0:00-0:05 There is a large open room and instantly a dog runs into the screen. He is a medium sized beige dog with beige short fur and has big eyes with brown floppy ears. He seems very excited, his tail is wagging very fast and his mouth hangs open, as if something is about to happen. He skips to the center and looks at the camera and nudges his face forward. But is abruptly stopped by a wall that the audience cannot see, there is a glass wall between the dog and the camera. His mouth closes in confusion, he is taken off guard by the barrier. The dog looks to the side as his ears raise in suspicion and then runs away to the left as if something had distracted him, just leaving only an empty room. The walls are grey, but it does not show the whole room just a section of it.
0:05-0:09 The dog now runs back from the left and then stands in the middle of the room as his tail still wagging and you can see that he is panting, he is still very excited. He seems as if he just wants to play but is lonely. The dog then looks into the camera with a sort of a look of disappointment and then bolts to the right and out of our sight, leaving just an empty room again.
0:10-0:19 The pup runs back into the picture and to the center of the screen, in the same spot where he hit his nose and sits down facing the audience. The dog then takes his paw and bangs it on the glass twice, mimicking a prisoner in a jail cell wishing for an escape. The expression on the dog’s face changes during this, he looks confused and distraught. Then, he looks off to the left quickly but almost instantly back at you, but hesitates for a second before sprinting to the left and gone. When the dog looked back at person watching, it is almost as if he doesn’t want to run away but then ends up going.
0:19-0:23 The jumps jogs back into the room from the left side and stands in the middle of the room towards the audience and pauses. He then jumps once up in the air as if he is having the time of his life running around and having a good time, clearly happy about something. 0:23-0:28 The next thing to happen are bold letters appear on the back wall saying “There’s a shelter pet who wants to meet you”. At the same time, the dog appears on the bottom at the screen smiling at you, looking very content and of course, still wagging his tail. At the end the dog gives you a look for help one more time before running out for the last time.
0:00-0:01- A penguin is standing on a hill of snow potentially about to start walking down the hill. The penguin is looking off to one side of the hill minding his own business.
0:01- The penguin started to walk down, or on the snow turned the direction of his face. Still nothing bad is happening just a penguin on a hill.
0:03- The penguin jumps up into the hill, maybe he is about to slide down the hill of snow in order to get down quicker.
0:05- The penguin did decide to slide down the hill on his stomach, while sliding down he is gaining a lot of speed. Seems to be okay though the penguin is having no problems.
0:10- The penguin turns around to look at what would be his pocket, maybe to grab something out of it perhaps a phone.
0:11- 0:15- The penguin decided to grab his phone and answer the message that he had received. He is now sliding down the hill at a fast rate while staring completely at his phone and not to anything around him.
0:16- The penguins demeanor changed completely he looked up from his phone he seems worried and anxious like something may happen to him.
0:18- The penguin rammed into a hill/pile of snow on the screen is an imprint of the penguin on the pile of snow, where the penguin has went through.
0:21: Text on the video pops up and says “No One Should Text While Driving” the imprint of the penguin is still on the hill in the back. This has an impact reminding you that even the penguin crashed into the hill of snow because he was on his phone. This video was powerful in a sense that even though it wasn’t a totally direct take on texting and driving it still proved a point. Anyone texting and driving can be hurt even if its a penguin on a hill of snow.
0:00-0:01 There is a grey cartoon bull in a light blue colored room with potted flowers hanging on the wall. There are also flowers hung on a strand across the ceiling. The bull is looking down and looks like he feels bad about something.
0:01-0:02 The bull picks his head up and seems to be happy now. The screen shifts to an old lady holding a pot of flowers in a window, and the bull appears on the other side of the window and is happy to be smelling the flowers.
0:02-0:03 The old lady looks up and sees the bull and looks to be in shock. The bull takes off running and knocks the potted flowers off of the old lady’s outside window. It is clear to see the bull is outside.
0:03-0:04 A man is outside of what seems to be his house and the bull is looking at him face to face and the man carefully goes back in his house out of fear.
0:04 -0:05 When the man shuts the door, the bull becomes sad. The bull is running fast and looks angry. There is a hole in what looks to be a large dirt field.
0:06-0:07 The bull jumps and looks like he regrets it. He then looks scared and the camera shifts to a rabbit that looks terrified. I would assume the bull is jumping towards the rabbit.
0:08-0:09 The bull lands over the rabbits hole with his horns on either side, not injuring the rabbit at all. He then is standing next to the hole with a goat and they are both looking at the rabbit as it jumps back into the hole. The bull looks like he feels guilty.
0:10-0:11 The bull is looking at a waterfall in a valley and then the screen shifts to an animal transportation trailer and I would assume the bull is inside of that trailer.
0:12-0:13 There is a landscape of a tree on a hill and then the screen shifts to the bull surrounded by animal shaped balloons. The bull seems to be happy.
0:00-0:01 A boy who seems happy is shown probably around 6 years old based on size and dinosaur shirt. on the left of the screen, you see a bike handle and within that second you see him ripping something. The boy could have received a bike as a present.
0:01 In the image we see the bike in the center implying that is the main focus. the boy is holding wrapping paper and the bike has a bow on it so we can assume that it is either his birthday or some sort of celebration also based on people surrounding him and you can see some people clapping
0:01-0:03 The next image we see is the shoes of the boy but older riding the same bike. and then cuts to an image of his face. His facial expression shows that is concentrated and that he may be pretending to be riding something other than a bicycle maybe a motorcycle
0:03-0:04 the video then cuts to showing the boy’s back riding the bike down the middle of the street and we can see another boy’s elbow who is also riding a bike on the side of the screen. this shows that the boy and his friends are riding around having fun
0:06 the video cuts again and shows the same bike and the boys feet peddling the bike this time we see a crate in the front of the bike, we could make the assumption that it is being used to hold something. in the crate, we can see something white maybe newspapers?
0:07-0:08 panning a side view of the boy on the bike we see that he appears to be older than he was in the last segment. then a cut to the crate on the front of the bike and we see newspapers and the boy grabbing one of the papers. which shows us that he is a delivery boy
0:11-0:12 the next scene we see is the same bike with the boy older, he is riding up to a house that and he drops and leaves the bike outside. when he gets off the bike we see that he is holding flowers because of this maybe he is at his crush’s house and is stopping by to make an impression
0:13 then a cut the boy walking across the screen with the bike in a garage. the bike is dirty and has probably been sitting there for a while, we see the worn seat and a rag on the tire which proves that it hasn’t been ridden in a while. this is also the first scene we see the boy not riding the bike which maybe suggests that he is older now and doesn’t need a bike
0:15-0:16 we see a completely different setting showing a lady in a wheelchair with a name badge implying see is an employee. there are clothes on clothes racks in the background maybe suggesting it is a retail store. we then see her holding clipboard which could mean she is taking note of things in the store or inventory of some sort
0:17 we then follow a man down an aisle of the store, we can clearly see more clothes and labels to indicate what items are down what aisles. to the left of the man, we see an employee holding the blue bike on a table and she could be cleaning it
0:19 the image cuts to the employee with the bike and we see she is cleaning the bike with rag we can then assume that the bike is being resold at the store which we could assume it is some sort of thrift shop because we know the bike was previously owned by the boy.
0:01: The scene instantly transforms from a black screen to an aerial view (possibly taken by a drone?) of what could be considered the ideal countryside; to a view of very lush green fields, trees, a broad river cutting through, and a hazy gray sky. The land appears to have been altered slightly for human use, possibly for farms, possibly for a pasture for animals. Large swaths of land have been cut out for use.
This cuts out and is overlapped by an image of a rabbit. The rabbit looks animated, not realistic, and wears a blue collared shirt. It is running from side to side up what appears to be a steep hill. As in the previous picture, perhaps even more so, the grass is a very bright, lush green. No word better describes the scene than “verdant”.
The author’s purpose is very difficult to decipher from this first frame. The potential purpose could be:
to protest animal cruelty
to promote a wildlife reserve
to protest for nature conservation
to outline the beauty of nature and promote respect for nature
to promote recycling
to promote a particular area for travel
to promote an airline or helicopter ride
to promote a brand of gardening equipment or seeds
to promote gardening/home grown food
to promote a certain pesticide OR to protest the use of pesticides
to promote a brand of lawnmower or earth-moving tool
to protest animal captivity
to promote an area to live in/housing in a particular area
to promote nationalism for a particular country-or peace in wartime(?)/anti-war
to promote hunting OR to humanize animals by dressing them like humans to paint how horrific it is to hunt them (protest hunting animals)
to promote a brand of laundry detergent by showing that even after running through the hills and horribly staining the shirt, the rabbit will still be able to get out the tough stains
a perfume commercial for the “smell of the mountains”
to promote the theory of evolution because even rabbits will one day become sophisticated enough to wear shirts
to promote camping
to promote hiking
Et cetera.
0:02: It becomes clear that the rabbit is running over hills to get to his destination.
0:03: The scene changes yet again, to display a garden. A rabbit is running along a path through the garden. It is clear that it was meant to be a garden because of the rows of crops and sunflowers. Also, the fence surrounding the area and the sticks with the shirt over them (likely an attempt at a scarecrow) gives it the appearance of warding off predators and protecting the plants. Also, the rabbit in this scene is not wearing a shirt.
0:04: The view zooms in again on the rabbit, this time very close so that you can see his feet making an impact on the ground as he runs. This is perhaps to show that he is running very quickly.
0:05: The viewpoint shifts yet again to show the rabbit with the blue shirt. It appears as though he is waiting for the other rabbit. He is smiling, gesturing for the other rabbit to follow by waving his arm forward.
0:06: The viewpoint changes to show two elks(?) who are looking very purposefully in one direction. The grass is very tall there and reaches the elks’ waists. The area that the elks are looking at is quite the opposite; it appears to be well maintained and is bordered by buildings, possibly houses. The elks share a look that seems to imply a mutual curiosity.
0:07: The gates of (likely) the same garden as earlier are opened and a hoard of different types of animals are pouring through. Most notably, almost all of these animals are wearing some sort of clothes on the top half of their bodies. The pig even appears to be wearing a purple suit jacket. All of the animals seem to be very pleased.
0:08: There is a close-up of a furry hand (likely a rabbit’s) pulling a carrot from the ground.
0:09: Another hand pulls a different crop out of the ground.
0:10: A rabbit wearing a red top with a black collar is smiling as he throws cucumbers to a rabbit that is mostly out of view.
0:11: The same rabbit in the red top is sitting against a row of crops next to another rabbit with an unbuttoned blue/green collared button-down shirt. The rabbit in the red is smelling a carrot, presumably in the manner that a person would smell a delicious-looking meal. The other rabbit is already biting into another vegetable.
0:12: The rabbit in the red top bites down on the carrot enthusiastically. The two rabbits then share a glance, happily chewing their food.
0:13-0:14: The rabbit in the red is now lying next to a different rabbit, this one wearing a tied yellow shirt. Both of the rabbits have jovial expressions as they make snow angels in piles of some sort of vegetable.
0:15: All of the rabbits are lined up in a conga line, lifting their feet in sync as they happily dance.
0:16: Something is thrown at the rabbits as they move forward in the conga line.
0:17: The scene shifts to a white background, where three rabbits with no clothes are huddled around a pile of vegetables.
0:18: One of the rabbits jumps in the air, throwing the vegetables like confetti. Another of the rabbits follows suit, while the third rabbit watches. The words “Cook it” appear behind the rabbits.
0:19: The words “Store it” appear underneath the words “Cook it”. Finally, the words “Share it” appear beneath the “Store it”. The rabbits in the scene pick up more vegetables from the pile on the floor.
0:20: The words “Just don’t waste it.” replace the other words in the background. The rabbits continue celebrating the raining food in the air.
0:21: Three different rabbits, one in red, one in yellow, and one in green, are leaning in towards the viewer. The scene has changed again and the background is tall grass and plants surrounding a bridge. The rabbits are frowning, as in confusion.
0:22: The rabbits’ expressions change, suddenly lighting up.
0:23: The scene changes again to show a rabbit hole with light pouring in from the entrance. On the right of the scene is a table with presumably salt and pepper shakers on top, as well as a tea kettle. In the center of the scene is a rabbit with an armload of vegetables. Two rabbits are watching from the side with enthusiasm and perked ears. The rabbit carrying the vegetables throws them in the air. The camera reveals two more rabbits, four in total, that struggle to pick up the vegetables as they look at the rabbit that had been carrying them with confusion/disbelief.
0:24: The rabbit with the blue shirt is viewed from below as he jumps off of a stand containing a tall crop. Three rabbits from below look up with surprise. The words, “better ate than never” appear at the bottom of the screen.
0:25: The rabbit in the blue shirt is caught by the rabbits below. All of the rabbits look at the viewer directly and smile.
0:26-0:35: The screen changes to reveal “savethefood.com”, the AdCouncil logo, the NRDC logo, and stacked jars of food.
0:01-0:02- A woman is climbing up what looks to be a large pile of a substance we are unsure of. But, there are mountains of the same substance behind her as well. She is surrounded by this substance, and here she is seen trying to climb up the mountain. Mountains often symbolize an obstacle someone wants to overcome.
:0:03-0:05- We can now see that the mountain is made up of cigarettes, still fuming with smoke rising into the air. The woman is struggling to climb up, but she is progressing. This gives us an idea that maybe the woman has smoked before and now she is trying to overcome it.
0:06-0:10- It opens up with just a shot of the cigarettes themselves. We can infer there must be thousands of cigarettes in just one pile. As she tries to climb up her shoe kicks down lots of cigarettes. The clip ends with her hand trying to grasp a hold, but all she gets is a handful of cigarettes. She is struggling with climbing due to these cigarettes.
0:12-0:15- The woman’s face looks determined. She looks up, perhaps towards the top of the mountain. Maybe she is close to the top. She pushes herself up more and more with determination.
0:16-0:18- The woman can finally stand on top of the mountain. She did it! She turns her face to the camera.
0:19-0:21- The woman looks around at the view from on top of the mountain, and then looks at the camera and smiles. She has overcome the urge to smoke and has quit and is looking out on the life she can now live.
0:22-0:25- The camera zooms out gradually as the woman still stands on top, smiling. This shows just how massive of a mountain it really is, or, symbolically speaking, how big of an obstacle she just overcome.
0:26-0:30- A machine is on the screen used for lung scans. The woman can take a lung scan to ensure she is still healthy and not at risk for lung cancer, or she can get screened and realized because she smoked so many cigarettes it is too late to prevent cancer. Either way, this commercial promotes quitting smoking and to start getting lung scans.
The camera is zoomed out so that the viewers can see that the setting is a restaurant filled with people eating and talking among themselves. In the center of the frame we find a couple in a restaurant sitting down. They seem to be the camera’s main focus. The waiter is facing the woman, I assume he is taking her order.
:02- :16
The camera then zooms in on the woman. The woman is firing question after question towards the waiter. Her date seems calm during the interrogation but the waiter does appear to be a little flustered.
:17- :25
The words “we ask questions everywhere we go” appears in the middle of the scene to draw the audience’s attention. During this frame the camera goes to the setting of an examination room and the woman from the restaurant is sitting on the exam table. The woman is very shy and quiet when her doctor asks her is she has any concerns. At the end of this scene the words “except here” are in bold white in the middle of the frame.
:26- :30
The ad ends by directing people viewing this to get questions they should be asking their healthcare provider.
The screen opens with orange words “The Awkward Silence Presents,” most likely the production team. Behind this is some sort of small, furry animal that is stuffed standing on a small log or branch. This stuffed animal, maybe a possum, is most likely sitting on a table and is used as some sort of decoration. This addition seems funny in a sense because it is something a little strange. The possum takes away the seriousness for a time. We can assume this does not take place in present time, because taxidermy is not very popular now. Next to this animal is a picture of a boy in a metallic frame, reminding me of something I may see in my grandparents living room from when my dad was still a kid. To the left of the table where the animal and picture is, there is a tall lamp, which is on, with a green base leading to the lamp shade. Further in the shot is a stone fireplace, which we cannot tell is on or not. There are other decorations on the fireplace.
By the wood paneling in the room behind the animal and picture, this could be a living room of a cabin or home in the woods. This could also be in the mountains because I have not seen a living room of a house look like this. We can conclude this may take place in the 60’s because of the oddities we would not see in a modern home.
0:01-0:04
This scene begins with the words “How to know if you should reach out to a friend.” in yellow letters. We can understand that this may be the message of this ad, receiving help from a friend when in need. We can conclude this scene is taken in the same place as the last one because of the wooden wall paneling of the room. On the walls of the room are two pictures or paintings of outdoors scenes. These pictures remind me of a cabin I once stayed in when I was a kid. In the center of the screen is a man, possibly in his 20’s, sitting with his one ankle on the knee of his other leg. This man is in a tan chair that somewhat resembles a shell. He is wearing a brown turtleneck with tan pants that almost resemble the color of the chair and is wearing shoes, but no socks. His style seems out of date and humorous in a way. It does not seem dressy, but more casual. Maybe this man does not really care how he dresses. Next to the chair is a small table with two more statues or ceramic decorations, and a magazine or comic book. One is some sort of bird, maybe a swan, and the other is what looks like a unicorn.
In the background on the left side of the screen is a dark brown cabinet or table. It is two doors for possibly books. I think maybe books are in there because there is a stack of books on top of this table with a glass duck on top. Maybe the man in this frame has a collection of these magazines. Next to the books is some sort of glass or ceramic statue or decoration, and also another smaller light with a wood base and a shade with a light brown and tan pattern.
Directly behind the man is a tall black box (maybe a speaker), sitting on top of a brown table which matches the other one in the room. Next to the box is a medium size fish tank, maybe 10 gallons, and looks well-kept. There are also more books and also vinyl records or maybe magazines or comics. It is hard to tell from the distance.
The first three or four seconds show this ad has a humorous approach to it, still focusing on the main serious issue. We can conclude this man may be a little “weird”, collecting and keeping strange items. This room could be his definition of a man-cave, or maybe even an office or living room.
0:04-0:05
In this scene, the camera zooms in closer to the man sitting in the chair, so now it is only is upper body in the center of the screen. All that’s left on the sides is the ceramic statue, lamp, and the black box behind the chair. We assume he is now the main focus of this video.
0:05-0:13
The next seven or eight seconds, there are quick scenes of 7 different people who are all talking, but we do not know what about.
The first person is a young black female, maybe in her 20’s, without a shirt on. She looks to be laying down in a bed with white sheets. Her hair is curly, but does not look messy. The second is a black male, also without his shirt on. He may be sweaty because of the light reflecting off of his skin. These two may be in the same room or scene. We cannot tell what is behind the man because the camera is focused on him.
The next scene is quick and there is a women, maybe in her thirties, and she talks for less than a second. The background seems to be a messy room, but is hard to make out because the camera is focused on her.
The next is a younger woman again, early twenties, with straight hair and narrow face. Behind her are golden lettered balloons, but are not focused on enough to tell what they spell out.
The next scene is a young man laying down in a bed with white sheets and a white pillow. He does not have a shirt on. The man after this has the same background as the black man in the second scene. So maybe they are both connected?
The next short scene in of a man with curly hair with gold lettered balloons in the background, like the other woman. These two may be connected also.
After each person is seen, all people repeat one more time, with no changes in background. They all appear to talk, but cannot be heard what is being said. The director of this may include all of these different people to send a message that everyone may have something in common, no matter skin color or gender. We can assume some of these people are in the same room because of the backrounds, but it is not clear if they are significant with each other.
0:13-0:16
After the people are show, the scene goes back to the man sitting in the room, zoomed out to its original position. Everything is in the same place and the man is talking, using his hands to possibly get his point across. This man may be each of the other peoples’ friend, representing he is that person they can talk to. He should not be confused with a shrink, more of a friendly figure.
0:16-0:21
The camera zooms back into the man sitting in the chair, like the second scene.
0:16-0:31
The scene changes to the fish tank that was behind the man in the chair, and three fish are swimming around together. The director could have possibly used this scene to show that everyone does have someone else, even if this is shown by fish swimming together.
We pan to a shot of this guy named “Todd”. We see him eating something and he looks very delightful. It is the morning and he is off to work dressed in his work attire. It is very odd to see a person so happy in the morning because most people are very tired and grouchy.
Todd is smiling and finishes eating and washes his dish that he was using to eat off of. We then pan to a girl most likely his wife. She is smiling because she knows she has a wonderful husband that does his dishes.
05-09
Now we see an image of Todd outside walking to his car. Like I said he is probably on his way to work because he is dressed nicely. In the background we see an old Asian man struggling with his sprinkler system. Knowing that the Asian man is struggling it seems like the nice guy Todd is he will help him with his sprinkler.
Todd proceeds to go over and help the old man as we now pan to a new frame of Todd watering the tall bushes. We are beginning to see a pattern that Todd is a very nice and helpful man.
10-13
We flash to a coffee pot and it looks like a work building. A hand reaches for the pot and it is no one other than Todd. It seems as if he has made coffee for everyone in the break room.
It flashes out to an office scene where there is two coworkers at a table conversing. They both have coffee mugs so none other than Todd has made them coffee. Todd walks over and pours the coffee into one of his coworkers mugs while the other seems to be raving about the coffee.
14-15
The commercial cuts to a super market scene most likely this is Todd after work. The super market seems to be very crowded and there is a heckler behind Todd in line. The heckler is old-looking and seems to be impatient. Todd proceeds to let the man behind him in line in front of him. The old man is very thankful.
16-19
Now we pan to what seems to be Todd’s car. Someone reaches for a cell phone and then Todd appears looking at the cell phone smiling. It fades to Todd’s car pulling up at the light and shows another car next to his.
20-23
Now the camera changes to the face of the man in the car next to Todd’s. The man is smiling at first but once Todd pulls up and he sees that he is on his cell phone he automatically turns to a smug disappointed face. Now we go to Todd’s face as he notices that expression of the other man. In able to feel less awkward Todd looks to the other side.
24-31
Now that Todd is looking the other way the camera pans to the older black lady sitting at what seems to be a bench or a bus stop. She has the same smile that the other guy had and then when she notices Todd on his phone her face begins to show an angry expression. Todd now feels very embarrassed and a little shameful as he feels regret for pulling out his cell phone. The camera switches back to the old lady’s face again and she is still angry. Todd puts his phone down and gives her a head nod meaning he is sorry. He has a very sad look on his face. While all of the stare-down is happening words appear at the bottom of the screen saying “Ad council Stop texting and driving”. The commercial ends.
0:01 The ad starts with a black screen with text that reads: “Wednesday 8:01am”. This clearly lets the viewer know that the following video takes place on a Wednesday morning. This may have significance because Wednesday is in the middle of the week and 8:01am is early in the morning.
0:02 The video quickly cuts to a video of a man sitting on a bed and holding a vacuum to a little girl’s hair. The video quality is very poor which indicates it is most likely a home video. The setting is inside of a bedroom. The girl is wearing pajamas and seems to be comfortable with the man which indicates that the man is likely her father. It is hard to tell what the father’s intention is with the vacuum, but it could be a creative/fun way of doing his daughter’s hair.
0:13 The father continues to brush his daughter’s hair with his hands and then proceeds to put a hair tie in it, giving her a pony tail. This shows that he is helping his daughter out, probably doing her hair before she goes to school (since it’s a Wednesday morning). His use of the vacuum may have been to dry her hair.
0:17 The daughter then get up off her dad’s lap and walks over to the person holding the camera whilst smiling. This shows that she is happy with how her dad did her hair. It also makes me think that the person holding the camera is probably her mother. Also, another little girl walks into the scene and sits on the dad’s lap. This is probably the first girl’s sister. She likely expects her dad to do her hair too.
0:24 Both girls are smiling and seem to be very happy. The video then fades to another black screen which reads: “Take time to be a dad today”. This shows that the video was attempting to prove how important it is for dads to bond with their children.
Rowan Counterintuitive 