I turn on the television one night. Here, I am greeted by a modern-day stereotype of a housewife cleaning. She appears to be having trouble getting a particular mess off of the floor with a regular mop. Please note that at this point, the commercial is in gray scale. Color only appears to the screen when the woman “magically” acquires a Swiffer® brand mop. Suddenly, this woman is not only having an easy time with the stain, but she seems to now be enjoying the normally tedious activity of mopping the floor. Meanwhile, an announcer sings the praises of this machine, saying that it will revolutionize modern cleaning. Oh, please…

            This is the main setup for almost every household-related commercial. With the billions of commercials out there, the similarities between them all are astounding. All commercials from every medium fall into one of three categories: situational, academic, and event. Situational commercials make up about 75% of them all. Academic and event types make up the last 25%.

            Situational types, as I’ve stated, are very common. They basically stick a random person in a situation in which they are using an inferior product or doing something in an inferior way. The person tends to have a tough time using the product/doing something until they get the advertised product or learn the advertised way. This often leads to a lot of testimonials basically telling the viewer how the product/way “changed their lives forever” or something like that. This is when the cliché commercial screen cuts in, telling you how to order the product/learn the way.

            Academic commercials are somewhat different than their situational counterparts. They advertise for some sort of college. They always start out with the testimonial of some graduate of the school. He/she explains how their tenure at the school “changed the course of their life forever”. An announcer takes over from there and lists the benefits of the school, along with the school’s record (conveniently leaving out the costs).  They end the commercial with a slogan and/or a number that you can call in order to get more information about the school.

            Event commercials are more similar to their situational counterparts.  These commercials usually start with some event starring random “everyday people” (although this doesn’t have to be the case, especially if the commercial is geared towards children). They’ll be doing something while using a certain product and demonstrating its functions. Then an announcer comes up, telling you how much the product costs and how to buy it. The commercial ends with a slogan.

            There are many examples of situational commercials. Take the Shark™ steam mop commercials. They throw someone in a situation where it is seemingly impossible to clean up certain messes without their “famous” steam mop. There are at least 3 or 4 different testimonials from “real people” who9 seem to worship this product and everything about it. The host guy then carries on about what the mop can do that other mops cannot. In the infomercial version, they even perform a “maze test” just to prove their point.

            There are numerous examples of academic commercials. For one, there are the very common ITT Tech commercials. Locally, there are the UMUC commercials. In fact, the ITT Tech commercials are an example of the template for these commercials. Almost every school in America has an advertisement of this type somewhere.

            Event types are seen in various company ads. Verizon™ tends to use these in order to advertise their phones. McDonald’s™ uses this as a main strategy to entice customers.  Even certain government-owned companies, like GEICO® use this to entice potential investors. In other words, event commercials are a common type, though not nearly as common as the other two types.

            It could be argued that there are two more types of commercials. They are of the political and comparison types. This is untrue for two main reasons. Firstly, comparison types are merely a subcategory of situation types because a comparison between brands is very common in this type of commercial. Secondly, political types are either situational or event types because the candidate either exaggerates a situation that their constituents are in for their own gain, or they will make up a testimonial singing the praises of a certain candidate while berating another for a record of theirs.

            In conclusion, all commercials, despite the categorical differences, are all largely the same. All three will try to appeal to one’s emotional, moral, and logical centers. All three will have a generic announcer of the male or female gender. And lastly, all commercials will have some form of slogan at the start or end of the commercial.