Bold Product + Bold Commercial = Bold Narrative Structure

What does narrative storytelling and food have in common? They make for a great Super Bowl commercial. Aside from the Super Bowl, everyone looks forward to the Super Bowl commercials. There has been a trend with using narrative storytelling to make a memorial Super Bowl commercial and Doritos follows the trend. Doritos made two commercials, in 2013 and 2014, which used narrative storytelling.

The 2013 Doritos commercial titled, “Goat 4 Sale,” involves a man who is casually strolling down the street while eating Doritos and approaches a goat who is also eating Doritos with a “Goat 4 Sale” sign adjacent to it. The man then purchases the goat and proceeds to take him home after noticing their commonality. The man shows the goat his seemingly endless supply of Doritos and the goat starts eating them all. The man eventually gets tired of the goat constantly crunching on the Doritos, hordes them all away and starts making a “Goat 4 Sale” sign. The goat freaks out and what happens after that is history. The advertisement’s target audience and tone are young adults to old adults and is humorous. The company is instantly identified in the commercial in the hands of the man walking down the street. The advertisement tells a story with a beginning, middle and end. The exposition is the man walking down the street. The rising action is the man purchasing the goat and taking it home and the goat eating the chips constantly. The climax is the goat finding the chips missing and catching the man hording the chips and making a “Goat 4 Sale” sign and the resolution is the aftermath of whatever the goat did to the man.

In 2014, Doritos took a different approach. The commercial, “Cowboy Kid,” involves two brothers racing to get to the Doritos bag that the mom just bought at the grocery store. The advertisement’s target audience is again young adults to old adults and is humorous. The company is identified midway through the commercial by the mom moving away from the van and the chips sitting in the seat. The advertisement has a beginning, middle and end. The exposition is the brothers playing in the backyard and the mom bringing in groceries. The rising action is the brothers spotting the recently purchased Doritos and the race to the Doritos. The climax is the little brother getting the Doritos and the resolution is the big brother losing the battle and being hog-tied by the little brother, with the mom cheering.

Doritos did a great job marketing its product using narrative storytelling but the 2013 advertisement had a stronger narrative, was more effective at catching and keeping the viewers’ attention, and is more likely to be shared by others due to its humor and intense narrative structure.