The PSP and the Squirrels
The best and possibly strangest ad I’ve ever seen was for a video game console that came out in 2005, the PlayStation Portable. It is a commercial that involves two squirrels. One squirrel goes and finds his friend who is at his house. The first squirrel says, “Come out and play!.” To this, the other squirrel replies, “I can’t, I’m playing Nut.” The first squirrel reveals that there is a new “portable nut”, and the second squirrel is shocked at the revelation. The commercial ends with the PSP logo and a narrator saying, “PSP, it’s like a nut you can play with outside.” The only real USP they introduce is the fact that it is a portable game .This advertisement is great because instead of trying to reel us in with specs or a good price, they just made it so weird that you can’t stop thinking about it.
This ad focuses a lot about a typical interaction that two kids might have. One coming to another’s house to play, but for whatever reason one kids is stuck at his house. Being able to play wherever is part of the desire to escape. This brings out a lot of nostalgia that people have for videogames subconsciously. It also makes people confused because the whole thing is told about squirrels, and the product isn’t even shown in the commercial. This would make people very curious and want to look online to see more, which is part of the need to satisfy curiosity. It also prompted people to have many discussions about the commercial. One man online even made a parody cartoons based on the commercial which garnered over 1.7 million views to date. The final thing that this commercial does is show the awe and wonder that a portable game system inspires. Rather than telling the audience about how good the experience of playing games is wherever you go, they show the reaction of the one squirrel learning about the new portable nut. This is a Jungian technique of telling somewhat of a story, rather than mostly trying to appeal subconscious desires. It is only at the final sentence of the commercial that they introduce the PSP and the fact is portable, but because the ad is so memorable, it doesn’t matter that it happened so late.
This ad tries to target young males. This seems to be the case because both of the characters in the commercial have male voices and the ad itself is ridiculous and energetic. This ad is very good at grabbing the viewers attention because it is loud, quick, and weird, so I think it is effective. The ratio of male to female gamers is about 60:40 in the United states, so it makes sense that they would target the male demographic.
This ad is important because it shows the impact of getting someone’s attention. In the age of the internet and decreasing attention spans, this is especially important. It was the first time Sony started using weird ads, and they continued to use these attention grabbing commercials for the PlayStation 3 as well. This technique was even eventually used in the “Puppy Monkey Baby” Mountain Dew commercial during the 2016 Super Bowl. All in all, this is a great, yet simple ad.
