Research I had done to gain knowledge about Infomercials and it's conventions.

1.
Case Study 1
MTV Staying Alive [HIV]
­ Chewing Gum (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc5upEHGcB4
LOWE MENA Production Company & BOOMTOWN PRODUCTIONS
Durations: 1 minute
Target Audience: Sexually active people around the world
This infomercial contains many of the conventions, including the following:
 The duration is no longer than 5 minutes (Video being exactly 1 minute)
 Informing the audience about the troubles with HIV around the world
 Persuading the audience to do something (Use a condom)
 Product is a video shown on TV (MTV channel)
 Last frame contains a punch‐line (Always use a condom.)
This infomercial advertises the HIV prevention organization ‘Staying Alive’. As most infomercials aim,
MTV’s chewing gum video persuades the targeted audience to use a condom, or to ensure their
partner wears one.
I think this infomercials connects well with the audience in general as it’s shown on the MTV channel
who has founded in this campaign, which captures most of the sexually active age range (16 +). It
also takes advantage of the creator’s creative eye as it includes different camera angles and slight
adjustments to the colours

2. To engage the audience and to convince the them that this is an important and popular issue in the
world, the video contains statistics such as ‘Every 12 seconds, someone new gets the taste of HIV’
This statistic is relates to their metaphor used, the taste of HIV. They capture their global audience
as when casting, they managed to include all both genders, variety in height, skin colour and
nationality.
The metaphor of tasting HIV and sharing a piece chewing gum is very effective and engaging, as the
creators have taken a daily habit of chewing gum. I found that the connection between HIV and
chewing gum was clever as most people assume chewing gum is an annoying habit, where as if you
catch HIV, this can also be an irritating problem you can’t get resolve.
SCRIPT ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
Narrator:
Me? Who do I know? Let me tell you my friend, it’s easier to ask who I don’t know. You see, I’m a
people person. I love them. Guys, Girls, Dropouts, High rollers, strays, round or square. Whether you
gotta nickel, or a hundred in your pocket. I’m yours for keeps. You’re my kind of guy… or gal. I’m not
prejudice or racist, I’m that rare breed. I take people if they come. Can you hear me? Taste me?
Borrow and broiler, prom queen, I ain’t leaving. Brother, Sister. I’m staying for good.