Formal Analysis

-Camera looks down the aisle toward a man in light blue button-up, brown belt, light brown slacks, and dark brown shoes faces the camera head-on. Slightly smirking with arms crossed.
-Six African-American men fill the cubicle spots on both sides of the white man.
-The six African-Americans are crouched in standard sprint starts, looking down with only finger tips touching the ground, muscles flexed. They are dressed in identical black and yellow track suits. All are bald and a slight side profile detailing their noses and mouths.
-Shadows appear between each row of runners, indicating that the light is coming from behind the camera.
-The background appears to be a basic business building. Industrial looking lights and fans are on the ceiling. Windows cover the back wall.
-Small amounts of green are seen through the window. The words “Multiply computing performance and maximize the power of your employees.” is typed in black, all caps font above the man's head.
-A solid strip of brown cuts through the glass right behind the man's head.
-The white Intel logo is in the top right of the image.
-Smaller black type is in the foreground, describing the improved performance of the Intel Duo 2 Processor. The Intel Core 2 blue logo is on the right.
-Even smaller type is underneath the processor description, detailing legal information.



-Sound of bells twinkling.
-Hand-drawn, white cloud with blue border emerges from a single open building window about one-fourth of the way to the edge of the right screen. Fire-escape stairs visible towards edge of the left side.
-Song begins, Gene Wilder's “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (http://www.aolradioblog.com/2010/05/13/atandt-rethink-possible-commercial-song/)
-Cuts to cloud in top center of screen. Cloud begins precipitating hand-drawn, white raindrops with blue border. Building (maybe apartments/lofts) seen in right background.
-Cuts to hand-drawn, cutout of flower stem and leaves growing upward (slightly right of center). Camera moves vertically upward to follow growth of stem. Apartment buildings with open windows and AC vents seen on sides.
-Cuts to top of apartment building. Hand-drawn cloud bottom left of screen. Hand-drawn stem blooms green flower lower right of screen. Hand-drawn rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) in background. Sky is all the same shade of light blue in the background. Gray/white buildings seen on left and bottom of screen.
-Flower blooms into a smiley face (poorly drawn) with yellow petals (not colored perfectly in the lines). Cloud and rainbow slightly wiggle around.
-Cuts to windowpane with two gray robots and four toy train-cars (red, 2 yellow, 1 green) lined up on the windowpane. Brown and white building can been seen outside of the window. Another cartoon-looking shape can be seen slightly in the far background, off center to the right.
-Camera pans upward. Hand-drawn brown figure with brown hair, black stick shoes, and smiley face seen walking down the street. As tall as the third story of the white building near it. People and cars are moving about on street as well.
-Cuts to street view. Brown pickup truck drives down the road as a green hand-drawn creature (similar to Loch Ness Monster) swims down the street, diving into the pavement and reemerging. It swims closer toward the camera until it is all that is visible. Street signs, woman walking, and white/gray buildings seen in background.
-Cuts to orange bus driving buy (takes up entire screen).
-Bus drives out of shot and camera moves upward to a hand-drawn blue creature (looks like robot). Poorly drawn, square eyes, holding hand up, outlined in blue. Slightly left of center, red stop light seen underneath, reaches the top of the white building in the background.
-Robot begins to move and the camera pans vertically down to follow him.
-Cuts to women (stage right) wearing tight jeans, blue plaid shirt, short brown hair reading a magazine in a laundromat. Other people, laundry, and detergent seen in background.
-Shadow begins to cover store.
-Cuts to face the women head on. Films her between two aisles of laundry machines. Large, blue robot from previous shot is seen through the window, head sideways, mouth open wide smile, eyes squinted shut (upper center screen).
-Robot moves down and opens eyes.
-Cuts to looking out through a window through the ground floor of some kind of building. Cars, trees, and buildings seen through the window. Purple hand-drawn creature with multiple legs walks from right to left of stage. Only lower body visible.
-Cuts to man wearing blue jeans and coat with briefcase walking to a white car, presumably on the top level of a parking garage. Man is seen from the back, slightly left of center. Top of purple creature from prior scene is behind the ramp of the parking garage. Its three antenna eyes are seen opening and closing.
-Cuts to man biking down city street from left to write. Hand-drawn, blue and purple-spotted, smiling fish dive in and out of the pavement behind him.
-Bicyclist rides off right of screen. The first fish is slightly right of center while another fish emerges from the center of the pavement.
-Poorly hand-drawn train (blue, red, orange, with different colored wheels and puff clouds) moves right to left of screen from the location the bicyclist drove off screen.
-Camera pauses to show the fish continuing to swim and the train turning right and driving away from the camera. People in business and causal clothes wait at a crosswalk.
-Cuts to brown creature seen from previous shot standing on the top of a building. Camera is slightly pointed upward so the image is seen from below. The brown creature is frowning and a hand-drawn FBO vehicle (gray with four yellow circles and black, stick legs) is approaching it from the right.
-Yellow lightening bolt flashes out of the FBO and encircles the brown creature.
-Brown creature jumps off the building slightly, hair is messy, eyes are wide.
-Yellow beam ends, FBO begins flying away to the top right corner of the screen. Brown creature smiles, black curly spirals are drawn above its head. Birds begin flying in the background.
-Cuts to brown dog with white-ish nose (German Shepard?) through the backseat of an open car window. Car is blue. Dog is slightly left of center.
-Cuts head-on to the three-eyed, purple creature as it quickly moves from left to right of a street. Cars, people, and buildings seen in the background and foreground.
-Purple creature opens its mouth and eyes wide open. The three eyes look behind he creature and a bus is seen following it.
-Cuts to inside of car, camera is slightly tilted upwards to the right blind-spot. Cloud is seen in the top left through the windshield.
-Camera moves slightly right to reveal a hand-drawn, two dimensional creature (outlined in red, circle with smiley face and eyes, long stick arms and legs) reaching out towards a hand-drawn yellow sun and blue cloud. Red creature is standing on top of a gray building and holding on to two taller buildings to its left.
-Cuts to ground level. Hand-drawn train moves from right to left into a hand-drawn black tunnel in the side of a brown building. Car and trees in background.
-Train moves into the drawn hole, but doesn't enter. The train crumples and its paper design is seen on the ground.
-Music returns to twinkling bells.
-Cuts to purple creature with all three eyes open also falling slowly over the railing of a bridge. Its eyes billow in the wind. Man is seen walking down the forefront of the screen. Street sign reads Flower Street in corner of screen.
-Cuts to the sides of the tops of buildings. Four clouds scattered in the top of the screen and the blue robot creature begin billowing down and lose their 2 dimensional shape.
-Man's voice over beings. “Remember when you were five and anything was possible?”
-Camera follows the falling of one cloud.
-Cuts to man, center stage, with black business suit and purple tie siting on black bench on the top level of some building. Brief case is on his left, brown coffee on the ground next to him. His legs are open wide, his shoulders slumped, looking down, has a beard and longer hair.
-Clouds fall behind him. Man looks down to his right. Picks up an object..
-Camera cuts to a left side profile. Man is still hunched, has longer hair.
-Cuts to close up of man's face. He's still looking down.
-Voice over “Happy fifth birthday again.”
-Bell twinkling ends, lyrics in song return.
-Camera pans into his face. A slight light appears from below (from whatever he is probably holding). The man's eyes open winder (first time seeing them) and he has a slight smile on his face.
-Man's smile becomes bigger. Top of purple creature (antenna and three open eyes) moves up in the right background behind the man's shoulder behind the building ledge.
-Creature blinks and looks at man, man continues to smile.
-Cuts to TVs, computers, and cell phones in blue bubbles.
-Camera zooms out and blue bubbles make up the globe logo of AT&T. “Rethink Possible” reads across a white screen with web link at bottom and globe logo on left.
-Song ends.

Similarities

-Target/include men in a business setting.

-Visual image of technology and its capabilities (eg features) are not the main focus or even mentioned at times.

-Powerful use of dialogue (eg through songs in AT&T, through voice-overs/conversation in Mac, Sprint, Nokia, and text in Intel).

-Present technology in an abstract way from its original use.

-Don't explicitly mention product and its functions.

-Brands and logos only revealed at end of commercials (bottom of Intel image).

-Personify technology.

-Imply transcendental power of technology aside from processing information.

-Connect technology to personal experiences that aren't usually identified with computers, phones, etc.

-Humans/characters are given more attention than technology itself.

-Include creative plot line before explicitly introducing product.