Looking past the graphical and visual signs that are contained with each of these two advertisements, A key feature that one should direct their attention towards is the personalization of the hand writing that is found to be written on both advertisements. Many advertisements that we are faced with do not correlate with much of anything that may directly be related to us, however the producers of this Honda Leap List Campaign have taken it into their hands to develop a way that the viewers/producers themselves will then feel personally and directly connected to the material that is provided. "Images often determine a consumer's attitude concerning a product. We often don't realize the underlying message contained within advertisements which actually contracts particular emotions." (Kohli, Chiranjeev; Thomas, Sunil; Suri, Rajneesh) The consumer relies on the visual effect of this advertisement to contract emotions that suggest that they internally engage their own life with what is being implied by the use of the advertisement.
By owning the CR-V, it is as if one has been placed inside of their own ideal Leap List and that every desired intention is simply right with their grasp. By engaging in products that will lead to being beneficial, one's self esteem is then stimulated knowing that not only were they able to purchase a product high up in the market, but as a result, they will be able to accomplish those things that have been lurking internally inside of them that have been waiting for an opportunity for them to be able to surface. This is certainly a direct relationship between the producer connecting to their intended consumer audience in that the audience is feeling the results of the effect of the advertisement.
Within each of these advertisements, a certain mythology is formed. It is the idea that once we either "get married" or "have kids", then theoretically speaking, our lives are "over." It is the end of us having our own life and being able to create decisions amongst our best judgement before other individuals step in and become active members in our daily decision making process. It is the idea that we will no longer be living for just ourselves and that the years of selfishly only looking out for no one but ourselves has ended as well. The ideal focus and purpose behind advertising is initially to persuade the intended audience to buy what you are selling in order to enrich their lives in some sort of fashion. These Honda CR-V advertisements are advertising a particular lifestyle, by coining the concept that the ideal person which this is intended for is, "YOU".
The idea behind this campaign is that it embraces stages in our lives, when typically we would be experiencing new things, such as graduating college, planning a big vacation, running your first marathon, purchasing your first home, getting married, even having kids, etc. Granted not all of these things involve purchasing a new vehicle, however it does make us all stop and think of the different stages in our life. So, "Before you make a leap in life, make a list of all the stuff you wanna do. Then get it done in the all-new CR-V."
a class taught by Bob Bednar in the Communication Studies Department at Southwestern University