A representational study on media and the marketing of consumer advertisements/environments. Some have compared it to “Black Mirror” and “Requiem of a Dream”.
▼360 YouTube Video | Feel free to pan and observe the full space of the video as it plays▼
“We have a lot deals, and not just a lot, but a parking lot of deals” …
This pitch is meant to sell and intrigue, seemingly enticing enough to perhaps convert viewer attention into sales. Traditionally, the consumer experience of television advertisements relies on the truths being sold to appeal consumers that may desire a product or services being sold. “Buy Now” began as an exercise on representation but slowly developed into a study on media and marketing, questioning the packaging of the advertisement all together. Designed as a new medium of advertisement, the VR commercial offers the consumer a streamlined experience in an almost Wonka-Vision like transmission. “Buy Now” brings the user to the living room, a common space that often features a television set and a spectator on the couch, feeding on easy entertainment. Just as marketing has been finely tuned to exploit our desires and convince us we need it, “Buy Now” removes the agency of the viewer and transmits them to the sales lot, bypassing the whole ordeal of starting a car and driving in traffic. The viewer arrives on site and is placed on the lot, greeted by none other than, “Mr. Salesman”. The experience has all the components of a “bombastic” sales ad but clearly has little substance, only offering a few products that fail to produce excitement comparable to the pitch of Mr. Salesman. As a critique of this lackluster product offering, the objects lack allure but are available… and on sale!
With the acquisition of an Oculus Quest (Gen.1) and a Kodak ORBIT360 I wanted to exploit the affordances available through these devices and their technologies. In some ways the project carries a sense of irony and humor through the ideation and execution of the site. In the video, the salesman offers objects for sale, obviously not needed but desired. To me, the VR headset and 360 camera was “shiny", “new” and I “NEEDED THEM”! With respect to the technology, I wanted to critically consider these affordances in my mind.
With a 360 camera, I was left asking, “what environment is worth showing in 360”?… beach? water shoreline? busy road w/ pedestrians? Often times you encounter images of architectural environments with no people, they may be compositionally appealing but in my personal opinion the content is quite mundane, and not in the way that “mundane” was captured by Stephen Shore/Joel Meyerowitz. With this thought in mind, I realized the more activity and interaction in play with the camera, the more developed the scene would feel with a 360 VR camera. The idea of a Salesman Commercial seemed available because of access to parking lots during the times of COVID-19. For obvious reasons the inclusion of “consumers” in my footage was out of the question due to social distancing regulations. To make up for this, the movements and actions of the Salesman were scripted and offered the viewer a more dynamic viewing experience to guide the narrative of the commercial.
To make the most of this footage, the utilization of the VR headset made possible the transcendence from video to experience. With the digital environment modeled to scale and textured, the living room seems familiar, it seems to signify a room you’ve occupied and watched TV in without ever actually stepping foot into this room before. Placement of objects in the scene create moments for the viewer to explore before the camera guides them to the screen of the CRT Television. The play of audio in the room plays in stereo, the fan hums and the static of the TV is slowly drowned out as a video of channel surfing seems to catch the viewers interest. As the viewer is moved towards the couch and the screen, the “Buy Now” ad begins.
The