One way that we can teach ourselves how to be a skilled commercial writer is breaking down exactly what is in the commercial, piece by piece, then making changes we think would’ve made it a better commercial/ad. It also gives us a good outline of how to create a captivating ad for ourselves. This method was created by Ed Nash from his book Direct Marketing which was made for copywriting, but I like it for commercials and I will be using it on a Chevy Commercial that is on YouTube.

There are 9 steps to Reverse Engineering a commercial.

1)      What kind of lists, target market or publications do you think that they are using?

2)      What is their objective? What do they want you to do?

3)      Describe the formats and the elements in production terms.

4)      How is the product or service, “positioned?” How else can it be positioned?

5)      What are the practical benefits are they offering you?

6)      What emotional or self-esteem appeal was used or could’ve been used?

7)      What headline was meant to stop you and get you interested to watch on?

8)      Did it encourage you to act now rather than later? How?

9)      How would you Improve it?

 Here is the commercial I used - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h157td3dMzk

1.       If I was going to breakdown the commercial and see whom they would be targeting here are people that fall in the mid/mid upper middle class professional. The age range would be 30 to 50 male and female. Also, you can see they are targeting those people whom like to stand out amount the crowd. I would say “well dressed” but obviously, over dressed in terms of fashion sense. There are definitely some loud outfits going on.

2.       The objective of the commercial is to show off the new vehicles design and flaunt how stylish It is. The make it a point to get their message across that this vehicle is a real head turner. They want the potential consumer to purchase the vehicle so that they can also be part of the head turning. Be something greater than the crowd. Which aligns directly with the fashion sense of the crowd of people. The way they are dressed, they want to standout from the crowd.

3.       They set up the car to be the center of attraction. They basically want to show off, that they are showing off this vehicle. The have all the production equipment out for everyone to see. Bright lights, bright colors, good weather.

4.       It is positioned to be a stylish vehicle for stylish people

5.       In this commercial, I believe their intention is not to show off any practicality what so ever.

6.       Big smiles, feel good all around. Look at all the attention this vehicle is getting, imagine if you were in this vehicle. You would now be getting all the attention.

7.       Real People, Not actors. (Last time I checked actors may be a real people too possibly?) But yeah, I do get what they’re trying to say here. But what isn’t said, is if these real people were paid, dressed and had makeup before doing their little stroll.

8.       There really was no call to action in their commercial other than making dads “sexy” and moms “cool”.

9.       I do get what they are trying to do here, I think they do a good job of it. I would’ve had a call to action, even a small one. So, for what Chevy’s goal was they did a decent job of doing it.

I’m going to do these weekly, hopefully these help you create your own commercial. I will do different industries each time. If you have any request for a commercial that you would like me to do send me a email

Thanks for reading!

Jason St Clair

Atheoz.com

jason@atheoz.com