http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDBMHz1Dthw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-yQLZbatc
In these commercials for Electrolux appliances, we are exposed to a VAST array of discourses. For example, both ads use the Material Good Life discourse. They both clearly suggest that having these material items makes your life better. The ads tell us “Dreams come true when you have an Electrolux,” and “Electrolux, be even more amazing.” Such statements reinforce the discourse that such material items will result in real improvements, in real happiness, for us. In fact, these discourses epitomize how we learn to connect our happiness to the consumption of material goods, and how that process constructs “The Cage Within.”
However, to understand just how powerful “The Cage Within” is, and why these dominant discourses about consumerism are so effective, we have to further deconstruct HOW advertisers represent this happiness that we are meant to desire. The first deconstructing question to ask, then, is what other dominant discourses we are exposed to in these advertisements that reinforce the “good life” portion of the Material Good Life? What do these dominant discourses tell us about what “happiness” should be, or what “amazing” looks like? In identifying and understanding the impact of these discourses we gain insight about how The Material Good Life remains such a dominant discourse, and how it produces "The Cage Within."
The second deconstructing question to ask comes from our understanding that advertisers produce commercials with specific audiences in mind. Thus, we can further deconstruct the creation of “The Cage Within” by asking questions about the social location of the audiences targeted by these commercials. What is the social location of these commercials’ audience? Based on that social location, what can we determine about WHY these dominant discourses are being used, and what they mean for the audience’s subject positions? In other words, if these ads are targeted at affluent women (mostly mothers) between the ages of 25-50, what can we ascertain about how they will be impacted by the discourses of happiness represented? How is this audience "supposed" to feel about The Material Good Life? How do the discourses in this commercial reinforce “The Cage Within" for this particular audience?
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I think that an interesting thing I noticed was at the end of the Electrolux commercial when she says, "be an even more amazing you". The discourse of the material good life is constantly reminding people, specifically women that everything they do can be done better, if you have this product. I wonder what the average time women feel satisfied with a product before something newer comes out. The social location of these ads are clearly targeting affluent mothers based on the houses pictured in the commercials. I think it's extremely unfair for a commercial to blatantly suggest that you are not as amazing as you could potential be, and the reason is because you don't own there product.
ReplyDeleteCSP 420 Robyn Campbell