the astonishment of its inhabitants, angels suddenly start falling from the sky, and they are in search of something. The beauty of the setting and its solemn traditions serve as a fitting counterpoint to the events presented in it and to the role of the advertised product in making them happen:
The second example presents a contemporary high-rise urban environment as it becomes filled with imaginary creatures and other objects that are made out of cut-out paper drawings. This mix of imagination and reality is metaphorically suggested to be precisely what its advertised brand can provide you with if you choose to use it too:
The following TV commercial uses an urban environment to present the kind of trouble that its advertised service can help its clients with. Financial problems, which are often represented through the use of statistical diagrams, here take the form of physical hazards that one can stumble upon anywhere in the city, in a whole range of unexpected ways:
The final example shows a city in which the improbable events presented in it are common to all of its inhabitants. The city may look otherwise normal to us, but the kinds of extreme events that take place in it are such that we would otherwise only see in movies – yet here they seem to be a normal way of life for everyone. In such a setting, then, the advertised product is presented as a successful solution for handling even such a demanding lifestyle as this one:
What is common to all the above examples is that despite the peculiarity of their various events, they all take place in otherwise regular urban environments. As TV commercials, the value of their advertised products is thus demonstrated through an optimized match of two contrasts: An improbable outlandish event, presented on the backdrop of its own corresponding stable environment.
