Group Health, a U.S. health cooperative in Seattle brings forth many funny commercials. This 30 second spot is one of the most rich and complex I have ever seen for analyzing contemporary stereotypes.
In the first of our "Homer Simpson" series, two males parenthesise their wife/mother with their own unique brand of uselessness and selfishness or ???
Who is uplifted and who is degraded in this spot. Is it funny? As always, you are the judge, my friends!!
This ad is in current "hot rotation" in prime time and elsehwere on major Seattle stations.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Wis Mah Chips?
The stereotype of the dumb blonde is alive and well dan undah mite!!!
Is there a bit of class warfare/ethnically driven dialectic afoot here as well? You be the judge in this offering from Nando's, a fish and chip chain in Australia.
Despite the jump cut before the straw scene this ad seems to pack a punch and, hopefully, provoke some thought.
Is there a bit of class warfare/ethnically driven dialectic afoot here as well? You be the judge in this offering from Nando's, a fish and chip chain in Australia.
Despite the jump cut before the straw scene this ad seems to pack a punch and, hopefully, provoke some thought.
A Sleeveworn Male Heart on the Road from Avis....
...tradtionally men are (were?) supposed to be "close to vest" and "stiff upper lip" with their feelings. But this fella just can't help himself...
Does the "new man" where his heart sleeve more or is just a private conversation?...
Does the "new man" where his heart sleeve more or is just a private conversation?...
Mad Men, An Important Archetype...
Huzzahs to the this fabulous, sumptious and hyper-realistic production that runs on AMC every Sunday night. Of course, in irony to its mid-century vibe, you can watch this show anytime you want from its home on AMC. You can also, of course, "catch up" by putting the 2007 season in your Netflix queue or podcast it from iTunes.
Here is an inner look at a factory in the seminal years of contemporary television advertising.
Here is an inner look at a factory in the seminal years of contemporary television advertising.
The stereotypes and set design are dialed up just a hair. Or is that just the big color screens on which we now can now enjoy this piece? The production details and art direction are through the roof in their realism and we are taken to a gritty depth of human experience far exceeding anything produced for television during the period.
Mad Men explores in excruciating detail the angst that exists in a late-50's early 60's mid-level Madison Avenue agency. Our mother, who was an office worker of the generation, can't watch it, she says, because it is "too realistic". Indeed women are ripe for the ogling, sometimes fondling and more, virtual chattel (or so it would seem) of the male power brokers who run the shop.
But change is afoot and the de facto power of certain women begins to evolve into more formalized, if nascent, leveraged positions. Of course, the natural leverage of women is being buttressed by the change and awareness of their positioning during the late post war years of broad affluence.
Mad Men is as thought provoking as anything ever to emanate from boob tube.
Trust your AdMaster and get ye to a screen near you and, above all, watch this series from the beginning because the current dissemblage would spoil the beginning!!
Welcome to this Showcase....
It is often said that "hey, I like the ads better than the programs".
A comment like that reminds 50ish baby boomers like us, of males of my generation saying when certain magazines were spotted on their coffee tables or, more likely, in their bedrooms, "Hey I like the stories".
In the case of advertising it is more likely to be true.
But we digress!!
There is no digression in the medium that explored here. Advertisers have 10, 20, 30 or (rarely) 60 seconds to get their point across consumers.
The age of the trackable Internet has ushered in an era of results accountability so severe that advertising agencies are forced to become more and more entertaining to compel their corporate clients to spend the bucks to produce and place their ads on that most lavish of all media, television.
Lest x-y genners think that they have a monopoly on witty, interesting and sociologically significant advertising, we will post ads from every period that we feel like on this blog.
The bent, as the title suggests, will be toward stereotypical portrayals with the theme that presumptions about character are often based on our assumptions and life-perspective are not only all around us but within us. Stereotyping is human nature and it, like it or not, the way we always have and always will navigate through life. We should forgive ourselves for it, lighten up about it and have fun with it as long as we seek to love on another.
Above all we should not hate ourselves for our survival lenses of stereotyping as long as we genuinely seek to be considerate of each other's feelings.
In that vein, all NON - HATING posts are welcome.
The purpose of this blog to share perspectives about what we see in the featured content.
Enjoy!!
A comment like that reminds 50ish baby boomers like us, of males of my generation saying when certain magazines were spotted on their coffee tables or, more likely, in their bedrooms, "Hey I like the stories".
In the case of advertising it is more likely to be true.
But we digress!!
There is no digression in the medium that explored here. Advertisers have 10, 20, 30 or (rarely) 60 seconds to get their point across consumers.
The age of the trackable Internet has ushered in an era of results accountability so severe that advertising agencies are forced to become more and more entertaining to compel their corporate clients to spend the bucks to produce and place their ads on that most lavish of all media, television.
Lest x-y genners think that they have a monopoly on witty, interesting and sociologically significant advertising, we will post ads from every period that we feel like on this blog.
The bent, as the title suggests, will be toward stereotypical portrayals with the theme that presumptions about character are often based on our assumptions and life-perspective are not only all around us but within us. Stereotyping is human nature and it, like it or not, the way we always have and always will navigate through life. We should forgive ourselves for it, lighten up about it and have fun with it as long as we seek to love on another.
Above all we should not hate ourselves for our survival lenses of stereotyping as long as we genuinely seek to be considerate of each other's feelings.
In that vein, all NON - HATING posts are welcome.
The purpose of this blog to share perspectives about what we see in the featured content.
Enjoy!!
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