Extra Gum - Video Analysis
Updated: Nov 19, 2023
I absolutely loved the "Extra Gum - Can't Help Falling In Love Feat. Haley Reinhart" commercial. It is extremely heartfelt and works many angles to reach their audience. For a gum commercial, it is pretty successful. In total, the video is about two minutes long. Each scene, we can see the beautiful love story of high school sweethearts from the first time meeting all the way until they get engaged. There are no actual spoken words in the piece. Haley Reinhart’s song “Can’t Help Falling In Love” plays in the background as the main stimulator for your senses. The song starts of slow and sweet, then picks up speed and increases volume as their relationship really takes off. Throughout the love story, the common denominator that ties them to one another is the piece of gum she gives him, then he draws on it, and hangs it in the museum at the end for his proposal. Even the image quality and coloration changes slightly as the commercial progresses. It is a timeline of their life, so the older part of the story has a more faded coloration, and the engagement is in full vibrant colors, for the winter at least. At the end, you see the gum wrapper with the drawing of the proposal being folded back up into the shape of a piece of gum and stuck back into the package. There is a simple green background in a different tint than the gum package, so that it can stand apart from it. Then, the words “#giveExtragetextra” appear on the screen. The word Extra is in the form of the gum packaging rather than typed in a text box. I love that they chose to utilize an image, and different variations of fonts for the hashtag to make it stand out more. Extra’s argument is to get you to buy gum, and to use their hashtag. When you give something extra, then you will most likely get something extra. It is making the world better one piece of gum at a time, in my personal opinion. As far as Aristotelian appeals, they are on fire for pathos. The comments for the video are all about trying not to cry and how it is a better lovestory than Twilight. One person even made the comment that it was such an “Extra” video. This was quite punny to me, which ultimately works to benefit the companies ethos as a whole.
I would have to say that their primary target is young people, maybe even specifically females. The main people you see throughout the commercial is a heterosexual couple going through their love story from the awkward beginning of high school phase to the first date to playing in the snow, moving in together, doing long distance, and in the end getting engaged. It is a very family oriented commercial as well. The characters have their own personalities, ambitions, and careers. One aspect that is consistent is the fact that they are young and in love. It is a truly unique love story, that is super relatable. I might dare to even say that the Millennial generation is their target audience. Even the music is very sweet and innocent. The video was released onto television commercial spots in 2015, and published online on Youtube on October 7, 2015. Since then, the video has had over twenty-two million views. To say it was a success is an understatement. Their exigence is not necessarily a problem, but an alternative way of living. Whenever you give extra, you are going to get extra. Extra being the gum in this particular scenario. The author is the producers of the Extra gum commercial and the writers that they worked closely with. A constraint could be the fact that they limited it to a heterosexual couple. In today’s world, everyone gets easily offended by the slightest overlook of diversity. On the other hand, if they would have changed it to a homosexual couple, then I do not think it would have had the same effect.
Extra gum did a remarkable job, in my opinion, on the story line and creation of the commercial for such a simple product. By the producers deciding not to incorporate any spoken words in the video, they narrowed the audio down to a female vocalist singing a popular love song that can truly hit home. Their main argument is that giving to others can mean benefits for you in the long run, sometimes physical, mental or emotional, however the viewer wants to take it. The company took it a step further than simply selling a stick of gum. They created a love story that many people can relate to. Whether it is the happy moments, awkward moments, sad moments, angry moments, Extra displayed it all. The music in the background simply just tied it all together. The main word that I keep repeating is the term: simple. Extra is simple gum. The music was simplistic. The packaging is a simplistic graphic design. You can definitely tell that the creative development team worked hard to come up with an intriguing story that pulls on the heartstrings, while getting their point across in only two minutes. In order to make it more effective, though, I would have different variations of the commercial. If they wanted to target a different audience, such as people around the holidays, as a good stocking stuffer gift, then they should place this video on Hallmark, maybe in a slightly shorter form. By doing this, they will grab attention, pull on heartstrings, maintain that attention, and deliver the punchline in a minute or less. Overall, Extra’s commercial is extremely persuasive from my point of view. I am a sucker for love stories, especially one where they get engaged at the end. Honestly, I would not change anything!
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