Amanda Liu

After watching this video clip, I thought this commercial was a joke or maybe a parody of K-fee’s beverage commercial shot by others to prank whoever clicks on this clip on Youtube. However, I was surprised and in fact speechless when I found out that this video clip is the ORIGINAL version of K-fee’s commercial for its coffee drink.   When I saw this, the first thing I asked myself was “why would a company agree on advertising and bring their product to the public like this?”, “Is it considered an appropriate commercial for a product of this sort?”, “Is this the effect that the company really want, scaring the audiences every time it’s shown on TV?”.

The commercial starts with a white, clean, regular sized car travelling down the slope in the forest in a steady speed. Throughout this commercial, there isn’t any close shot of the car, but I (possibly unconsciously) seem to be convinced by the commercial’s atmosphere, as of this car is a safe, durable, and indeed a credible /reliable vehicle for our today’s transportation especially for long distance travelling. The commercial mainly focuses on the road trip, the car itself, and the green environment, nothing related to the beverage at all, which appears to be supporting the fact that this commercial intends to introduce and advertise a car to its target market. Therefore, my first impression of this commercial is it’s trying to sell a car to the audience, but I realized I was wrong until the very end of the clip, where a frightening zombie suddenly pops out, starts screaming at you and afterwards showing a picture of K-fee coffee drink at the very end. Then I figured out this commercial isn’t about a car, but instead it’s about K-fee’s coffee beverage. It was totally unexpected as I can say.

It was hard for me to take sides of deciding whether the company benefits or is harmed from the use of this kind of marketing strategy. Well, I personally believe that this commercial doesn’t deliver any messages to audiences nor provide single information about the product. For instance, it never mentioned about the taste, price, or what makes it different from other coffee brands, and why we should choose K-fee’s coffee over other options. Moreover, it even gave audiences the wrong impression of what it’s trying to advertise.  However, I got to admit. I never paid real close attention to the beginning of this commercial when I first watched it because it wasn’t interesting and it appears to be just like those typical boring commercials shown on TV, which hardly grabs people’s attention. Yet, when the zombie screamed real loud, the commercial caught my attention right away, and when I looked at it, I saw K-fee coffee drink. Thinking over and over again, my assumption of why K-fee use this to advertise its coffee is because the corporation wants to suddenly catch audiences’ attention, and when they do, they immediately present them with a picture of K-fee product, so it can be directly incorporated into audience’s mind. As a result, the only thing that consumers could possibly remember throughout the commercial is the scream and the product.

I watched this video clip 4 years ago and I still remember it till now. It has done a great job in letting viewers remembering this commercial, but not a good job in letting them know more about the product. All I can say is “this commercial is ridiculous, but remarkable.”