nature's own

One of my favorite channels on TV to watch is the Food Network. Usually if I’m busy doing something and I just want some background noise, I’ll just turn the TV to that station and let it play. Because I watch it so much, I am also familiar with the commercials that run on that station, and one that I absolutely love is for Nature’s Own bread. I don’t buy that brand and I don’t eat wheat bread (although I know I probably should) but that commercial is great, and I think it does a great job of appealing to a few SEMs.

The first thing about the commercial that caught my attention is the song playing in the background, obviously appealing to the SEM of sense (sound). The music is catchy in a relaxing, summer day kind of way and the lyrics are perfect for the message the company is trying to get across. The commercial starts off singing “I don’t love you much do I, just more than all the stars in the sky” which kind of made me “awww” inside (SEM of feel, but we’ll get to that later). The song perfectly matches the commercial because the commercial shows several families having fun together playing football outside, scrambling to get everything ready in the chaos of the morning or snuggling on the couch – obviously families that care and love each other very much. It’s a very picture perfect, all-American type scene which the music captures.

The next SEM is of feel. Watching the commercial made me happy because you’re watching happy families interact. There’s a little kid running around with a pasta strainer on his head, banging a metal bowl with a wooden spoon – very cute, and it made me smile. Then there’s the family that’s playing in the sprinklers. I mean, who doesn’t love playing in the sprinklers, right? Those kinds of happy, fun images elicit cheerful, caring emotions and at the very least leave the viewer with a sense of contentment. It almost makes you feel that no matter what goes wrong in the world or at work or at school, at the end of the day, your family will always be there for you and love you. That’s pretty powerful for a bread company.

The third SEM the commercial appeals to, is that the viewer can relate to it. I’m fairly certain no one wishes to be a part of a torn-up, screwed up family so watching these “ideal” families interact kind of makes the viewer think “yeah, I want my family to be like that”. The tagline at the end reading, “You give your best every day. So do we.” speaks directly to the viewer. It’s very compelling for mothers especially because which mom out there would actually think “no, I don’t think I’ll do everything I can for my kids today”? Hopefully not very many. The commercial practically screams “if you buy our bread you too can have the ideal family with the cute kids and all the quality family time in the world” but in a gentler, more subtle way. It makes the viewer want to be a part of a family like the ones shown in the commercial. Also, parents want their families to be healthy, as a general rule. Surely the happy, loving parents in the commercial would feed their families only the best, healthiest bread. Meaning anyone who gives a squat about their families would be smart and buy Nature’s Own bread. Therefore people can relate to the commercial in this second aspect.

I think this commercial does a great job of appealing to these three experiences because they were all very easy to describe. I could easily distinguish each experience in the commercial, and I think the fact that I loved this commercial – but wasn’t quite sure why – before this blog was even assigned just further proves its effectiveness. Seeing as I don’t have a family of my own and am not thinking about starting one soon, I feel like my only bias is that I am kind of a sappy, cheesy person and am a sucker for cute commercials such as this one. Still, I believe that even a rational person can watch the commercial and come away feeling good.