Subaru "Baby Driver" Commercial Attempts to Connect with Parents using the "Safety" Appeal Technique

Normally, I hate commercials. Most of them are ineffective, and highly irritating. However, Subaru recently came out with an ad titled, "Baby Driver," which I found to be effective. The ad shows a conversation between a father and his daughter, a new driver, only the daughter isn't the typical age of a new driver. Rather, the daughter shown in the beginning of the commercial is about 5-years old. The father is rattling off safety precautions while the young girl is putting her seatbelt on and starting the car.  I found the ad to be effective because the conversation was very realistic, and it reminded me of the speeches I received from my dad when I first started driving. In addition, the little girl's adorable voice and appearance made me highly sensitized to the ad's message about safety. 

In class we discussed different appeals of advertising that companies use to connect with their consumers through commercials. The appeal that Subaru used in this commercial was the appeal to safety. The safety appeal approach is generally aimed at an older audience, who is concerned about not only their safety, but the safety of their loved ones as well. Safety ads are generally less flashy, and more realistic. Ads with safety appeal use realistic situations to give their potential consumers assurance that their product will keep them, their families, and friends out of harms way. 

The Subaru commercial perfectly uses the safety appeal in its commercial. The commercial plays on the heart-strings of parents everywhere, who all share the same fear of handing the keys to their car to their child for the first time knowing all of the dangers that lay ahead on the road. It is a realistic situation that doesn't discuss all the flashy and up-to-date elements of the Subaru itself, like other car ads do. Rather, Subaru and its advertising team decides to focus on the consumer rather than the product. The consumer, after viewing the commercial, is supposed to feel confident that if he/she purchases a Subaru, the people he/she cares about most in the world will be safe while operating a motor vehicle. 

Below I have attached two links. 

The first, is the link to the actual ad. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qf8OGLqE1s

The second, is an article that supports my claim that the "Baby Driver" ad uses the safety appeal in the commercial. 

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2010/08/new-subaru-ad-promotes-brands-safety-captures-teen’s-“first-time-out”-driving-moment.html