In this commercial lies a variety of visual effects that contribute to the message that Gatorade is trying to portray. Gatorade is advertising a recovery product in a way that ultimately engages the audience and appeals to them in an emotional way. The camera angles, color scheme, pace of events, and commentary all play a vital role in showing the need and use of this Gatorade recovery product.

Jabari Parker, a first year NBA star, sits in an empty locker room after his coach leaves the room. The scene begins with a close up of Jabari’s hand gripping a Gatorade recovery product. The calmness of the colors and the action allow the audience to quickly feel Jabari’s emotion.  The next scene consists of a close up of Jabari’s face while a slow zoom is engaging the audience into his commentary in the background, “I’ve always done what it takes to get to the next level.” The commentary, the sweat dripping down his face, and his facial expressions allow the audience to comprehend how much work he has put in to be where he stands today. This scene is a brief period where the audience can take a second to grasp the idea that this Gatorade recovery product is a symbol for all the successes and failures that Jabari has been through. Jabari then closes his eyes to signify a flash back to where exactly he’s came from.

Shortly after the slow breathing, a quick change of scene happens where Jabari opens his eyes as a high school basketball player. The initial slow pace of events turns into an intense fast paced highlight of his basketball career. The first scenes show Jabari dominating high school basketball, being one of the top prospects and having an overall natural ability to ease his way through the low level competition. The training throughout this period is light and pursued with many other athletes. Then right when Jabari gets selected to play with Duke University, the training and competition growing more intense awake him to a whole new experience. A low camera angle captures Jabari falling after a shot in his first college practice representing that things won’t come as easy as they used to. As the training gradually grows more difficult, Jabari continues to push through it and finish each workout with the Gatorade recovery product. The training scenes are clear and are of high quality which truly express the strength and effort it takes for Jabari to get through. Although Jabari faced a few obstacles in his college career, he was awarded with a lot more success. Jabari then gets drafted into the NBA where his challenges become most difficult. This scene of fast paced events come to a halt when Jabari injures his ACL mid game. The intense music stops while an extreme close up of Jabari with his eyes closed returns to the screen. Commentary from the broadcaster of the game ,“Jabari grabs his left leg” breaks the silence as a bead of sweat slowly drips down Jabari’s face signifying the emotion when recalling this memory. The next scene shows Jabari being carried to a dark filled locker room which signifies a dark moment in his life. A wide angled shot captures Jabari standing amongst the shadows staring into a faintly lit gym. This symbolized his standpoint, that even amongst being in a dark spot in his life, his goals never changed. That the prize is still ahead of him somewhere along the path that he had already built. This was in indication to the audience which showed he wasn’t giving up anytime soon. The next scenes then contain Jabari and his rehabilitation process. The training and building scenes now at their fastest speed and highest intensity. The commercial’s ending scene is right where it began, with Jabari still in the locker room with his eyes closed eating the Gatorade recovery product. His voice in the background says, “It never gets any easier, but I will get stronger…..because my story is far from over”. The slow zooming effect pans in, then Jabari opens his eyes to signify that there is no looking back, there’s only progressive movement forwards. 

The color scheme in the beginning, the training sessions, and injury scene are dull and plain while the fast paced basketball playing scenes were vibrant and filled with color. There lied a great focus and high resolution on the training sessions while the basketball playing was somewhat blurred with not as much quality. These two effects alone emphasize that the training is what really made who he was on the basketball court. That the real work was hidden to the people who watched him play basketball. The effort needed to continue his gradual climb to a higher level of success only increased exponentially. It never got any easier, but that’s what made him want it more. All of these effects that Gatorade used truly showed the audience that their product wasn’t just any protein bar, but that it carried a purpose to athletes that were relentless and people who strived for greatness. Gatorade showed that their product can assist a star athlete even at the worst time of his basketball career. The Gatorade recovery product that he ate after every training session is a protein bar for athlete building, and building is what made Jabari who he is today, an athlete who will never stop building no matter what is thrown at him. 
