Lock It Up (Gatorade Commercial)

Readers Response#2
Eng100a

I decided to analyze the "Lock It Up" Gatorade commercial that was first aired in 2009. It starts off with a catchy beat and a Pro Football pass followed by an NBA player dunking the ball. Then it goes on to show flashes of clutch moments from all sorts of a wide range of sports, with numerous different athletes from every level. All the while flashing Gatorade bottles between clips. Some of these scenes are clearly at the professional level while others depict recreational and even street games. The commercial shows both Men and Women playing winter and summer sports alike. There is no talking until the very end of the commercial when the camera shows and hand slamming down a bottle of Gatorade with the big letter G on it and the voice over comes on and says, “Gatorade, that’s G!”.

I think that this ad attempts to appeal to anyone who is interested in sports, and specifically athletes at every level. The commercial would have the most meaning to people who have played any of the sports shown or know who any of the athletes are that the commercial shows. Some of its appeal requires cultural knowledge gained by watching professional sports, such as the clip of Michael Jordan. While other clips only require you to have knowledge of the given sport. The scenes of big time athletes associate star players with Gatorade, and I think its safe to say that people look up to and want to be like MJ and other great athletes. On the other hand the commercial also shows people playing soccer in the street and basketball at a park. In my opinion this is an attempt to say that sports on every level can be just as intense, and everyone can be great. Therefore implying that great athletes at every tier drink Gatorade, (Its almost like Gatorade makes them better). I also thought it was interesting that the ad shows a seemingly average looking kid doing tricks on his skateboard, and paraplegic people playing a sport in wheelchairs. I think the kid is meant to show teenagers that you don’t have to be a big jock to be an athlete and Gatorade can even make you better at riding your skateboard around. The clip of the paraplegic people to me seems to me to be the “I can do it” scene because its saying “hey if these people that don’t even have use of their legs can do great things like this than so can you”. Lastly, and most importantly. I think that the quick flashes of Gatorade bottles throughout the commercial, along with the scene of the Gatorade with the “That’s G” phrase at the end provide us with the biggest myth in the whole ad. They say in a sense that great athletes have something that makes them so awesome at what they do. And that something is Gatorade.