When life throws you lemons, make seltzer.
This ad was cool, even though it was promoting alcohol [Budweiser Lemonade Seltzer]. I loved the themes and message. It focused on 2020 as being a hard year due to the pandemic. Most of the characters in the ad seemed to be professional athletes. It was interesting how, throughout the ad, lemons kept falling from the sky. It is pretty clear to me that this ad is targeting beer drinkers and people from the cool crowd, persuading them to buy their brand of seltzers. Seeing that 2020 was a tough year socially, this ad will have an effect on people who drink and want to change their feelings toward the pandemic. I went out and got some seltzers! I realize that these ads are using a deceptive form of advertising to get consumers to buy their products, even if they don't need them. Again, it's about selling, and it’s done so skillfully, all we can do is keep watching.
The ad is full of calamities associated with the lemons falling from the sky: a bride hides under a table crying while guests run from the pelting lemons. Due to the falling lemons, a man on a bike pitches into a row of trash cans. Another person viewing a timetable for flights in an airport looks on as all the data on the screen flips to lemons. All these scenes are a sort of metaphor for what a lemon of a year 2020 was. They never directly reference the pandemic but it’s pretty obviously the theme. At this party, no lemons are falling. The scene looks remarkably normal, in a post-pandemic sort of way. The cool people look on, standing next to a bucket of ice and seltzer. One of them reaches for a can, saying, “You know what they say. When life gives you lemons…” and a young woman interrupts, “We know what they say, Mark,” as she reaches for a lemonade seltzer, too.
People might feel a connection with this ad. When the ad is playing and if you’ve been thinking about the pandemic and how rough the year has been, this ad will connect with you. We’ve all had a hard year and no one wants to talk about it any more.
It sounds like you've done well to read the overall intensions of the producers of this ad. It's a good starting point, then I think there is more to say about the details and small choices that the producers have made that indicate something about their target, and will give you more to breakdown for your viewer in your video essay. For instance, each of these vignettes that you describe (the cut-aways to various circumstances) contains a wealth of information about their intensions, such as settings, actors, clothing, ages, economic status, etc. It's always tempting to say that ads target "everyone" though they never do. In every decision and narrative circumstance demographics are being precisely targeted and others are not as represented. The overall tone of humor plays a role here, as opposed to an alcohol ad that might be selling luxury, convenience, or some other cultural worldview. This ad seems to be leveraging the nostalgia folks feel about having casual time together, in warm backyards (refreshing seltzer being sold in the winter months), and de-emphasizing the nature, quality, or uniqueness of the product. Your point about athletes might be worth expanding upon as well. It's of course counter-intuitive to image beer as being associated with physical health, so it's possible that the producers want to highlight the idea that this product is low risk, low calorie, and an easy way to be social again. Might not really be for true beer drinkers! Good start here, and some fleshing out will make for a strong video.
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