The Story of Sarah & Juan: An Extra Storytelling Analysis
In Extra Gum’s commercial “The Story of Sarah & Juan”, the love story of a girl and a boy is told in a matter of two minutes, through the constant sharing of gum; specifically, Extra gum. From their first meeting to the day Juan proposed to Sarah, he uses the gum wrappers, from the gum pieces they share in their most prominent moments as a couple, for a canvas in order to draw out each special moment. At the end, Juan sets up a gallery with these gum wrappers, the final one being a drawing of him on one knee. When Sarah looks through the gallery, sees the final image, and turns around, Juan is on one knee with ring in hand, proposing.
Published on Youtube October 7th, 2015, this Extra Gum commercial has become a video shared among many on the Internet due to its sweet interpretation of a love story, following a couples’ life together. Although not a part of a series, Extra Gum has been focusing their commercials around one element: love. In one previous piece, another commercial follow the life of a father and a daughter, surrounded around the sharing of gum pieces, similar to “The Story of Sarah & Juan”.
Although many may think that this commercial could be based around a real-life scenario, the advertisement itself is fictional. The story shows how something as simple as gum wrappers can be prominent in creating special moments together, throughout their journey as a couple.
As stated above, Extra Gum created and published this commercial as an advertisement for their gum. Posted on their YouTube channel, it is very obvious to the viewer that the publisher is Extra Gum. On the other hand, one may not realize until a few seconds into it, when Juan pulls out a brightly colored Extra Gum packet, that it is actually advertising Extra Gum.
Although Extra Gum has not established these videos a new series, it cannot be seen between TV shows on television, but rather, has been in the spotlight due to its sharing on social media platforms. Therefore, Extra Gum most likely hopes to establish these new videos, based around the element of “love”, as a new campaign, as well as new feel of their company. The content is not similar to any of Extra’s previous advertisements, besides the father-daughter one stated above, and therefore, must be a new marketing strategy.
What sets this commercial apart from Extra’s previous advertisements, as well as advertisements as a whole, is its ability to separate the story from the company. This video has gone viral not due to Extra’s popularity, but better yet, the story that seems bigger than Extra itself. Although, as said above, a viewer may believe this love story may be based of facts, it is not a reality piece. Better yet, Extra did a good job at making the viewer believe it could be reality. That’s just it: Extra makes the viewer believe, and causes the audience to get emotionally invested in the commercial, and better yet, the couple’s story. By creating an advertisement based on love, Extra shows that they represent more than just making money based on selling gum; they represent love.
Overall, reactions to this video have been nothing but positive. As said by HollywoodLife.com in an article by Alyssa Norwin, this video could make anyone become emotional upon viewing. Furthermore, they continue to state that people have been buzzing about the video, it going viral on most social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Other companies could learn a few things from Extra’s phenomenal, fictional story. First off, Extra set themselves, as a company, apart from the story. What this means is that Extra subtly included their gum by only enhancing the story, but not surrounding the story around the product they are attempting to sell. When arriving at the end of the story, the emotional viewer may think, “That is a sweet way to document memories”, versus, “This advertisement just wants me to buy their product”. Secondly, Extra did a great job with using storytelling in order to advertise their product. Overall, people will most likely react more positively when they feel they can invest into characters and a story.
