iRobot, Do You?

     Recently, I stumbled upon a television commercial advertising the iRobot, a corporation that designs and builds robots for multiple purposes with one mission in mind - "make a difference."  Founded in 1990 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the iRobot makes practical robots a reality for the home, defense and security, and remote presence.  As displayed in the iRobot's most recent television commercial, average American males watching television at home "robot," young American females exercising "robot," Asian-American mothers cooking "robot," American students and teachers learning in the classroom "robot," scientists working in the lab "robot," S.W.A.T. and police working on the job "robot," just to name a few.  After presenting a series of actors and scenarios, the commercial ends with the simple question, "iRobot, Do You?"  But upon watching this television commercial, the simplicity of this question seems to resinate much deeper than a robot cleaning a hardwood floor or a robot cleaning the surface of a backyard pool.  Just as the commercial makes the connection between a robot that cleans a home for a family and a robot that provides defense and security for the government, the iRobot corporation depicts the evolution of warfare and wartime in the presence of the everyday citizen within the United States.
     By capturing an average American audience with the stupendous cleaning features of the iRobot Home Robots, the iRobot corporation also captures an average American audience with the innovative "combat-proven defense and security robots" that perform multiple missions for troops and public safety professionals.  Within one corporation, the cross-culture of "revolutionizing the way people clean" and "performing thousands of dangerous search, reconnaissance and bomb-disposal missions" becomes synonymous within the role of the robot industry.  On the iRobot website, the corporation identifies the three types of iRobots as "iRobot Home Robots: The smarter way to get it done," "iRobot Defense and Security: Protecting those in harm's way," and "iRobot Remote Presence: Brings meaningful communication to you."  In the television commercial, the actors and scenarios display exactly those three types of iRobots.  However, the television commercial emphasizes the iRobot Home Robot, with one purpose in mind - spark an interest in the average, American household.  The importance of cleaning in the commercial and the iRobot Corporation becomes much more apparent than the importance of defense and security or remote presence.  As a result, the iRobot illustrates itself as a forefront of cleaning technology because it is also used in wartime and government affairs.  Thus, the popular Roomba vacuum robot and the Packbots used for American explosive ordinance disposal teams identify as one-of-the-same, making both the vacuum and packbots easily tangible items to the American public.
     The marketing campaign of iRobot demonstrates the desire for relatable and tactile materials in the robot industry that mend the cultures of the average American citizen and the American military.  The display of actors and scenarios in iRobot television commercial emphasizes the presence of building a future for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in the United States starting with the iRobot vacuum in your home and ending with the iRobot Packbot on the battlefield.
http://www.irobot.com/us/cool_stuff/iRobot_Do_You.aspx