Doritos — Who Told it Better
I chose to analyze two Dorito commercials that aired in 2013 and 2014. I wanted to choose the same product so they would be similar enough to compare but also have little differences that make one story better than the other. They both have a humorous tone. While watching the two ads I kept in mind the aspects of a good story. According to Aristotle a good story includes a beginning, middle, and end with characters involved. Freytags pyramid breaks it down even further and believes a good story has an exposition, rising action, a climax, and falling action, followed by a denouement. The exposition helps people understand the story while the rising and falling action shows what is about to happen and what ends up happening after the big climax.
The first commercial aired in 2013 and is titled, Goat for Sale. The exposition is a man in a neighborhood who buys a goat from a fellow neighbor. The story takes place in the man’s home with the goat living with him. The rising action shows the goat becoming comfortable in the man’s house and we learn the goat loves Doritos and so the man keeps the pantry stocked with Dorito bags. The climax is when the man becomes severely annoyed with the goat from all the crunching he hears all day when the goat eats his Doritos. The falling action is when the man throws away all of the Doritos so there are no more in the house for the goat to eat. The goat is not happy about this and starts destroying various things around the house. The goat then walks into the room where he sees the man painting a “Goat for Sale” sign. There is no resolution or denouement to this story because the goat closes the door before we can see what happens between the man and the goat.
The following year Doritos came out with a new commercial titled, The Cowboy Kid. The commercial’s exposition shows two boys in a yard and their mom getting groceries out of the car. The little boy is playing with the dog in a cowboy outfit and the older boy is reading while giving sass to him mom. The rising action involves the older boy messing with his brother’s hat while he runs to get the Doritos out of the car before the younger boy has a chance. The climax is when the little boy is riding the dog with his lasso at great speed coming straight for the older boy and the bag of Doritos. The falling action shows when ends up happening in the story. In this case the falling action was when the younger boy lasso’s the bag of Doritos and gets the chips from the older brother who was messing with him. The denouement shows the little boy opening the bag and eating the product.
In my opinion the The Cowboy Kid is more effective when it comes down to storytelling compared to Goat for Sale. In the The Cowboy Kid you are aware right away who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. It is harder to tell who you want to root for in the commercial Goat for Sale. I also think The Cowboy Kid’s story is better because it has a definite ending and resolution. The Goat for Sale commercial doesn’t have an ending. Some may argue that this makes it better because the audience gets to use their imagination on how the story may end but in my opinion an ending makes for a better story.