Lately I took to youtube again to source out commercials. Part of the media literacy curriculum for Gr. 7 and 8 is to interprete how media makes meaning...for example, how images/music are used to convey a particular mood or idea.
There is a list in the sidebar of commercials that we have thus far reviewed. We have defined what is being sold, who the audience is (aka demographic), what mood or feeling is being connected to the product through the images/text/music (typically, a sense of satisfaction, perfection) and then providing specific proof from the commercial to support that connection.
| "Use Irish Spring and you can be urber-sexy like me!" |
But others, like the Pes shoe commercial, are more subtle in their approach. In this video, Wear these shoes and you can be magically powerful and an awesome skateboarder! For example, we see that the boy wearing the shoes has been transformed into a skateboard! So if we buy those shoes we will also experience power and originality! Or so the ad would have us to believe...
Commercial are meant, at the heart of it, to manipulate us...to convince us that we NEED that product (to be attractive, to be original, to be creative, to be...FILL IN THE BLANK) which means they should be watched with a critical eye...but they are also creative art in their own right and should be appreciated as such.
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