"Search One and Done" With Kayak

You might have heard about Kayak these past couple of months- it’s a site where we can compare hundreds of travel sites all in one summary package. Recently, Kayak created a series of humorous commercials in order to prove to us that their site is the best and fastest way to find the cheapest prices for trips. One of these commercials is entitled “Five Man Search”, which features two men, one with horribly made dolls attached to him. What the commercial lacks in evidence of the effectiveness of their site, it more than makes up for it by relating to us and being a short and funny commercial. Kayak promises to make it easier for us to compare hundreds of sites instead of checking each one individually, which speaks many things about our rapidly-growing technology and Internet based world. In effect, this commercial could stir many viewers to check out the site because of its funny nature yet logical reasoning.

The commercial plays out with a guy sitting in the middle of a couch with a computer, and attached to the man’s head, arms, and legs are rods which connect to 4 life-size dolls that look like people, who also have computers. He is trying to plan a trip using travel sites and is using these other dolls to look at different sites at the same time. When he moves his head, arms, or legs, the dolls move as well. Another guy walks in and asks what he is doing, and after finding out, tells him that that’s dumb and he could have gone to Kayak and done that in seconds. After this the guy with the dolls gets mad, closes all of his computers, and does a couple of elaborate motions to get his leftmost doll to pick up a can of soda on the coffee table, shake it, and open it to spray the soda on the other guy’s shirt. After a funny and silent stare down between the dolls and the second guy, there is a cut to a visual of a computer, where a woman narrator iterates the main point, telling us to go to Kayak, to compare hundreds of travel sites and save on our flights.

Kayak does an amazing job of setting a humorous tone in this short commercial, with how the dolls look, their puffy lips, big eyes, and funky hair, and how both of the guys look with their expressions. Also, the zooms and quick shots increase the level of humor. There is no music throughout the commercial, which makes the zoomed in close up shot of the silent doll at the end much funnier.Kayak also wants us to know that searching individual travel sites is dumb, and obviously, the easiest and quickest way to compare travel sites is by using Kayak. The commercial makes it feel like Kayak would be the most logical choice because it is the fastest and easiest way to compare travel sites. Unfortunately, the commercial does fall a bit short in evidence that the site actually shows how it works. It shows the website name and logo, and someone logging onto the website, but is a little very vague in the sense that it does not show us exactly how fast we can actually plan a trip, or how fast and quick it actually is.

But that’s not really the point of the commercial. In essence, Kayak just wants to be heard- and given a chance. And they do it well.

On another note, although traveling does not seem like a trivial or necessary thing to do, this funny commercial still speaks of U.S. culture and the world collectively (to an extent). Just bear with me on this one. Since the rapid increase in Internet use all over the world, it has become so much easier for gathering information, learning, and in this case, planning. Flight transportation and international business has improved and it is easier to connect with people, visit family, do business, or just take a vacation. In short, the majority of the world likes to communicate and can be very social. Our culture is, more than ever, based on our increasing technology, and this website could be seen as a more advanced, efficient, and logical way to simply find deals for flights. We sometimes like to have an adventure by having new experiences, or relive our old days. Most importantly, we are progressive in technology; we like to be tech savvy, and love to see new technology change our lives for the better. In effect to this, since people also want to find the best deals on trips to save money, the idea behind Kayak could cause many travelers to check out the website. It is really easy and fast in this technology-filled world to check out a website.

Basically, you don’t need to spend time looking at your screen for hours to find great deals on trips, and you most certainly don’t need five men to do it. Kayak wants you to be happy. So stay sane, and “search one and done”.

It's the Internet, so it is pretty quick to do- check out the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WCBvVH7FGI

and the site here:

http://www.kayak.com/

See you around the world.